Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies: How do education systems contribute to raising global citizens? (Sustainable Development Goals Series) 3030989615, 9783030989613

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SDG: 4 Quality Education

Mustafa Öztürk   Editor

Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies How do education systems contribute to raising global citizens?

Sustainable Development Goals Series

The Sustainable Development Goals Series is Springer Nature’s inaugural cross-imprint book series that addresses and supports the United Nations’ seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. The series fosters comprehensive research focused on these global targets and endeavours to address some of society’s greatest grand challenges. The SDGs are inherently multidisciplinary, and they bring people working across different fields together and working towards a common goal. In this spirit, the Sustainable Development Goals series is the first at Springer Nature to publish books under both the Springer and Palgrave Macmillan imprints, bringing the strengths of our imprints together. The Sustainable Development Goals Series is organized into eighteen subseries: one subseries based around each of the seventeen respective Sustainable Development Goals, and an eighteenth subseries, “Connecting the Goals,” which serves as a home for volumes addressing multiple goals or studying the SDGs as a whole. Each subseries is guided by an expert Subseries Advisor with years or decades of experience studying and addressing core components of their respective Goal. The SDG Series has a remit as broad as the SDGs themselves, and contributions are welcome from scientists, academics, policymakers, and researchers working in fields related to any of the seventeen goals. If you are interested in contributing a monograph or curated volume to the series, please contact the Publishers: Zachary Romano [Springer; zachary.romano@ springer.com] and Rachael Ballard [Palgrave Macmillan; rachael.ballard@ palgrave.com].

Mustafa Öztürk Editor

Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies How do education systems contribute to raising global citizens?

Editor Mustafa Öztürk School of Foreign Languages Hacettepe University Ankara, Turkey

The content of this publication has not been approved by the United Nations and does not reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or Member States. ISSN 2523-3084     ISSN 2523-3092 (electronic) Sustainable Development Goals Series ISBN 978-3-030-98961-3    ISBN 978-3-030-98962-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 Color wheel and icons: From https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/ Copyright © 2020 United Nations. Used with the permission of the United Nations. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

“Stop acting so small! You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” – Rumi

Realizing the vision of sustainability at a rather later age, I was inspired by a 2-week lifelong learning program that I attended a decade ago in Vienna. The awareness I gained during the program, which motivated its participants on acting with clear mind and good consciousness about sustainability, made me think how little I knew about this vision and what I should do more to internalize and spread it in my personal, social, and professional environment. This enlightenment has changed my direction in life both as an individual and an educator. It helped my academic activities evolve around sustainability, leading me to a great place – Teachers College of Columbia University, where I met so many education activists who believe in “an equal, just, sustainable and happy world” and who see themselves as “the universe in ecstatic motion.” After so many enlightening courses, workshops, seminars, webinars, and so on, what I call awareness has now turned from a perceptive concept into an active capacity. I know that the universe is governed by thought, but it is changed by action. I, as an educator, wholeheartedly believe in the power of thought, but I also think that we need the power of action in education. Bringing more action-oriented awareness in the educational sphere would only help us raise individuals and generations who are able to build a sustainable future for humanity and nature. This awareness should stimulate a transformation, and this transformation begins within us because a real change starts when we change. And, the best way to create “a chain of change” is to learn and disseminate what others in other settings do to activate the transformation towards a sustainable future. Hence, this edited book is highly meaningful and impactful in terms of reaching other educators of sustainability around the world and reading their stories of education from different levels and areas. In this way, we are no longer “a drop in the ocean,” but we become “the entire ocean,” as an echo miraculously expressed centuries ago by Rumi. Ankara, Turkey November 2021

Mustafa Öztürk

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Acknowledgments

This book is an outcome of a great partnership among members of academia, research, and practice who represent diverse educational and social settings across the world and who have a spirit of excellence in sustainability vision. I, as the editor, am grateful for this fruitful partnership and would like to thank all the contributors to this volume who did great work and made this book possible to reach readers. Secondly, I would like to acknowledge the reviewers  – Aai S.  Yean, Abdullah Bağcı, Amber Paulson, Aylin Albayrak, Burtay H. İnce, Charles Obiero, Dalila Coelho, Diveki Rita, Dobrawa Aleksiak, Emma Cameron, Farhana Borg, Gabriela A. Gutierrez, Giulia D’Amico, Gülnar Özyıldırım, Heather C.  Scott, Hümeyra Can, JoAnne Ferrara, Juhudi Cosmas, Laisa M.  Freire, Lina L.  Lalinde, Loise Gichuhi, Magdalena Kuleta-Hulboj, Malgorzata Kosiorek, Maria Angelica M. Caceres, Mary Kangethe, Martin Dür, Nermeen Singer, Neşe Soysal, Ömer Çalışkan, Renata Goralska, Seçil Dayıoğlu-Öcal, Sergio Claudino L. Nunes, Sümeyra Ayık, Suzieleez S. Abdul Rahim, Thomas Hoffman, Trang Pham-Shouse, Yoshiko Asano, Zahra Zaheer, Zulfiqar Ali Chachar  – for assisting me and providing invaluable support throughout the review process. Above all, we owe the progress to all individuals and organizations who enabled this work to be published. These individuals and organizations include learners, educators, schools, institutions, partners, and networks from Austria, China, Colombia, Egypt, Hungary, India, Kenya, Mexico, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, the UK, the USA, and Vietnam. I am also thankful to Sam Loni, UN SDSN Program Director; Amanda Abroom, Global Schools Program Manager; and Bahar Özay, UN SDSN Turkey Coordinator, for supporting me in my endeavor to bring awareness of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education. Finally, I would like to express my special thanks to the subseries advisors, Arjen Wals and Nicole Ardoin, for their valuable feedback on the book proposal, and I sincerely thank Zachary Romano and Herbert Moses for their kind and patient support during the editorial process as well as the other staff at Springer Nature for their interest and hard work.

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Contents

Part I Policy 1 Key  Elements of Education for Sustainable Development in Turkey’s Education: An Analysis of Policy Documents�����������   3 Burtay H. İnce, Seçil Dayıoğlu-Öcal, Neşe Soysal, Aylin Albayrak-Sarı, Abdullah Bağcı, and Mustafa Öztürk 2 Reimagining  Education for Climate Action and Resilience: A Multidimensional and Locally Grounded Approach in Mexican States of Chiapas and Yucatán������������������������������������  21 Lina López Lalinde, Emma Cameron, and Gabriela Anzo Gutiérrez 3 Developing  a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Education Systems in View of Sustainable Development Goals: A Case from Kenya��������������������������������������  39 Loise Gichuhi, Charles Obiero, and Mary Kangethe 4 Egypt’s  2030 Vision: Priority Areas for Egyptian Education for Global Citizenship ��������������������������������������������������  51 Nermeen Singer and El Farahaty El Sayed Part II Curriculum 5 Looking  for a Better Future? Reconstruction of Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development in Polish National Curriculum��������������������������������������������������������  67 Magdalena Kuleta-Hulboj and Dobrawa Aleksiak 6 Education  for Sustainable Development Through Curricular Themes of Environmental Knowledge: An Analysis on Vietnam’s Biology Curriculum����������������������������  83 Thi Phuong Le, Trang Pham-Shouse, and Thuy Linh Do 7 Global  Citizenship in a National Curriculum: The Case of Pakistan’s Single National Curriculum�������������������� 103 Zahra Zaheer

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8 Integrating  Education for Sustainable Development into a Local Formal Kindergarten Curriculum: A Curricular Practice From China������������������������������������������������ 129 Guangheng Wang, Ying Gong, and Hua Cui Part III Practice 9 Creating  a Safe, Free and Equal World for Our Children: Think Equal – A Holistic Early Years Programme���������������������� 145 Leslee Udwin, Giulia D’Amico, and Amber Paulson 10 Building  Global Competence in Pre-school Settings: One World – A Global Citizenship Education Program in Guerrero, Mexico������������������������������������������������������������������������ 159 JoAnne Ferrara, Joseph Carvin, and Rita del Pilar Zamudio Ochoa 11 A  Rational View on Irrational Outcomes: Influence of an Intercultural Collaborative Program on Indian Students’ Perspectives���������������������������������������������������� 175 Martin Dür, Michaela Zint, and Lars Keller 12 Environmental  Education Networks for Social Empowerment and Global Citizenship: A Case of Non-formal Education From Mexico���������������������������� 191 Rosalba Thomas Muñoz 13 Incorporating  Education for Sustainable Development Into Teachers’ Continuous Professional Development Through Critical Environmental Agency�������������������������������������� 205 Lacey D. Huffling, Heather C. Scott, and Sydney Rushing Part IV Perspectives 14 H  ungarian Secondary School Teachers’ Views on Global Competence Development in English as a Foreign Language Classrooms������������������������������������������������ 221 Rita Divéki 15 Promoting  and Sustaining Global Citizenship Through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Cultural Liberation Pedagogy������������������������������������������������������������������������ 239 Kevin Cataldo Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  255

Contents

Abbreviations

21CS AU CAE CCE CDA CECADESU CESA CLP CoHE CONABIO COVID-19 CPD CRP DESD DoNE EA ECE ECOSOC EE EFL EK EPA ESD EU GAP GCE GDP GEC GIZ GoK HDI IB ICT KNBS M&E MDGs

21st Century Skills African Union Critical Environmental Agency Climate Change Education Critical Discourse Analysis Center for Education and Training for Sustainable Development (in Spanish) Continental Education Strategy for Africa Cultural Liberation Pedagogy Council of Higher Education (Turkey) National Commission for Biodiversity (in Spanish) Corona Virus Disease Continuous Professional Development Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Directorates of National Education (Turkey) Environmental Agency Early Childhood Education Economic and Social Council of the United Nations Environmental Education English as a Foreign Language Environmental Knowledge Environmental Protection Agency Education for Sustainable Development European Union Global Action Program Global Citizenship Education Gross Domestic Product General Education Curriculum German Society for International Cooperation (in German) Government of Kenya Human Development Index International Baccalaureate Information and Communication Technology Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Monitoring and Evaluation Millennium Development Goals xi

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MEAL MGIEP

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development MoE Ministry of Education MoET Ministry of Education and Training MoFEPT Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training MoNE Ministry of National Education (Turkey) MoSHE Ministry of Science and Higher Education NASMLA National Assessment System for Monitoring Learning Achievement NCC National Curriculum Council (Pakistan) NEMIS National Education Management Information System NESSP National Education Sector Strategic Plan NGO Nongovernmental Organization OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OMEP World Organization for Early Childhood Education (in French) OXFAM Oxford Committee for Famine Relief PISA Program for International Student Assessment SDG4 Quality Education SDGs Sustainable Development Goals SEL Social Emotional Learning SEMARNAT Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (in Spanish) SES Socio-economic Status SNC Single National Curriculum STEAM Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math TEPs Teacher Education Programs TIMS Teacher Information Management System TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training UN United Nations UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe UNEP United Nations Environment Program UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNICEF United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund USAID US Agency for International Development WEF World Economic Forum

Abbreviations

Editors and Contributors

About the Editor Mustafa  Öztürk  is an instructor at Hacettepe University, Turkey, and an international research fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Futures at Teachers College of Columbia University, New York, USA. He holds an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Middle East Technical University, Turkey. He completed a non-­degree postgraduate study in learning, learning environments and educational systems at the University of Turku, Finland. He conducted his postdoctoral research at Teachers College of Columbia University on empowering ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) competencies in teacher education. With his research initiatives on ESD, he was awarded the Human Development Research Award by Koç University UNESCO Chair, Turkey. In his project entitled Teacher Education for Sustainable Development through Flipped Learning Model, he provided 1600 teachers working in different regions of Turkey with a professional development program on sustainability vision and the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). In 2019, he was given the title of Associate Professor by Turkish Council of Higher Education owing to his publications and research activities. He worked as the Country Chair and Research Manager in the Global Schools Piloting Project led by the UN SDSN (United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network) in support of UNESCO’s GAP (Global Action Program) on ESD and the SDGs. He is also a Peace Fellow at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, as a recipient of 2021 Rotary Peace Fellowship. He has worked in various EU projects on sustainability, environmental education, social inclusion, inclusive education, special education, and teacher development. He is engaged in designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating continuous professional development programs for in-service teachers in Turkey. Previously, he coedited the book entitled Examining the Teacher Induction Process in Contemporary Education Systems published by IGI Global. He also co-­ authored 42 K-8-level educational books approved by the Ministry of National Education, Turkey. He has a lot of articles and book chapters published in national and international journals and books.

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About the Contributors Abdullah Bağcı  is a lecturer at Hacettepe University, Turkey. He obtained his M.S. in the Educational Administration and Planning Program at Middle East Technical University, Turkey, and his Ph.D. in the Educational Administration and Policy Program at Ankara University, Turkey. His primary research interests include higher education, comparative education, and education policy. Amber Paulson  is the director of education at Think Equal – a global initiative operating to provide high-quality early years education across the world. Aylin Albayrak-Sarı  is a research assistant in the Department of Science Education at Hacettepe University, Turkey. She obtained her B.S. in science education, and M.S and Ph.D. in educational measurement and evaluation from Hacettepe University. She conducted her postdoctoral research at Teachers College of Columbia University, USA.  Her research interests include science education, teacher education, and educational measurement and evaluation. Burtay H. İnce  has been an EFL Instructor at Gazi University since 1999. She completed her B.A. at Hacettepe University and her M.A. at Gazi University in English Language Teaching. She holds her Ph.D. from Middle East Technical University in Curriculum and Instruction. Her research interests include pre/in-service teacher training, teaching English to young learners, use of technology in language teaching, and education for sustainable development. Charles  Obiero  is a monitoring and evaluation consultant. He holds a Doctor of Education from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. He has over 20 years of work experience at national and international levels in educational research, planning, monitoring, and evaluation with the Ministry of Education, Kenya, and UNESCO in diverse capacities in Uganda, Kenya, Lebanon, and the Russian Federation. He provides M&E technical support to the Ministry of Education, Kenya, and UN agencies under the Global Partnership in Education in Yemen on EMIS. He is the Director of Training Research and Evaluation International, Kenya, and EdTech Hub Network Specialist. Dobrawa  Aleksiak  is a Ph.D. student in the Doctoral School of Social Sciences, University of Warsaw. Her doctoral research focuses on comparative studies of global education in Poland and Portugal. Her research interests focus on educational policy, global education, and teachers’ experiences and comparative studies of education systems. She is interested in qualitative research and discourse analysis. She conducted workshops and trainings for teachers, students, and other groups involved in global education. Being an

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author of scientific publications and presentations in the area of global education, she has experience in the non-formal sector as an educator and project coordinator (in Poland, Portugal, and Colombia). El Farahaty El Sayed  is Professor of Educational Psychology and Special Education and the Head of the Department of Psychological and Educational Tests at the National Centre for Examinations and Educational Evaluation, Egypt. Emma  Cameron  is an education specialist with over 6 years of international development experience in research, policy design, impact evaluations, and teaching. She holds a Master of International Education Policy from Harvard University and contributed a chapter on education policy and ­curriculum reform in Kenya to Fernando Reimers’ Implementing Deeper Learning and 21st Education Reforms: Building an Education Renaissance After a Global Pandemic publication. She is a current consultant for the World Bank and Centre for Global Development working on projects related to early childhood education, girls’ education, initial teacher education, and education finance. Gabriela Anzo Gutiérrez  is a researcher with a background in education policy analysis, impact evaluations, and design and implementation of educational interventions. She holds a Master of International Education Policy from Harvard University. She contributed with chapters on teachers’ tools for experiential learning based on SDGs to Fernando Reimer’s Learning to Collaborate for the Global Common Good book and Teaching Two Lessons about UNESCO and other writings on Human Rights publication. She has conducted research on teacher professional rights, school leadership, inclusive education, and the right to education for all children, adolescents, and young adults in Mexico. She is currently the deputy director of the General Directorate of Continuous Teacher Learning of State Technical Teams in the National Commission for the Continuous Improvement of Education. Giulia D’Amico  is the CEO of Think Equal – a global initiative which operates globally to provide high-quality early years education across the world. Guangheng  Wang  is a researcher at Shanghai Changning Institute of Education, which is mainly responsible for teaching research and teacher training as a subordinate institute to the local education bureau. Being in charge of conducting research on early child development and education and guiding kindergarten teachers to do research, she is one of the project leaders of the comprehensive reform of kindergarten education in Changning District. She has been cooperating with Hongqiao Kindergarten to implement ESD practices for over 10 years. Heather C. Scott  is Assistant Professor of Science Education and the director of the Middle Grades and Secondary Education MAT Program in the Middle Grades and Secondary Education Department. Her research focuses

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on the intersections of science and environmental sustainability, teacher education, and citizen science in order to afford all students and communities opportunities to engage in robust science learning. Hua Cui  is the head of the Hongqiao Kindergarten and holds an M.Ed. The projects, “ESD in Science Education” and “How to prepare teachers to incorporate ESD into their daily work with young children: From the experiences of Shanghai kindergarten teachers” were awarded the winners of OMEP ESD project in 2011 and 2015. JoAnne  Ferrara  is an associate dean of undergraduate programs and Professor of Education at Manhattanville College. Prior to joining higher education, she held positions as a general and special education teacher, a literacy coach, and school administrator. Currently she is serving as chair of One World’s educational advisory committee. She is an experienced educator specializing in community schools and university partnerships. She is the series lead co-editor for Professional Development School (PDS) Research Book Series and the author of several books, numerous articles, blogs. and chapters on professional development schools, community schools, and community/school partnerships. Her work has appeared in Educational Leadership, the Journal of Research in Character Education, SchoolUniversity Partnerships, the Journal of Leadership in Teaching and Learning, and Teacher Education and Practice. Joseph Carvin  is the founder and the executive director of One World – a non-profit educational enrichment program designed to build global competence through character education and service learning. He had an international career in global finance working in major financial institutions such as Morgan Grenfell and Deustche Bank. Fluent in five languages, he is a former candidate for Congress and Town Supervisor of the Town of Rye, New York. After a successful business career, he founded One World. Kevin  Cataldo  is a proud Brazilian-American and an urban educator in Newark, New Jersey. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in education and English from Felician University and an M.A. in sociology and education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Kevin is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in teacher education and teacher development at Montclair State University. Kevin is interested in self-study qualitative research and researching race, equity, diversity, and culturally relevant pedagogy in K-12 school settings and teacher education. Lacey D. Huffling  is Associate Professor of Science Education at Georgia Southern University in the Middle Grades and Secondary Education Department. Her research focuses on the intersections of environmental sustainability, agency, and teacher education in order to afford all students and communities access to science and environmental education.

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Lars  Keller  is a professor at the Institute of Geography at University of Innsbruck. He is the team leader of the Research Team of Education and Communication for Sustainable Development, which connects a huge network of school students, teachers, university students, education experts, sustainability experts, and climate change experts. Together with his team, he has been awarded several prizes (Hans Bobek Award, Sustainability Education Awards, Education Competence Centre Awards) for their hands-on researcheducation-­cooperation projects and their scientific publications. He is the editor of the educational journal GW Unterricht and the deputy head of the Forum GW – Association for Geography and Economic Education. He is an evaluation consultant for the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Research. Leslee Udwin  is the founder of Think Equal – a global initiative which operates globally to provide high-quality early years education across the world. Lina López Lalinde  is a Researcher with a background in education policy analysis and measurement and evaluation of educational programs. She holds a Master of International Education Policy from Harvard University and has previously published work related to climate change education in Guatemala in Education and Climate Change, as part of Springer’s International Explorations in Outdoor and Environmental Education series. She currently serves as a researcher for the Population Council Mexico, working to measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Mexican youth and adolescents. Loise Gichuhi  is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Nairobi. She holds a Ph.D. in economics of education from the University of Nairobi, a Master of Educational Planning and Curriculum Development, and a Bachelor of Education (Mathematics and Economics) from Kenyatta University. She serves as coordinator of Education in Emergencies Program and a strategic advisor on national and international projects. Currently, she is a strategic advisor to the Global EdTech Hub. She is also a consultant, researcher, and writer on education matters. She has mentored students through undergraduate and graduate programs. She is the founder of Education Bridge Africa. Magdalena  Kuleta-Hulboj  is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Warsaw. She holds a Ph.D. in pedagogy and an M.A. in sociology from the University of Warsaw. She is a researcher and lecturer with more than 15 years of experience in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has authored and co-­edited three books on global and intercultural education. Her work has been published in peer-revied journals such as Pedagogika Społeczna, Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review, and JSSE  – Journal of Social Science Education. Her research interests and expertise include global education, intercultural education, global citizenship, postcolonial and critical theories in education, qualitative data collection and analysis, critical discourse analysis, and social pedagogy.

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Martin Dür  is a secondary high school teacher and lecturer at the University College of Teacher Education Tyrol as well as at the Institute of Geography at the University of Innsbruck where he is a part of the Research Team of Education and Communication for Sustainable Development. He is in charge of several projects in which school students from Austria collaborate with peers from different parts of the world (mainly from the Global South) and jointly conduct research in order to develop a more sustainable lifestyle. A collaboration of students from Austria and India was awarded by the Austrian Ministry for Agriculture, Environment and Water Management as a best practice example for education for sustainable development. Mary Kangethe  is the director of the education program, Kenya National Commission for UNESCO (KNATCOM). She holds a Bachelor of Education and a master’s degree in education (guidance and counselling) from Kenyatta University. She has worked as a secondary school teacher and an officer at the Ministry of Education at local and national levels. She has conducted various studies in education and is currently coordinating the development of the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) framework in Kenya. Michaela  Zint  is an associate dean and professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan in the USA where she conducts research and teaches courses in environmental and sustainability education as well as communication. She is particularly interested in exploring the determinants of environmentally responsible behaviors and identifying pedagogies most effective in fostering changes in individual students’ actions. She has extensive expertise in evaluating US environmental education programs at the local, regional, and national level and has developed resources and systems to develop individuals’ evaluation competencies and organizational evaluation capacities. She is a recipient of the North American Association for Environmental Education’s Outstanding Contributions to Research in Environmental Education Award and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Environmental Education. Mustafa  Öztürk  is an instructor at Hacettepe University, Turkey, and an international research fellow at Centre for Sustainable Futures at Teachers College of Columbia University, USA. He holds an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Middle East Technical University, Turkey. He completed a non-degree postgraduate study in learning, learning environments, and educational systems at the University of Turku, Finland. He conducted his postdoctoral research at Teachers College of Columbia University, USA, on empowering ESD competencies in teacher education. In 2019, he was given the title of Associate Professor by Turkish Council of Higher Education owing to his publications and research activities. Nermeen Singer  is Associate Professor of Media and Children’s Culture in the Faculty of Graduate Studies for Childhood and the head of the Centre for Public Service and Social Development at Ain Shams University, Egypt. She

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has been working on using different kinds of media to treat learning difficulties, especially for children with special needs. Neşe Soysal  is an independent researcher and the director of Edu4Globall Consultancy in London. She graduated from the Department of Foreign Language Education, Faculty of Education, Middle East Technical University. She holds a Master of Educational Administration from Trakya University and a doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction from METU in Turkey. She worked as a lecturer at Atılım University and Marmara University in Turkey. She is interested in carrying out research on teacher education, education for sustainable development, curriculum development and evaluation, and teaching and learning. Rita  del Pilar  Zamudio  Ochoa  received her B.A. from the Universidad Veracruzana and her M.A. from the Instituto Latinoamericano de Comunicación. She is currently the head of Teaching for Civic and Ethical Secondary Education for the region of Acapulco. Previously, she founded and ran CIDEA – a research center on educational development – and served as the department head for secondary education in the State of Guerrero. She is the co-author of the book Formación Ciudadana de los Adolescentes Guerrerenses (Citizen Education for Adolescents in Guerrero) and the author of the article “Estrategia Pedagógica para Incrementar la Habilidad de Comprensión Lectora en Alumnos de Educación Primaria” (Pedagogical Strategy to Increase Reading Comprehension Skill in Primary Education Students). Rita Divéki  is a language teacher in the Department of English Language Pedagogy at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), a temporary lecturer at Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, and a PhD candidate in the language pedagogy program of ELTE. Her main interests include teaching controversial issues, global citizenship education, teaching with pop culture, and using mobile learning for skills development. Rosalba  Thomas  Muñoz  is a political scientist and a professor at the University of Colima. She has a master’s degree in environmental science from the UASLP Multidisciplinary Graduate Program and a Ph.D. in social sciences. She has been a member of the National Academy of Environmental Education since 2010, and now she is a member of the Environmental Management Center and the National System of Researchers (Level I) with research lines in studies of the discourse of sustainability, education, culture, and environmental communication and sustainability. She has written books, book chapters, articles, and documentaries related to sustainability, education, and environmental culture. Seçil  Dayıoğlu-Öcal  has been working as University since 2002. She graduated from Languages, METU in 1998, completed her Educational Sciences, METU in 2003, and

an Instructor at Hacettepe the Department of Foreign M.S. in the Department of earned her Ph.D. from the

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Department of Educational Administration, Supervision, Planning and Economics, Hacettepe University in 2012. She worked as a postdoc researcher at the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA, in 2014. She has taken part in projects on teacher education and development. Her research interests include higher education, university-industry collaboration, academic capitalism, teacher education, and professional development of teachers. Sydney Rushing  is a graduate of Georgia Southern University, with a bachelor’s degree in English and History and a M.A. in Teaching, Secondary English Education. She also participated in a student exchange program at Sheffield Hallam University, the UK with a focus on International History and English Education. Her interests include foreign languages, world literature, children’s literature, and international schools. She teaches secondary English at an international school in Kuwait. Thi Phuong Le  is a Doctor of Biology and the director of the Center for Anthropology and Mind Development (CAMD), University of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. She is currently a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Pedagogy, University of Education. She holds a Ph.D. from Hanoi National University of Education and pursues research directions on the environment, ecology and environmental education, and sustainable development in schools. She has published 20 reference books and textbooks for students and has more than 40 domestic and international scientific papers related to the field of ecology and environment. Thuy  Linh  Do  is a Ph.D. candidate at Hanoi National University of Education, Vietnam. She obtained her Bachelor of Biology Education from VNU University of Education, Hanoi, and her Master of Biotechnology from Korea University. She got a full scholarship from Pony Chung Foundation, which belongs to Hyundai Corporation, to pursue her master’s course in Korea. She is interested in biology education, particularly competence-­based teaching and learning, teaching Genetics, and ESD. She has been a former lecturer in the Faculty of Pedagogy, University of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam. Trang Pham-Shouse  is a Ph.D. candidate in the educational leadership program in the Department of Education Policy Studies, Pennsylvania State University, USA.  She got her bachelor’s degree in TEFL and her master’s degree in English linguistics from Vietnam National University, and her M.Ed. from Pennsylvania State University (as a Fulbright Vietnamese student). She’s got more than 10 years of K-12 teaching experience and 5 years of experience in youth empowerment and environment protection. She is a former Fulbright Student recipient, Alpha Delta Kappa International Teacher Excellent Awardee, and Delta Kappa Gamma World Fellowship. She is interested in teacher preparation and youth engagement in service learning.

