{"id":2544,"date":"2013-03-25T07:39:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T07:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=2544"},"modified":"2013-03-25T07:39:46","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T07:39:46","slug":"esd-%e2%89%a0-sd-unless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2013\/03\/25\/esd-%e2%89%a0-sd-unless\/","title":{"rendered":"ESD \u2260 SD, unless ..."},"content":{"rendered":"

It ought to be obvious, even to those not privy to its arcane mysteries, that the concept of\u00a0sustainable development<\/em> and the process that is\u00a0education for sustainable development<\/em> cannot be the same thing. \u00a0 But it isn't, it seems, even to those who are experts in these matters. \u00a0This is something of a puzzle.<\/p>\n

The following are examples of this ability to confuse, conflate or exchange these terms:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0In 1999, the UK government panel on sustainable development education set out a range of key concepts of sustainable development<\/em>, but by 2003, these were being confidently discussed (and accepted) as key concepts of sustainable development education<\/em>. \u00a0The (happily now long gone) QCA seemed to be the culprit. \u00a0It took a while for anyone to notice, including me.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. In the 2003 book that Stephen Gough and I wrote (Sustainable Development and Learning: framing the issues<\/em>), there were only five references to \u201csustainable development education\u201d, four of which were quotes from the literature.\u00a0 We were surprised, therefore to come across a paper which quoted from the book writing \u201csustainable development education\u201d<\/em> when all we had written was \u201csustainable development<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0 Although these bastard quotes still made sense, our original meaning was traduced. \u00a0 Knowing the perp, a scoundrel who has form in these matters, I have assumed up to this point that this was done on purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. In a 2012 UK Quality Assurance Agency [QAA] discussion paper, \u201ceducation for sustainability<\/em>\u201d was identified as one of 6 \"themes that cross subject boundaries\"\u00a0 and which \"have a broad relevance to the purposes of higher education and its wider context in society.\" \u00a0This is nonsense, of course, as it is sustainability \/ sustainable development\u00a0which has this \"broad \u00a0relevance\". \u00a0EfS is just one of many responses. \u00a0To me, this is a confusion of ends and means. \u00a0I would not expect QAA to be too alert to this, given that EfS \/ ESD \/ etc is not its main focus, but its academic advisers might have been.<\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0In a similar fashion the Higher Education Academy [HEA] Strategic Plan (2012 \u2013 2016) has identified education for sustainable development [ESD] as one of eight contemporary challenges that it sees as a priority focus. Flexible delivery, <\/em>and equality and diversity<\/em> are others.\u00a0 But (as in #3) it is living sustainably (sustainable development,<\/em> if you like) that is the challenge, not ESD, which is just one means to this end.\u00a0 More confusion, as I have noted elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. The HEA has a JISC email network for its ESD Advisory Group. \u00a0The title of this is the Sustainability Development Advisory Group<\/em>. \u00a0Careless drafting? \u00a0Confusion? \u00a0Or ...<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What to make of this? \u00a0Such confusion ought to be difficult to do this,\u00a0if you\u2019re intellectually honest, or are thinking about what you\u2019re writing \/ reading \u2013 or so I thought.<\/p>\n

Well, it is easy to be judgmental about all this (as I may already have shown), but there may be something subtle (and quite common) happening here, where the familiar is so familiar that it is not read (or written) carefully. \u00a0The next example lends some credence to this, more generous, view and comes from something I have had personal involvement in.<\/p>\n

6. In a draft text for a Brief<\/em> written for UK National Commission for UNESCO about ESD in the UK, the phrase 'Decade for Sustainable Development<\/em>' was used instead of the full version. This was drafted by an expert and read by three others (and me) before it went off to UNESCO at the end of 2012. \u00a0We all missed it. \u00a0I saw it at my Nth reading, when it shouted at me from the page and I could hardly believe my eyes.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, ... .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It ought to be obvious, even to those not privy to its arcane mysteries, that the concept of\u00a0sustainable development and the process that is\u00a0education for sustainable development cannot be the same thing. \u00a0 But it isn't, it seems, even to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}