scholarly journals Ecologized Collaborative Online International Learning: Tackling Wicked Sustainability Problems Through Education for Sustainable Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-57
Author(s):  
Arinola Adefila ◽  
Osman Arrobbio ◽  
Geraldine Brown ◽  
Zoe Robinson ◽  
Gary Spolander ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Practical Action ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
International Learning ◽  
Sustainability Problems ◽  
Learning Principles

Abstract Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is increasingly embedded in higher education (HE) due to the current emphasis on tackling the environmental crisis. Similarly, Civic Society Organisations are expanding their mobilization and practical action in communities. These approaches can reach almost all people on the planet and open avenues for effective global action around sustainable development. It is important to connect both learners and develop agents of change in society. In this paper, we focus on how digital resources can support democratization of knowledge production and improve equitable citizen participation in ESD and practical action at the local and global levels. The paper investigates structures, processes and components that support transnational collaboration in digital spaces, particularly, around the enhancement of sustainable environmental attitudes. We use Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) as a basis to develop EcoCOIL as a versatile model for expanding coalition building tools and principles, to promote environmental citizenship and develop multi-layered communities of practice. Stakeholders include university students and staff, technical experts, business leaders and entrepreneurs, social innovators, policy makers, Community Social Organisations (CSOs), etc. EcoCOIL focuses on co-created wisdom sharing across intercultural, intergenerational and transdisciplinary actors; it brings an innovative, participatory angle to curriculum development by integration of lifelong learning principles and practical facilitation of sustainable behavior within communities in real time.

Sustainability in higher education: Implications for the disciplines

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Everett
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Practical Action ◽  
The One ◽  
Traditional Norms ◽  
Pedagogical Goal

Academic disciplines have a critical role to play in higher education's response to the planetary challenges of the 21st century. Many academics have embraced the call for a fundamental reorientation of higher education around the goal of education for sustainable development. Individual faculty members who prioritize such a pedagogical goal, however, may find themselves caught between claims of social responsibility on the one hand and traditional norms of their disciplines on the other. This predicament, I suggest, does not require resolution of theoretical debates over interdisciplinarity, but does require concrete practical action on the part of academics for institutional change in the disciplines. I highlight strategies currently being adopted by academic disciplinary associations to advance the mission of the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development.

scholarly journals IDEAS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONTENT OF SCIENCE DISCIPLINES

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Elena N. Dzyatkovskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
The World ◽  
Environmental Component ◽  
Interdisciplinary Concept ◽  
World Development ◽  
Science Disciplines

The article deals with the role of science education in explaining the modern environmental crisis and ways out of it. The urgency and peculiarities of education for sustainable development, its challenges to updating the content of natural science disciplines are considered. The directions of such updating are justified: reflection of modern state of science, fundamentality of knowledge, its interdisciplinary integration and worldview orientation. The conclusion is made that for understanding the interdisciplinary concept of sustainable development the set of special scientific pictures of the world is not enough. The problem of developing a natural-science picture of the world as an environmental component of education for sustainable development is posed. The article considers the basic categories of synthesis of natural-science knowledge into the natural-science picture of the world: nature, material unity of the world, development, system, self-organization, determinism, etc. It is determined that the natural scientific picture of the world, in its ecological aspect, is based on V. I. Vernadsky’s doctrine on the biosphere and biogeochemical migration of atoms, N. N. Moiseev’s doctrine on universal evolutionism, and the concept of sustainable development. It is concluded about the role of the natural sciences in the formation of the key concept of sustainable development – the ecological imperative.

scholarly journals Co-Evolutionary Paradigm of Ecological Education for Sustainable Development: Methodological Basis

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
Vinokurova Natalia F ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Evolutionary Strategy ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Scientific School

Throughout the history of its development, environmental education has been viewed as a priority area in the modernization of all educational systems in the face of aggravated environmental problems. A comparative analysis of the change in environmental education paradigms made it possible to conclude that they evolved in accordance with the change in cognitive models and value-target guidelines: environmental education, environmental education and environmental education for sustainable development. On the basis of a generalization of philosophical, scientific, psychological and pedagogical research, the statement is substantiated that in the modern conditions of the global environmental crisis, the relevance and importance of developing the methodological foundations of environmental education based on a co-evolutionary strategy, which ensures the transition of mankind to the path of sustainable development, is obvious. The article reveals the methodological foundations of the co-evolutionary strategy of environmental education for sustainable development, which reflects the cognitive model, value co-evolutionary relations and the constructive coherent-creative orientation of nature-friendly activity. The co-evolutionary paradigm of environmental education for sustainable development, based on the ideas of synergy, reflects the picture of the world of a post-industrial society. The essence of co-evolutionary subject-activity, transdisciplinary, integrative and integrative-situational, cultural-ecological coherent-creative approaches is revealed. The conclusion is made about the semantic and value-worldview conjugation of these approaches, which ensures the integrity of the methodological foundations of the co-evolutionary paradigm of environmental education for sustainable development. The experience of the Nizhny Novgorod scientific school of environmental education in the implementation of the considered methodological approaches in environmental education for sustainable development is presented. The promising directions of research on this problem are formulated, related to the determination of the functional completeness of the methodological foundations and the development of methods for their implementation in educational practice. Keywords: co-evolutionary paradigm, environmental education for sustainable development, methodology

scholarly journals In Praise of Environmental Education

2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo ángel Meira Cartea
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Critical Stage ◽  
Ideological Bias ◽  
Wide Acceptance ◽  
The Rich

Environmental education (EE) is going through a critical stage. The wide acceptance of education for sustainable development (ESD) as a reference guiding the educational response to the environmental crisis has strengthened the critical views of EE. This article tries to refute the arguments put forward by those who criticize EE and advocate its ‘substitution’ by ESD. The article points out the theoretical weaknesses and the political and ideological bias of the notion of ‘sustainable development and sets these against the rich historical development of EE. In this approach, ESD is shown to offer no original responses to the challenges of the environmental crisis and of development. The author admits that ESD may be one of the options in the multi-paradigmatic essence attributed to EE, but believes that other interpretations of educational action are coherent with a view of society which is equally sustainable, but which is at the same time oriented towards the attainment of justice and equity today and in the future of mankind.

Social Design for Services Framework

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie SARANTOU ◽  
Satu MIETTINEN
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Research Group ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Social Design ◽  
Practical Action ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

This paper addresses the fields of social and service design in development contexts, practice-based and constructive design research. A framework for social design for services will be explored through the survey of existing literature, specifically by drawing on eight doctoral theses that were produced by the World Design research group. The work of World Design researcher-designers was guided by a strong ethos of social and service design for development in marginalised communities. The paper also draws on a case study in Namibia and South Africa titled ‘My Dream World’. This case study presents a good example of how the social design for services framework functions in practice during experimentation and research in the field. The social design for services framework transfers the World Design group’s research results into practical action, providing a tool for the facilitation of design and research processes for sustainable development in marginal contexts.

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