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Ying Gong  is the Teacher Leader at Hongqiao Kindergarten and holds an M.Ed. Her projects “ESD in Science Education” and “How to prepare teachers to incorporate ESD into their daily work with young children: From the experiences of Shanghai kindergarten teachers” were awarded the winners of OMEP ESD project in 2011 and 2015. Zahra Zaheer  holds a master’s degree in education, with a specialization in learning and teaching from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has served as a consultant for 3 years on a DFID-funded project with the Government of Punjab, Pakistan, where she supported the development of evidence-based and child-friendly textbooks for early primary grades as part of a large-scale education quality reform program. Currently, she is managing the development of a transversal skills framework and curriculum for K-12 learners in the UAE.

List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Multidimensional framework��������������������������������������������������   25 Fig. 3.1 Steps of building a MEAL framework. ����������������������������������   46 Fig. 4.1 Basic curricular elements of GCE������������������������������������������   57 Fig. 4.2 Shift from traditional education model to education for nature and environment ����������������������������������������������������   61 Fig. 7.1 Structure of Single National Curriculum adapted from NCC������������������������������������������������������������������  110 Fig. 7.2 Elements of SNC mapped against UNESCO’s GCE framework����������������������������������������������������������������������  112 Fig. 8.1 Steps for ESD integration in Hongqiao Kindergarten������������  133 Fig. 10.1 Educational framework of One World������������������������������������  165 Fig. 12.1 Geographical representativeness of the study ������������������������  197 Fig. 12.2 Actions to motivate learning ��������������������������������������������������  198 Fig. 12.3 Activities to promote critical thinking������������������������������������  198 Fig. 13.1 CEA principles aligned to sustainability frameworks for ESD integration in teacher education������������  208 Fig. 13.2 Our2Swamp program mapped to CEA principles������������������  209

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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Table 1.2 Table 1.3

List of policy documents used as data source��������������������   10 Concepts/sub-concepts by policy documents��������������������   12 Key competencies by policy documents����������������������������   13

Table 3.1 Table 3.2

Distribution of out-of-school children��������������������������������   41 Monitoring and evaluation framework ������������������������������   47

Table 5.1

Analytical categories by domains of learning��������������������   74

Table 6.1 EK themes within Biology curriculum and corresponding SDGs����������������������������������������������������������   91 Table 8.1 Overview of ESD practices in Hongqiao Kindergarten ����  133 Table 8.2 ESD-related objectives in China’s formal kindergarten curriculum ����������������������������������������������������  135 Table 8.3 Scores of ESD rating scale between 2016 and 2021����������  139 Table 12.1 Table 12.2 Table 12.3 Table 12.4 Table 12.5

Questionnaire items and categories������������������������������������  196 Actions for social empowerment����������������������������������������  199 Actions related to SDGs ����������������������������������������������������  199 Global citizenship competencies����������������������������������������  201 Capacities and contexts of actions��������������������������������������  201

Table 13.1 Identified SDGs and definitions used for coding���������������  210 Table 13.2 Our2Swamp program for immersive weeklong CPD��������  211 Table 13.3 CEA principles’ alignment with CPD program and SDGs ������������������������������������������������������������  212 Table 13.4 Co-occurrence of codes������������������������������������������������������  213 Table 14.1 Building blocks of global competence based on OECD����������������������������������������������������������������������������  223 Table 14.2 Interviewees’ profiles ��������������������������������������������������������  228 Table 14.3 Components of global competence according to interviewees��������������������������������������������������������������������  229

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Introduction

The world needs many of its citizens, particularly the next generation, to have the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to tackle the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century, and shape a sustainable future for all humanity. Current industrial and technological innovations alone are likely to fail in driving a systemic change needed to transform the existing model to a more sustainable way of life. In order for a larger and more applicable transformation to take place in our world, the principles of sustainable development should be adopted at communal and cultural levels – unquestionably starting with individual behaviors and progressing towards collective actions. The most important area that will make this possible is “education.” The main function expected from education is to inform learners about the vision of sustainability, instill the required sensitivity in them towards the issues that concern the whole world, and create an effective change in their behaviors regarding all areas of life. A transformation being possible through education has to be both multidimensional and multilateral, and the realization of this transformation depends on the activation of systemic, continuous, innovative, adaptive, and transformative learning methods accepted and practiced in the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation processes of education. Starting at an early age and being reinforced until adulthood, ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) and GCE (Global Citizenship Education) aim to (a) equip children with the knowledge, skills, and values that are critical for their development and success in a rapidly changing world; (b) enable the creation of effective learning environments and tools; (c) increase the quality of education; (d) enrich the content; and (e) support educators in this endeavor. One way of getting a broader understanding of globally prioritized issues such as sustainable development or global citizenship is to hear local, national, or regional voices from the educational sphere. Consistent with this need, this edited book is prepared to see educational response, inclusion, and empowerment for the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) in emerging economies. Emerging economies is defined as newly industrialized countries that have not reached the developed status yet, but have, in a macro-economic sense, outpaced their developing counterparts. Despite having a lower-to-middle per capita income, these countries are experiencing rapid growth and being more important in world economics as they have a significant influence on the global growth. Progressing from a low-income, less developed, and pre-­ industrial economy into a modern, industrial, and developed economy with a xxvii

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higher standard of living, they appear as a transitional zone or a linking bridge between the developed and the developing. There is no universal consensus on exactly which countries qualify as emerging economies. However, there are several different lists that have become generally accepted for establishing emerging market countries. According to the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) Index, 24 developing countries qualify as emerging economies including Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a similar list of 23 as well. Considering the best known definition of sustainable development, conventional economic progress might fail in meeting the needs of millions of people today and might risk future generations’ ability to meet their own needs. In this respect, the current emerging economies are particularly expected to respond to the growing demand for new ways of life to conserve the Earth and sustainably manage its resources. Being at the forefront of economic growth, emerging economies tend to utilize technology and innovation faster and more enthusiastically than many other countries. On the one hand, they have a higher rate of growth compared to developed countries; on the other hand, they are plagued by higher socio-political instability and unease, and thus desire to create a better quality of life for their people. All these facts make emerging economies interesting cases to read about. Hence, this edited book highlights how education in emerging economies succeed in extending conventional economic methods to sustainable issues or departing from money-based calculations and business-dominated values to real-life considerations regarding ethical, environmental, and humanistic values. In the book, the readers have a chance to look at the educational response, inclusion, and empowerment for the SDGs in those countries and the place of global issues within national education systems in terms of policy, curriculum, practice, and perspectives. Having been prepared with a polyphonic and multi-perspective approach with the contributions made from different contexts of education across the world, the volume consists of 4 sections including 15 chapters. Accordingly, the content is arranged in four groups of contributions representing (I) policy-­ level, (II) curriculum-level, (III) practice-level, and (IV) perspective-level cases from various emerging economies including Turkey, Mexico, Kenya, Egypt, Poland, Vietnam, Pakistan, China, Austria, India, Hungary, and some other transnational settings.

Policy-Level Cases The first section of the book focuses on educational policies. In this section, there are chapters discussing the reflections of the SDGs on educational policies and legislations in emerging economies. Through a situation analysis or a framework development process, the chapters map the core concepts of sustainable development and global citizenship against national policies and

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laws by providing a synthesis of their importance and relevance within the overall structure of the national systems and illustrate how educational transformations could be designed. In Chap. 1, the authors present an integrated document analysis performed on educational policy documents in Turkey and demonstrate how global perspectives of education find a way into the local policies and legislations. As one of the emerging economies, Turkey has prioritized the vision of sustainable development in its educational policies considering its importance for its own and the world’s future. Through a highly centralized structure, all educational policies and national curricula are prepared and enforced by the central office of the Ministry of National Education, Turkey. Seeing policy documents as essential collections of information about the educational response, inclusion, and empowerment for the SDGs, the authors map the key elements of ESD against national educational policies and provide insights for future directions to accelerate the adoption and integration of ESD in all processes of education. Focusing mainly on climate change, Chap. 2 outlines a multidimensional and locally grounded framework that would account for social, cultural, psychological, professional, institutional, and political factors involved in educational transformation processes. Sustainability is one of the greatest challenges Mexico is currently facing. Particularly, environmental degradation caused by water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, pollution, hurricanes, floods, and fires has been accompanied by rising inequality in the country. Therefore, there has been an increasing number of initiatives of integrating environmental education into Mexico’s education system since 1990s. The authors mainly use a holistic framework to illustrate how the theoretical discourse on educational transformation could serve as a reference when designing and implementing education for climate action and resilience in the Mexican states of Chiapas and Yucatán, both of which suffer from various vulnerabilities to climate change. Chapter 3 is a case from Sub-Saharan Africa and presents a stepwise process which is followed particularly when constructing a framework for monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning for Kenya’s educational commitment to the SDGs, in particular to the SDG4. Considering the large proportion of young population in Kenya, quality education appears to be major issue for the government. Therefore, the authors see ESD as a critical angle for educational development and choose to support their case primarily with a document analysis on national policies and legislations as well as a consultative and participatory data collection method which enabled diverse technical experts and team members from the Ministry of Education to participate in the holistic and integrated design of the framework. As the last chapter of the policy section, Chap. 4 first outlines the concepts of citizenship, globalization, global citizenship, and GCE, then discusses four priority areas for Egypt’s 2030 Vision, and finally provides recommendations for the Egyptian education system. In response to the challenges of the recent revolutions of the Egyptian people from 2011 to 2013, the Egyptian government has presented and made numerous efforts to support social cohesion through citizenship education during the implementation of the new

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c­ onstitution and laws that focus on human rights, participatory democracy, and decentralized educational administration. Built on the vision of GCE, the chapter discusses priority areas as setting an educational framework for global citizenship; integrating GCE into the curriculum; increasing global citizenship and civil society awareness at schools; and reorienting education towards nature and environment.

Curriculum-Level Cases Although pedagogical and social imperatives might be clear enough, the SDGs might still be challenging to prioritize in curriculum. The second section of the book consist of the chapters that report on curricular analyses or practices through different cases in which global competencies defined in the 2030 Education Agenda are mapped against local or national learning outcomes in curricular or co-curricular records. With the help of these chapters, national frameworks for global citizenship and sustainable development are portrayed through a synthesis of their importance and relevance within the curriculum of emerging economies. As a qualitative investigation, Chap. 5 focuses on discursive conceptualizations of global citizenship and sustainable development in the Polish national curriculum and demonstrates whether the curriculum creates opportunities to foster global citizenship. Poland, the former Soviet bloc country and foreign aid recipient, now transformed into an Official Development Assistance donor with a growing level of income, quality of life, and a stable economy, is hard to locate simply on a political and epistemological map. Neglected during the communist era and at the beginning of the transition period, environmental and sustainability issues started to gain attention in Poland at the end of the 1990s. Poland nowadays is the largest economy of the ex-Eastern bloc countries and has been reclassified in some indices from “emerging markets” to “developed markets.” The critical discourse analysis done on the subject areas of History, Citizenship Education, and Geography puts forward three main points: global citizenship is almost non-existent in the curriculum; ESD and GCE are not presented as intertwining nor cross-­ cutting approaches; and the curriculum offers no transformative potential. Chapter 6 focuses on Vietnam’s biology curriculum for high schools. Vietnam has nationalized the SDGs into 115 Vietnamese SDG targets as part of the National Action Plan for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, reflecting the country’s conditions and development priorities. Being considered an essential part of Vietnam’s approach to ESD, environmental education is adopted across all disciplines, aiming to nurture learners with relevant knowledge about the environment and competencies for environmental protection. This chapter explores curricular references to the SDGs by using a list of themes from Hungerford’s Environmental Knowledge framework which is suggested for environmental literacy development in learners. Besides identifying the SDGs that could be integrated into the curriculum being emphasized as the nationalized SDG targets of Vietnam, the authors recommend educators to consider local characteristics

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and school resources when selecting textbooks and organizing educational activities for learners to experience more personalized learning at schools. Chapter 7 analyzes the national curriculum of Pakistan and discusses how well it is designed to prepare young people for global citizenship. Pakistan is a prime example of a country that faces domestic challenges that have implications for a globalized world. With nearly 140 million young people under the age of 30 and limited investments in education, the country risks raising a generation that have scarce access to economic opportunities, thus exacerbating inequality and its associated global challenges. Using UNESCO’s GCE framework for a normative comparison, the author evaluates the emphasis placed on key global issues or concepts related to global citizenship within the national curriculum. Through a systematic textual analysis of the 2018 National Curriculum Framework and the curriculum documents for the subjects of English, Urdu, and Social Studies, the author concludes that the coverage of GCE in the curriculum is limited and there is an explicit focus on creating a national identity, which may conflict with the cosmopolitan values of global citizenship. The last chapter of curriculum-level cases, Chap. 8 outlines a decade-long process of integrating ESD into the curriculum of a local kindergarten in Shanghai, China. ESD in early childhood education in China started with environmental education as early as the 1980s, and currently, there are more than 100 million children aged 6 and below in China, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s population of the same age. Telling the tale of the curricular practice of combining new activities for social-emotional learning and financial literacy education in early childhood education, the authors present the coordinated and discordant aspects of ESD integration into a curriculum, discusses the implications for a long-term and effective development of ESD practices, and provides valuable information for similar contexts aiming to implement ESD in early childhood education.

Practice-Level Cases The most fundamental challenge with regard to policy and curriculum is to determine to what extent the vision and targets included in educational policies and programs could be put into practice. Some decisions or principles that seem perfect on paper may not be put into practice as planned. For this reason, it is important to ensure that policy/curriculum makers as well as practitioners adopt and internalize these principles at the same rate. Only in this way can these principles develop and become widespread in the desired direction. The third section of the book includes practice-level cases from pre-school education to adult education, representing both formal and non-­ formal learning environments from diverse geographical settings. Highlighting the importance of ESD as a process of social learning and seeing the child as a competent citizen with formal rights, Chaps. 9 and 10 focus on pre-school education as critical period to encourage children to become well-educated individuals who can make right decisions for themselves as well as in situations concerning other people. Chapters 11 and 12

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are from non-formal learning environments where a participatory learning approach is utilized within community-based activities and initiatives. Recognizing the scarcity of accessible and affordable materials for pre-­ school teachers of all backgrounds to utilize in early childhood education when integrating social-emotional learning, Chap. 9 proposes a holistic early years program, Think Equal being implemented in over 16 low-, mid-, and high-income countries around the world, including Colombia, India, Mexico, North Macedonia, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, and the UK.  The authors outline the components of the program along with its philosophical foundations as well as practical effectiveness by highlighting the need for a comprehensive, replicable, scalable, and cost-effective way of creating a safe, free, and equal world for our children. Similarly, Chap. 10 describes an educational enrichment program operating in the state of the Guerrero, Mexico, with the purpose of promoting ESD at the pre-school level with an emphasis on GCE and SDGs. The Mexican education system has a commitment to civics education, student-­centeredness, and value-based education because Mexico has been teaching civics education from pre-school years to the end of secondary school for a number of years with a set of goals. The program entitled One World aims to develop global citizens who possess the knowledge, skills, and values of globally competent individuals and leaders. The authors first present the historical emergence of the program along with its core components and values, then provides sample stories of implementation, and finally evaluates the effectiveness of the program from the perspectives of the parents, teachers, and administrators from 13 different pre-school settings in Guerrero. Chapter 11 tells the story of the AustrIndia-4QOL initiative which is designed to provide an intercultural collaborative opportunity for students from the Global North, which is represented by Austria, and Global South, which is represented by India, in order to develop solutions for a more sustainable future. The authors describe ten Indian adolescents’ “quality of life” perspectives before and after participating in this intercultural program with their Austrian peers. The Indian students’ non-formal learning experiences during their stay in Austria seemed to influence their perspectives to a far greater extent than the scientific information acquired as part of their formal learning during workshops. As another non-formal learning environment, citizen networks help people gather to carry out actions to adopt a vision for social empowerment and global citizenship as well as to promote objectives related to environmental and sustainability issues. Focusing on environmental education, Chap. 12, from Mexico, is an evaluative study that shows how the citizen networks conceive global citizenship and identifies the fundamental competencies to develop global citizenship. Considering Mexico as a country that suffers from the degradation and loss of natural and cultural heritage due to political, social, and economic conflicts, the author highlights the role of the Mexican citizen networks as a space to strengthen non-formal environmental education in Mexico.

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The last chapter of the practice section, Chap. 13, discusses the concept of critical environmental agency through a case study of a continuous ­professional development program for teachers. Designed for middle school and high school science teachers from rural school districts in the geographic regions whose watersheds flowed to the Gulf of Mexico, the program seeks the ways of using critical environmental agency framework to align with the content and pedagogical practices of ESD.  The challenges experienced by science teachers in rural classrooms is portrayed as insights to plan continuous professional development programs for teachers in similar settings.

Perspective-Level Cases The last section of the book consists of two chapters on perspectives. These perspectives help us reinterpret the relationships that possibly exist among different phenomena related to the issue under discussion and understand things in a different light. As a subject-specific case from Hungary, Chap. 14 involves the perspectives of English language teachers in relation to global competence development and their role as teachers. Being a cross-curricular topic, global competence has gained considerable importance in foreign language classrooms which frequently happen to be a reflection of the interconnectedness of the people from different parts of the globe. Considering the critical place of intercultural dialogue and sensitivity in language classrooms and its importance for global competence development, the author puts emphasis on the characteristics of globally competent teachers through a Hungarian case and discusses the role of English language teachers in disseminating the vision of global citizenship to nurture responsible citizens who are capable of and willing to make the world a better place for the globe. In Chap. 15, the author proposes a new stance for educators  – cultural liberation pedagogy, which is presented as a complimentary approach to sustain global citizenship in educational settings. The author discusses his perspective relying on an existing stance, which is culturally relevant pedagogy, and provides teachers, teacher educators, school leaders, curriculum writers, and educational policy makers with real-life, culturally relevant, and reflective pedagogical questions that they could use in their professional settings to promote global citizenship. When we perceive teaching as a way of empowerment and liberation, we find four key intersecting pillars as proposed by the author: lived experiences, cultural identity, academic growth, and dynamic minds, all of which contribute to the education of future global citizens and leaders. In a nutshell, the devastation created by the COVID-19, has been a reminder of our vulnerability as well as our interconnectedness within the greater whole. It has also highlighted the importance of prevention and mitigation strategies to be developed for the threats and the extent of the shock the whole world will face if the nations fail to meet the SDGs. The SDGs being both educational contents as well as social targets at global and local levels

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are now the heart topic in every corner of the world and require transformations in many fields, one of which is certainly the educational sphere. Such an educational transformation is possible through both individual efforts and nation-wide decisions and actions related to policies, curricula, practices, and perspectives within any context. Ankara, Turkey

Mustafa Öztürk

Part I Policy

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Key Elements of Education for Sustainable Development in Turkey’s Education: An Analysis of Policy Documents Burtay H. İnce , Seçil Dayıoğlu-Öcal, Neşe Soysal, Aylin Albayrak-Sarı, Abdullah Bağcı, and Mustafa Öztürk Abstract

Education is both a powerful agent of change and an effective tool to disseminate the vision of sustainable development and global citizenship by equipping generations with the necessary skills and competencies of the 21st century. Individuals who are able to contribute to a sustainable world in all aspects by adopting those skills and competencies and by living accordingly are considered as ‘global citizens’, and education is the primary space in which and by means of which we could reach those individuals. Thus, Education for Sustainable Development has more frequently and extensively appeared on the agenda of education systems all over the world. As one of the emerging economies, Turkey has also prioritized this vision in its educational policies considering its importance for its own and B. H. İnce (*) Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] S. Dayıoğlu-Öcal · A. Albayrak-Sarı · A. Bağcı · M. Öztürk Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey e-mail: [email protected]; aylinalb@hacettepe. edu.tr; [email protected]; [email protected] N. Soysal Edu4globAll Consultancy, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]

the world’s future. Educational policy documents happen to be essential collections of information for the representation and integration of the elements of Education for Sustainable Development regarding all formal, non-formal, and informal learning environments and processes. Therefore, this chapter presents an integrated document analysis performed on Turkey’s key policy documents, demonstrates how global perspectives of education find a way into the local educational policies, and provides insights for future directions to accelerate the adoption and integration of Education for Sustainable Development in all processes of education.

1.1 Introduction The 21st century has posed unprecedented challenges for humanity and nature, such as drastic climate change from heavy rainfalls to severe droughts, catastrophic environmental pollution, extinction of species, limited resources, restricted access to energy and clean water, extreme poverty vs. extreme wealth, inequality in every aspect of life including education, and finally the COVID-19 pandemic – almost all of which have never before called for a worldwide action as urgent as today. Even though it has been so long since the start of the attempts to

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_1

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prevent the current wicked problems that the world faces, the process has been quite slow, not resulting in effective outcomes (Öztürk 2017). Starting in the 1970s with an urge to protect the environment (UNEP 1972), soon it became clear that a single environment-oriented approach was not enough to tackle those problems. It took several decades and summits to initiate the most inclusive movement of all – the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN 2015) deemed necessary for the wellbeing of all humanity. Recognizing the potentially devastating effects of social instability, relapsing conflicts, migration waves, and climate change, the 2030 Agenda was set with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) announced by the UN Development Program (UNDP) in 2015 as the continuation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) declared at the beginning of the current millennium (UN 2000). Being universal, transformational, and inclusive, the SDGs identify key development challenges for humanity and aim to provide a sustainable, peaceful, prosperous, and equitable life on earth for everyone, now and in the future (UNESCO 2017a). All the goals together represent a framework endorsed by all 193 member-states of the UN to promote sustainable development at the global, regional, and national levels (Öztürk 2017; Raikes et al. 2017). The SDGs have been prioritized in a wide range of fields including health, economy, social policies, city planning, industrial design, environment, education, and so on. Education finding an explicit place in the SDG4 (Quality Education) lies also implicitly in the core of the other 16 SDGs. Accordingly by 2030, all learners are expected to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to promote sustainable development (UNESCO 2017b). Since humans are at the epicentre of everything that our world faces today, education plays a crucial role by aiming to raise humans’ awareness about every aspect of life (Reimers 2020). In particular, the global challenges we face today require an effective transformation and a profound shift in our perspectives and actions because we are all responsible for our behaviours and lifestyles no matter how miniscule we think we are. We all have an

B. H. İnce et al.

impact, a footprint to leave behind; therefore, an active understanding of how the world works is of crucial importance that should be grasped by each and every citizen of this world. And this understanding forms the basis of global citizenship (UNESCO 2014a), which appears as another essential vision and understanding for education. Additionally, in today’s world, where science and technology are rapidly advancing, the importance of raising individuals who are competent in 21st century skills (UNESCO 2015) is also on the rise. Within the framework drawn above, education systems across the world are expected to respond to sustainable development, global citizenship, and 21st century skills (21CS) as needed both by “defining relevant learning objectives and contents, introducing pedagogies that empower learners, and urging the institutions to include sustainability principles in their management structures” (UNESCO 2017a, p.1) as well as by “taking into account their current and future social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts from a local and global perspective” (UNESCO 2018, p.39). This expectation refers to the integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into national curricula, educational frameworks, quality standards, and policy documents (UNESCO 2017b). Educational policy documents happen to be essential collections of information for the representation and integration of the elements of ESD regarding all formal, non-formal, and informal learning environments and processes, and the ministries of education have an important responsibility to realize this aim, especially while making necessary adjustments in policy-making processes. In this regard, this chapter presents an integrated document analysis performed on Turkey’s key policy documents with respect to the 2030 Agenda; demonstrates how the global perspectives of the three interrelated elements of ESD  – sustainable development, global citizenship, and 21CS – find a way into the local educational policies in Turkey; and provides insights for future directions to accelerate the adoption and integration of ESD in all processes of education.

