RCE Greater Portland - 2020

ESD for 2030: Combining the Earth Charter and the SDGs in K-12 Education
Basic Information
Title of project : 
ESD for 2030: Combining the Earth Charter and the SDGs in K-12 Education
Submitting RCE: 
RCE Greater Portland
Focal point(s) and affiliation(s)
Name: 
Tahira Abbas
Organizational Affiliation: 
Research and curriculum Fellow
Name: 
Neeraja Havaligi
Organizational Affiliation: 
Executive Director
Format of project: 
Manuscript
Language of project: 
English
Date of submission:
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
ESD for 2030, SDG 4.7
At what level is the policy operating?: 
International
Geographical & Education Information
Region: 
Americas
Country: 
United States
Ecosystem(s):

Target Audience:
Contents
Status: 
Ongoing
Period: 
June, 2020 to December, 2021
Rationale: 
The global framework for the new decade ESD for 2030, as established by the United Nations (UN), captures the central role of Education for Sustainable Development, ESD (SDG 4.7) as a key enabler for achieving the remaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century. ESD entails that we reorient our education systems towards implementing the UN 2030 Agenda and equip learners with the values, knowledge, attitudes and skills needed to develop a better understanding of today’s local and global challenges and feel empowered to contribute towards achieving and maintaining a sustainable future. In that regard, educators at all levels are called to mainstream and integrate ESD at the core of all educational and learning activities.

The purpose of this project is to provide trainings that increase capacities of K-12 educators to more effectively incorporate and deliver ESD in their teaching, curriculum and student learning experiences. The training sessions aim, more specifically, to assist educators in the process of finding meaningful and relevant connections between ESD and their content area, and empower them with tools to embed sustainability values and principles in their instruction.

The training is built around the enormous potential of ESD in reshaping the worldview, values and principles needed to address the challenges facing humanity and by which we can work towards achieving inclusive, just, peaceful and sustainable societies. ESD is approached first and foremost as a value-oriented foundation to learning; one that ethically frames what is already learned and done in the classroom, why things are done and learned, and where these might take us. Thus, the International Earth Charter declaration, recognized by UNESCO as the ethical framework for ESD, is a focal point in the training sessions and examined as the moral compass for ESD and the foundation to the SDGs. Educators examine the worldview articulated in the 16 fundamental ethical principles of the EC document and explore its use as a powerful educational instrument to cultivate and develop a shared vision of values, an ethical consciousness and the meaning of a sustainable way of living.

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is then looked-into as a solution-oriented and integrated framework for educators to raise and address local and global challenges ranging from eradication of poverty to the protection of the earth’s ecological systems. Educators look at ways the 17 SDGs can be infused and used as a teaching aid to connect classroom conversations with the broader global context in order to help students make linkages with what is happening in their local communities. The SDGs are used as an agenda to guide students on how to engage as problem-solvers towards building vibrant economies and equitable societies within environmental limits.

The training is centred on using effective learning paradigms and pedagogical approaches to deliver ESD inside and outside the classroom. Systems thinking and transformative and experiential learning are fundamental to effective ESD instruction. The pedagogies promoted are grounded in neurosciences; emphasizing a holistic understanding of learning and human development in order to engage students at the deepest level in transformative processes and become more resilient, empathetic and well-tuned to themselves and the well-being of others. Educators delve into ways to incorporate concrete practices to foster ecological consciousness and use arts and stories to foster a sense of deeper connection and care for the more than human world.
Objectives: 
Objectives:

- Promote systemic thinking, transformative and experiential learning as ESD instruction
- Increase awareness about the importance of mainstreaming and strengthening ESD in K-12 to build education systems relevant and responsive to today’s global challenges
- Build capacity of K-12 educators with the aim of increasing the number of teachers qualified to deliver ESD in the region

- Equip educators with the necessary knowledge, skills, values, motivation and commitment to introduce and integrate sustainability related content and worldview in instruction

- Raise awareness about the International Earth Charter document as a powerful educational instrument to cultivate and develop sustainability values and worldview

- Exploring ESD as a value-oriented foundation for a classroom culture and a meta curricula pedagogical approach that allows educators to embed sustainability values into instruction without taking away from other instructional demands or expectations

- Promote effective and learner-centered instructional pedagogies grounded in the neurosciences

- Explore transformative experiences and practices that foster learner’s ecological consciousness and facilitate change to an ecological worldview
- Explore emergent teaching concept and practices when the curriculum is constrained
- Explore techniques to develop lesson plans that contain both sustainability principles and content standards
- Provide tools and resources for educators to embed ESD and infuse the SDGs materials across content areas and levels

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
(https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs) and other themes of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
SDG 1 - End poverty in all its forms everywhere 
Indirect
SDG 2 - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture 
Indirect
SDG 3 - Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages 
Indirect
SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all 
Direct
SDG 5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls 
Indirect
SDG 6 - Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all 
Indirect
SDG 7 - Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all 
Indirect
SDG 8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all 
Indirect
SDG 9 - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation 
Indirect
SDG 10 - Reduce inequality within and among countries 
Indirect
SDG 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable 
Indirect
SDG 12 - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns 
Indirect
SDG 14 - Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development 
Indirect
SDG 15 - Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss 
Indirect
SDG 16 - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels 
Indirect
SDG 17 - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development 
Direct
Theme
Traditional Knowledge  
Indirect
Agriculture 
Indirect
Arts 
Indirect
Curriculum Development 
Direct
Forests/Trees 
Indirect
Plants & Animals 
Indirect
Waste 
Indirect
ESD for 2030-Priority Action Areas
Priority Action Area 1 - Advancing policy 
state: 
Indirect
Priority Action Area 2 - Transforming learning and training environments 
state: 
Indirect
Priority Action Area 3 - Developing capacities of educators and trainers 
state: 
Direct
Priority Action Area 4 - Mobilizing youth 
state: 
Indirect
Update: 
No