ABSTRACT

All ESD activities contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. it continues to have particular relevance for the global education agenda enshrined in SDG 4, in which ESD has a distinct place. ESD is a key element of quality education. Its cross-cutting competencies in cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioural dimensions of learning bear relevance to all areas of education. (UNESCO Executive Board 20 February 2019)

In the outline of Education for Sustainable Development as a teaching tradition, Stables ＆ Scott (2002) and Öhman (2004) identify three essential aspects of holism: connecting the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of Sustainable Development (SD) issues; integrating their past, present, and future implications; and focusing on their local, regional, and global nature.

In addition to holism, the second essential feature of ESD deals with the processes of teaching and learning. ESD focusses on the development of skills and action competence for sustainability; this pedagogy has been labelled pluralism. Thus, with holism and pluralism in mind, this article researches the contributing schools’ efforts concerning their implementation of ESD from the viewpoint of schoolteachers. Because there is very little empirical evidence for international comparison, this research digs deeper into the effects of a holistic ESD approach to content and a pluralistic ESD approach to teaching in the context of Japanese formal education.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of ESD from the viewpoint of schoolteachers in Japan. In order to design an evaluative tool for ESD schools, Bringing together the key points of Transfer 21 and S3: Sustainable School Self-evaluation, the research employs 8 criteria; Improvement of students’ attitude and behaviour, Acquisition of ESD competencies, Recognition of the components for ESD, Improvement of teaching and learning method, Improvement of teaching and learning concepts, Improvement of the school organization, Engagement of the local partner, Teacher training. In the questionnaire, teachers are asked to grade different aspects of their school practice on a five-point scale.

Questionnaires were distributed in the various prefectures of the northeastern part of Japan on July in 2014，2015, 2016, and 2017. The target schools in this research–the UNESCO-Associated Project Network (ASPnet) schools–consisted of 3 kindergartens, primary schools, lower secondary schools, and upper secondary schools.

 

Table 1. Effectiveness of Education for Sustainable Development by school level (Average of 2015-2017)

Category

Questionnaire

Primary

Lower Secondary

Upper Secondary

Improvement of teaching and learning concepts

Adapting a viewpoint of sustainability for the future

4.10±0.70

4.11±0.59

4.22±0.73

Utilizing multi-faceted and comprehensive methods

3.96±0.67

3.92±0.62

3.64±0.45

Adapting a global and local perspective

3.94±0.81

3.85±0.82

4.22±0.81

Understanding different types of values which cause conflict

3.45±0.79

3.35±0.83

3.61±0.85

Discussing unanswerable topics on the issues of sustainability

3.52±0.72

3.55±0.79

3.83±0.92

Beyond knowledge transfer, challenging students to change values and behaviour

3.91±0.67

3.85±0.65

4.00±0.69

One of the most important subjects of ESD is the understanding of the complex nature of sustainable development. ESD was developed using different sources reflecting different perspectives, and thus includes consideration of social and political issues together with economic and environmental concerns (Holism). ESD in particular relates to differing educational ideologies and has implications for effective student learning. In addition, ESD is often viewed as an approach to teaching and learning that aims to build abilities to focus on behavioural change (Pluralism). These questions were created to ask about the specific ideology of ESD. The questions below are classified as either relating to Holism (HL) or to Pluralism (PL): Adapting a viewpoint of sustainability for the future (HL), Utilising multi-faceted and comprehensive methods (PL), Adapting global and local perspectives (HL), Containing different types of values which cause conflict (PL), Discussing unanswerable topics on sustainability issues (PL), Challenging value and behaviour changes beyond knowledge transfer (PL).

The data shows that the pluralism concepts of ESD, teaching students to confront tensions and conflicts and tackle issues with no single answer, seem to be difficult, especially for primary school students. Global and local perspectives were gained by the students in each type of school.

Corney (2006) suggested that, as a challenge for teachers, appreciation of differing interpretations of the aims and purpose of ESD (particularly relating to differing educational ideologies and the implications for student learning, which is especially related to the concepts of action competence and behavioural change) should be emphasised. This issue still exists as a challenge for Japanese teachers when they address ESD.

Keywords: SDGs, Holism, Pluralism, Japanese UNESCO-Associated Schools, Whole-school approach

Acknowledgment: This work was supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) Grant Number J150100020.