1  Key Elements of Education for Sustainable Development in Turkey’s Education: An Analysis of Policy…

1.2 Conceptual Framework Education today focuses not only on teaching students how to read and write or memorize mathematical formulas, concepts, and terms but also on the development of social, cultural, and cognitive skills that are necessary for them to be happy citizens and to lead a prosperous life. In this context, sustainable development is emphasized sensitively in the education agenda of the whole world along with global citizenship and 21CS; and consequently, these concepts are reflected directly on the formal and non-formal educational programs and practices of many developed countries (Öztürk 2017). In other words, as a result of the inclusive nature of the 2030 Agenda, the focus of education all around the world has shifted their educational priorities to these elements of ESD. Therefore, these three elements (sustainable development, global citizenship, and 21CS) are noted as highly related and intertwined and included as the key concepts of the study to be able to provide a broader understanding of ESD, which implies that the inclusion of one element necessitates the inclusion of the others as well.

1.2.1 Sustainable Development and Education for Sustainable Development The term ‘sustainable development’ which came into our lives with the Brundtland Report (1987) emphasizes that we must protect the right to life of future generations while meeting our needs. In this respect, a sustainable lifestyle is an understanding that prioritizes a planet that could fairly meet the needs of both current and future generations. Defined as ‘a constant process of transformation of a society and economy towards acting as trustee for future generations of the planet that maintain and nurture life and habitability’ (O’Riordan et al. 2002, p.  117), sustainable development has become a key concept not only in environmental issues but also in every aspect of our lives, from sustainable resources to sustainable health or from sustainable economy to construction of sustain-

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able cities (Öztürk 2017). The role that education plays in helping people to absorb this novel and comprehensive perspective and adjust their way of life accordingly has been highlighted in international reports such as the Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Declaration (Akça 2019). The indispensable function of education in improving the quality of life of the present and future generations was clearly pointed out in 2002 when the Decade of ESD (2005–2014) was declared by the UN (2002). In a report by UNESCO (2005), education was placed at the centre of sustainable development in order to enlighten people all over the world about creating a more sustainable future. Since then, a great number of initiatives have been taken at the global level in various educational settings of the developed countries to adopt and disseminate ESD (Öztürk 2017). ESD is seen as an educational imperative that has an international importance (Bhagwanjı and Born 2018) because ESD, in all forms of education and training, aims to promote values, attitudes, and actions that are inherent in the vision of sustainable development and develops competencies that empower individuals to reflect on their own actions (UNESCO 2007). As both an approach and a target, ESD adopts participatory learning methods through which individuals are motivated to gain necessary awareness, think critically, design future scenarios, make decisions, and turn all those into their actions (UNESCO 2014b). Along with GCE and 21CS, ESD has become an increasingly recognized political priority and hence a leading topic that is frequently studied and discussed in comparative and international education (Knutsson 2021).

1.2.2 Global Citizenship and Global Citizenship Education As OXFAM’s (2015) teachers’ guide suggests, ‘the global’ is not ‘out there’, but it is a part of our everyday lives. The global lies within social and cultural transactions with the help of media and mobility, through travelling or migration, in

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economic relations as a result of international finance and trade, in political and international relations, or through sharing the same planet. Individuals cannot alienate themselves from others based on whether they are coming from a highly developed or newly developing country. Instead, they should reflect more on how they see themselves as responsible, empathetic, participatory global citizens, and how much they feel the sense of belonging to the global community (Sterling 2001). Regardless of our background, we are all connected and dependent on each other. This undeniable close relationship should be ensured and cherished by overcoming our disparities and acknowledging our differences. Within this scope, the global citizen is regarded as someone who: • is aware that there is a world out there beyond their personal surrounding and everyone has its share in contributing to this world; • believes that diversity is an indispensable part of this world that should be respected and cherished; • is knowledgeable about the way the world works; • is an ardent supporter of social justice; • is a member of the community in all levels whether local or global; • cooperates with others for a more equal and sustainable world; and • is responsible for his/her actions (OXFAM 2015). Global Citizenship Education (GCE) provides us a comprehensive perspective and understanding of this century, showing that we do not live in isolation, but we are all linked to those different societies, economies, cultures, and environments. GCE, whose target is to embellish learners with necessary skills and competencies for surviving and thriving in a globalized world as depicted above, holds no clear disciplinary boundaries as Peterson (2020) claims. Therefore, it is pervaded by different themes in different settings such as peace education, human rights education, inclusive education, intercultural education, or ESD. However, a GCE approach is

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necessary to help learners grasp a variety of global trends that mutually affect each other because GCE underlines the importance of diversity and solidarity for all humankind, regardless of their ethnic background, under the light of universal values. GCE highlights that all human beings are dependent on one another and connected to each other; hence, a respect for diversity is a must to be thrived. The relationship between GCE and sustainable development is clarified in the SDG4.7 through the following expression: By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-­ violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development. (UN 2015, p. 17)

The role of GCE is emphasized in the other SDGs as well. Fight against poverty, environmental protection, preservation of nature, healthy life, peace issues, and so on could never be without GCE, and it has a profound role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Yet, it should also be noted that GCE is not a separate subject to be studied amongst the SDGs, but it should rather be accepted as a support to put SDGs into practice or as an overarching approach while teaching all the SDGs because it involves key elements such as critical thinking, cooperation, conflict resolutions, and commitment to social justice (OXFAM 2019). There are three core domains of learning included in GCE: • Cognitive domain includes acquiring ‘knowledge, understanding and critical thinking about global, regional, national and local issues and the interconnectedness and interdependency of different countries and populations’; • Socio-emotional domain includes having ‘a sense of belonging to a common humanity, shared values and responsibilities, empathy,

1  Key Elements of Education for Sustainable Development in Turkey’s Education: An Analysis of Policy…

solidarity and respect for differences and diversity’; and • Behavioural domain includes acting ‘effectively and responsibly at local, national and global levels for a more peaceful and sustainable world’. (APCEIU 2020, p. 3) These core domains are believed to help educators establish a framework for what kinds of skills, values, and attitudes we expect our learners to gain. If educators want to achieve the 2030 Agenda, they are to embed other competencies such as collaboration, critical thinking, communication, problem solving, and compassion as a part of 21CS rather than focusing only on traditional literacy and numeracy skills as the main purpose of education.

1.2.3 Key Competencies and 21st Century Skills The skills and competencies coming from the 20th century have become inefficient to cope with the needs of the current technology-rich era, which places a new challenge on all of us: overcoming the old habits and adapting to the new conditions. This will undeniably be ensured by educating and empowering ourselves with the skills and competencies of the 21st century (WEF 2015, 2020). There have been a lot of overlapping framework models for 21CS (Binkley et al. 2012; Chalkiadaki 2018; Dede 2010; Finegold and Notabartolo 2010; Geisinger 2016; OECD 2018) with a lack of consensus over them, and these frameworks depend on the background, vantage point, interpretation, or the context of the ones who prepared them (Chalkiadaki 2018). A description of 21CS is as follows: … abilities and attributes that can be taught or learned in order to enhance ways of thinking, learning, working and living in the world. The skills include creativity and innovation, critical thinking/problem solving/decision making, learning to learn/metacognition, communication, collaboration (teamwork), information literacy, ICT literacy, citizenship (local and global), life and career skills, and personal and social responsibility (including cultural awareness and competence). (Binkley et al. 2012, p.18-19)

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As understood from the description above, 21CS are very different from 20th century skills as a result of blazing development in information and communications technologies. There has been a greater need for jobs that require expert thinking and complex communication. Meanwhile, the overflowing exchange of verbal and non-verbal information has inundated people; hence, there is a strong need to ‘separate signal from noise in a potentially overwhelming flood of incoming data’ (Dede 2010, p.  2). As stressed by Dede (2010) and Chalkiadaki (2018), there has been no clearcut definition or understanding of 21CS in the literature, which makes the discussion of 21CS more complicated. Each skill has multiple aspects and multiple levels. Therefore, different people use the same words referring to very different things. Dede (2010) asserts that the traditional 20th century K-12 curriculum focuses on distinguishing knowledge from skills and uses it in a typical problem-solving situation. Knowledge, in this case, is neither constructed nor discovered. Therefore, students just grasp the data without understanding how they could extend this knowledge beyond the information presented. Similarly, in traditional curriculum, problem-solving skills are presented in an abstract manner, making it difficult to transfer this skill into real life. Another deficiency is the belief that teaching one skill would be enough to cope with every situation we face in the real world. Yet, education should focus on equipping learners with necessary decision-­making skills and metacognitive strategies so that they know how to react when there is no clear solution or when standard procedures do not seem to work. Overcrowded curriculum is one of the major obstacles to putting the 21st century learning into practice in the present education systems. The present education systems seem to lag behind the social, economic, and environmental needs of the century. However, the aim is not to replace some part of the curriculum with the 21st century learning and practice but rather to employ better pedagogical practices so that it could be ensured that

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the repetition of certain topics is avoided, more effective teaching techniques are used for better retention, and thus more topics are covered within the same period of time (Dede 2010). One solution for all is not a remedy that is applicable to all situations. On the contrary, there is a need to analyse and identify the current complex status of educational systems of each country and make necessary shifts in order to keep up with the urgent demands of our present world. The current century holds numerous challenges for individuals as well as societies, and these challenges force us to come to terms with the world we live in. Keeping up with the latest technologies and the speed of globalization requires more creative and complex skills and competencies from individuals to engage constructively, collaboratively, and responsibly with their world. In this context, a novel framework of cross-cutting key competencies is proposed by UNESCO (2017b) with the purpose of promoting and implementing the SDGs. These competencies are described as ‘the specific attributes individuals need for action and self-organization in various complex contexts and situations’ (Rieckmann et  al. 2017). Regarded as essential for sustainable development, these competencies are as follows: • Systems thinking: the abilities to recognize and understand relationships; to analyse complex systems; to think of how systems are embedded within different domains and different scales; and to deal with uncertainty. • Anticipatory: the abilities to understand and evaluate multiple futures – possible, probable, and desirable; to create one’s own visions for the future; to apply the precautionary principle; to assess the consequences of actions; and to deal with risks and changes. • Normative: the abilities to understand and reflect on the norms and values that underlie one’s actions; and to negotiate sustainability values, principles, goals, and targets, in a context of conflicts of interests and trade-offs, uncertain knowledge, and contradictions. • Strategic: the abilities to collectively develop and implement innovative actions that further

•

•

•

•

sustainability at the local level and further afield. Collaboration: the abilities to learn from others; to understand and respect the needs, perspectives, and actions of others (empathy); to understand, relate to, and be sensitive to others (empathic leadership); to deal with conflicts in a group; and to facilitate collaborative and participatory problem solving Critical thinking: the ability to question norms, practices, and opinions; to reflect on own one’s values, perceptions, and actions; and to take a position in the sustainability discourse. Self-awareness: the ability to reflect on one’s own role in the local community and (global) society; to continually evaluate and further motivate one’s actions; and to deal with one’s feelings and desires. Integrated problem-solving: the overarching ability to apply different problem-solving frameworks to complex sustainability problems and develop viable, inclusive, and equitable solution options that promote sustainable development, integrating the above-mentioned competences (UNESCO 2017b, p. 9)

1.3 The Case The Turkish education system is constructed as a centralized system that provides its citizens with a 12-year compulsory education which is completely free of charge in public schools across 81 provinces in seven regions of the country. The current structure of the system consists of three compulsory stages as Elementary School, Middle School, and High School, each of which has four years of study (Law of Primary Education 2012). This is widely known and referred to as the ‘4+4+4 system’ of the K-12 education, which is governed by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE). Higher education is also a part of the national education system, but it is not compulsory and is governed by a separate body of the system  – the Council of Higher Education (CoHE). The scope of this study is only related to the educational policies enacted by MoNE as

1  Key Elements of Education for Sustainable Development in Turkey’s Education: An Analysis of Policy…

regards to K-12 education, which means higher education policies are not examined within this study. The structure of MoNE is highly centralized in that both educational policies and national curricula are prepared and enforced by the central office of the ministry. The representative offices of MoNE operate in all the provinces and towns of Turkey under the name of provincial Directorates of National Education (DoNE) and implement all the decisions initiated by the central office. Therefore, we expect any policy made by the ministry to swiftly reach every corner of the country and to be implemented with the same standards everywhere. This fact is another point that underlines the rationale for the policy analysis pursued in this study. Policy making is a crucial field for integrating significant issues such as ESD, GCE, and 21CS into formal, non-formal, and informal learning environments within a system. MoNE, in this case, takes the responsibility for providing solutions to the current and emerging sustainability problems of education systems. However, it should also be noted that ESD, GCE, and 21CS are not separate elements to be represented in the policies; they are rather overarching concepts that require a rigorous understanding of the world. In order to fulfil its national responsibility, Turkey has also included these three concepts in its educational policies and made necessary updates in its policy documents. For instance, with the awareness that the achievements in the field of education will pave the way for achieving sustainable development in general, a vision document (Turkey’s Education Vision for 2023), which sets strategic goals on inclusive and equality-­ based education, has been published with the slogan ‘Happy Children, Strong Turkey’ (MoNE 2018). Besides policy making, MoNE has taken other important steps regarding national curricula. In 2016, MoNE started to renew educational programs in order to convey universal ­values such as justice, equality, peace, friendship, respect, and love for all in related disciplines (The 2nd Voluntary National Review Report of Turkey 2019). Renewed in 2018, the national curricula were updated within the scope of sus-

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tainable development, global citizenship, and 21CS (MoNE 2019a). However, the recent global pandemic has forced all of us to see clearly how the gap between those who have access to richer resources and those with limited resources can augment so easily. This realization should also compel us to find out ways to increase the awareness about this gap and eliminate it through various viable solutions. The first step in identifying these solutions could be portraying the present status of the educational policies in terms of ESD, GCE, and 21CS.

1.3.1 Method The methodological design of the chapter is based on a document analysis, which mainly adopts a systematic examination of the written materials that consist of significant information about the phenomenon or phenomena under investigation (Bowen 2009, O’Leary 2014, Yıldırım and Şimşek 2013). In a document analysis, what document to include as a significant data source is closely related to the research problem. Therefore, in this study, educational policy documents are considered as essential to identify and portray the recent and the present status of the Turkish education system regarding the concepts of sustainable development, global citizenship, and 21CS as depicted in the framework drawn above.

1.3.2 Data Source The data presented in this study were collected from five key policy documents of the Turkish education system (see Table  1.1). They were selected on the basis of their significance, coverage, and dates. Two of them were strategy documents, and the others were a law, a quality manual, and a vision document. These documents were chosen for the analysis purposefully as they are considered to contain recent and present features of the education system. The oldest document consisting of the basics of all the other educational policy documents dates back to

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10 Table 1.1  List of policy documents used as data source Name of document Basic Law of National Education National Education Quality Framework Turkey’s Education Vision for 2023 Performance Program for 2020 Strategic Plan for 2019–2023

Type of document Law

Date of document 1973–2019

Quality Manual Vision Document Strategy Document Strategy Document

2014 2018 2019 2019

1970s when the vision of sustainable development started to emerge around the world. The newest document has, on the other hand, a futuristic aspect by addressing the educational vision for 2023, which is the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Turkish Republic (MoNE 2018). As a result, all these five policy documents were included in the analysis since they are still in practice, guiding the current actions taken in education. Basic Law of National Education (1973, Law No: 1739) Being amended 19 times in particular years (1983, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2019), Basic Law of National Education defines the general framework and principles of the Turkish education system and guides all educational policies and activities. It is a 17-page law document covering ‘the basic provisions regarding the objectives and principles of the Turkish national education, the general structure of the education system, teaching profession, school buildings and facilities, educational tools and materials, and the duties and responsibilities of the government in providing educational services’ (Basic Law of National Education 1973, p. 1). Quality Framework for National Education (MoNE 2014) Stating the main quality frames for Turkish National Education, this document draws the general boundaries of the Turkish education sys-

Significance all matters of education basic values, key competencies, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and learning outcomes vision for contemporary and future education one-year program on policy measures and performance indicators five-year measures on major goals, objectives, and performance indicators

Pages 17 36 140 148 135

tem considering the transformations in the world so that Turkey can compete with the other countries in all aspects. It has 36 pages, and the content involves learning outcomes and general educational frames. Turkey’s Education Vision for 2023 (MoNE 2018) This is one of the recent documents released by MoNE with the purpose of announcing the educational targets of Turkey for 2023 when the Republic of Turkey is going to be 100 years old. It is 140 pages covering visions for all grades from preschool to tertiary level, all subject fields from science to art, all types of schools, as well as all financial and administrative affairs of the system. Performance Program for 2020 (MoNE 2019a) This is the document in which the mediumand long-term goals and targets set out within the framework of the strategic plan are converted into performance targets on an annual basis. It is directly linked to the Strategic Plan for 2019–2020 and focuses on a one-year program on policy measures and performance indicators. It has 148 pages and its content gives the details of the general objectives for 2020. Strategic Plan for 2019–2023 (MoNE 2019b) This document consists of five-year development plans, national programs, missions and visions, strategic goals, measurable objectives, and mea-

1  Key Elements of Education for Sustainable Development in Turkey’s Education: An Analysis of Policy…

surement, monitoring and evaluation procedures. In this direction, the document includes seven major goals under which five-year specific objectives, strategies, and actions to achieve these goals are presented. It has 135 pages and five main chapters including an analysis of the current situation, predictions and implications for future education, and financing and examining the follow-ups. The third chapter mainly discusses the general objectives and performance indicators which have references to sustainable development.

1.3.3 Data Analysis A document analysis is usually carried out in the following steps: accessing the documents, checking the originality of the documents, understanding the documents, analysing the content in the documents, and using the findings to draw conclusions (O’Leary 2014; Yıldırım and Şimşek 2013). In this study, all these steps were duly followed by the researchers. First of all, the documents were downloaded from the official website of MoNE and explored for necessary background information. Next, the researchers developed a list of categories in line with the conceptual framework of the study and identified specific key words and phrases. As a preliminary analysis, the documents were examined for this pre-­constructed key content. Subsequently, additional codes and categories were added to the pre-­constructed key content. Since the medium of the documents is Turkish and the researchers are native speakers of Turkish, all the key words, phrases, concepts, and themes related to ESD, GCE, and 21CS were translated into Turkish and checked for clarity and consistency. In this way, redundant keywords were eliminated, ambiguous keywords were clarified, and a consensus was reached on the list of the key content. Eventually, two major categories of key content were ­determined within the scope of the study: (a) conceptual key words regarding the three key elements of ESD  – sustainable development, global citizenship, and 21C; and (b) compe-

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tency-based keywords related to key competencies identified and suggested by UNESCO (2017a). Tables 1.2 and 1.3 in the findings section display the list of conceptual keywords (n  =  21) and competency-­ based keywords (n = 45) respectively. In the actual analysis, each policy document was scanned, examined, and coded one by one by using those conceptual and competencybased keywords (N = 66). Each occurrence of a key word in a policy document was entered as either explicit or implicit references on an excel sheet. Whenever one of the keywords was detected explicitly in a document, it was coded as ‘X’ on the excel sheets. This means that the keywords are directly or openly stated in the document. However, for the implicit one (i.e. implied or linked to one of the keywords indirectly), it was coded as ‘N’ on the excel sheets. A further step was to determine whether the reference was ‘for’ a competency-based keyword appearing as a target or ‘through’ a competencybased keyword appearing as a means. Then, the keyword was coded as ‘X1’ or ‘N1’ when the reference was ‘for’ and ‘X2’ or ‘N2’ when the reference was ‘through’. For example, if a statement in a document emphasizes ‘teamwork’ as an educational target to be developed for a specific group or level, it is coded as ‘for (X1 or N1)’. However, if a statement emphasizes another educational target (such as finding solutions to economic issues) through ‘teamwork’, it is coded as ‘through (X2 or N2)’. As a result, a total of 476 pages of documents were analysed, and the findings obtained from this analysis are presented in two tables (Tables 1.2 and 1.3) in the findings section.

1.4 Findings From a descriptive perspective, it is stated in the Basic Law of National Education (1973) that the Turkish education system aims, in general, to educate happy and healthy individuals who become ready for the life, and specifically, to raise generations who:

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12 Table 1.2  Concepts/sub-concepts by policy documents Concepts/sub-concepts Sustainable Development Economic aspect Social aspect Ecological aspect Cultural aspect Current generations’ needs Future generations’ needs Global Citizenship Global goals National/local goals Global citizens Our (Turkish) citizens Cultural diversity Social/moral responsibility Human rights Concerns for planet Earth 21st Century Skills Today’s competencies Tomorrow’s competencies Contemporary education Skill-based education

Education vision X1

Quality framework X1

Strategic plan X1

Law of education N1

Performance program N1

X1 X1 N1 X1 N1

X1 X1 N1 X1 N1

X1 X1 N1 X1 N1

X1 X1 – X1 N1

X1 X1 – X1 N1

N1

–

–

–

–

– N1 X1 – X1 – N1

– N1 N2 – X1 X1 X1

– – N1 – X1 – N1

– – N1 – X1 – X1

– N1 X1 – X1 – –

N1 –

X1 –

X1 N2

X1 –

X1 –

X1 X1 X1

– N1 –

– N1 N1

– – –

N1 N1 N1

X1

–

N2

X1

N2

X1

X1

X1

N1

X1

• are committed to Atatürk’s reforms and principles, his concept of nationalism as defined in the Constitution; • adopt, protect, and improve the national, moral, humanistic, spiritual, and cultural values of the Turkish nation; • love and always elevate their families, homeland, and nation; • are aware of their duties and responsibilities towards the Turkish Republic  – which is a democratic, secular, and social state ruled by a law based on human rights and the basic principles defined in the beginning of the Constitution – and behave accordingly; • physically, mentally, morally, spiritually, and emotionally have a moderate and healthy per-

sonality and mentality, independent and scientific thinking power, a wide world view; • respect human rights, appreciate enterprise and individuality; • feel a sense responsibility towards the society; and who are constructive, creative, and productive; • are prepared for life by having professions which will make them happy and contribute to the welfare of the society through equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes, and the habit of working cooperatively in line with their own interests, talents, and abilities.

1  Key Elements of Education for Sustainable Development in Turkey’s Education: An Analysis of Policy… Table 1.3  Key competencies by policy documents Skills/competencies Systems Thinking Systemic approach to education Holistic perspective in education Learning as an ecosystem (cause-effect/mutual) Relationships/links Uncertainties/complexities Anticipatory Future vision Prediction of future Possibilities/ scenarios Awareness/identification of risks/ changes Envisioning consequences of actions/decisions Normative Global/universal norms/values National/local values Moral/ethical/spiritual values Shared/humanitarian values Social/cultural values Strategic Collective actions Strategic objectives/practices Strategic designs/resources Innovative designs/resources Innovative solutions/practices Collaboration Cooperation/partnership of different actors Teamwork/group work Participation of different actors Participation of children/students Pluralism and inclusiveness Critical Thinking Reasoning Questioning Interpretation Self-awareness Self-recognition/self-knowledge Self-esteem/self-confidence/ self-efficacy Self-development Self-revelation/self-reflection Community awareness Integrated Problem-solving Problem solving Environmental problems Social problems Cultural problems Economic problems

Education vision – N2 X2 X2 X2

Quality framework – N2 N2 – X1

Strategic plan – X2 N2 – N2

Law of education – N2 N2 – N2

Performance program – N2 N2 – N2

N1 – X2 N2

N1 X1 X1 X1

N2 – X2 –

– – – –

– N2 N2 –

N2

X1

X2

–

–

X2

X1

–

–

–

– N1 X1 X1 X1 X1 – X1 X2 X2 X2 X1 X2 X2

– N1 X1 X1 N1 X1 – – X1 X2 X1 X1 – X1

– N1 X1 N1 X1 X1 X2 – X2 – – X1 X2 X1

– N1 X1 X1 X1 X1 – X1 – – – X2 X2 X2

– N1 X1 X1 X1 – X2 – X2 – – X2 X2 X1

X1 X2 X1 X1 X1 X1 X1 X1 X1 X1 X1

– X1 X1 X1 X1 X1 X1 X1 X1 X1 X1

X2 X2 X1 X1 N1 – N1 – – – X1

– – – N1 – N1 – – – X1 X1

N1 N2 X1 X1 – – – – – – X1

X1 X1 X2 – X1 N1 N1 N1 N1

X1 X1 X1 – X1 X1 X1 N1 N1

– – X2 – X1 – X1 N1 N1

– – X1 – N1 – X1 X1 N1

– – X1 – X1 – X1 N1 N1

13

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This description covers both national and international perspectives regarding universal values underlined in the vision of sustainable development. Although the visible focus seems to be more on the national citizenship, most of the underlying themes indicate global citizenship, as well. The following sections of the chapter presents the findings derived from the analysis of key policy documents (n = 5) under two headings.

1.4.1 Conceptual Keywords in Policy Documents The general findings revealed that policy documents analysed within this study reflected a remarkable number of references to the concepts of sustainable development and 21CS.  On the other hand, global citizenship, as a concept, was not attached to a sufficient amount of importance even though some relevant sub-concepts received an adequate level of attention in the policy documents. Table 1.2 displays the results of the initial analysis on major concepts and sub-concepts. Accordingly, the concept of sustainable development somehow appeared in all of the policy documents. However, while the three of the documents emphasized it explicitly, the other two documents only implied it, and thus did not directly express it. Regarding the sub-concepts, the economic, social, and cultural aspects of sustainable development received more explicit references than the ecological aspect, which had only implicit references in the three documents. In relation to generations’ needs, there were more references to the current generations than the future generations although they were all non-­ explicit. As for the future generations, Turkey’s Education Vision for 2023 was the only document reflecting an implicit reference to it. Whether explicit or implicit, all of the references related to the concept of sustainable development appeared to be a target, not a means.

