March 2013

  • Free the QAA 5,000

    I sat through a briefing by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) yesterday on its proposed new resource on ESD.  Quite why it is doing this, is still beyond me, as I have already noted.  I didn't take part in the discussion...

  • ESD ≠ SD, unless ...

    It ought to be obvious, even to those not privy to its arcane mysteries, that the concept of sustainable development and the process that is education for sustainable development cannot be the same thing.   But it isn't, it seems, even to...

  • A Right Royal Charter

    I don't know!  You leave the country for a few days to bask in UNESCO's world heritage beneficence, and when you return you find Parliament proposing to overthrow hundreds of years of hard-won press freedoms.  Not only that, but blogs...

  • Still muddling, not yet through

    This is the title of a 1979 paper by Yale's CE Lindblom in Public Administration Review.  An abridged version is here, c/o Google.  It is an argument for disjointed instrumentalism as the preferred policy option.  I thought it a great...

  • "They do it differently, they do it better, and ...

    ... they did it yesterday" is an observation that is sometimes remarked of the Scots – quite often, it has to be said, by the Scots.  However, when it comes to ESD – or Learning for Sustainability – as they...

  • Letter to Sir Alan Langlands

    Sir Allen Langlands is the Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England.  This is the text of a recent letter about HE, learning, and sustainability.  It speaks for itself, as does the list of those signing. Dear...

  • Think Tanks for ESD

    Rolf Jucker, of Switzerland's new éducation21, posted this on SHED SHARE a few days ago: Since January 2013 I work in a new foundation here in Switzerland which is called éducation21 and is conceived as a one-stop-shop for ESD in Switzerland...

  • Anti-Neo-Liberals dust off their papers

    I was disappointed to see EER's going ahead with a special issue devoted to how terrible neo-liberals are.  After much editorial board tooing and froing about the pros (not many, I felt) and cons (too many to list) of the...

  • Unesco UK Policy Brief on ESD

    The latest policy brief  [No. 9] from the UK National Commission for Unesco was published yesterday on the UKNC's website.   The introduction says: This policy brief provides an account of the current status of ESD across the UK.  It draws...

  • Mark Avery's narrow view

    I've been nudged towards Mark Avery's blog which I didn't know about, but, then, I suppose he knows even less about me.  Avery is an Ex-RSBP Director of Conservation, and much more. I was struck by the following passage, which...