Mladen Domazet, ISR-CERD, Croatia

In 2010…we thought of doing a project…

With 2005, 2010 is warmest year on record (since 1880)

It‟s in fashion It will be so in

fashion it could wreck every developmental success to date

It is not going away: today‟s youth will need the relevant knowledge and skills tomorrow

We share a history of development: ◦ Energy intensification

of food production ◦ Land and water

degradation ◦ Industrialization ◦ Energy – driven

economic growth

We suffer: ◦ Pollution ◦ Climate change

ESDPI: partnership of CSOs active in different countries

Small, and not rich countries (globally speaking)

Recently affected by wars and ethnic divisions

Country A: waste disposal as issue of social equity

Country B: water regulation as issue of ethnic divisions

Country C: green escape for foreign tourists

Winter in the Med: ◦ Colder and wetter

◦ not so cold

◦ Freak rainfall

Extreme weather events in Europe and the Middle East ◦ Bulgaria in summer

heat in December

Name your own…

Rapid change in the natural and physical foundations is happening

Actions to avoid the catastrophic consequences –global

Knowledge to adapt to the unavoidable – local

Education: ◦ Enable individuals

and communities to make informed action decisions

UN (1987): satisfying the needs of current generation without jeopardizing the potential for future generations to satisfy theirs

Extraction and production processes that: ◦ Satisfy peoples‟ needs

◦ Do not reduce quality of natural resources below point dangerous to health and regeneration

◦ Satisfying needs without destroying own natural and physical foundations

Has our education been on the right track?

OECD‟s 2006 PISA assessment of science competence of 15-year olds

Comprehensive international comparison of what students know about the environment and related issues

Scoring at least Level D: ◦ the extent to which education systems are giving

young people at least some of the tools they will need as citizens to approach scientific and environmental issues

◦ A basic understanding of such issues by voters, taxpayers and consumers would create crucial incentives for enterprises and public bodies to adopt environmentally-responsible behaviour.

Science is just the first step: empathy, society, economics, culture…

… than factual knowledge.

Students' attitudes and values are also important

They are also affected by knowledge of facts

Looks like: ◦ the more they know the

more they care and are less optimistic

◦ the less they know they less they care and are more optimistic

Immigrant and students with lower soc-ecbackground significantly underperforming ◦ But they care just as much

about the problems given the test score

There are gender differences in attainment in some countries

School is the main source of env. info, but differences between countries are extensive

Selections from the total results table in alphabetic order

Change of attitudes and values with differences in test scores ◦ The more they know

the more they care

“Education for sustainable development is a life-wide and lifelong endavour which challenges individuals, institutions and societies to view tomorrow as a day that belongs to all of us, or it will not belong to anyone.” (UNESCO, Decade of ESD)

So where do we begin?

Tbilisi 1977, UNESCO

And no single operational definition yet…

ESD: multi-stakeholder cooperation and partnership. ◦ The main actors include governments and local

authorities, the education and scientific sectors, the health sector, the private sector, industry, transport and agriculture, trade and labour unions, the mass media, non-governmental organizations, various communities, indigenous peoples and international organizations.

ESD: a culture of mutual respect in communication and decision-making, shifting the focus away from solely transmitting information towards facilitating participatory learning.

◦ contribution to interactive and integrated policy and decision-making.

ESD: role in in developing and enhancing participatory democracy ◦ contribution to resolving conflicts in society and

achieving justice.

Key themes in Euro-Atlantic region include:◦ poverty alleviation, citizenship, peace, ethics,

responsibility in local and global contexts, democracy and governance, justice, security, human rights, health, gender equity, cultural diversity, rural and urban development, economy, production and consumption patterns, corporate social responsibility, environmental protection, climate change, prevention and adaptation, natural resource management, biological and landscape diversity.

Traditionally, the region has focussed on nature, ecology and the environment rather than the social and economic dimensions of SD.