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The concept of global citizenship did not receive any explicit references in any of the documents. Nevertheless, some other relevant keywords appeared in the documents more frequently compared to the main concept. For instance, human rights and social/moral responsibility had a sufficient number of explicit and implicit references in all of the documents. Specifically, the Quality Framework for National Education puts significant emphasis on human rights and social responsibility issues as a target. Additionally, the only document putting an explicit emphasis on cultural diversity was also the Quality Framework for National Education. Regarding the concerns for the Planet Earth, the only document indicating a reference to it was the Strategic Plan for 2019–2020, and it was an implicit one. While national/local goals were stated both explicitly and implicitly in all of the documents, global goals were not considered explicitly in the documents although there were three non-explicit references. Similarly, ‘Turkish citizens’ had explicit references in all of the documents whereas ‘global citizens’ had no single reference in any of the documents. Finally, 21CS as a keyword was detected in two documents, one explicit and one implicit. This concept received considerable attention in Turkey’s Education Vision for 2023, which included all explicit and target-oriented references to each sub-concept within this dimension. Looking at the sub-concepts more specifically, skill-based education had four explicit and one implicit references  – all of which appeared as a target in the documents. Contemporary education received two explicit and two implicit references both as a means and as a target. Comparing today’s and tomorrow’s competencies as keywords, there were slightly more references to the former than the latter. Today’s competencies had one explicit and three implicit references, but tomorrow’s competencies received one explicit and two implicit references.

1  Key Elements of Education for Sustainable Development in Turkey’s Education: An Analysis of Policy…

To sum up, 21 conceptual keywords were scanned and coded across the five different policy documents, and in total there appeared 71 references (41 explicit and 30 implicit; 67 as a target and 4 as a means) to those keywords (see Table  1.2). Assuming that all of the documents included at least one reference to each keyword, there must be at least 105 references in total to be detected in this analysis. Considering the results of the current analysis (71 references), we could conclude that global perspectives of ESD find an adequate way into the local educational policies in Turkey. However, as a final note, we should state that the concepts of sustainable development and 21CS seem to have more places in the policy documents, whereas global citizenship as a concept does not get enough recognition in the same documents. This finding could imply that there is a slight gap regarding the concept of global citizenship in the Turkish educational policies.

1.4.2 Competency-Based Keywords in Policy Documents In the second part of the analysis, eight key competencies and 39 keywords related to those competencies were scanned and coded across each document. The general findings obtained at this stage of the study revealed that most of the key competencies and sub-skills were reflected significantly in the Turkish educational policies even though they were mostly implicit. According to Table 1.3, which displays the results in relation to competency-based keywords, collaboration, critical thinking, self-awareness, strategic, and anticipatory competencies had more direct references than the other competencies. However, all of the key competencies reflected an explicit or implicit emphasis in each document. The highest number of references to the competencies were included in Turkey’s Education Vision for 2023 (f  =  40), which was followed by the Quality Framework for National Education (f = 37). On the other hand, the least number of references to the competencies were from the Basic Law of Education (f = 21).

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Systems Thinking as a competency did not appear explicitly in any of the policy documents. However, almost all of the additional keywords that are linked to systems thinking were addressed either explicitly or implicitly in the documents. For example, systemic approach to education and holistic perspective in education had a wide coverage as a means in all of the documents even though the majority of the coverage was non-­ explicit. Similarly, all of the documents addressed cause-effect or mutual relationships and links mostly in an implicit way. The only explicit target-­oriented reference within this competency was identified in the Quality Framework for National Education which was about cause-­ effect or mutual relationships and links. Apart from that, all the other references in this context were either implicit (f  =  14) or means-oriented (f = 16). Normative competency also did not appear explicitly in any of the policy documents. Nonetheless, almost all of the additional keywords were addressed in the documents. While global or universal norms and values were addressed as an implicit target, national or local values were seen as an explicit target in all of the documents. Similarly, there appeared both explicit and implicit references to the following keywords across all the five documents: moral, ethical, and spiritual values; shared and humanitarian values; and social and cultural values (see Table 1.3). Anticipatory competency appeared in two documents both as an explicit target and as an implicit means. Within this context, the following keywords appeared as an explicit target at least once: future vision, prediction of future possibilities and scenarios, awareness and identification of risks and changes, and envisioning consequences of actions and decisions. All of those references were from the Quality Framework for National Education. The other four documents indicated either implicit (f = 3) or means-oriented (f = 7) coverage of those keywords (see Table 1.3). As for strategic competency, there were two means-oriented explicit references in the documents. More specifically, the additional keywords

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in this dimension had all explicit references. Although Integrated Problem Solving was not Accordingly, innovative solutions and practices addressed as an explicit competency in any of the were addressed explicitly as a target in three doc- documents, problem-solving skill had a signifiuments and as a means in two documents. cant place in each policy document. In relation to Collective actions were also addressed as an solutions of problems, solutions to economic explicit target in two documents. Strategic objec- problems were emphasized as a target in an tives and practices had one target-oriented and implicit way in all five documents. Similarly, three means-oriented references. Innovative solutions to cultural problems were also emphadesigns and resources and strategic objectives sized as a target mostly in an implicit way along and practices had both target-oriented and means-­ with one explicit reference. On the other hand, oriented references (see Table 1.3). solutions to social problems were mostly Regarding collaboration competency, there addressed as a target with four explicit and one were four explicit references, all of which implicit reference. However, solutions to enviappeared as a means. The codes for additional ronmental problems appeared in only two docukeywords indicated that cooperation and partner- ments, as an implicit target in one of them and as ship of different actors received an explicit atten- an explicit target in the other (see Table 1.3). tion in all the documents both as a target and as To conclude, 45 competency-based keywords means. Teamwork and group work were were scanned and coded across five different poladdressed as an explicit target in Turkey’s icy documents, and in total there appeared 150 Education Vision for 2023. Another keyword sig- references (107 explicit and 43 implicit; 104 as a nificantly emphasized in most of the documents target and 46 as a means) to those keywords (see was the participation of different actors. In par- Table  1.3). Assuming that all of the documents ticular, participation of children or students as indicated a reference to each keyword, there must well as pluralism and inclusiveness were be 225 references to be detected in total. addressed as an explicit target in four documents Considering the number of 150 references in the (see Table 1.3). current analysis, we could conclude that the key Critical Thinking as a competency received competencies suggested as crucial in the 21st two explicit and one implicit target-oriented ref- century by UNESCO (2017a) have an adequate erence in three documents. In parallel with this place in the national educational policies in finding, sub-skills of reasoning, questioning, and Turkey. interpreting also received two explicit and one implicit target-oriented references across different documents. The documents attaching more 1.5 Discussion and Conclusion importance to this competency were Turkey’s Education Vision for 2023 and the Quality The current policy analysis of the educational Framework for National Education (see documents has been a crucial step to underline Table 1.3). once again the critical importance of ESD and Self-awareness competency, as a target, has made us aware of how the global perspectives appeared explicitly in two documents, and most of education find a way into the local educational of the references to this dimension were through policies in Turkey. The general findings obtained the following keywords: self-recognition and from the analysis done on 476 pages revealed that self-knowledge (f  =  3); self-esteem, self-­ the concepts of sustainable development and confidence, and self-efficacy (f  =  5); self-­ 21CS seem to have more places in the policy development (f  =  2); and self-revelation and documents, whereas global citizenship as a conself-reflection (f = 2). And all of those references cept does not get enough recognition in the same were explicit and target-oriented. In addition to documents. Global citizenship’s being non-­ these, community awareness was also addressed existent or rather limited in the policy documents, explicitly in all of the documents either as target in comparison to the strong emphasis on national or as a means (see Table 1.3). citizenship, is linked to the principles of national

1  Key Elements of Education for Sustainable Development in Turkey’s Education: An Analysis of Policy…

ideology or patriotism coming from the foundational years of the Turkish Republic as well as the Constitution strongly promoting the elements of a national identity. A national integration policy, which underlines the respect for democracy, freedom, and the rights of all citizens, is included as a commitment of each Turkish citizen educated within the system, and this mainly results from the historical and political background of the country. The overriding importance given to the cognitive skills in the documents, but less emphasis on the global values and attitudes, could be considered as an obstacle to the elaboration and integration of the vision of global citizenship. The economic strains Turkey faces as a developing country could be another reason for the limited existence of global understanding because current economic conditions that limit traveling abroad and interacting with new cultures in other countries might affect people’s feeling of their contributions to the global world negatively. One cannot expect someone experiencing a day-to-­ day struggle to make the ends meet to spare extra time or money on global hurdles or experiences. Physical needs are to be met first for someone to become more aware of their surroundings, and daily survival efforts might limit their way of thinking of this world and other people in other places, which causes them to disregard the global issues. Still, Turkey’s inward-looking perspective of educational policy making has recently shifted towards more internationally agreed development goals. The policy documents referencing 21CS at a satisfactory level indicate that Turkey has both adopted a global perspective of education of young generations and taken local concerns and priorities into account (Öztürk 2018). This approach is also confirmed in regard to some other fields by RTMD (2012, 2016) reporting about the consistency between the SDGs and the national development goals of Turkey and the nationalizing process of the previous MDGs and the current SDGs within the local context. To illustrate, Turkey’s Education Vision for 2023 is regarded as the most up-to-date and crucial document including almost all the key concepts of

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sustainable development and 21CS, as well as most of the sub-concepts of global citizenship. These aspects are also similar to those found in the Strategic Plan for 2019–2023. Seeing more references in Turkey’s Education Vision for 2023 and Strategic Plan for 2019–2023 than the other documents is not an unexpected finding as these documents are the ones published after 2015 when the SDGs were announced by UN. We could state that the Turkish educational policy makers are aware of the significance of integrating ESD into the contemporary and future policies through crucial documents. Most of the key competencies suggested as crucial in the 21st century by UNESCO (2017a) are significantly reflected in the Turkish educational policies even though they are mostly implicit. Such congruence between Turkey’s educational vision and UNESCO’s framework for the 21st century would yield benefits not only for young generations’ but also for educators’ progress towards a more transformative way of thinking. More specifically, competencies like collaboration, critical thinking, self-awareness, strategic, and anticipatory thinking have more direct references than the other competencies. This finding could also be seen as a very progressive point because today’s learners adopting a reflective, evaluative, innovative, and collaborative position in their own, and others’ actions would lead a future which is more sustainable for each and every living being. Cognitive skills such as systems thinking and critical thinking are usually promoted along with interpersonal and communication skills, and it is evident that the Turkish education system has started to prioritize such skills by reflecting them in its policies. Considering the total number of references made to key competencies, we could conclude that they have an adequate representation in the national educational policies in Turkey. Whether implicit or explicit, the references to 21CS signify the place of ESD in the current official documents; however, it is still challenging to state that the associated goals are put adequately into the practice during the implementation of those educational policies. Regarding the education in Turkey, one of the challenges of ESD integration

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is the impact of the high-stakes tests that also dominate the education system all around the world. These tests do not assess 21CS or key competencies and do not encourage effective team work or using multimedia tools and applications effectively due to their unstandardized nature for assessment. Therefore, more valid and reliable assessment techniques are needed to enhance this situation (Dede 2010), and these key competencies should be an essential and integral part of the education system where they are soundly assessed. Seeing educators as the agents for change (UNESCO 2012), one major step for a successful integration of ESD would start with overcoming the 20th century beliefs, values, assumptions and cultures of teachers, administrators, policy makers, and local authorities. Since they are the leading actors for accomplishing this task, only a humble approach to policy making without enacting ESD comprehensively in all aspects and with all actors of education would not generate the expected results. With the help of various initiatives, teachers’ awareness could be heightened so that they could unlearn their prior beliefs and relearn through transformational education and intellectual, emotional, and social support (Dede 2010). UNESCO (2017a) also stresses the key role that teachers hold in achieving the 2030 Agenda, explaining that pre-service and in-­ service teachers from all levels of education (technical, vocational, and adult education) should work in and out-of-school contexts (lifelong learning) to contribute to the realization of this aim. One effective way would be to initiate a transformative alteration in pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher development activities, but by eliminating the tendency to consider ESD ‘as an optional extra’, rather than a core element of initial teacher education (Bourn and Soysal 2021). In order to create significant changes in teacher education, all research and teaching activities should be incorporated with all pillars of ESD, not only through elective courses but through more action-oriented initiatives, which would ensure more conscious internalization of ESD by teacher educators and teachers (Öztürk and Pizmony-Levy 2021).

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Another fundamental initiative for ESD integration should be related to a curriculum development that would promote necessary knowledge, skills, perspectives, and values of sustainable development (UNESCO 2012). ESD integration in the curriculum sphere could be handled either through explicit curricular references in formal educational programs or with the help of extra-­ curricular or co-curricular activities (Öztürk 2017) so that ESD practices could occur not only at classroom level but also at school and system levels. As a result, educational experts, curriculum developers, and teachers should collaborate to design and implement the activities that promote the key elements of ESD. The significance of ESD has been once again underlined by the COVID-19 pandemic which has exerted more problems about the access to education in Turkey, as in many other systems around the world. According to the reports published by Turkish Education Association (TEDMEM), over 700,000 students within the compulsory education age group have not been able to access education in the last two years, which is an obvious indicator of a permanent loss in learning and a sharp increase in drop-outs in the near future (Sunar 2021a, b). What is more, the number of girls seen as disadvantaged in this setting as well as the kids coming from low SES background is estimated to be significantly higher. The integration of a growing number of refugee kids into the formal education system has also been a major challenge for the country (OECD 2020). For instance, the enrolment rate of the children who are under temporary protection status in Turkey has increased almost by 60% from 2015 to 2020, and almost half a million (440,890) school-age children still do not have access to any education (MoNE 2020). In this regard, we believe ESD and the SDGs will be the key to respond to the existing challenges that shape the present and future status of the Turkish education system. To sum up, as humanity, we have been crowned with the vibration of fear and anxiety as a result of global threats today. A recent one, the current global pandemic, has forced us to undergo an unsettling experience all over the world. This

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Brundtland Report (1987). Our common future: the world commission on environment and development’s report. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27-40. https://doi.org/10.3316/QRJ0902027 Chalkiadaki, A. (2018). A systematic literature review of 21st century skills and competencies in primary ­education. International Journal of Instruction, 11(3), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.12973/iji.2018.1131 Dede, C. (2010). Comparing frameworks for 21st century skills. In J.  Bellance, & R.  Brandt (Eds.), 21st century skills: rethinking how students learn (pp. 51-76). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press. Finegold, D. & Notabartolo, A.  S. (2010). 21st-century competencies and their impact: an interdisciplinary literature review. In D. Finegold, M. Gatta, H. Salzman, & S.J. Schurman (Eds.), Transforming the US workforce development system: lessons from research and practice (pp. 19-56). Champaign, IL: Labor and Employment Relations Association. Geisinger, K. F. (2016). 21st century skills: what are they and how do we assess them? Applied Measurement in Education. 29(4), 245-249. https://doi.org/10.1080/08 957347.2016.1209207 Knutsson, B. (2021). Segmented prizing: biopolitical differentiation in education for sustainable development. References Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 51(3), 431-447. https://doi.org/10.1080/03 Akça, F. (2019). Sustainable development in teacher 57925.2019.1629276 education in terms of being solution oriented and Law of Primary Education. (2012). 28261 Sayılı Resmî self-efficacy. Sustainability, 11(23), 6878. https://doi. Gazete (11.04. 2012) İlköğretim ve eğitim kanunu ile org/10.3390/su11236878 bazı kanunlarda değişiklik yapılmasına dair kanun No: APCEIU (2020). GCED Learning and assessment. An 6287 Kabul Tarihi: 30/3/2012 analysis of four case studies. Korea: Asia-Pacific MoNE (2014). Milli eğitim kalite çerçevesi. MEB, Centre of Education for International Understanding Ankara. https://www.academia.edu/35736679/M%C (APCEIU). 4%B0LL%C3%8E_E%C4%9E%C4%B0T%C4% Basic Law of National Education (1973). Milli eğitim B0M_KAL%C4%B0TE_%C3%87ER%C3%87EVE temel kanunu. MEB, Ankara. https://www.mevzuat. S%C4%B0 Accessed 24 May 2021. gov.tr/MevzuatMetin/1.5.1739.pdf Accessed 20 Apr MoNE (2018). 2023 Eğitim vizyonu. MEB, Ankara. 2021. http://2023vizyonu.meb.gov.tr/doc/2023_EGITIM_ Bhagwanjı, Y., & Born, P. (2018). Use of children’s literaVIZYONU.pdf Accessed 24 May 2021. ture to support an emerging curriculum model of edu- MoNE (2019a). 2020 Yılı performans programı. cation for sustainable development for young learners. MEB, Ankara. http://sgb.meb.gov.tr/meb_iys_ Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 12 dosyalar/2019_11/25140957_2020_Performans-­ (2), 85-102. ProgramY_12112019_1515.pdf Accessed 24 May Binkley, M., Erstad, O., Herman, J., Raizen, S., Ripley, 2021. M., Miller-Ricci, M., et  al. (2012). Defining twenty-­ MoNE (2019b). 2019-2023 Stratejik planı. MEB, first century skills. In P. Griffin, B. McGaw, & E. Care Ankara. https://sgb.meb.gov.tr/meb_iys_dosy(Eds.), Assessment and teaching of 21st century a l a r / 2 0 1 9 _ 1 2 / 3 1 1 0 5 5 3 2 _ M i l l i _ E Yi t i m _ skills. (pp.  17-66). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi. BakanlYYY_2019-­2023_Stratejik_PlanY__31.12.pdf org/10.1007/978-­94-­007-­2324-­5_2 Accessed 24 May 2021. Bourn, D., & Soysal, N. (2021). Transformative learning MoNE (2020). Hayat boyu öğrenme genel müdürlüğü, and pedagogical approaches in education for sustainizleme ve değerlendirme raporu 2020. http://hbogm. able development: Are initial teacher education promeb.gov.tr/meb_iys_dosyalar/2021_05/08201728_ grammes in England and Turkey ready for creating RAPOR-­05.05.2021.pdf Accessed 24 June 2021. agents of change for sustainability?  Sustainability OECD (2018). Education 2030: The Future of Education 13(16), 8973. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168973 and Skills. Position paper, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20

makes us encounter the content of the SDGs more frequently and more crucially in almost every field than the previous years and decades. Understanding the SDGs and their specific targets is on the rise and they have become a daily discussion topic everywhere including Turkey. However, more specifically, public debates have been sparked off related to the SDG1, SDG4, and SDG5 because local challenges regarding poverty, gender equality, and access to education have become much more serious in recent years. This pandemic has also shown us how the gap between the better off and the disadvantaged could grow more for the favour of the former. Education is still the key in attempts to close this gap in the long run, and we have to keep maintaining our attempts persistently to have a sound place for the SDGs in our national policies and curricula.

20 Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf Accessed 15 May 2021. OECD (2020). Education Policy Outlook in Turkey, OECD Education Policy Perspectives, No. 23, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b7c69f4c-­en Accessed 15 May 2021. O’Leary, Z. (2014). The essential guide to doing your research project (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. O’Riordan, T., Fairbrass, J., Welp, M., Stoll-Kleemann, S. (2002). The politics of biodiversity in Europe. In T.  O’Riordan & S.  Stoll-Kleemann (Eds.), Biodiversity, sustainability and human communities: protecting beyond the protected  (pp. 115-141). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi. org/10.1017/CBO9780511492655.007 OXFAM (2015). Global citizenship in the classroom. A guide for teachers. Oxford: Oxfam GB. OXFAM (2019). The Sustainable development goals. A guide for teachers. Oxford: Oxfam GB. Öztürk, M. (2017). Education for sustainable development: theoretical framework, historical development, and implications for practice. Elementary Education Online, 16(4), 1-11. Öztürk, M. (2018). Response of educational research in Turkey to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Asia Pacific Education Review, 19(4), 573-586. Öztürk, M., & Pizmony-Levy, O. (2021). Early career teacher educators’ dispositions toward sustainability and accountability for sustainability issues: a case from teachers colleges in Turkey. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education. https://doi. org/10.1108/JARHE-­02-­2021-­0051 Peterson, A. (2020). Global citizenship education in Australian schools. Leaderships, teacher and student perspectives. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Raikes, A., Yoshikawa, H., Britto, P.R., Iruka, I. (2017). Children, youth and developmental science in the 2015-2030 global sustainable development goals. Social Policy Report, 30(3). Reimers, F. M. (2020). Educating students to improve the World. Springer. Rieckmann, M., Mindt, L., Gardiner, S. (2017). Education for Sustainable Development Goals: learning objectives - UNESCO Digital Library. RTMD [Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Development] (2012). Turkey’s sustainable development report: claiming the future. Ankara: Ministry of Development. RTMD [Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Development] (2016). Report on Turkey’s initial steps towards the implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Ankara: Ministry of Development. Sterling, S. (2001). Sustainable Education: re-visioning learning and change. Devan, UK: Green Books. Sunar, S. (2021a). türkiye’nin telafi eğitimi yol haritası. Türk Eğitim Derneği (TED): Ankara. www.tedmem. org Accessed 13 May 2021. Sunar, S. (2021b). 2020 Eğitim değerlendirme raporu. Türk Eğitim Derneği (TED): Ankara. www.tedmem. org Accessed 13 May 2021.

B. H. İnce et al. The 2nd Voluntary National Review Report of Turkey (2019). Sustainable development goals “Strong ground towards common goals” https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/23862Turkey_ VNR_110719.pdf Accessed 1 May 2021. UN (2000). UN millennium declaration. www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm Accessed 5 May 2021. UN (2002). UN decade of education and sustainable development. www.un-­documents.net/a57r254.htm Accessed 4 Feb 2021. UN (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. www.undocs.org/A/70/L.1 Accessed 4 Feb 2021. UNEP (1972). Declaration of the UN conference on the human environment. www.unep.org/Documents. Multilingual/Default.asp?documentid=97&articl eid=1503 Accessed 1 Feb 2021. UNESCO (2005). UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014): International Implementation Scheme. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO (2007). The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD 2005–2014): The first two years. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO (2012). Education for sustainable development. Sourcebook. https://sustainabledevelopment. un.org/index.php?page=view&type=400&nr=926&m enu=1515 Accessed 1 Feb 2021. UNESCO (2014a). Global citizenship education: Preparing learners for the challenges of the 21st century. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ ark:/48223/pf0000227729_eng Accessed 01 Feb 2021. UNESCO (2014b). Education for sustainable Development (ESD). www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-­t he-­i nternational-­a genda/ education-­for-­sustainable-­development/ Accessed 1 Feb 2021. UNESCO (2015). Global citizenship education: Topics and learning objectives. UNESCO. https://unesdoc. unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232993_eng Accessed 30 May 2021. UNESCO (2017a). E2030: Education and skills for 21st century. http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/ MULTIMEDIA/FIELD/Santiago/pdf/Habilidades-­ SXXI-­Buenos-­Aires-­Eng.pdf Accessed 30 May 2021. UNESCO (2017b). Education for sustainable development goals. Learning objectives. https://unesdoc. unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000247444 Accessed 30 May 2021. WEF (2015). New vision for education: Unlocking the potential of technology. WEF. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFUSA_NewVisionforEducation_ Report2015.pdf Accessed 27 May 2021. WEF (2020). Schools of the future: Defining new models of education for the fourth industrial revolution. WEF. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Schools_of_ the_Future_Report_2019.pdf Accessed 27 May 2021. Yıldırım, A. & Şimşek, H. (2013). Sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri. Ankara: Seçkin Yayınları.

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Reimagining Education for Climate Action and Resilience: A Multidimensional and Locally Grounded Approach in Mexican States of Chiapas and Yucatán Lina López Lalinde, Emma Cameron, and Gabriela Anzo Gutiérrez

Abstract

Despite the growing focus on Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development in international organizations and national education systems, approaches to this phenomenon continue to be predominantly fragmented and divorced from climate and social realities at local levels. In Mexico, educational reforms aiming to strengthen Education for Sustainable Development and Climate Change Education have been undermined by vague declarations and guidelines given at the central level as well as by a failure in an integrative reflection of cognitive, institutional, and socio-political factors involved in developing reflective leaders with the knowledge and abilities to build climate resilience in their communities. In this chapter, we outline a multidimensional framework that accounts for cultural, psychological, professional, institutional, and political factors in educational transformation processes and promote

L. López Lalinde (*) · E. Cameron G. Anzo Gutiérrez Population Council New York NY USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

a holistic approach for identifying solutions and strategies that align with local needs and capacities. We then utilize this framework to illustrate how the theoretical discourse on educational transformation could serve as a reference for the design and application of approaches to educating students for climate action and resilience in the Mexican states of Chiapas and Yucatán and in similar other contexts.

