I'll be off to Atlantic College in a couple of weeks to take part in a witness session in relation to education and the SDGs. \u00a0I've tried to be provocative in my prepared input. \u00a0See what you think:<\/p>\n
In 2015, the UN resolved: [1]\u00a0\u201c\u2026 between now and 2030, to end poverty and hunger everywhere; to combat inequalities within and among countries; to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies; to protect human rights and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources. \u2026 .\u201d<\/p>\n
You\u2019d have to be an incurable optimist to think that all this \u2013 and the other targets embodied within the sustainable development goals (SDGs) \u2013 will all be fully met, but it would be morally reprehensible not to take the goals seriously.<\/p>\n
Schools, charged as they are with the initial education of the young, have a particular responsibility in nurturing thinking and learning about what might constitute appropriate futures, and in helping students begin to develop skills and competences by doing so. [2] \u00a0Andrew Stables says we should be aware that school students are only ever likely to pick up a general and diffuse sense of concern about and for the world\u2019s problems.\u00a0 And that this will be led or reinforced by any involvement they may have in the public discourse.\u00a0 Stables says that such skills can only really be fully developed through practice in realistic contexts, that is, through life and work.\u00a0 It follows that it\u2019s foolish to think of skills and competences ever being fully developed by a particular stage. [3]\u00a0 Because of all this, Stables says, the school curriculum should focus on the development of skills of critical thinking, dialogue and discussion \/ debate. [4]\u00a0 Through this, young people would be enabled, should they choose, to take an increasing role in society and transformative social change (of all kinds).<\/p>\n
In emphasising this role for the school, Stables privileges the development of skills above content.\u00a0 He also stresses the iterative nature of learning, participation, and decision-making.\u00a0 But, schools are most successful, perhaps, when they combine these elements, and my colleague Paul Vare & I have argued that it\u2019s helpful to think of two complementary approaches:<\/p>\n
\n
- [i] Building students\u2019 capacity to think critically and develop abilities to make sound choices in the face of the inherent complexity and uncertainty.\u00a0 This will tend to be dialogue and debate-oriented, and focused on controversial issues.<\/li>\n
- [ii]\u00a0Providing guidance about behaviours, shifts in habit, and ways of thinking about how we live.\u00a0 This will tend to be content-focused, data-based, and grounded in everyday practice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Schools seem to find it easier to do [ii] than [i], but both are important, and so in relation to the goals, I\u2019d argue that schools should:<\/p>\n
\n
- help learners understand why the goals ought to be of concern to them<\/li>\n
- enable learners to gain plural perspectives from a range of viewpoints<\/li>\n
- provide opportunities for an active, critical exploration of issues<\/li>\n
- encourage learners to come to their own views, and to get involved<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Doing less than this seems neglectful, but doing much more always runs the risk of indoctrination. \u00a0This is, of course, a liberal educational view which prioritises student learning over institutional, behaviour or social change whilst making use of any change that\u2019s happening to support and broaden that learning.\u00a0 In this sense, it\u2019s fine for a school, to encourage its students to explore the SDGs and get involved, and if this enhances social justice, saves energy, creates less waste, promotes biodiversity, etc, that\u2019s all to the good. \u00a0But it can\u2019t be the purpose of a school to solve the problems of society or to improve the world through students\u2019 activities.\u00a0 The crucial factor must always be what students learn by participating in such activities, which, because learners never learn what teachers teach, will not necessarily be what those in authority desire. [5]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
..............................................................<\/p>\n
This is not wholly new, of course, but it's a new synthesis prepared for the debate at Atlantic College.<\/p>\n
Notes<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
[1] \u00a0sustainabledevelopment.un.org\/post2015\/transformingourworld
\n[2] \u00a0It\u2019s no surprise that international testing focuses on science, maths & reading not on sustainability skills or competence
\n[3]\u00a0 Despite this, we find endless lists of such skills and competences for school and HE students to develop
\n[4]\u00a0 These might be critical questions about [i] society (easy), [ii] their own learning (harder), or [iii] their school (risky)
\n[5]\u00a0 UNESCO has written 255 learning outcomes for the SDGs.\u00a0 See: unesdoc.unesco.org\/images\/0024\/002474\/247444e.pdf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I'll be off to Atlantic College in a couple of weeks to take part in a witness session in relation to education and the SDGs. \u00a0I've tried to be provocative in my prepared input. \u00a0See what you think: In 2015,...<\/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":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-talks-and-presentations"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189","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=7189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}