In SEE and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA): poor quality of education for children living in rural areas due to a lack of financial and human resources

Key challenge in the region: lack of competences in ESD, in particular in the education sector

Other challenges: the absence of an agreed definition for ESD, confusion about understanding the difference between environmental education and ESD, institutional, legislative and policy frameworks requiring adaptation to the needs of ESD and the lack of ESD teaching tools and research.

There is also a need to strengthen the involvement of civil society in governance at multiple levels (e.g., school, community, region, country).

Bill McKibben: environmental movement has morphed from defending nature against society‟s attacks to defending society itself ◦ All environmentalists are also climate change activists

now

Education helps make society what it is, and what it will be

Changes and sacrifices are involved, governments don‟t initiate that

Bottom-up movement globally: networks and partnerships a vehicle for sharing responsibilities and learning how to address issues (Tillbury, 2010)

Henderson and Tillbury (2004): non-hierarchical partnerships strong innovative force in transforming formal education sector

Rio 1992: partnerships identified as critical component of sustainabilty

UNESCO 2002: partnerships which share learning experiences can accelerate the process of change towards sustainability

ESD decade: 2005-2014: programme reach and effectiveness can be increased by basing them on wide partnerships

Pooling and mixing specialist knowledge: ◦ The „environmentals‟ (specialist knowledge, activist

pressure, international agreements) ◦ The „educationals‟ (specialist knowledge, policy

pressure, advocacy and teaching experience)

But transmitting knowledge alone engenders no behavioral change - learn good practices from each other

Education provides values, attitudes and concerns together with our conception of reality

transdisciplinary platform for educational and environmental CSOs to cooperate on nationaland regional levels

different actors with different knowledge and experience: broadly inclusive , horizontal cooperation: CSOs, state, educational practitioners, activists

Competences: science and theory, education, activism, showing by doing

Mixing competences necessary for creating platform for educational, economic and social change

Tillbury (2010): Partnerships providing formal and informal opportunities for learning ◦ In meetings, or in structured exchanges allowing

reflection, development of understanding and questioning of mental models

◦ Strengthen ownership and commitment to sustainability actions

No detailed proscription for transition to sustainability ◦ That is why we are here ◦ Many options already open, and we will create new

ones

Learning from each other (EELP): 1. Climate and energy: oil, coal, sun and the EU

regulations

2. Environmental education in schools: Estonian example

3. EU Climate change policies: from the inside

4. Summer School: ESD – theory and practice

School curricula and ESD: „mapping‟ what‟s in there ◦ B&H, CRO , Estonia, Georgia, Kosovo , FYROM ,

Romania and Slovenia

◦ Content of curricula and selected textbooks

◦ Attitudes , curricular setting

◦ Framing: development, food production, progress, pollution

Reports and recommendations

This is just a 0th step towards change

Adult education (AEEM) – now is the time: ◦ Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) in

sustainable development issues

◦ Teacher educational module

◦ Public authorities educational module

◦ Business executives educational module

Not moving mountains, just an all-you-need-to-know pack

Meetings and more meetings

Website, web-forum Policy Lab (advocacy

training) Round-tables

(national) Advocacy campaigns

(national and international)

Final conference The bag is coming…

Further funding lines will open up

Evidence based relevance reports will make for better future applications

Wide and loose network is called for

Many more activities are needed for a shift to sustainable development

SD is more than a matter of floods and garbage, more than „ecology‟: ◦ CC hits the poorest hardest (inclusion, equity)

◦ Current development paths are destructive

◦ Rich have more money, more guilt and more power

Educational policy is part of status quo: ◦ Progress, production, exploitation

◦ Entrepreneurship, competence, productivity

◦ Values, norms, rights, obligations, equity

Put more warming infographics in the textbooks?

Research shows it doesn‟t work ◦ “problem” is not a problem

◦ Fatalism or escapism

◦ There are greater priorities

◦ No one will support me

◦ Acting, but failing

Policy: not education for, but education of

Content: learn about human environment interaction, adapting to rather than adapting the - scientific literacy and systems thinking

Critical thinking skills: scientific information as manipulation tool, politics of carbon

Adaptive communities: schools as sources of change and protection from adversity

What knowledge, how that knowledge is framed, whom it is available to → educational policy