2.1 Introduction At the May 2021 World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development, UNESCO’s assistant director-general for education, Stefania Giannini, stated that “for too long, we have taken for granted that humans can disrupt nature without paying any price […] We now stand at the precipice of multiple crises caused by our own behaviour” (UNESCO2021). With this, she was alluding to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to the other central topic of the gathering: the global climate emergency. “To change course,” Ms. Giannini continued, “transformative education is the only choice. Education is one of the most powerful forces we have for changing the behaviours of future generations”

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_2

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(UNESCO2021). This message is grounded in the idea that education could increase understanding about the most pressing local and global concerns and engage learners in practices that will ensure a more sustainable future for all (Giannini 2020; UNESCO2021). While few would argue against this need to provide students with the skills necessary to address societal problems, it is now clear that the global Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) movement established to reach this goal has failed to produce the required systemic transformation (Jickling and Sterling 2017; Kopnina 2020; Kwauk 2020). The efficacy of these existing initiatives has been severely limited, in large part, by their fragmented approaches to concepts and processes that are intrinsically interconnected, as well as by their failure to translate global goals into policies rooted in  local climate and social realities (Kopnina 2020; Kwauk 2020). The consequences of this failure could be found in national educationsystems worldwide, as in the case of Mexico. Environmental Education (EE) has been part of the country’s national curriculum for over 30 years and various educational reforms have established and reinforced its commitment to sustainability and fostering critical, reflective thinkers (Terrón Amigón 2019). Nonetheless, these efforts have failed to incorporate an integrative reflection of the cognitive, institutional, and socio-political factors involved in the interaction between human beings and the environment (Leff 2005). This failure is evidenced by an educational strategy in which contents related to climate change are divided and taught in a disjointed manner, with little guidance for teachers on how to incorporate the rich ecosystemic and sociocultural diversity of students’ local contexts into their lessons (SEP 2017b; Terrón Amigón 2019). Given Mexico’s vulnerabilities tied to its unique geo-climatic context and sizeable wealth gap, the country cannot afford to stall on serious structural changes, including of its education system, in order to build resilience and mitigate the effects of climate change (Ramirez 2020; USAID 2017). This chapter delves deeper into the elements needed for such a systemic transformation, giv-

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ing particular consideration to what this might look like in the Mexican context. To this end, we will first expand our critique of traditional approaches to CCE. We will then describe a multidimensional framework proposed by Reimers (2020), which accounts for cultural, psychological, professional, institutional, and political factors in the transformation process that could be used to identify opportunities to improve these approaches and better align education strategies with local needs and capacities. Next, we will provide an overview of Mexico’s vulnerabilities in the face of climate change and highlight some of the ways in which its national education reforms have largely failed to take on a nuanced, holistic view of climate change and its impacts. Finally, we will utilize Reimers’ framework to discuss these shortcomings more in-depth, examining how the theoretical discourse on Climate Change Education (CCE) and educational transformation could serve as a starting point to orient the design and application of approaches to educating students for climate action and resilience in two of the country’s most vulnerable states, Chiapas and Yucatán.

2.1.1 Reimagining ‘Climate Change Education’ Complex global environmental problems such as climate change have long inspired efforts from different sectors to mitigate their risks and consequences, education being no exception. These efforts, which include the current Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development movement and its EE predecessors, have been characterized by anthropocentric rhetoric, excessively focused on economic growth and on changing individual behaviours (Jickling and Sterling 2017; Kopnina 2020; Sauvé 2004). In this chapter, we advocate for a shift towards a more ethical, ecocentric, and resilient education, envisioned by González-Gaudiano and Gutiérrez-Pérez as “an emancipatory tool to develop critical thinking and active involvement of citizens in the problems of their environment” (2017, p.  126). This education allows students to take conscious-

2  Reimagining Education for Climate Action and Resilience: A Multidimensional and Locally Grounded…

ness of their role in collective life, engages them in active democratic processes, and stresses autonomy and liberty of choice through the introduction of different theories and philosophies (Sauvé 2017). Importantly, it recognizes that the environment and non-human species form part of this collective life as opposed to being isolated entities to be used solely for human study and exploitation (Sauvé 2017). To move towards this stated ideal, we first need to recognize some of the significant flaws in the current approaches to educating students for the climate crisis under ESD. The first is that the majority of these programs and policies follow a top-down, blanket approach that assumes that decisions on ‘best practices’ by international organizations and national governments will automatically and effectively transform teaching practices and learning in the classroom (Calixto Flores and García-Ruiz 2018; Reimers 2021). In the context of educating students for climate change, this assumption has several weaknesses. First, climate change has a far from uniform semblance across different environmental, social, economic, and political contexts. A one-size-fits-­ all strategy will therefore fail to effectively prepare students for action in the context of their localities’ particular environmental vulnerabilities (Reimers 2021). Second, in many contexts, this approach also places schools and educators in the service of Western systems of thought. These systems prioritize economic growth over developing individuals with reflexive and critical consciousness and ignore and might even weaken local cultural identities and knowledge bases that, if properly leveraged, would be instrumental in confronting existential threats such as climate change (González-Gaudiano et al. 2020; Reyes-­ Escutia 2013, 2019). Another major flaw of current ESD approaches is the clear fragmentation of the multiple dimensions that undergird the complex phenomena of climate change and other crucial sustainability issues (González-Gaudiano and Gutiérrez-Pérez 2017; Kopnina 2020). The failure to recognize that these issues cannot be addressed in isolation could be seen clearly in many countries’ national curricula. In these, climate change and other

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environmental issues remain constrained to the discipline of natural sciences, despite widespread acknowledgment that climate change is an inherently multidisciplinary issue and that true understanding necessitates engaging with it through economic, political, and sociocultural lenses (Jain 2020; Kwauk 2020; Terrón Amigón 2019). The issue here is not simply the fact that topics related to climate change are rarely addressed in non-science subject areas in school. Rather, the deeper problem lies in the segmented nature of education systems themselves, which rarely acknowledge that creating effective and lasting change requires a systemic approach that attends to all the interdependent components that play a role in education (Kwauk 2020; Reimers 2020). More commonly, reforms take on a concept such as CCE and devise a way to insert its topics into the existing curriculum or create a new discipline through which to introduce it without taking into account the institutional, societal, and political factors that will ultimately determine if its objectives will be met (Kwauk 2020; Reimers 2020). In order to adopt a more ethical and holistic “education for life” as referred to by Sauvé (2017) and others, these systemic flaws need to be addressed. First, locally grounded initiatives focused on connecting students to the realities of their communities and environment need to be promoted and financed (Sauvé 2017). Second, education systems must acknowledge that creating a culture of critical thinking, sustainability, and climate resilience within schools and communities requires that these ideals be introduced and reinforced in every component of the system. As stated by Jickling and Sterling, this entails “a disruption of dominant assumptions in educational thinking and purpose so that a cultural shift towards practice that is life-affirming, relational, and truly transformational can take root” (2017, p. 9).

2.2 Conceptual Framework We will employ Reimers’ multidimensional framework (2020) to guide our discussion about the type of educational transformation required

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to educate students for climate change more effectively. The purpose of this model is to merge theory and practice, providing practitioners with “a systemic and comprehensive approach to developing programs of global education that are responsive to the needs and characteristics of specific schools and local contexts” (Reimers 2020, p. 2). In the framework, Reimers considers that educational transformation is based on a varied set of assumptions about how education systems function and could be changed. These assumptions could helpfully be categorized into five different yet often overlapping perspectives to form a multidimensional lens through which to design and analyse systemic change of education systems. These perspectives are cultural, psychological, professional, institutional, and political (Reimers 2020; Fig. 2.1). The cultural perspective acknowledges that educational processes and practices, such as the establishment of curriculum contents and teacher professional development, occur within a society with established norms, traditions, and expectations for what education is and should achieve (Reimers 2020). For Reimers, this perspective relates to how society’s norms and expectations shape practices within the education system and questions to what extent schools should push accepted boundaries to adapt practices to keep up with rapid social, economic, and political changes (Reimers 2020). In this chapter, we take a critical stance on the concept of culture and the nature of this interplay between societal norms and educational practice. In contexts like the ones we discuss, with a rich tradition of ecocentric ethics and Indigenous cosmovision, it is essential to recognize that the sustainability-related ideas and practices imposed and reproduced by Western education systems often do not align with the existing values of the communities they operate in (Sauvé 2017). In this perspective, we ask: how can schools appropriately respond to and adapt to their local cultural contexts? Rather than force the adoption of external systems of thought, how can education promote a dialogue of knowledge aimed at complementing and strengthening existing local practices?

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A psychological perspective to analysing educational transformation draws from an existing base of evidence about how people learn and make meaningful connections to complex topics. The core questions to be answered from a psychological perspective include: “what should students learn when, and how can they be supported in learning it?” (Reimers 2020, p. 12). This perspective requires examining how closely curriculum content aligns with the knowledge and skills students need to succeed in their specific contexts, including the interdisciplinary, systems-­ based thinking needed to understand and address complex sustainability issues. Making content relevant to students’ lives and emphasizing critical thinking and evaluation is crucial for broadening their worldviews and motivating them to pursue further knowledge and act (Allen and Crowley 2017). The professional perspective focuses on teachers and the expertise they wield. This examines questions such as who can teach, what criteria are needed for teacher professional preparation, and what norms guide the development of teachers throughout their careers (Reimers 2020). The ideological underpinning of this perspective is meant to expand the mind-set and skills that teachers will develop throughout their career, to identify existing gaps that must be closed, and determine how to close those gaps. Importantly, this perspective highlights the need for teachers to receive training that mirrors that of their students’. This means allowing them to relate to complex sustainability topics and understand their interdisciplinary nature and enabling them to incorporate these topics into their teaching practices and appropriately use the materials meant to support them (Kwauk 2020; Nilsson 2015; Sauvé and Orellana 2002). An institutional perspective focuses on the various norms, regulations, designs, and structures that govern the different components of an education system, including the different levels of the institutions themselves and the relationships between its different actors (GPE 2019; Reimers 2020). This perspective considers how to align these different components so that the system runs smoothly. Further, it stresses that in

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Cultural Acknowledges that educational processes occur within a society with established norms, traditions, and expectations

Psychological Draws from an existing base of evidence about how w people learn and make meaningful connections to complex topics

Instuonal Focuses on the variouss norms, regulations, designs, and structures that govern the different components off an education system

Professional Focuses on teachers and the expertise they wield, and aims to expand the mindset and skill set that they will develop throughout their career

Polical Takes into account the various stakeholderss involved in an education system and looks to find d alignment among the myriad d of interests

Fig. 2.1  Multidimensional framework (Reimers 2020)

order to effect change within the system, all entities within the system need to be supported in this change (Reimers 2020). The growing literature on effective education systems tends to highlight several traits such as ambitious standards aligned with instructional systems and individual reforms coordinated with comprehensive reforms (Jensen 2012; National Conference of State Legislatures 2016; OECD 2011). Effective change that encompasses holistic transformation must incorporate these ideals of cohesion and alignment. Finally, examining educational transformation through the political perspective considers the various stakeholders involved in an education system and looks to find alignment among their myriad interests (Reimers 2020). According to the World Bank (2018), oftentimes misalignment in education reform and systemic change could be attributed to politics because of the lack of mobilization. The political perspective aims to continually advance education that is satisfying to all without getting stymied by the political turnover and

nature of using education reform to one’s advantage. A long-term approach that values and encourages conversations with stakeholders, such as teachers, students, families, community leaders, and bureaucrats, remains valuable if education systems are to embrace change (Reimers 2020). Together, these perspectives offer insight into creating tangible solutions for better approaching climate change in education systems that are both multidimensional and locally grounded (Reimers 2020). This chapter aims to build upon recent efforts to apply Reimers’ framework for policy analysis within the Mexican context (viz., Moch Islas et al. 2021; Rojas Ayala et al. 2021). With a focus on climate change and the field of EE, we seek to add a new dimension to the theoretical critiques of previous and on-going education policy practices within the country. In addition, we aim to illustrate the utility of these perspectives in designing a context-specific course of action to address the nuance and complexity of climate change at the local level.

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2.3 Context 2.3.1 Mexico’s Climate Vulnerabilities Sustainability is one of the greatest challenges Mexico is currently facing. Environmental degradation caused by water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, pollution, hurricanes, floods, and fires has been accompanied by rising wealth inequality in the country. Given that factors such as access to health care, transportation, information, and education determine the adaptive capacity of populations, this growing inequality means that a growing number of people are at risk of facing the most critical impacts of climate change (López 2014). According to a 2013 World Bank report, the Mexican states that will suffer the highest increases in vulnerability to climate change between 2005 and 2045 are Chiapas, Chihuahua, Guanajuato, Yucatán, and Zacatecas (Borja-Vega and De la Fuente 2013). Two of these, Chiapas and Yucatán, are tropical and located in the country’s southern region. Despite the two states’ geographic similarities and several shared climate vulnerabilities, the effects of climate change threaten to affect these two locations differently. The main climate risks in Yucatán are related to extreme weather events such as hurricanes and the increase of temperature that could disturb the natural ecosystem’s balance; the coastal areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change effects due to the geographic characteristics and plain topography of the peninsula (Soares et al. 2014b). In Chiapas, an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts, and storms, threaten to bring about floods and landslides, among other events that cause economic, social, and environmental damage. Chiapas is also highly ecologically and socio-culturally diverse. It contains both Nearctic and Neotropical regions, and is also a multi-­ ethnic, pluricultural, and multilingual state with significant dependence on agriculture and livestock and a high poverty rate (SEMAHN 2011). The differences in social and climate vulnerabilities between two states with close geographic

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proximity remind us that consequences of climate change are experienced by populations at the micro level, and consequently, interventions aimed at building resilience for climate adaptation and mitigation need to shift from global to local approaches.

2.3.2 Mexico’s Efforts in Climate Change Education Efforts to integrate EE into Mexico’s education system began in the 1990s. In 1993, a national education reform incorporated protection of the environment, the conservation of nature, and the rational use of natural resources into the national curriculum (SEP 1993). These efforts were circumscribed by a scientific focus on the environment and climate change, with a lack of consideration for the social, cultural, economic, and political processes that determine how each community understands and experiences climate change (Terrón Amigón 2019). More recently, the national education plan of 2017 stressed the need to develop reflective, participatory individuals with the capacity and willingness to participate in solutions for natural and societal problems (SEP 2017a). The plan discussed the importance of converging contents from different curricular areas to understand the relationship between society and nature, and encouraged teachers to adapt curriculum components to fit their school contexts’ and environments’ particular needs (SEP 2017a). While this presented an opportunity for schools to develop local projects and activities to reinforce sustainability and resilience, the guidelines provided were vague, and teachers were left with the burden of weaving together complex, interdisciplinary contents without proper training or instruction (Terrón Amigón 2019). The most recent education reform in 2019 had plans to rebuild and better incorporate these topics into the national curriculum. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, federal authorities halted the process, leaving teachers without the expected support (SEP 2020). The reforms aimed at improving environmental and CCE in Mexico have been fragmented,

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biased, and too centred around the acquisition of cognitive competencies (Terrón Amigón et  al. 2020). As a result, there is a general lack of knowledge in the country about the systemic causes of environmental problems (Terrón Amigón et  al. 2020; González-Gaudiano and Meira Cartea 2020). Facing the risks imposed by the climate crisis will require an integral transformation of the Mexican educationsystem. The history of EE in Mexico has demonstrated that simply stating the importance of interdisciplinary and context-specific thinking is not sufficient to catalyse this change. Mexico needs to move to a comprehensive, locally based, intersectional and integrative strategy of education to ensure that climate change and the different social and environmental vulnerabilities to its impacts are not only understood but also addressed from various perspectives.

2.4 A Multidimensional Approach to Climate Change Education in Chiapas and Yucatán Using Reimers’ conceptual framework, the following section will consider how the five perspectives could be used to guide a meaningful educational transformation aimed at preparing students in Mexico to confront the climate crisis. The analysis will focus on the states of Chiapas and Yucatán. With this exercise, we illustrate how the failure of international and national programs to approach change holistically and account for local characteristics could severely undermine the achievement of their intended objectives and provide a point of reference for actors who wish to undertake the complex yet vital task of designing and applying multidimensional approaches to educating students for climate action and resilience.

2.4.1 Cultural Perspective A cultural perspective reminds us that education operates within the context of communities with

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their own norms, values, and bases of knowledge and invites us to question whether current educational practices contribute to the strengthening of local cultural traditions and identities or rather to their disintegration. In Mexico, the national educationsystem has been critiqued for its homogenizing character and for employing strategies that fail to take into account environmental, cultural, and linguistic differences (Tirzo 2005). Critics of the field of EE challenge the Eurocentric approach that has given rise to the idea of superior, objective scientific knowledge, and disregarded knowledge based on cultural forms of inhabiting a territory and relating with the Earth and climate (Leff 2012). Mexico must reimagine educational practice in order to restore value to different types of knowledge, such as those based on experience or traditional beliefs (Kopnina 2020; Leff 2012; Sauvé and Orellana 2002). The goal is not to have students rely solely on these traditional knowledge bases nor is it to argue that these should take precedence over modern scientific knowledge in the construction of solutions to development problems. Rather, it is to provide students with the freedom to think and live differently, so that they might respect different sources of knowledge and think critically about what kinds of solutions are needed to ensure the resilience and sustainability of their communities and the planet (Sauvé 2017). Engaging in such a dialogue of knowledge is crucial given that the values of consumer capitalism and Eurocentrism, which privilege individuality and competition, have largely contributed to climate change. Moving away from sole reliance on these values could bring us closer to a conception of sustainability more rooted in local relationships with nature and that operates within an ethical framework of respectful coexistence with others, non-human species, and the environment (Leff 2004; Terrón Amigón et al. 2020; Reyes and Reyes 2016). Incorporating a cultural perspective at a local level requires following educational strategies that do not present Western lifestyles and modern science as the only vehicles through which students can thrive and relate to the planet. Rather, culturally conscious educational approaches take

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into account communities’ perceptions and experiences with the environment and changes in the climate and emphasize the value of traditional practices for predicting and adapting to these changes to avoid contributing to the continued disintegration of human relationships with the land they inhabit (Leff 2012). One example is the milpa farming system of crop diversification of the Maya Indigenous people of Yucatán. Since pre-colonial times, the Maya in this region have relied on observations of the sky and their surroundings to define agricultural cycles and adapt their practices to mitigate negative weather effects (Camacho-Villa et al. 2021). To this day, groups of milpa farmers in Yucatán rely on traditional weather prediction methods such as the Mayan Xook K’iin. This method is based on detailed accounts of factors such as sun intensity, cloud density, rain, and temperature during January to predict weather phenomena such as hurricanes and droughts and make decisions about what areas to cultivate each year (Camacho-Villa et  al. 2021). However, young people in Yucatán have largely abandoned these agricultural practices in favour of economic alternatives such as full-time wage work in coastal tourist centres like Cancún. Regrettably, this has resulted in the rupture of intergenerational knowledge transmission of the milpa and traditional methods of weather prediction that could play an important role in fostering community resilience in the face of climate change (Yamasaki 2016 as cited in Olko et al. 2016). In Chiapas, a similar fragmentation of cultural values has been experienced by the Zoque and other groups of Indigenous people. Zoque peasant farmers have traditionally relied on personal experiences and biological indicators, such as bird and plant behaviour, to perceive local climate variability. In response to these perceived climatic changes in the past few decades, particularly temperature increases, the Zoques have altered their annual sowing calendar and introduced new plant species more suited to warmer climates into their home gardens (Sánchez-Cortés and Chavero 2011). However, cultural beliefs around these climatic changes and connection to the land have also been lost among the younger

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generations of Zoques, with many now abandoning the countryside and migrating to urban centres and out of state in search of income through means other than agriculture (Sánchez-Cortés and Chavero 2011). For both Chiapas and Yucatán, this disintegration of cultural values is a concerning reality that the education system must confront. Indigenous people play a major role in the fight against climate change, as their traditional practices make them particularly perceptive to changes in the climate and the environment and make their insights especially valuable for complementing scientific data and climate models (Raygorodetsky 2011). Further, Indigenous knowledge provides a crucial base for community adaptation and mitigation actions suited to the socio-ecological realities of specific contexts (Raygorodetsky 2011). Education transformation efforts seeking to build community resilience in the face of climate change must be led by local leaders and build a dialogue of perspectives that will help to strengthen, not weaken, local cultural identities and values.

2.4.2 Psychological Perspective While a cultural perspective to educational transformation considers the role of education in cultivating an appreciation for different forms of knowledge and preserving local conceptions of sustainability, a psychological perspective contemplates how to align local educational initiatives with what we know about how people learn (Reimers 2020). According to Allen and Crowley (2017), helping students understand that climate change is not some distant, abstract phenomenon entails structuring educational programs around the most relevant impacts of climate change on students’ lives to motivate them to seek further knowledge and act based on this information. From a psychological perspective, there are several problems with Mexico’s approach of excluding topics related to climate change from the majority of its curricular areas and focusing primarily on its biophysical causes and manifestations. While evidence-based, scientific knowl-

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edge is vital, the literature on effective CCE practices stresses the importance of teaching the subject from the inter-connected, systems-based perspective required to address such a complex issue (e.g. Allen and Crowley 2017; McCrum et al. 2009; Pruneau et al. 2006; Shepardson et al. 2009). Treating climate change as a global force with repercussions in the economic, social, and political, psychologically “enables learners to improve understanding of both the parts and the interconnections that make up systems, imagine future outcomes and behaviours, and think creatively about how to engage with systems” (Meadows 1997 as cited in Allen and Crowley 2017, p. 8). Incorporating this psychological perspective into the design of local educational programs aimed at strengthening community resilience in specific contexts like those of Yucatán and Chiapas entails developing an understanding how climate change directly impacts students in different communities. It then requires engaging them in critical evaluations of how these relate to other social, economic, and political processes they see play out in their daily lives. This latter step ensures that students gain awareness not just of the physical climate risks facing their localities but also the fact that even within a single community, perceptions, and experiences of these risks are unequally distributed among individuals with different social, economic, and other vulnerabilities (González- Gaudiano and Maldonado González 2017). In Yucatán, the last four decades have seen the growing incidence of category five hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. In small coastal communities in the state, such as San Felipe, where nearly 54% of the economically active population works in the fishing industry, hurricanes represent an enormous threat to families’ economic stability. Farther inland, hurricanes, along with droughts, also represent a large threat to milpa production (Camacho-Villa et al. 2021). Yet, schools in these communities do little to educate students about

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hydrometeorological events and have not incorporated disaster risk reduction into the curriculum (Audefroy and Cabrera Sánchez 2017). Relating the concept of climate change to these economic vulnerabilities would be instrumental in motivating students to contribute to building their communities’ resilience in the face of these disasters. Similarly, engaging students in conversations about other factors that increase their own or classmates’ vulnerability to hurricanes can make them aware of the interconnectedness of issues such as climate change, gender inequality, and poverty. For instance, in a mapping of vulnerabilities and adaptive capabilities in four localities in Yucatán conducted by Soares et al. (2014a), the authors point out the low percentage of economically active women in these localities. They propose that this low percentage of participation contributes to this group’s vulnerabilities not only because it makes them economically dependent but also because this reflects a lack of opportunities for these women to develop essential skills outside of the domestic realm that would help them respond to natural disasters (Soares et al. 2014a). Similar connections could be made by students in Chiapas, where small-scale coffee farmers’ vulnerabilities to climate hazards and variations are directly tied to their social and economic marginality. For many of these smallscale farmers, coffee is their primary and sometimes only source of income, yet the plant is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Shifts in the rainy season and variations in temperature and precipitation, for instance, result in reduced crop yields and a serious loss of income for these farmers (Frank et  al. 2011). Encouraging discussions about climate risk factors and social vulnerabilities from students’ own experiences and perceptions is, from a psychological perspective, critical for fostering social organization and participatory management of existing risks.

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2.4.3 Professional Perspective From a professional perspective, Mexico’s efforts to incorporate climate change topics into the curriculum have failed due to the lack of a proper channel through which to develop expert knowledge in teachers about climate change and about the most effective instructional methods for teaching such interdisciplinary topics. This is evident in a teacher professional development scheme that prioritizes mastery of disciplinary contents over transdisciplinary contents. As a result, the burden falls on the teachers to tackle these complex topics without adequate support, training, and planning time (Calixto Flores and García-Ruiz 2018; Terrón Amigón 2019). This dynamic is problematic since we know that to understand topics in sustainability and incorporate them into their teaching practices, teachers need proper preparation that allows them to relate to these topics and understand their interdisciplinary nature (Nilsson 2015; Sauvé and Orellana 2002). For CCE to form part of a transformative education through which students generate the values of solidarity, reflection, and participation, educators themselves need to be critical and collaborative (Calixto Flores and García-Ruiz 2018). For this reason, much of the literature regarding teacher professional development for climate change centres on many of the same themes found in the previous discussion about incorporating a psychological perspective into climate change programs for students. Specifically, a lot of authors (e.g. Bello Benavides 2019; Calixto Flores and García-Ruiz 2018; González Muñoz 1998; Sauvé and Orellana 2002) stress the importance of professional development programs that are linked to teachers’ local contexts, value their initial beliefs and perceptions about climate change and the environment, and accompany them in a learning process that is autonomous, creative, and reflective. Integrating this professional perspective into the design of education programs for climate change in Chiapas and Yucatán would therefore require a serious evaluation of existing efforts to prepare teachers to deliver climate change topics, as well as a careful

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consideration of ways in which to incorporate lessons from the cultural and psychological perspectives into fortified teacher professional development approaches. In Yucatán, the existing teacher preparation scheme has left teachers feeling that they need more preparation to understand the complexity of the concept of sustainable development and its implications for Mexico, and primarily, to get their students interested and engaged with this topic (Franco Toriz et  al. 2016). A study conducted by Olguín Puch (2013) with student teachers in Mérida found that the majority of student teachers related the training they had received on environmental topics more to ecological knowledge-building than to humanistic development. While most student teachers did identify certain environmental problems, they did not relate these to their own lifestyles or cultural values. Furthermore, Olguín Puch (2013) observed that the environmental issues discussed were more often in the form of consequences rather than causes and that teachers’ information often lined up with the information shared through mass media. Similar findings were observed in interviews conducted by Terrón Amigón et  al. (2020) with primary school teachers in Chiapas. The responses revealed a general lack of knowledge about the origin and complexity of climate change, how the phenomenon will or is impacting their local context, and strategies to confront the risks that it presents. Additionally, the information that teachers did share about the causes and effects of climate change was more relevant to other environmental contexts and seemed to correspond to messages generally shared by the media, similar to what Olguín Puch found in Yucatán. They spoke, for example, about the melting of icebergs and the extinction of polar bears, phenomena that do not occur in Chiapas. These findings, which indicate deeply distorted, simplistic, and fragmented conceptions of climate change among the teachers in this study, highlight “the need to provide a basis for the training of teachers […] in order [for them to] understand its complexity and ways of dealing with it integrally” (Terrón Amigón et al. 2020, p. 176).

