{"id":6586,"date":"2016-02-11T07:50:31","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T07:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6586"},"modified":"2016-02-11T07:50:31","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T07:50:31","slug":"the-hubris-at-the-heart-of-the-esd-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2016\/02\/11\/the-hubris-at-the-heart-of-the-esd-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The hubris at the heart of the ESD project"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned<\/a>\u00a0the other day that the Centre for Environmental Education [CEE] in Ahmedabad had held a conference in January\u00a0on Education as a Driver of Sustainable Development Goals<\/em>, and that this had\u00a0produced a plan for action. \u00a0As Eliza Doolittle<\/a> might have said \"Words, Words, more ****** Words\". \u00a0If you've a strong stomach, you can download it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I mention it because the opening section betrays the conceit and hubris at the heart of the failed ESD project. \u00a0The action plan begins ...<\/p>\n

\"2015 was a significant policy turning point for sustainable living at a global level. \u00a0This turning point was achieved by two high-profile meetings where, in September 2015, 193 countries approved and finalised the global goals for sustainable development. \u00a0This water-shed development was followed by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change at COP21 which took place in December 2015 and which agreed to work towards retaining global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.<\/em><\/p>\n

Additionally, at the World Education Forum in Incheon in May 2015, the world agreed that Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has a key role to play in strengthening the quality and <\/em>relevance of all forms of education, and that education is a key enabler for sustainable development. \u00a0This consolidates the objectives of the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just to mention Incheon in the same breath as the Paris Agreement and the SDGs shows how\u00a0out-of-touch those involved really are. \u00a0In mitigation, however, maybe the fact that it wasn't claimed that there were \"three high-profile meetings\" offers some evidence\u00a0that they are not completely deranged \u2013 merely deluded.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on a related theme, in a lively bistro, in a surprisingly near-bijou part of a much put-upon English city, conversation turned to whether anyone (ordinary people, that is) had ever heard of ESD. \u00a0I posed this question:<\/p>\n

If you walked down the street outside, and stopped people at random, how many times would you need to do this before you found someone who had heard of education?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The answer, if you allow for babes in arms,\u00a0the insane, members of the House of Lords, etc, is pretty obviously 1. \u00a0Then, I said, replace 'education' by ESD, and how many\u00a0people would you now likely have to stop?<\/p>\n

The answers surprised me. \u00a0The first response was\u00a010 people; the second, 100. \u00a0I said that I thought it would be nearer 10,000. \u00a0On reflection, I'd say that could be\u00a0a considerable\u00a0under-estimate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned\u00a0the other day that the Centre for Environmental Education [CEE] in Ahmedabad had held a conference in January\u00a0on Education as a Driver of Sustainable Development Goals, and that this had\u00a0produced a plan for action. \u00a0As Eliza Doolittle might have...<\/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-6586","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\/6586","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=6586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}