Environmental Campus Birkenfeld—A Role Model for Universities on How to Contribute to the Implementation Process of the Sustainable Development Goals

The implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in the urban centres of the world is one of the most consequential and ambitious projects that the nations of the world have undertaken. Guidance for achieving the goals in an integrated way that creates true sustainability is currently lacking because of the wicked nature of the problem. However, its wickedness highlights the critical importance of governance and decision-making processes for such integration, including the relationship between governments and their citizens. In particular, there is strong evidence to suggest that managing wicked problems like the SDGs is best done through forms of democracy that are deliberative, representative and influential. Called “deliberative democracy”, we draw on an existing body of research and case studies of deliberative democracy in action to apply its principles to a step-by-step process for the implementation and integration of the Goals in Cities. The paper concludes with the beginnings of a framework based on deliberative democratic principles, and an outline of methods for the scaling and expansion of the implementation process to cope with the global nature of the problem.

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'CrEEd for Future Schools'

schule verantworten | führungskultur_innovation_autonomie ◽

10.53349/sv.2021.i3.a114 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 36-51

Author(s):

Johannes Reitinger ◽

Agnes Pürstinger ◽

Susanne Oyrer

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Secondary School ◽

Sustainable Development Goals ◽

Learning Experience ◽

Implementation Process ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Development Goals ◽

Oriented Approach

This paper describes the inquiry-oriented improvement concept of CrEEd for Schools regarding pivotal characteristics, prototypical experiences, and findings concerning its impact on pupils’ learning experience and teachers’ instructional performance. A reflection of these experiences and findings collected during an implementation process conducted in an Austrian secondary school (2018–2019), motivates us to further rethink and to extend the conceptual architecture of CrEEd for Schools. We adjusted decisive conceptual components and integrated a concrete content layer into this inquiry-oriented approach – namely the sustainable development goals (SDGs). In doing so, we assume that the revised concept CrEEd for Future Schools will overcome the initial obstacles.

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Translating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into Chichewa: A Quick Efficacy Assessment

International Journal of Linguistics Literature & Translation ◽

10.32996/ijllt.2020.3.5.15 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (5) ◽

pp. 130-138

Author(s):

Evans Lwara ◽

Deborah Ndalama

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Sustainable Development Goals ◽

Communication Strategies ◽

Implementation Process ◽

African Countries ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

African Languages ◽

Efficacy Assessment ◽

Development Goals ◽

The Government

This paper purposed to analyse the efficacy of the Chichewa version of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the government of Malawi, through the Department of Information, recently produced. Language barrier remains one of the main reasons for the SDGs’ unpopularity among the majority of Africans. This leaves most Africans unengaged in the goals’ implementation process. Mindful of this, many African countries have embarked on projects to translate the SDGs into indigenous African languages. In Malawi, the SDGs were translated into the local languages in 2018. This study sought to conduct a quick review of the entire project to ascertain its effectiveness against the background that previous translations of various policy and other public documents are replete with substantial communicative flaws. How then was the project to translate the SDGs into Chichewa uniquely designed to ensure positive outcomes? What strategies did the translators use to ensure effective localisation of the SDG document given its international nature? To answer these and other key questions, the researchers collected data through Key Informant interviews and document analysis. The data was analysed within the framework of Farrahi Avval’s taxonomy of communication strategies. The study found that both linguistic and non-linguistic communication strategies were used in the translation. Both of these strategies were marred by serious shortcomings that have the potential to prevent effective communication from taking place. The study, thus, concludes that the information in the Chichewa version of the United Nations’ SDGs remains largely inaccessible to the illiterate and semiliterate Malawians.

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What Teachers Think and Know about Education for Sustainable Development and How They Implement it in Class

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12041690 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 1690 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eva-Maria Waltner ◽

Katja Scharenberg ◽

Christian Hörsch ◽

Werner Rieß

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Sustainable Development Goals ◽

Implementation Process ◽

Education For Sustainable Development ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Teacher Survey ◽

Global Action ◽

Action Programme ◽

Development Goals ◽

Teachers Attitudes

After the end of the first Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development, coinciding with ongoing international evaluation processes, questions about the implementation of the Education for Sustainable Development programs and assessments continue to be raised. The present study examined Education for Sustainable Development implementation at the local (teachers’) level, assessing what teachers think and know about Education for Sustainable Development and how they implement it in secondary school classes in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. By providing novel data from a teacher survey in 2019, this study revealed that Education for Sustainable Development in some aspects still lacks concrete structural implementation in educational contexts. Using a longitudinal approach, we additionally compared data from an earlier representative assessment in 2007 to the data from 2019. In reference to the preceding evaluation report, the present study showed, for example, that teachers’ attitudes towards Sustainable Development Goals were significantly higher in 2019 compared to 2007. This study provides clarification of the needs and achievements of the Education for Sustainable Development implementation process. In sum, our analysis found that from the teachers’ perspective, more abstract policies are not needed, but instead teachers ask for very concrete support that is close to teaching and the schools’ objectives. The results of our study help, in a larger sense, to navigate society towards a more sustainable direction and towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by highlighting the remaining challenges of these broad objectives.

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