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The consequence is that teachers in Chiapas, like those in Yucatán, are reluctant to dive deeply into the topic of climate change. In the absence of proper training and planning time, their primary supports are textbooks that still treat environmental topics through the lens of conservation and provide little to no guidance on a transdisciplinary approach to climate change (Terrón Amigón 2019). In an interview conducted by Terrón Amigón in an indigenous community in Chiapas, a primary school teacher stated: “[We teach it] just as it appears in the books, though some topics are difficult to address, such as the greenhouse effect, because the book does not say much about it and the kids ask about it […] Most of the time, regardless of how much you try to explain it to them, they don’t understand” (2019, p.  337). These experiences highlight the urgent need to focus institutional attention and resources on equipping teachers, particularly those in highly vulnerable locations, with the skills, knowledge, and support they need to teach highly complex and interdisciplinary topics. In order to do this, educational efforts directed at reducing climate vulnerabilities in communities need to account for the specific training needs of teachers in different localities, adapting programs to fit the characteristics of their institutional, cultural, and environmental contexts teachers work in and focusing on developing creative, analytical, and critical skills.

2.4.4 Institutional Perspective The institutional perspective acknowledges that the various norms, regulations, designs, and structures governing interactions at each level of the education system are crucial for solving coordination and cooperation problems between actors with different goals and priorities (Acuña and Chudnovsky 2013; Reimers 2020). Further, as reform takes place and institutions adapt and change, all entities expected to work towards a particular educational goal need to be supported in these processes, in order to maintain coherence in the system (Reimers 2020). This perspective reminds us that while a particular policy goal

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might be well-articulated on paper at the national level, its actual implementation heavily depends on the institutions at the state and local levels. It is up to these to infuse actions and goals into their own norms and regulations, clarify each actor’s responsibilities, and provide useful information and support for these responsibilities (UNDP2008). The complexity of the Mexican educationsystem lies not only in its considerable size but also in its diversity of contexts (SEP 2020). These realities underscore the need for national educational strategies to pay particular attention to the will and capacities of institutions at the local level and ensure that misalignment of priorities and a lack of clear orientations do not undermine its larger goals. One significant area of focus for systemic educational transformation, from an institutional perspective, should be to ensure the concordance of the national and state-level legislations that establish rules and responsibilities for different entities to implement specific education policies. Mexico’s General Law of Education establishes that the state will promote an education of “respect and care for the environment, with the constant orientation towards sustainability, to understand and assimilate the interrelation with nature and social, environmental and economic issues, as well as its responsibility for the execution of actions that guarantee its preservations and promote sustainable lifestyles” (LGE, Art. 13, IV). Further, the law declares that this education will focus on the generation of awareness and “the acquisition of the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values ​​necessary to forge a sustainable future, as basic elements for the harmonious and integral development of individuals and society” (LGE, Art. 16, V). In Yucatán, the state legislation for EE replicates the federal law and adds that education will: develop environmental awareness at the individual level and environmental culture at the community level, by teaching the concepts and fundamental principles of environmental science, environmental ethics, development sustainable development, the prevention of climate change, as well as the protection and conservation of the environment and individual responsibility and of adopting ade-

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32 quate measures, as basic elements to understand the causes, consequences and possible solutions of environmental problems and achieve the harmonious and comprehensive development of individuals and society (LEEY, Art. 16, XXII).

The legislation also includes that education authorities “will ensure a solid professional preparation of [teachers], looking for them to acquire extensive scientific, pedagogical and environmental education for sustainability” (LEEY, Art. 109, I). Once again, we can see at the state level vague declarations emphasizing the integral development of students and teachers in order for them to develop the set of skills they need to adapt and mitigate the consequences and threats of climate changes. Yet in practice, as discussed in previous sections, we see little acknowledgment that achieving these lofty goals will depend on the will and capacities of the diverse actors, institutions, and organisms responsible for its implementation. The legislation of Chiapas also replicates the national commitments yet adds that “the subject of environmental education might be taught as an elective [course] and it will be for the consideration of the state educational authority to include it in the curriculum of each level that makes up the State Educational System” (LEELSCH, Art. 55). Making EE optional undermines national law and its efforts to combat the effects of climate change. Given the high number of mandatory topics teachers must cover during the school year and the overload of activities, there is scarce time for teachers to design an integral, nuanced, and interdisciplinary pedagogical strategy for environmental topics (Terrón Amigón 2019). During the 2017–2018 school years in Chiapas, 47.5% of regular primary schools and 72.9% of indigenous primary schools were multigrade, meaning that teachers served students of more than one grade in the same class, whereas 38% of regular preschools and 60.2% indigenous preschools had only one teacher for the entire school (INEE 2019). In these scenarios, the task of developing an integral pedagogical strategy for climate change as described in national documents at the school level would appear very difficult.

Given these conditions, educational approaches for climate change in Chiapas should also bolster institutional capacities so that the actors expected to implement these are properly supported. For this, the promotion and ­strengthening of public–private alliances and networks to share strategies and contribute to the development of educational materials could be crucial. For instance, the Mexico Alliance for the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (Alianza MéxicoREDD+), formed by several organizations, has already collaborated with schools in Chiapas to incorporate a curriculum on climate change within their communities. Teachers in the community of Montecristo de Guerrero have used this curriculum to inspire students to take care of their community’s forests and environment, including cultivation of traditional medicinal plant gardens, a nursery garden, and reforesting an abandoned parcel of land to continue the development of more conservation and restoration projects in the community (Rainforest Alliance et al. 2015). For broad policy goals to translate into effective interventions, systems need to ensure alignment in policy instruments and legislation, and adequate support and guidelines need to be offered to bolster institutional capacity at all levels.

2.4.5 Political Perspective The political perspective is focused on the stakeholders and actors who make up an education system. This perspective accounts for the coordination, cooperation, and participation of stakeholders with different interests and priorities and pays particular attention to issues of distribution of power and scope of action (Reimers 2020). According to Soares and Gutiérrez (2011), long-­ term solutions depend on the ability to build more equitable societies by activating participation and social co-responsibility. This suggests that the system needs to shift from solely top-down policies to feature a combination of top-down and bottom-up strategies. In the words of Beltrán (2010), building curriculum “is a process of political construction

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whose meaning is specified in the socio-­ historical contexts of its production” (p.  52). Mexico’s curriculum design is based mainly on a centrist and vertical perspective that guides work top to bottom, by groups of experts who often do not respond to the conditions and needs in schools. Teachers oppose their exclusion from curricular reforms, generating tensions with education authorities (Rivero 2000). In addition, systemic inequalities prevent fair and equitable curriculum implementation. For example, free national textbooks are not translated into all indigenous languages, educational materials do not reach all schools, school infrastructure conditions are very adverse, and schools’ staffs are incomplete (Conaliteg 2019; Miranda 2018). In basic and secondary education, there has been little impact on the awareness of children and youth about the climate crisis, which might be in part a consequence of the few participatory spaces to which they have access (Bello Benavides et al. 2017 as cited in Terrón Amigón et al. 2020; González-Gaudiano and Maldonado González 2017). Integrating a political perspective in contexts like Chiapas and Yucatán means giving teachers and students the power to participate in curricular design through collaborative and in situ1 learning and teaching strategies, as well as dialogues and negotiations with curriculum designers. In Yucatán, participatory community problem- and solution-definition processes are already an effective strategy to promote participation and environmental engagement (Campos et al. 2020). In one such project, students from the Cuxtal Ecological Reservation in Mérida developed an Intercultural and Environmental Education Plan starting with the selection of 17 main problems and designed a six-step action roadmap to involve other young community members in the reservation preserIn situ strategies are class- or school-based, aiming for each community’s recognition of their particular needs and circumstances, because “when there is teamwork and on-site support in their own classrooms, teachers can test new teaching strategies, contextualize them, and analyze difficulties that arise in real settings, as they occur” (Vezub 2013, p. 25). 1 

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vation. The process of participatory diagnosis and evaluation and the generation of proposals through intercultural and collaborative processes allowed students to commit and enthusiastically endorse its implementation (Campos et al. 2020). Further, having a centralized approach that places the power of decision-making and action in the hands of a few actors could limit local initiatives and create dependencies, and thus aggravate inequalities (UNDP and México-INECC 2016). Chiapas is the state with the highest poverty rate in Mexico, with 76.4% of its population living in poverty conditions (CONEVAL 2019). Almost 13 million people there are particularly vulnerable to climate threats, stressing the need to promote participatory decision-making in a state where adaptation measures to climate change have largely taken the shape of migration and displacement (López 2014). Yet, Chiapas also has a rich history of Indigenous collective environmental action. It was home to the Zapatista uprising which gained Indigenous people in Mexico the constitutional right to self-­ determination and resulted in the spread of mass consciousness among the country’s population about the nation’s multicultural and multi-ethnic character (Reyes 2019). Combatting the effects of climate change and building community resilience through educational efforts in Chiapas will require a transformation that analyses current power dynamics in decision-making and re-­ emphasizes this right to self-determination for the most vulnerable groups in Chiapas. The political perspective interacts with the cultural perspective but goes beyond dialogue and the question of whether certain worldviews are being promoted over others. It calls for an evaluation of the way the power is distributed between stakeholders and demands the facilitation of resources and participation mechanisms in decision-making processes for those who have the most to lose as a result of the climate crisis (Soares and Gutiérrez 2011; Reimers 2020). This not only accounts for the state-level distribution of power but also community and school levels.

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An integral approach that values and demands open multi-directional dialogue with stakeholders of every level and sector is the only way to learn and unlearn what the climate change threats and vulnerabilities experiences are for each individual and community.

2.5 Conclusion and Future Directions This chapter provides a different way of thinking about educational transformation in an attempt to ground a global issue in local policy and dialogue. As this chapter outlines, there are several issues with the current international and national approaches to CCE: their goals are often fragmented and fail to take into account local realities (Kopnina 2020; Kwauk 2020). This is illustrated by the case of Mexico. Despite a long history of EE and a curriculum that acknowledges the interdisciplinarity of climate change and the need to develop holistic, reflective leaders, the education system still treats the topic primarily within the discipline of natural sciences and has failed to provide concrete guidance for schools and teachers on how to encourage deeper learning on the issue (Terrón Amigón 2019). The failure of these reforms to view change systematically has resulted in ineffective teaching and fragmented learning rather than in a holistic approach to equip leaders with the skills and knowledge to drive efforts in climate action and resilience within their communities (Terrón Amigón 2019). We need a systemic transformation and a fundamental reimagining of how we approach education (Jickling and Sterling 2017; Reimers 2020). Education systems must embrace an integrative approach that accounts for local realities and views this transformation through multiple perspectives that overlap and work together. Looking at educational change in specific contexts through cultural, psychological, and professional perspectives, for instance, highlights the importance of leveraging characteristics of the local environment to help students and

teachers make meaningful connections, reconnect with nature, and recognize their potential to lead resilience efforts within their own contexts. Meanwhile, a focus on the professional, institutional, and political perspectives highlights the importance of equipping educators, institutions, and actors at all levels with the skills and resources needed to make sure policies are implemented in a way that both aligns to broader ­policy goals and is appropriate at the local level (Reimers 2020). We can no longer rely on trickle-down approaches to educating students for climate change. Instead, education systems must count on the expertise of local leaders to identify the needs and points of strength in their own contexts, and resources must be directed at promoting and financing these efforts. While this chapter is by no means a comprehensive manual on how policymakers and educators should redesign their own systems, we hope that actors within education systems in Mexico and globally could use this model as a reference to support and facilitate meaningful engagement with communities to bring about this change. Examining and developing change through the five perspectives offers a snapshot into how the various mechanisms of an education system could indeed work together to generate effective education policy transformation more holistically around climate change. Acknowledgement We are grateful to Dr. Fernando Reimers, Dr. Irama Silvia Marisela Núñez Tancredi, Dr. Edgar J.  González Gaudiano, Dr. Felipe Reyes Escutia, and Montserrat Fonseca García for providing valuable inputs and comments to our chapter.

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3

Developing a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Education Systems in View of Sustainable Development Goals: A Case from Kenya Loise Gichuhi , Charles Obiero, and Mary Kangethe

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to several emerging economies, including Kenya, that are working towards the global commitments to the SDGs and especially to the SDG4 - Quality Education. Adopting the specific targets of the SGD4 at the national level begins with the alignment of the education policies and legislations which are also integrated into the strategic objectives and project activities articulated within educational programmes. However, tracking the progress in this alignment requires a sound and robust monitoring and evaluation framework. With this rationale, this chapter outlines a case from Kenya, which, through a stepwise process, developed a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning framework for its education sector. Emphasising the need for a consultative and parL. Gichuhi (*) University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya e-mail: [email protected] C. Obiero University of Sussex Brighton UK e-mail: [email protected]; M. Kangethe Kenya National Commission for UNESCO Nairobi Kenya e-mail: [email protected]

ticipatory process that engages key stakeholders in designing and developing such a framework, the chapter sees Education for Sustainable Development as a critical angle for the development of education in Kenya as well as other similar settings.

3.1 Introduction To achieve globalisation through interconnectedness and peaceful coexistence, all nations and communities must embrace the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). The global achievements in the SDGs are based on six building blocks of transformation: well-being and demography; energy decarbonisation and sustainable industry; sustainable food, land, water, and oceans; education, gender, and inequality; health, sustainable cities, and communities; and digital revolution for sustainable development (Sachs et  al. 2019). With this vision, the memberstates of the UN settled to align their national policies and plans to the targets and areas as reflected in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNESCO 2015). The Education Framework for Action has continued to inspire countries and serves as a foundation for the 2015 Incheon Declaration’s vision

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_3

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of ‘inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes opportunities for lifelong learning for all’. Unlike the Education for All agenda and the education-­related Millennium Development Goals, which had gaps in their implementation, the SDG4 is more transformative and universal, encompassing seven targets and three mechanisms for implementation. The indicative strategies are contextualized in national plans taking into account different national realities, capacities, and levels of development (UNESCO 2015). Education has a socially transformative role towards sustainable development. It enables the development of the competencies that empower individuals as good citizens and help them question their actions that have social, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts. Education stimulates individuals to take responsible actions that impact on sustainable societies now and in the future (UNESCO 2018). Through required skills, values, and attitudes, education help citizens have better health and well-being and make informed decisions to respond to any emerging local and global challenges. Therefore, countries strive to enhance the progress towards and achievement of the SDG4 since it will have a transformative function by addressing the necessary content, objectives, outcomes, pedagogy, and the teacher–learner interactive environment. At the county level, effective engagement and achievement of the SDG4 can be realized by identifying, defining, analysing, implementing, and monitoring strategies for achieving the set education goals and targets (UCLG 2019). Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have held several regional consultations to better understand the global SDGs and how the SDGs, as well as the African Union Agenda 2063, can be more efficiently, effectively, and sustainably aligned with national development strategies. More specifically, SSA countries aim to improve their national plans through the two major blueprints: the SDG4 and CESA (Continental Education Strategy for Africa) 2016–2025. Like the SDG4, the CESA strategy sets the stage for African countries to ensure quality education for skilled human resources that would achieve the vision and mission of the AU (African Union).

The CESA strategy encompasses 10 priority areas that tie very well with the SDG4: • Having equitable and inclusive access to education for all children, youth, and adults; • Equity, inclusion, and gender equality; • Teachers and teaching; • Education for sustainable development and global citizenship education; • Youth and adult literacy; • Skills and competencies for life and work; • Financing, governance, and partnerships; • Educational quality and learning outcomes; • Science, technology, and skills development; and • Education in crisis. (AU 2015) To have effective and efficient education systems that address all facets of education, such as quality, equity, and relevance, AU governments should devote their time and resources to strengthen the national assessments and monitoring mechanisms for CESA 2016–2025 and the SDG4. In addition, they should invest in a robust Education Management Information System that is operational and efficient for real-time data reporting at various levels. With this rationale, this chapter outlines the case of Kenya who, through a stepwise process, developed a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) framework for its education sector and describes how such a national framework could be used to track the progress towards achievement of the SDG4 through the perspective of Ministry of Education, Kenya.

3.2 Context Globally, the number of school-aged children who are out of school has reached unprecedented levels, and UNESCO (2018) puts a relevant figure regarding the 6 to 17-year-old children at 264 million as categorised in Table  3.1. The magnitude of out-of-school children and youth has long been a source of concern for governments and necessitates concerted efforts from governments, education stakeholders, and donors. Otherwise, many developing countries, where the majority

3  Developing a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Education Systems in View of Sustainable…

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Table 3.1  Distribution of out-of-school children Age levels Primary school age (6–11) Adolescents of lower secondary school age (12–24) Youth of upper secondary school age (15–17)

Number of out-of-school children and percentages 61 million (9%) 62 million (16%) 141 million (37%)

Note. Source: UNESCO (2018)

of out-of-school children live, may face a significant challenge in terms of access, retention, completion, and transition, which may remain an ambitious goal for the national and global communities. UNESCO has already raised a red flag on the global benchmark of access to education: 22% of children do not complete primary school, 28% of adolescents do not complete lower secondary school, and 47% of the youth do not complete upper secondary school (UNESCO 2020). The gaps, though unevenly distributed from country to country, must be addressed. This is important and urgent. If the SDG4 targets are to be met by 2030, significant concerted efforts and commitments must be made. This will ensure that progress made is on track and that the world does not repeat the failure of the Education for All goals in 2015 when the world failed on its promise (UNESCO 2020). Continuous monitoring for the SDG4 targets for access, retention, and completion up to the year 2030 would ensure that all eligible school-­ going age children will have completed up to secondary education. UNESCO (2020) has put 2018 as the base year for tracking the 2018 cohort of learners from primary to end of basic education in 2030. However, the available data shows that 30% of school-going age did not start school in low-income countries in 2018 (UNESCO 2020). Therefore, there is a need to monitor and track access, retention, and completion to inform policy planning to reorient and redesign strategies for 100% participation of all eligible children and youth. Kenya’s 2019 census indicated a total population of 47.6 million with a youthful population (age 0–25 years) of 61.4% that requires continued and massive investment in education (KNBS 2019). Indeed, Kenya, as part of the global community, has signed several conventions and agreements. This places a high premium on pro-

viding a high-quality, inclusive education as a fundamental right, as evidenced by numerous education reforms that resulted in a shift in the educational system’s structure from 7:4:2:3 to 8:4:4, as well as the current phased implementation of the 2:6:6:3 systems (GoK 2020). According to available data from government reports, the percentage of school-aged children (4–17  years) is 36% (GoK 2020). The children enrolled in pre-primary centres, primary, and secondary schools were 2.74 million, 10.1 million, and 3.3 million, respectively (GoK 2020). For many years, access and retention from Grade 4 to Grade 7 improved compared to Grade 1 to Grade 3 as per the schooling profiles of 2014 to 2019. However, progression from Grade 7 to Grade 8 depicts a sudden drop for all the years due to supply-­ side and demand-side factors (GoK 2020). The gross enrolment ratio in the primary sub-sector has not been consistent. For instance, a decline of 4.4% was observed between 2018 and 2019, which may indicate a decrease in the number of underage or overage pupils, while the net enrolment ratio (NER) increased marginally by 1.3% from 2016 to 2019. From 2016 to 2019, the gross enrolment ratio for the secondary sector increased by 4.4%, while the NER increased by 3.8% (GoK 2020). The retention rate from Grade 1 to Grade 6 was 96.1% in 2019, implying a drop out of school or repetition of about 4%. The retention rate from Grade 1(in 2012) to Grade 8 (in 2019) stood at 81.9%; this indicates that about 18% of Grade 1 of 2012 cohort dropped out, repeated, or may have left the Kenyan educationsystem for another curriculum system offered in the country or outside the country. The transition rate from primary education rose from 83% in 2018 to 95% in 2019, increasing by 12 percentage points. This has a tremendous budgetary impact due to the Free Day Secondary EducationPolicy and calls for proactive planning in resource allocation. The

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retention rate from Form 1 to Form 4 was above 100% by about 3.3%. This 103.3% can be explained by the government advocating for a ‘back to school’ campaign and enactment of the re-entry policy, readmissions, and re-registration of private candidates for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (GoK 2020). These indicators are essential for education planning and decision-making because they help identify gaps and can send critical action signals in policy formulation and implementation. Despite the gains in school enrolment, there are pockets of regional education access, retention, and transition inequalities throughout the country (GoK 2020) that could render the already established efforts and gains ineffective if not addressed. For closer monitoring of the progress and reducing the impact that can be realized too late, there is a need for a robust and real-time M&E framework for transparency and accountability in projects and programmes.

3.3 The Case This case is primarily supported by document analysis, as well as consultative and participatory data collection methods with educational stakeholders. On the one hand, in order to conceptualise emerging ideas from the existing sources holistically and synthesize them to create meanings and conclusions (Torraco 2005), educational publications and policy documents were analysed. On the other hand, to understand the professionals’ reflections and practices through participatory processes, diverse technical experts and team members from the Ministry of Education were consulted.

3.3.1 National Policies and Legislations Several policies and guidelines guide the provision of education for the different sub-sectors in education. In developing an M&E framework, it is important to review these policies and ­guidelines to ascertain that they align with the

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SDGs commitments and contribute to the government’s direction of potential educational strategies and interventions (Boeren 2019). While considerable effort has been made to plan and implement national education strategies, gaps exist in guaranteeing inclusive, equitable, and quality education for all eligible children and youth (GoK 2020). The gaps are distributed mainly in marginalised rural areas and informal settlements. However, strong policies and enactment of legislation can aid in mitigating and closing existing education gaps, resulting in the delivery of effective, efficient, and sustainable educational systems. From the review, especially from the National Education Sector Strategic Plan (NESSP) (2018– 2022), it is noted that the policies and legislations are aligned to the government commitments in meeting the SDG4 and CESA 2016–2025 targets. According to the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2019, and the Basic Education Act, 2013, calls for a pre-primary education policy that aligns provisions of Early Childhood Education (ECE) services. The one-­ year universal pre-primary education policy guides county governments in ensuring children are prepared for school and have equitable access to inclusive ECE. The policy establishes guidelines and direction in the standards for establishment, registration, management, and supervision of ECE institutions. The provision of ECE is a devolved function of the counties, mandated to provide adequate infrastructure to ensure a child-­ friendly learning environment. All girls and boys aged 3–5 years are expected to attend pre-­primary education and be accorded a smooth transition to primary education. Besides the commitment and provision of ECE and a smooth transition, the government implements universal primary and secondary education. Articles 43(f) and 53(1) (b) of the Kenya Constitution, 2010, provides for the right to free and compulsory basic education. The implementation of universal primary and secondary education is guided by the Free and Compulsory Primary Education and Free Tuition Secondary educationpolicies of 2003 and 2008, respectively. In addition, the government has

3  Developing a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Education Systems in View of Sustainable…

continuously evaluated the national goals of education and has created various reforms that address the emerging needs for inclusive, equitable, and quality education. More so, by preparing learners for the challenges of the future and empowering learners with knowledge and skills in various fields of studies through the progressive implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum from grade 1  in 2007, and now in Grade 5, in 2021. At tertiary education, including universities, the government’s goal is to entrench skills for decent work in education and training, make Kenya a newly industrialized, middle-income country, and promote high-quality life for all its citizens. This is by increasing opportunities by providing scholarships and student loans and industrial attachment for learners in technical and vocational education and training and higher education. However, one of the critical ingredients of an effective labour market is the existence of a comprehensive and coordinated mechanism for collecting reliable, adequate, and timely data on all facets of the skills output in education and training. To accomplish this, the country has enacted several legislations for the Technical and Vocational Education and Training and higher education sectors, including the Universities Act (2019), the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Act (2013), the Science, Technology, and Innovation Act (2013), and the Kenya Qualification Framework Act (2014). These policies are intended to ensure that women and men have equal access to relevant and quality training opportunities in universities, technical and vocational education and training institutions, and other post-secondary institutions for gainful employment and self-reliance. Some of the on-­ going key reforms include competency-based education and training that includes new curriculum content, pedagogical skills, and educational structure. The major strategy is to align demand and supply of labour for demand-driven and hands-on, market-oriented, and relevant skills to enhance a tripartite collaboration between the government, training institutions, and industry stakeholders.

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In implementing education at all levels, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCE) must be integrated and entrenched in policies, legal instruments, and sector plans to enhance the national values and principles of governance. These values and principles of governance are articulated in the Kenya Constitution 2010, Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2019 on Policy Framework for Reforming Education and Training for Sustainable Development in Kenya, and the National Education Sector Strategic Plan (2018–2022). Moreover, the Basic Education Curriculum Framework, 2017, also emphasizes the integration of ESD and GCE. Additionally, it is noted that various education stakeholders, government, academia, civil society, and community members have continued to apply the legal and policy instruments in diverse practices in various fields.

3.3.2 National Perspectives on SDG4 In developing an M&E framework, it is important to review the national priorities and objectives aligned to the SDG4 and CESA 2016–2025 targets. The policies and legislations guide the direction and means of implementing national education plans by identifying the national priorities and targets. The main focus is to understand the SDGs and contextualise them into national perspectives. To avoid duplication of planning and monitoring, global and regional commitments to the SDG4 must be integrated into national education sector plans, which must include cost-effective, implementable, and sustainable strategies, targets, and indicators (UNESCO 2015). The entry point for the SDG4 and CESA 2016–2025 integration within the national policy and planning cycles is made through a participatory and consultative process with stakeholders during the Joint Sector Reviews; a multi-sectorial approach to sector diagnosis and planning (African Union 2015). This approach builds consensus on strategies, targets, and indicators.

