{"id":6256,"date":"2015-02-24T07:28:40","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T07:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6256"},"modified":"2015-02-24T07:28:40","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T07:28:40","slug":"sustainable-development-goal-4-a-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/02\/24\/sustainable-development-goal-4-a-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Development Goal 4 \u2013 a comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you know, the UN is planning to replace the Millennium Development Goals with\u00a017 Sustainable Development Goals<\/a>. \u00a0One of these (Goal 4) relates to education and learning. \u00a0Stephen Sterling has contributed to a recent report<\/a> critiquing the goals, and he doesn't much like Goal\u00a04<\/a> which is to:<\/p>\n

\"Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all.\"<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amongst Sterling's points are\u00a0these<\/a>\u00a0(p. 29):<\/p>\n

\"This goal is both an end and a cross-cutting means. \u00a0That is, achieving this goal is desirable in itself for the\u00a0evidence-based reasons given above. What is much weaker in the current articulation of the goal and its\u00a0targets is education as a vehicle or instrument for\u00a0change. Education can play a vital role in bringing\u00a0about sustainable change over time because it is\u00a0change which is owned by affected and participating\u00a0stakeholders.<\/em><\/p>\n

The goal currently emphasizes education in terms\u00a0of its potential economic and social benefits \u2013 there\u00a0is no recognition that education through awareness\u00a0raising, training and capacity building can help protect\u00a0environmental quality and lead to wiser resource use;\u00a0only Target 4.7 mentions sustainable development as\u00a0such.<\/em><\/p>\n

This goal would benefit greatly from extended\u00a0wording to reflect the fact that most educational policies\u00a0and programs do not yet reflect the purposes and\u00a0goals of sustainable development, and some even\u00a0exacerbate sustainability issues. For many education\u00a0policies and programs, a radical re-alignment towards\u00a0sustainable development and sustainable futures is\u00a0required.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sterling\u00a0then recommends that SDG 4 be revised to read:<\/p>\n

\u201cEnsure inclusive and equitable quality education\u00a0and promote life-long learning ...\u00a0opportunities\u00a0for all, and further, review and reform the purposes, methods, and values that underpin all education and\u00a0training policies and programs with a view to reinforcing\u00a0the integration of culturally relevant education\u00a0for sustainable development as a critical means of\u00a0assuring a more sustainable future.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His point, of course, is to get SD \/ ESD into the goal, as opposed to hiding it away, as UNECO has done, in target #4.7. \u00a0This target currently says:<\/p>\n

#4.7 \u2013 by 2030, ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture\u2019s contribution to sustainable development.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a classic, breathless, UNESCO grab-bag where a lot of stuff (that UNESCO doesn't really understand) is packed\u00a0whether it coheres or not (it doesn't). \u00a0Sterling suggests (his edits\u00a0in bold<\/strong>):<\/p>\n

#4.7 \u2013 by 2030, ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development\u00a0through education for sustainable development programmes which promote<\/strong>\u00a0sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture\u2019s contribution to sustainable development.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Too much promotion, of course, but, more importantly, the way this is phrased means it is something (if you believe in ESD \/ etc. \/ etc.) that teachers<\/em> will need to do, not learners. \u00a0What learners (that is, people) have to do, is to act\u00a0through how they live and work, and interact.<\/p>\n

Anyway, hands up those who think UNESCO's panjandrums will take a blind bit of\u00a0notice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

As you know, the UN is planning to replace the Millennium Development Goals with\u00a017 Sustainable Development Goals. \u00a0One of these (Goal 4) relates to education and learning. \u00a0Stephen Sterling has contributed to a recent report critiquing the goals, and he...<\/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":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256","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=6256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}