UNESCO Expert Meeting on ESD: “Reorienting Education to Address Sustainability"
Photo: © UNESCO Bangkok
Experts on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) met from 1 – 3 May 2006 in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The three-day meeting titled “Reorienting Education to Address Sustainability” discussed key components of ESD.
Two of the major tasks of ESD were to improve education and to reorient existing education to address sustainable development. However, as the complex concept of ESD may mean different things to different groups of people, it was essential to analyse the ESD concept from different perspectives before effective implementation can take place. Although many topics inherent in the area of ESD are already part of the formal education curriculum, these topics or content areas needed to be identified or seen to contribute to the larger concept of sustainability. The 15 participants of the UNESCO Expert Meeting on ESD discussed and conceptualized these key components of ESD.
The objectives of the UNESCO Expert Meeting on ESD included:
- To identify and conceptualize the content areas for ESD
- To discuss the relationship of ESD with other education initiatives such as Environmental Education (EE), Education for International Understanding (EIU), Education for All (EFA), UN Literacy Decade (UNLD), and Millennium Development Goals (MDG)
- To recommend guidelines for reorienting existing education to address sustainable development
- To plan the organization of the APEID-APCEIU workshop on “Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability” in September 2006
The expected outcomes were the following:
- Papers on content areas of ESD and linkages of different education initiatives with ESD.
- Recommendations and guidelines on reorienting existing education to address sustainable development.
- Structure for APEID-APCEIU workshop in September 2006
Papers submitted by the participants (pdf):
- Sustainable Production and Consumption-Educating Future Consumers - Zinaida Fadeeva
- Young People and the Environment - John Fien
- Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future: UNESCO's New Multimedia Teacher Education Programme - John Fien
- Re-orienting Teacher Education for Socially Sustainable Development - Chan Lean Heng
- EIU/ESD from the Perspective of Teacher Education
-Reflection on Teachers Education of APCEIU and its Lessons - Sookhee Kwak - Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Understanding within ESD - Joy de Leo
- International Network Of Institutions Of Teacher Education:
Five Years Of Work On Reorienting Teacher Education To Address Sustainability - Rosalyn McKeown - Redefining the General Concept of ESD on Environment and
Economic Perspectives - Shuichi Nakayama - Human Rights in Education for Sustainable Development - Jefferson R. Plantilla
- ACCU - UNESCO Cooperation for the Asia-Pacific Regional Promotion of DESD - Masahisa Sato
- Evolving Environmental Education and
its relation to EPD and ESD - Masahisa Sato - Environmental and Economic Perspectives of Education for Sustainable Development - Lawrence Surendra
- Nurturing Relationships: A Pacific Perspective of Teacher Education for
Peace and Sustainable Development - Konai H Thaman - Education for Sustainable Development & The Weaving of a Culture of Peace: Complementarities and Synergies - Swee-Hin Toh
Presentations submitted by the participants (pdf):
- Sustainable Production and Consumption - Educating Future Consumers - Zinaida Fadeeva
- Young People and the Environment - John Fien
- Socially Sustainable Development: Addressing Issues of Social Injustice, Poverty and Inequality - Chan Leang Hen
- EIU/ESD from the Perspective of Teacher Education - Sookhee Kwak
- Social and Cultural Perspectives of ESD - Joy de Leo
- International Network of Teacher-Education Institutions - Rosalyn McKeown
- Redefining the Concept of ESD on Environmental and Economic Perspectives - Shuichi Nakayama
- Human Rights in Education for Sustainable Development - Jeff Plantilla
- Beyond “Learning to Live Together”: The Key to Education for Sustainable Development” - Sheldon Shaeffer
- ACCU - UNESCO Cooperation for the Asia-Pacific Regional Promotion of DESD - Masahisa Sato
- ESD, as the Evolution of Environmental Education - Masahisa Sato
- ESD: a conceptual framework - Konai Thaman
- Towards Peace and Sustainable Development through Teacher Education: Some Examples from Oceania - Konai Thaman
Related resources:
• View the pictures of the meeting
• Download the agenda