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According to UNESCO (2016) guidelines, the SDG4 targets are supposed to be mainstreamed into the national educationpolicies, as reflected within the commitments of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The alignment of the SDG4 to national policies and plans depends on policy priorities and political goodwill, and also human, technical, and financial capacity. Ultimately, the goal is to develop a strategic implementation plan that stipulates programmes, elaborating the strategic objectives and activities to be implemented in a five-year plan in priority thematic areas. For example, NESSP 2018–2022 has four priority thematic areas: access and participation; equity and inclusiveness; quality and relevance; and governance and accountability. In addressing SDGs in education, thematic areas become a priority for the Ministry of Education in the design of the education sector’s strategic objectives (MoE 2018). For this chapter, to understand the contextualisation, alignment, and integration of the SDGs into the national educationpolicies and plans, examples are drawn from NESSP 2018–2022. Within the NESSP 2018– 2022, one of the strategic objectives is to enhance access and participation at all levels of education. This relates to UNESCO’s (2015) the SDG4 Target 4.1, which states: ‘By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys receive a free, equitable, and high-quality primary and secondary education that leads to relevant and effective learning outcomes’. In this strategic objective, the policy target aligned to the SDG4 Target 4.1 is ‘to increase the Net Enrolment Rate from 91.2% in 2018 to 93.1% in primary education by the year 2022’ (MoE 2018, p.41). Similarly, the SDG4 Target 4.2 states: ‘By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education’. This is aligned to the policy targets to ‘increase Pre-­primary Gross Enrolment Rate from 76.6% in 2018 to 83% by 2022’; ‘Ensure 100% transition from pre-primary to primary education across the country’ (MoE 2018, p.38). For Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and higher education, the SDG4 Target 4.3 states: ‘By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and

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quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university’. This is aligned to the policy targets to ‘improve the enrolment in TVET institutions from 446 per 100,000 in 2018 to 780 per 100,000 by 2022’ (p.62) and to ‘increase gross enrolment rate in University education from 15% in 2018 to 25% in 2022’ (MoE 2018, p.68). The second strategic objective is to enhance equity, inclusiveness, and safety at all levels of education. The policy target aligned to the SDG4 Target 4.5 states, ‘By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations’. To achieve this commitment, the NESSP (2018–2022) policy targets aim to ‘increase primary enrolment rates for children from rural, poor, as well as conflict-prone and vulnerable contexts’ and ‘Reduce gender disparities in access and completion of primary education’ (MoE 2018, p.42). The third strategic objective is to enhance quality and relevance at all levels of education. The corresponding the SDG4 Target 4.7 states; ‘By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development including, among others, through ESD and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and nonviolence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and culture’s contribution to sustainable development’. This is aligned to the policy target to ‘improve learning outcomes through competency-based education’ (MoE 2018, p.42). Lastly, the fourth strategic objective is to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of education services. To achieve quality in the delivery of education services calls for having structured management and reporting institutional framework. This is positioned in the national policy targets to ‘align all the sub sectors towards the delivery of quality education promise to learners and students’ (MoE 2018, p.32) and ‘enhance the capacity of school management in leadership’ (MoE 2018, p.44).

3  Developing a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Education Systems in View of Sustainable…

The strategies and policy priorities inform the strategic implementation of activities for the project and programmes in the four thematic areas for all levels of education. To monitor and measure the progress, the next step is to have an M&E results framework that includes a harmonized and well-defined set of indicators to be used when tracking progress in the achievements of the sector plan (Nagy et al. 2018). The discussion that follows addresses the steps taken to develop a results-based M&E framework for tracking and monitoring progress in implementing the education sector plan.

3.4 The Framework As a tool for tracking and monitoring the implementation of the education initiatives, the Ministry of Education has developed a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) system. This chapter describes the process of MEAL development into four major areas: (1) M&E Readiness assessment, (2) Design of results-based MEAL framework, (3) Management, and (4) Sustainability (Kusek and Rist 2004). These four areas of a MEAL framework are illustrated in Fig. 3.1.

3.4.1 Readiness Assessment Before the development of the MEAL framework, the Ministry of Education conducted an M&E readiness assessment for the entire education sector, which established the status, effectiveness, and efficiency of the M&E system in the country. When conducting the assessment, the following questions were sought: What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the existing M&E mechanism? What is the driving need from the key stakeholders? What are the existing roles and responsibilities? What are the capacity-building requirements? The focus of these questions was to inform the technical team, the gaps, and opportunities for the M&E system redevelopment for the directorates, departments, and autonomous agencies of the Ministry of

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Education. The assessment results revealed several factors on the status of M&E for the education sector on policy and legal framework, coordination, data management, reporting and dissemination, and capacity building. The assessment noted that Kenya has strong policies and legal foundations that provide backing for the M&E mechanisms for the actors in the education sector. It was further noted that a functional M&E system is guided and embedded in policies and legislations. However, the national Monitoring and Evaluationpolicy is still in draft form, awaiting discussion and legislation in parliament. This brings out a concern in having an efficient and effective M&E implementation for tracking achievements and accountability in projects and programmes. The coordination role of M&E activities is critical to ensuring a standardized management approach. The Central Planning and Project Units (CPPMUs) are mandated to coordinate the M&E across directorates, departments, and autonomous agencies of the Ministry of Education. In addition, there exists an intergovernmental coordination mechanism that handles common policy and technical areas between the national and the county governments in devolved programmes such as ECE and vocational training. To operationalize the management of the M&E, there are standards and practices stipulated in the National Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System (NIMES) guidelines and implemented at national and sub-national levels. However, there is concern about a weak institutional oversight within and across education subsectors, as well as between the national and county governments. To address the weaknesses, there is a need for a better harmonization and coordination framework. In data management, the focus is to compile information on the key performance indicators for tracking and monitoring the national, regional, and global targets. Monitoring of projects and programmes is continuous, with data compiled on a regular basis: monthly, quarterly, or annually. It is important for all the actors to embrace standardised M&E practices in data collection, processing, analysis, and dissemination procedures. However, there were challenges noted in

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Steps to design, build and sustain results-based MEAL System

1. Readiness Assessment Conducting a readiness assessment

2. Design of MEAL Framework Agreeing on outcomes Selecting key indicators to monitor Baseline data on indicators Selecting targets

3. Management Monitoring for results Conducting evaluations Reporting findings Using findings

4. Sustainability Capacity building Institutionalise

Fig. 3.1  Steps of building a MEAL framework. (Note: Adapted from Kusek and Rist (2004). Copyright 2004 by The World Bank)

data management that included lack of automation of the M&E system, data incompleteness, and timeliness. This therefore, indicates the importance of timely, accurate, and quality data for sector diagnosis and planning. Reporting and dissemination are of paramount importance in an M&E system. This requires a knowledge management platform that allows repository and dissemination of M&E reports to promote feedback and be used in evidence-based planning and decision making. It was noted that most of the departments have several sources of data and means of dissemination, like e-portals, workshops, publications, and seminars to report and disseminate the data. Some of the data in the e-portals are school admission, examination results, assessment, and curriculum. In the M&E system, the sources of data are the means of verification of the performance indicators. However, there was evidence of lack of updated information in reporting and dissemination, which is critical for policy formulation, planning, and management in the education sector (Porter and Goldman 2013). Therefore, it is important the government strives to have a robust data reporting and dissemination mechanism for M&E success. For an efficient and effective M&E system, adequate capacity building of the human resource is required. However, the assessment revealed

challenges in most departments such as inadequate human resources, limited ICT skills, and negative attitude towards the importance of M&E.  The results are limited competencies for accurate, timely, and quality of data, leading to poor sector diagnosis and planning. Taking everything into account, data management requires strengthening the capacity of human resources, particularly training and advocacy for improving the functionality of the M&E system in better data support and utilisation. The readiness assessment revealed the importance of understanding the opportunities, strengths, and gaps for an efficient and effective M&E system that is required to improve education programs and policy priorities. Improving data demand and utilisation for effective, efficient, and sustainable purposes requires a holistic and integrated M&E framework across the directorates, departments, and agencies to allow seamless data and information flow at national, county, and education institutions levels.

3.4.2 Design of Framework A MEAL framework is a planning and management tool that provides the basis for monitoring and evaluating projects and programmes. It empowers education practitioners to monitor the

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Key Performance Indicators (KPI) achievement and inform the need to adjust programmes and activities. In this stage of design, the steps considered for developing the results framework are: • Choosing and agreeing on the outcomes: The outcome statements are usually the strategic objectives to be achieved at the end of the education sector plan. • Selecting key performance indicators: These are set indicators for tracking the outcomes that have been chosen and agreed. • Setting baseline and gathering data on indicators: The baseline is the data that measures conditions (indicators) before the commencement of the project. • Selecting results targets: These are annual projections of the indicator for tracking the performance of the outcomes. This stage involves identifying measurable objectives, performance measurement indicators, and targets (Myrick 2013). When aligning KPIs with strategic objectives, two critical questions are considered: ‘How is success or accomplishment determined? Is the project implementation being achieved as desired based on the outcomes?’ The first question concerns the relevant indicators to be measured at the outcome or output level. In contrast, the second question necessitates comparing the baseline target and the actual data used to track the progress. Table 3.2 illustrates an example of an outcome and an indicator that is applied in a results framework. Table 3.2 shows that progress toward universal primary education is established with a base year and a target year that are progressively monitored and tracked each year. For example, the NER rose from 91.2% in 2018

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(baseline year) to 91.5% in 2019 (actual year); an increase of 0.3%. This indicates progress, though minimal, in access towards the target of 93.5% in 2022 (target year). To achieve this process, datasets are considered from various sources including National Education Management Information System (NEMIS), Teacher Information Management System (TIMS), and National Assessment System for Monitoring Learning Achievement (NASMLA), amongst other national and international data sets (e.g. UNESCO, UIS, World Bank). These Key Performance Indicators are useful in monitoring outcomes, and they are indicative of the progress pathways that enable education policymakers and education managers to assess the extent of achievement of the intended or promised outcomes. Baseline indicators in the MEAL framework are significant as they form the basis for monitoring and evaluating the results. These must be agreed upon in a consultative and participatory process to avoid measurement controversies and inconsistencies as disagreements can derail the process, especially that sector plans and targets are set for 5 years. Thus, specific performance targets are identified and captured in the baseline data targets. Although Table 3.2 only illustrates using one indicator, all the targets must be considered and a performance matrix framework developed for all KPIs. Similarly, when tracking achievement for ESD in the SDG4, three indicators of Target 4.7 (UNESCO 2015) are considered: National educationpolicies exist to address psychosocial support, disaster risk reduction, and other systems/mechanisms to protect education from attacks and support for rehabilitation of school infrastructure;

Table 3.2  Monitoring and evaluation frameworka Outcome Attain universal access of all school-going age population of primary education

Indicator The proportion of learners enrolled in primary schools of age 6–13 over the total population aged 6–13 years as a percentage (NER)

Baseline (2018) 91.2

Adapted from unpublished Draft MEAL framework, Ministry of Education, Kenya

a

Target (2022) 93.1%

Actual (2019) 91.5%

Means of verification NEMIS

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Governments have a policy or strategies to ensure the continuation of quality education during humanitarian situations; Existence of guidelines on GCE, ESD, including gender equality and human rights and; peace, life skills, media, and information literacy education are mainstreamed in national educationpolicies, curricula, teacher education, and learning assessment. The focus of the ESD indicators is to determine the extent to which the mainstreamed strategies result in reduced violence, radicalization, extremism, and drug and substance abuse. Also, it assures that mechanisms are in place for gender mainstreaming in education and training at all levels; promoting education in emergencies, enhancing mentorship, moulding, and nurturing national values. Essentially, the design of the MEAL framework defines the indicators that are useful in tracking and monitoring the performance of programmes and projects, and it provides information on whether the targets are being achieved on the way to the longer term outcome. The performance framework becomes the basis for planning, and to achieve this, there is need for budgetary allocations for staffing and operations.

3.4.3 Management The success of an M&E framework depends on how the system is managed and is anchored on monitoring results, evaluation of results, reporting of findings, and use of findings. The results monitoring process has two interdependent facets: implementation monitoring and results monitoring. Implementation monitoring tracks the means and strategies, that is, the inputs, activities, and outputs during the implementation period to achieve an outcome. Results’ monitoring, that is, outcome and impact is a continuous process of gathering information on a project or a programme and comparing with expected results (Kusek and Rist 2004). This process should be seamless and dependent on each other to avoid having results monitoring as a final stage and only discover pitfalls that would have been

addressed at the implementation monitoring. Since the SDG4 and CESA 2016–2025 targets are monitored at national and sub-national levels; the design allows comparative analysis and reporting at national, regional, and global levels (UNESCO 2015). Standard reporting tools that are specific, measurable, attainable, action-­ oriented, relevant, and time-bound are designed to assist practitioners in identifying problems, taking appropriate actions, and tracking progress. Notably, the quality and utility of monitoring programmes/projects are contingent upon timely data collection, analysis, and reporting. Just like monitoring, the results from implementation are a crucial component of an M&E framework. Evaluation at midterm or end term helps determine the efficacy of a programme or a project in terms of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability. The evaluation results and lessons learned are essential and can be incorporated into the decision-making process. The national education evaluation process considers big datasets from NEMIS, TIMS, and NASMLA in that order. The MEAL framework considers reporting findings through data analysis, interpretation, and discussion as an important step in the review of strategic objectives, policy targets, and indicators. The reporting captures the what, when, and to whom in policy formulation, planning, and management. The reports prepared on monthly, quarterly, and annual basis ensure accountability and transparency and facilitates learning for future improvements. The results are disseminated through print and electronic media, as well as institutional websites, for knowledge sharing among educators, policymakers, civil society, and other stakeholders. To enable real-time reporting, automation of the M&E platform is important (Li et al. 2017), with a well-­coordinated and integrated one-stop-shop, to realise timely and complete datasets.

3.4.4 Sustainability The sustainability of an M&E system is very important in the education planning cycle. The

3  Developing a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Education Systems in View of Sustainable…

critical components of sustainability are demand, clear roles and responsibilities, trustworthy and credible information, accountability, capacity, and incentives (Kusek and Rist 2004). Continuous demand is enhanced when there is a structured need for evidence-based policies, planning, and decision-making across government departments and other stakeholders. More so, demand for M&E is embedded in reporting results on the commitments at national, regional, and global levels. The component of clear roles and responsibilities of the departments and persons is important in collection, analysis, and reporting of the performance information. This ensures there are no gaps in providing the information required at the right time. In Kenya, the NESSP Coordination Unit has the M&E system oversight role with representation from the departments and agencies of the Ministry of Education. It is important to have trustworthy and credible information that is transparent and accessible. This calls for continuous engagement and participation of stakeholders, including civil society organizations and NGOs in data collection and the buying-in process. However, sustaining M&E systems require accountability and continuous capacity building, with a particular emphasis on maintaining sufficient staff with sound technical skills. In a standardised M&E system, there is need to design and develop training guidelines for sustainable data management processes. Financial allocations for M&E operations and providing incentives reduce data collection challenges, improve accountability, and minimises leakages and misuse.

3.5 Conclusion The main policy objectives of education are to provide inclusive, equitable, and quality education for all to bolster learning outcomes. With the large education budgetary allocations, governments must continuously monitor and evaluate the programmes and projects to safeguard against

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falling behind on its promises and policy commitments. Kenya’s M&E process is typical of developing countries in some ways and very atypical in others. Its policies, legislations, and sector plans are aligned to the SDG4 and CESA 2016–2025 targets, as articulated in the UN and African Union commitments for education and training. Besides, the mandates of M&E have clear responsibilities and roles, with a coordination structure that brings together all actors. Although the government of Kenya has an M&E framework, there are gaps noted that require a re-design of a robust and effective MEAL system, for tracking achievement and enriching policy and decision making. The evidence, in this case, provides strong motivation for implementing a MEAL framework that will help the government to fulfil its mandate and commitment to the SDGs in education (Abrahams 2015). Regrettably, designing an integrated M&E results framework takes a long time due to several gaps that, if addressed in a timely and holistic approach, can be replicated and scaled up to other sectors, and even other countries with similar contexts. This case study is an example for the governments on the establishment of a holistic and integrated M&E framework for the programmes and projects in the education sector. The lessons from this case can be borrowed and replicated in other countries within their context and priorities. However, contextualized analytical work is needed on the various variables; policies, outcomes, objectives, activities and the existing capacity, and financial allocation for the education investments. For countries, to accord greater priority to the M&E system, there is a need for timely, reliable, complete, and quality data. Moreover, a demand-­ driven M&E system from both the policymakers and practitioners, for information and data, assures an accountable and transparent process of implementation and results in monitoring of the education sector. In order to ensure sustainability, governments must invest in the automation of a MEAL system.

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References Abrahams, M. A. (2015). A review of the growth of monitoring and evaluation in South Africa: Monitoring and evaluation as a profession, an industry, and a governance tool. African Evaluation Journal, 3(1), a142. https://doi.org/10.4102/aej.v3i1.142 African Union (2015). Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016–2025 (CESA 16-25.) African Union (AU). Boeren, E. (2019). Understanding sustainable development goal (SDG) 4 on “quality education” from micro, meso, and macro perspectives. International Review of Education, 65(2), 277–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11159-­019-­09772-­7 GoK (2020). Basic education statistical booklet, 2019. Ministry of Education, Government of Kenya. Porter, S. & Goldman, I. (2013). Growing demand for monitoring and evaluation in Africa. African Evaluation Journal, 1(1), a25. https://doi.org/10.4102/ aej.v1i1.25 KNBS (2019). Kenya population and housing census 2019. Volume III: Distribution of Population by Age and Sex. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Kusek, J. & Rist, R. (2004). Ten steps to a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. World Bank Washington, D.C. Li, Y., Li, P., Zhu, G. & Wang, R. (2017). Design of higher education quality monitoring and evaluation platform based on big data. 12th International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE), Houston, pp.  337–342. https://doi.org/10.1109/ ICCSE.2017.8085513

L. Gichuhi et al. MoE (2018). National Education Strategic Plan 2018– 2022. Ministry of Education, Kenya. https://www.education.go.ke/images/NESSP/NESSP-­2018-­2022.pdf Myrick, D. (2013). A logical framework for monitoring and evaluation: A pragmatic approach to M&E. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 4(14), 423– 428. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n14p423 Nagy, J., Benedek, J., & Ivan, K. (2018). Measuring sustainable development goals at a local level: A case of a metropolitan area in Romania. Sustainability. 1(11), 3962. MDPI AG. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10113962 Sachs, J. D., Schmidt-Traub, G., Mazzucato, M., Messner, D., Nakicenovic, N. & Rockström, J. (2019). Six transformations to achieve the sustainable development goals. Nature Sustainability, 2, 805–814. https:// doi.org/10.1038/s41893-­019-­0352-­9 Torraco, R.  J. (2005). Writing integrative literature reviews: Guidelines and examples. Human Resource Development Review, (4), 356. UCLG (2019). Local and regional governments’ report to the 2019 HLPF: Towards the localization of the SDGs. United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) . https://www.uclg.org/sites/default/files/towards_the_ localization_of_the_sdgs_0.pdf UNESCO (2015). Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action  – Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. Paris. UNESCO UNESCO (2016). Mainstreaming SDG4-Education 2030  in sector-wide policy and planning: Technical guidelines for UNESCO field offices. UNESCO. UNESCO (2018). Issues and trends in education for sustainable development. UNESCO, France. UNESCO (2020). Inclusion and education: All means all. Global monitoring education report 2020. UNESCO

4

Egypt’s 2030 Vision: Priority Areas for Egyptian Education for Global Citizenship Nermeen Singer

and El Farahaty El Sayed

Abstract

4.1 Introduction

Global citizenship is an umbrella term used for social, political, environmental, and economic actions of globally-minded individuals and communities on a worldwide scale. Working, living and learning for global citizenship require certain skills, competencies, and values as well as a continuous process of reshaping our lives for a powerful exploration of what we face collectively as we live and anticipate the future. Global Citizenship Education aims to prepare individuals to be independent, creative, critical, committed, and eager to find solutions to local and global problems and become more aware of their own and others’ beliefs and values. Built on the vision of Global Citizenship Education, this chapter discusses four priority areas for Egypt’s 2030 Vision and provides recommendations through (a) setting an educational framework for global citizenship; (b) integrating Global Citizenship Education into the curriculum; (c) increasing global citizenship and civil society awareness at schools; and (d) reorienting education towards nature and environment.

Our interconnected world  – with the prevailing international, societal, and competitive turmoil, changing markets, and increasing growth in ICT – requires great demands from individuals, including thinking and working towards more engaged and critical citizenship as well as an understanding of the interactions between political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental issues. With the end of the Second World War and the emergence of the UN, ideas about the necessity of global thinking returned and led to movements calling individuals worldwide to become global citizens regardless of their differences in terms of religion, culture, nationality, or ethnicity. The issuance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 has been the major international recognition of the need to seek to transform national affiliations into human affiliations, which underlines the significance of global citizenship. Global citizenship doesn’t involve a legitimate position, but rather a sense of belonging to the global community (UNESCO 2016). It depends mainly on education to prepare individuals for life and work in this society based on the fact that many issues that exist on our planet require a creative generation using critical thinking and participating locally and internationally in finding solutions for societal issues (OXFAM 2006). Many international documents, including

N. Singer (*) · E. F. El Sayed Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_4

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the 1997 World Education Charter and the 2002 Education Declaration, reflect the constant endeavour to ensure that education responds to the needs of citizens. They state that global education should attract people’s attention to world realities, urge them to realize a world full of justice, fairness, and human rights for all, and prevent conflict through peaceful coexistence in societies and cultures (UNESCO 2015). Similarly, UNESCO’s educational goal for global citizenship aims to enable learners to be good stewards of their societies, play active roles at both national and international levels, and finally contribute effectively to a world market with justice, peace, tolerance, inclusiveness, and sustainability (UNESCO 2016). Since 2013, UNESCO has facilitated necessary steps towards education for global citizenship; for example, through a biannual international forum, it has identified three conceptual dimensions of Global Citizenship Education (GCE): knowledge, social-­ emotional, and behavioural dimensions (UNESCO 2015). The first one depends on the learners’ acquisition of information, understanding, and critical thinking pertaining to global matters and the interdependence of different states and people. The socio-emotional dimension relies on learners’ feeling of affiliation to one humanity that emphasizes sympathy, solidarity, respect for differences, and diversity. The behavioural dimension depends on the expectation that learners will behave in a responsible manner in  local and international contexts towards a world of peace, sustainability, equity, and justice, and the building blocks. In this regard, UNESCO (2013) recommends four strategies for education: Learn to Know: This strategy provides learners with knowledge and skills that make up their cognitive repertoire. It includes developing abilities related to focusing, problem-solving, critical thinking, curiosity, creativity, and desire to better understand the world and people. Therefore, learning to know is necessary to develop the skills required to live in the

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global community and experience the cultures and values of global citizenship, especially in a twenty-first-century society. Learn to Do: This strategy prepares learners to work with others in teams and groups, and enhances necessary teamwork skills. It also supports children and youth to carry out everything that they have learned in reality and adjust education to serve the business world in a better way. This results from the fact that learning to work changes rapidly in response to the needs of the changing labour market and the needs of young people during their transition from education to the job market. Learn to Be: This strategy focuses on the personal and subjective dimensions of learners, such as self-awareness, which means learning for self-actualization, personal growth, self-­ knowledge, self-control, and self-­ empowerment. The skills developed here are important for self-protection and resilience and thus, are considered as enabling factors for other dimensions of learning. Learn to Live: This strategy encourages learners to have a healthy and sound life within their communities as well as to respect for others coexistence in peace. It supports the vision of citizenship based on human rights and the values of democracy and social justice. It also constitutes an ethical basis for the other three dimensions. As a response to the aforementioned framework, this chapter covers education for tolerance, recognition of diversity, conflict settlement, peace, human rights, and citizen responsibilities. In this regard, GCE is to achieve the requirements of the twenty-first century society by making learners capable of problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, cooperation, flexibility and adaptability to changes. Within this scope, the chapter first outlines the concepts of citizenship, globalization, global citizenship, and GCE, then discusses four priority areas for Egypt’s 2030 Vision, and finally provides recommendations for the Egyptian education system.

4  Egypt’s 2030 Vision: Priority Areas for Egyptian Education for Global Citizenship

4.2 Literature Review 4.2.1 Citizenship The concept of citizenship began to emerge in the cities and suburbs of ancient Greece, where it generally applied to landowners but not to women, slaves, or the poorest members of society. A citizen of a Greek city was entitled to vote and was required to pay taxes and military service. Later, thinkers in the Age of Enlightenment crystallized the concept of citizenship through precise dimensions that give individuals political and social rights enabling them to exercise social and political roles for the sake of the public good and collective security (Peters et  al. 2008). Citizenship has shifted from a mere law to natural practices that individuals and entities touch and live in their homeland (Sullivan and Pashby 2008) and has become a sense of belonging as a source for satisfying essential needs and protection from dangers (The Encyclopaedia Britannica 1992). Citizenship is a necessary component of the identity of the individual and an active membership that requires participation based on conscious understanding, enlightened thinking, and collective action (Singer and Mahmoud 2020). In this sense, citizenship is the citizens’ loyalty to a country they were born in or immigrated to, submission to its laws, enjoyment of the rights on an equal basis with other citizens, and commitment to the performance of duties. In brief, the concept of citizenship consists of three components: • Legal: A legal capacity grants civil, political, and social rights through the constitution and the law, and social rights such as being entitled to social benefits and having access to services of education and health. This includes civil rights and freedoms, namely personal freedom and safety, freedom of assembly, opinion and religion, and the right to enjoy freedom of information. • Political: The legal status of citizenship is strictly related to the right to get involved in politics. This refers to practicing social and political participation that bestows a meaning

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on the legal status of a person as an active citizen in all state political structures. • Affiliation: Human beings live with one another in a community, and effective cooperation and common institutions shape their identities. People get to know their state and feel a sense of affiliation to their national community (Oxley and Morris 2013).

