{"id":6878,"date":"2017-01-26T07:18:07","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T07:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6878"},"modified":"2017-01-26T12:12:19","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T12:12:19","slug":"sterling-on-the-sdgs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2017\/01\/26\/sterling-on-the-sdgs\/","title":{"rendered":"Sterling on the SDGs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I've been reading Stephen Sterling's recent piece in the Journal of Education for Sustainable Development<\/em> (Vol 10.2<\/a>). \u00a0It's here<\/a>, and downloadable. \u00a0This is the Abstract:<\/p>\n

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are viewed in the context of Johan Rockstr\u00f6m\u2019s work on planetary boundaries at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. This work sets a double challenge to educational policy and practice: to embrace and help achieve the Goals, but also to work towards a deeper change in consciousness which can reconcile people and planet. \u00a0The role of education is more profound and comprehensive than is recognized in the text of the SDGs as regards its potential to address their implementation. \u00a0Education requires a re-invention, and re-purposing so that it can assume the responsibility these challenges require, and develop the agency that is needed for transformative progress to be made.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In many ways it's familiar stuff, but because it's\u00a0written in the context of the SDGs, it's a new take on an old theme. \u00a0It complains about the goals, especially the education one\u00a0saying, rightly, that this has little to do with sustainability in the sustainable development sense. \u00a0This is unsurprising as that goal and the myriad\u00a0targets it embodies were written by those in UNESCO who are focused on education for all (EFA). \u00a0That is, by the 99% of the education staff within UNESCO. \u00a0The 1% who think about ESD hardly got a sniff. \u00a0That's because the 99% know that what they're doing is what really matters, both to UNESCO and the future. \u00a0The leaders of the 99% (NB, I concede that this number might be\u00a0too high: more like 97%) don't believe that \"Education requires a re-invention, and re-purposing so that it can assume the responsibility these challenges require, and develop the agency that is needed for transformative progress to be made<\/em>\". \u00a0They never have, which is why EFA has always\u00a0had the lion's share of the cash. \u00a0They have never been swayed by transformation rhetoric, or seduced by talk of paradigm shifts. \u00a0Their's is the slow incremental grind of making progress at the margins in difficult places and trying to consolidate it. \u00a0My Tuesday\u00a0blog about indicators show what their priorities are. \u00a0You only have to read these, and then compare it to the struggle they have when it comes to\u00a0ESD. \u00a0I'll have more to say on their attempts to address this gap next week.<\/p>\n

Sterling's article ends:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"... There are only 15 short years to make a significant difference. \u00a0We are faced with an unprecedented and huge learning challenge at every level, in\u00a0which educational policy and practice need to play a pivotal role. \u00a0How do we \u2018reorient\u00a0our systems of knowledge creation and education\u2019?. ... How do\u00a0we ensure that education for these extraordinary times can manifest a culture of\u00a0critical commitment \u2014 engaged enough to make a real difference to social-ecological\u00a0resilience and sustainability but reflexively critical enough to learn from experience\u00a0and to keep options open into the future? ...\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed. \u00a0Well, almost. \u00a0But how? \u00a0Given that society changes education and its emphases faster than society is changed by education, all this will not be achieved from within slow-shifting, bureaucratic education systems, but, if at all, in the political sphere. \u00a0And the more we delude ourselves with talk of a \"burgeoning consciousness oriented towards\u00a0local and planetary well-being and the public good\" \u2013 a phrase\u00a0Sterling quotes \u2013\u00a0the less likely we are to understand this.<\/p>\n

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

I've been reading Stephen Sterling's recent piece in the Journal of Education for Sustainable Development (Vol 10.2). \u00a0It's here, and downloadable. \u00a0This is the Abstract: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are viewed in the context of Johan Rockstr\u00f6m\u2019s work on...<\/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":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6878","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=6878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}