4.2.2 Globalization German Philosopher Kant affirmed that people could be considered as the citizens of a global humanity and should have universal rights (Carter 2001), which emphasizes the essential idea of globalization which signifies that individuals are not merely members of nation-states but are citizens of a universal community as well. The concept of globalization means the transition of social, political, cultural, and educational phenomena from a national level to a global level transcending ethnic, racial, or class affiliations (Carter 2001) Globalization is a humanistic, institutional, and societal awareness that focuses on affiliation to a larger community that exceeds the local community and confirms our shared humanity and the interdependence of people in terms of universal values of human rights, effective participation, tolerance, justice, non-­ discrimination, responsibility, service of the larger human community and a better future (Oxley and Morris 2013). Globalization is a continuous process that penetrates three areas (Humes 2008): • Economic Globalization focuses on the integration of international financial markets and the integration of financial transactions. Free trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, are examples of international trade, and international companies, operating in two or more countries, play a major role in economic trade. • Political Globalization incorporates national policies that integrate countries politically, economically, and culturally. Organizations

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such as UN, OECD, NATO are a part of the political globalization effort. • Cultural Globalization mainly focuses on the technical and social factors that bring cultures together. These include easier communication, increased communication platforms, and faster and better transportation access. Trends towards unifying tastes in fashion, popular culture, customs, music, art, films, television, and so on are also considered as cultural globalization.

4.2.3 Globalization and Global Citizenship Global citizenship is a comprehensive term for political, social, economic, and environmental actions of individuals and communities with global minds on an international scale (Morais and Ogden 2011). The whole world is suffering from problems such as terrorism, poverty, environmental destruction, famine, migration, fanaticism and extremism, organized crime, addiction, bribery, arms trade, trafficking in human organs, degeneration of the family environment, sexual diseases, and so on. Most of these problems no longer concern only a group of people or a region; on the contrary, they directly or indirectly influence every human being. Therefore, any contemporary problem of the world necessitates the coexistence of different human societies in peace despite their divisions into nationalities, ethnicities, religions, sects or ideologies. Hence, people who portray themselves as global citizens must identify complex matters at the world level and universal interdependence and undertake responsibility for global human rights. Morais and Ogden (2011) suggest three characteristics of global citizenship: • Social Responsibility refers to social and personal concerns of individuals regarding international justice through compassion, selflessness, and understanding of global interdependence. • Global Competence refers to the ability to take part in multicultural situations, communi-

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cate with others from different cultures, and acquire information about global matters and events. • Global Civic Engagement means participating in local and international issues such as civil organizations, political expression, and international civic activism.

4.2.4 Global Citizenship Education GCE is neither political knowledge or literacy nor a school subject presented in the classroom to cast people into intellectual moods. Instead, it is concerned with making the school a model for a global practice that helps teachers and learners understand the rights and duties, observe the values ​​and principles of social justice and social responsibility, and think how the freedom of individuals does not negatively affect the rights and freedom of others (Scott 2015). Many skills are built into students through a critical sense that maintains freedom of thought, fulfilment of duties and responsibilities of others and society, cognitive mastery, acquisition of investigation and participation skills, and responsible work (Stack 2012). Targeting a world that is more equitable for all, GCE is a ‘humanitarian and political’ approach focusing on the structures of society that should be changed for cosmopolitanism to become a potential option (Singer et al. 2019). It is essential in three main ways. The first one is the confrontation with global challenges that require collective global awareness about the global issues such as poverty, wars, or environmental problems facing people and requiring a common response from everyone. Hence, GCE interacts with global issues that require collective responsibility on a global level. Second, traditional forms of education that focus on knowledge acquisition are not suitable to settle global problems such as conflicts, climate change, and inequality. Instead, it is necessary to learn knowledge and non-cognitive concepts such as values and attitudes required to improve one’s own welfare and that of others by way of peace, human rights, equity, and acceptance of diversity.

4  Egypt’s 2030 Vision: Priority Areas for Egyptian Education for Global Citizenship

Finally, it provides learners with the opportunities and skills required to become effective contributors to a world that is more fair, inclusive, and equitable. It also prepares them to face the challenge of inherent inequality in society from the national to the global level, and then uses education to encourage individuals to conduct a critical analysis of their attitudes, presuppositions, and issues from the national to the global context (OXFAM 2006; Reilly and Niens 2014). A global citizen is a person who carries a mixture of knowledge, merits, values, and trends as the main dimensions of GCE (Wintersteiner et al. 2015): • Knowledge: Global citizens can identify global issues in social, political, environmental, cultural, and economic aspects and integrate their understanding of the different national, cultural, religious, and social identities through a shared recognition and comprehensive identity. • Values: ​​Global citizens employ their knowledge of global problems to express universal values ​​such as equality, justice, dignity, and appreciation of human rights. • Competence: Global citizens have competencies that enable them to inquire about local and global issues, express their critical, methodical, and creative attitudes towards those local and global issues by taking different perspectives to understand the issues from various angles, and find common global means to overcome universal challenges. To sum up, GCE aims to empower learners of all ages to take active roles, both locally and globally, in building more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, and secure societies (UNESCO 2014). GCE is based on the three domains of learning – cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioural  – and UNESCO (2015) listed learner characteristics in its report as: (a) an informed and critical intellectual who is able to (b) socially communicate and respect diversity as an (c) ethically responsible and committed individual.

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4.3 Context In response to the challenges of the recent revolutions of the Egyptian people from 2011 to 2013, the Egyptian government presented and made numerous efforts to support social cohesion through citizenship education during the implementation of the 2014 constitution and the organized laws that focus on human rights, participatory democracy, and decentralizing education administration (Singer et  al. 2019). The government endeavoured to end the so-called moral education of informal religious groups (the Muslim Brotherhood and other religious Salafi groups) and implement educational and development projects under the umbrella of ‘citizenship merits’ to achieve standards of ‘responsible citizen behaviour’. This is carried out in accordance with three categories: Convivencia, democratic participation – respect for responsibility and for pluralism  – preserving the Egyptian identity. During these initiatives, fighting violence and enhancing peaceful relations via education became a clear government priority (Singer and Mahmoud 2021). The Citizenship Competencies program has been implemented in technical and public education schools. The program is based on a national system for achieving peaceful coexistence in the school, teaching human rights, preventing and mitigating school violence, and making citizenship a cornerstone of curricula and teaching and learning methods. We believe that the interest in differentiating between the minimum and maximum citizenship as a criterion for citizenship is dangerous. The minimum level of citizenship is a citizen obedient to the government and abides by the law with limited independence. And the ceiling for citizenship, which is represented by a citizen who asks active questions subject to a critical perspective, is a complex matter for forming citizenship, especially global citizenship (Singer et al. 2019). The weakness of the curricula in providing learners with the skills required in the Global Campaign for Education has become clear in

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many studies; the studies by (Al-Sagheer 2012) indicated that there are deficiencies in the Egyptian school of pre-university education in dealing with education for citizenship. The injustice of education suffers from deficiencies on the global dimension of citizenship, concepts of human coexistence (whether towards local or global culture), and that students do not have sufficient awareness of the dimensions of GCE. In addition, students have a weak interest in international affairs, and the curriculum fails to provide any activities related to GCE. In addition, Mustafa (2007) indicated deficiencies in the school’s educational role in dealing with civic education for its various concepts (citizenship, democracy, human rights), which are major concepts to deal with global citizenship issues. The studies by Hegazy (2009), El Desouky (2019), and Saeed (2019) concluded that education in Arab countries focuses on global citizenship and curricula in schools tend to integrate concepts and indicators of global citizenship, global economic and political issues, international organizations and bodies, peaceful conflict resolution, human rights, and respect for cultures. An example of what the Egyptian government is undertaking in education within the kindergarten stage is shifting from the trend of teaching a single to a multidisciplinary curriculum where the subjects vary and intertwine. This approach addresses the personal level in a very tangible way and considers a global citizen as an individual who is familiar with the larger world and has a sense of developed global role in line with his/ her level of maturity (Singer and Mahmoud 2020).

4.4 The Case Within the scope presented above, four priority areas for Egypt’s 2030 Vision for GCE were determined and discussed in the following sections: (a) setting an educational framework for global citizenship; (b) integrating Global Citizenship Education into the curriculum; (c) increasing global citizenship and civil society awareness at schools; and (d) reorienting education towards nature and environment.

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4.4.1 Setting an Educational Framework for Global Citizenship Setting an educational framework for global citizenship in Egypt is number one priority areas for decision making because GCE is a concept that covers a variety of frameworks which provide foundational approaches for designing learning to enhance outcomes for tolerance, respect for diversity, conflict resolution, promotion of peace, humanitarian law and work, principles of human rights, and civic responsibilities. These topics relate to local, national, regional, and international levels (Wintersteiner et  al. 2015). GCE also includes frameworks such as universal education, international education, multicultural education, global education, developmental education, education for human rights, education for peace, and education of sustainable development (Rapoport 2013). In line with the existing frameworks as well as the priority areas of Egypt, there appear three sub-domains of a framework for GCE in Egypt: environmental education, civic education, and developmental education – all of which will ensure a comprehensive and sustainable strategy for Egypt’s 2030 Vision.

4.4.2 Integrating Global Citizenship Education Elements into Curriculum As for the GCE elements to be incorporated into a curriculum, Veugelers (2011) believes in five axes to be emphasized: • Global Interdependence through understanding complex relationships at socio-economic and political levels • Identity and Cultural Diversity through self-­ understanding and openness to the culture of others • Social Justice and Human Rights by understanding the impact of inequality and the importance of human rights and non-discrimination. • Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution through an awareness of the value in positive

4  Egypt’s 2030 Vision: Priority Areas for Egyptian Education for Global Citizenship

relationships and trust and the peaceful ways to prevent or resolve conflicts. • Sustainable Future through an understanding of the ways which makes it possible to meet current needs without diminishing their quality while preserving the future generation’s ability to meet their own needs. Figure 4.1 shows the basic curricular elements of GCE to raise effective and responsible generations. In order for the curriculum to achieve its goal, it must reflect the dimensions of GCE from the early years of individuals. This helps in educating students to achieve a balance between loyalty to a country and loyalty to the humanity. We believe that young people need a solid base to help them perform their work and familiarity with their rights stipulated in the law and civic participation. In the current era of globalization, governments and educators face a challenge to find new teaching methods (Singer et  al. 2019) because the dimensions of GCE change along with the changing world; however global citizenship, as a sense of belonging to a global civil

Fig. 4.1  Basic curricular elements of GCE

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society, differs in some intangible ways from national citizenship because it does not carry inherent rights, but it often grows out of a desire for more commitment to global human rights, so global citizenship is not a personal decision to assume responsibility and develop a sense of the issues facing humanity. It is rather a choice, and the problem facing educators is how to enhance curricula so that students are empowered to make a choice to become global citizens (Dill 2013). Curricular elements of GCE from kindergarten to the secondary education require the use of new approaches to determine learning outcomes, as the curriculum seeks to change the mind first and then form some habits and ideas that lead to the abandonment of old ideas day after day (Crawford 2013). In the curricular integration process of GCE, experts should be aware of the appropriate approaches regarding GCE, and there are three common ideological approaches to this process: Neoliberal Approach is based on economic and market logic and aims to maximize the indi-

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vidual’s freedom of choice. This perspective looks at the global community according to market rationality and the enhancement of economic globalization (Carter 2001) and then developing the skills and knowledge required to engage in a global market marked by competitiveness. In this approach, education is mainly considered a means of building competencies for individual and/or national economic welfare (Evans et  al. 2009), and providing employers, employees, and students with the skills needed for an international economy, such as learning economically beneficial languages (Marshall 2011). According to this approach, GCE practices include incorporating market-based economic concepts into curricular reforms and the ability to speak English as a core competency of a global citizen to participate in the international marketplace. Humanitarian Approach is a moral duty based on the universality of human rights and that individuals are moral beings who are obligated to obey universal imperatives. A moral sense of responsibility and obligations towards other people are basic and distinct components of the global perspective of global citizenship. It is against this backdrop that the humanist approach sets the values of perceiving other viewpoints, seeing oneself as part of a global community for humanity as a whole, and the moral conscience to work for the good of the world (Dill 2013). Critical Approach, from a critical perspective, considers that one of the main aspects of global education is social justice and reduction of international (and local) inequalities (Andreotti 2006; Ibrahim 2005). The critical entry highlights critical thinking on national and international issues, cultural sensitivity, justice, and human values (Dill 2013). In this context, GCE requires critical reading and writing that enables individuals to analyse their identities, attitudes, and assumptions regarding complex local and global structures. Critical literacy does not deal with ‘revealing the truth’ to learners but rather providing a

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space for them to think critically about their cognitive and ontological contexts and assumptions of others and help them take part in creating a future dependent on social justice (Andreotti 2011). This entails encouraging students to learn critical and reflective reading and writing; and to learn about their attitudes, identities, and power relations in a complex globalized structure. Current official approaches contain a domineering form of globalization based on Western-­ centred economic development. Accordingly, GCE should really be an appropriate educational reaction for developed countries because globalization is led by these countries. In addition, there is no uneven distribution of wealth and imbalance of power not only between North and South but also inside each society. Thus, GCE must develop an understanding of the complexity of the diverse relationships and procedures associated with local and international experiences. By accepting the attitude of the critical approach to globalization, we see that education contributes to social justice and universal equity by enabling individuals to critically think about their identities, attitudes, and the world regarding the social and global structure where they live. Furthermore, we see that the critical approach to education for universalism does not deny the neoliberal or humanistic approach. Instead, according to this chapter, it embraces many of the beliefs of these approaches, such as the welfare of the individual and universal values such as human rights and respect for differences. However, the critical approach to education for cosmopolitanism broadens the scope and moves from mere economic prosperity or moral commitments to inclusive prosperity and political/social commitments, which requires effective engagement in our real life to search for a better world portrayed as more fair, equitable, and peaceful (Andreotti 2006). Given this idea, we believe education for cosmopolitanism might play a significant role in creating social justice by encouraging learners to think critically about their worlds and identities and effectively participate in positive social change.

4  Egypt’s 2030 Vision: Priority Areas for Egyptian Education for Global Citizenship

4.4.3 Increasing Global Citizenship and Civil Society Awareness at Schools The stance between national citizenship and global citizenship puts before us two options: (1) a rejection that might result in isolation from the global movement, which could impede progress and (2) an acceptance that might result in the loss of identity and the extinction of the accumulated cultures of each country throughout history (Escaros 2015). The concept of global citizenship guarantees impartiality and unfairness of the global system, sharp differences in wealth, and opportunities for political power. The focus must be on general rules such as non-oppression of the weak by the strongest, an internationally accepted human rights standard, global concepts of justice, and political measures to reduce economic injustice (Wintersteiner et al. 2015). Considering the deepening of the roots of inequality in power and wealth as well as the division of labour, it is essential to addressing the concept of global citizenship in its various dimensions politically, culturally, and economically. There is a network of local and global concepts and policies that need to be dismantled, and if education succeeds in addressing it, it will ­undertake a new civilized mission in preparing generations that carry the burden of global civilization (Andreotti 2006). A balance should be struck between the introduction of the concept and the strengthening of the national identity so that the main goal is to ensure the consolidation of the concept and principles of national citizenship first, and then to invest education in the direction towards global citizenship. This could be achieved by achieving harmony and removing the contradiction between two different entrances to citizenship: the patriotic nation-centred on citizenship characterized by the values of ​​ belonging to a geographical area called a homeland in which the citizen has rights and has to perform duties. It is a global or cosmopolitan entrance where a cosmopolitan citizenry is characterized by belonging to the world or the vast universe that offers the rights and duties of the global citizen (Escaros 2015).

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GCE begins with a convergence of five perspectives: global perspective, awareness of the planet Earth, cross-cultural awareness, awareness of global dynamics, and awareness of available human options, all of which provide a strong normative vision of global citizenship (Oxley and Morris 2013). Considering the fact that the concept is received by Arab cultures with a different set of values, we must establish GCE through a value-based system emphasizing ethical, cultural, and social essence of Arab civilization. In order to increase the awareness level at schools, the following goals and steps could be adopted: • Making students familiar with global problems such as poverty, war, and inequality, addressing the economic and cultural basis of inequality in power and wealth/labour distribution in a universal complex (Andreotti 2011) • Providing students with the skills of critical thinking, problem solving and communication with others, and concern for common universal values such as human rights, peace, justice, respect for diversity, and intercultural understanding (Centre for Universal Education 2017). • Helping learners adapt to changes, entrepreneurship, effective oral and written communication, access to and analysis of information, and love of curiosity and imagination (Scott 2015). • Enhancing critical understanding and awareness of the causes of global, national, and local conflicts in the world first-hand and enabling learners to participate in personal and social work to build a just, peaceful, tolerant, solidarity, safe and sustainable world (Toh et al. 2017). • Empowering learners to challenge power imbalances and achieve greater equality, justice, democracy, and peace through individual and community transformation (Reilly and Niens 2014). • Helping learners understand some of the complex processes that contribute to violence and conflict at the individual, national, and international levels and prevent their occurrence or

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resolution and adopt behaviours that lead to constructive and non-violent solutions to conflicts. The concept of global citizenship is also linked to the civil society by allowing citizens to deal with global issues that transcend borders, and this civic dimension focuses on knowing and understanding the processes of civic life, learning to live together, and promoting responsibility for one’s own actions. GCE necessitates certain competencies, which play vital roles in civic engagement through the following ways (VanderDussen Toukan 2017): • Relating the acquired knowledge to more realistic everyday situations • Gaining skills to work with others and interpreting political information available in the media • Learning how to participate in a dignified discussion of social and political issues • Learning effective leadership in peer groups and reducing a bad experience like bullying • Respecting for the rule of law and human rights • Identifying the causes of community problems and exploring opportunities to solve them • Developing a sense of self-awareness that integrates social and political factors • Demonstrating a desire to spend time developing the communities • Linking experiences to the families and communities with community school education • Expressing ideas in familiar media ways

4.4.4 Reorientation Education Towards Nature and Environment Figure 4.2 shows the way of reorienting traditional education towards nature and environment and what to prioritize in Environmental Education (EE). EE relates to the intellectual, personal, social, cultural, professional development of learners on

participatory skills that are necessary for solutions to environmental problems of recent times. EE lies in the importance of environmental awareness among people whose hearts and minds are filled with the feeling and thinking about the basic principles and functions of the nature. Sterling (2001) specifies three dimensions to be considered when reorienting education towards nature and environment: • Knowledge dimension reinforces empathy with nature and environment through transformative thinking of individuals into environmental protection and resource preservation. • Conceptual dimension develops relationships with the world and respect for the entire vital community through interaction and connection with others and nature. • Practice dimension transfers experiences into a more sustainable global life and vision. The best way to achieve this is to engage in open, fun, creative, collaborative, meaningful, inclusive, and multidisciplinary projects.

4.5 Discussion and Conclusion Throughout the chapter, we have discussed concepts and priorities for GCE and what is necessary for education policies in the Arab Republic of Egypt for the 2030 Vision. According to our aspiration, the Egyptian educational institutions could provide students with the knowledge and skills required to secure productive employment and economic prosperity and strengthen society with a more just and sustainable life for all by equipping learners with GCE. Educational institutions are not only a means of transmitting knowledge but a place for learners to learn about their community, participate in it productively, and fight for change when change is justified. In addition, the institutions should grow our education to speak not only about the world as we see and realize it now but also, most importantly, to contribute to a global community that helps the next generation form and shape it. The Egyptian education system is not limited to teaching to follow the rules and laws without asking questions

4  Egypt’s 2030 Vision: Priority Areas for Egyptian Education for Global Citizenship

Independence or individuality of the human being

Global interconnectedness

Miscellaneous actions and events

Interconnectedness and complementarity of the universe and nature

Learning areas are fragmented

Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and interdependent

Highly valued humans compared to the rest of the vital community

Human beings are a part of the vital community

Education is dominant and competitive

Education is characterized by participation and cooperation

Driving is commanding and controlling

Leadership is characterized by advice, agreement and unity of purpose

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Fig. 4.2  Shift from traditional education model to education for nature and environment

or critical thinking about them. Nor does it mobilize learners to support policies that only promote self-interest or a specific political orientation but a democratic education that is open to the experiences of others and moral obligations towards others. The concept of global citizenship expresses a culture of intellectual openness, belonging to the international and humanitarian community, responsibility towards the public interest in several parts of the world, and commitment to social justice and human dignity. This concept took a general educational direction promoted by the Egyptian education system in with the purpose of creating a new generation who is capable of scientific and intellectual capabilities, who contributes effectively to the world issues, and who faces challenges to ensure an adequate space of freedom, integration, security, and peace for all individuals. Global citizenship is not limited to politics and security issues but also to health and education. For example, the Ministry of Education reconsidered the curricula and redesigned citizenship materials to adapt to the new global trend. Inculcating a culture of global citizenship in the minds of the new generation does not necessarily require a special time be set for it or an independent subject field. Rather, its values, vocabulary, and principles could be integrated

into all educational activities in schools so that children grow to respect, accept, and adopt it. This approach adopted the principles of the Egypt 2030 plan due to the link between education and the provision of full citizenship rights for learners. A vivid example of global citizenship is the popular movement in the Arab Republic of Egypt, which initiates actions supporting economic development issues according to the global perspective. Global citizenship as a way of life considered as a starting point for exercising human rights in all their forms and locations and a revolution against injustice, corruption, and racism. It is a culture that recognizes equitable principles and rights, invents new tools for the future, asserts human and societal self, and affirms fair competition between entities, societies, states, and nations. We believe that our state’s orientation towards activating the principles of global citizenship has advantages, the most important of which is to encourage individuals to change their orientations and values ​​to keep pace with the goals of the new construction while realizing the difference between the past and the present and the ability to compare between different stages in the Egyptian history. At the same time, these advantages raise important problems or issues that we must think about and weave ideas around them to

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light the way before us. Development theories affirm that the basis for this new norm is related to the processes of changing value systems and the formation of modern global, free, and local balances of social capital in a way that preserves our cohesion and stability. And it raises considerations or requirements that establish civil citizenship of a global character that could continue the process of building and developing our state, the ‘Arab Republic of Egypt’, and preserve its gains. Perhaps the starting point for this is to grasp the deeper meaning of global citizenship concept, as it is greater and deeper than mere formal belonging to the homeland or subjection to a set of rights and duties in the light of the constitution and the law. This is because citizenship has another dimension that is no less important. Citizenship is existential energy that is based on solid motivation and normative frameworks that exalt moral duty and moral responsibility. It is a network of global relationships that establishes positive actions and activities and excludes negative ones. It is a flowing psychological and social energy intertwined with constructive requirements and sways away from any form of demolition. We expect that our orientation towards global citizenship will push us towards forming a citizen who will raise the values of ​​ his movement towards working for the sake of the group and devoting oneself to serving the nation and the group and melting this self into serving us if necessary. This brings us to the issue of religious guardianship pursued by the terrorist group and its strikes from groups that exaggerate the use of religion to achieve political and personal ends. It is known that extremism is an exclusionary concept that hides behind static ideas to negate and exclude the other and even works to destroy it if extremism reaches its level. This contradicts the concept of global citizenship and the belief in coexistence based on respect and the rule of law.

4.5.1 Recommendations Based on the perspectives discussed throughout the chapter, the following recommendations are thought to be appropriate for Egypt’s 2030 Vision:

N. Singer and E. F. El Sayed

• Developing a comprehensive and sustainable strategy for GCE that clarifies its goal and the means to achieve this goal • Making global citizenship a part of the school’s mission and including it in all study plans • Adopting the comprehensive school culture that is based on respect for diversity • Updating administrative decisions, teacher procedures, and relationships between educational institutions and communities based on GCE • Enhancing the interest of school districts in facilitating planning and reviewing processes that assist schools in implementing the directions of GCE • Enhancing interest in GCE from the early years of an individual’s life • Establishing a GCE program that focuses on the school’s practices which include ethics, curricula, teaching, and learning policies • Identifying additional efforts to encourage various groups (students, parents, civil society organizations, school administrators, members of the council) to participate in the implementation of GCE program inside and outside the school community • Providing an open and participatory democratic environment within the school based on encouraging students to share their experiences, ideas, and proposals to improve and enhance school work and play a role in changing society. • Providing safe, inclusive, and engaging learning environments in which all learners feel valued and discuss controversial issues • Promoting cooperation, interaction, respect, and other skills needed to live in a diverse world • Activating the role of school councils in GCE by listening to critical points of view and responding to them, contributing to solving problems of common interest, and working with others to create a kind of social harmony in classrooms • Achieving justice, equality, and equal opportunities amongst students and not ­discriminating amongst them based on gender, religion, or socioeconomic level

4  Egypt’s 2030 Vision: Priority Areas for Egyptian Education for Global Citizenship

• Using ICT in teaching the foundations of economic openness to the world and economic contact with various cultures • Including activities to help learners achieve a balance between loyalty to the homeland and loyalty to humanity • Revolving around a global thought to support students’ need to live in contexts of diversity, interdependence, inequality, and global conflicts and emphasizing the concepts of human rights, tolerance, compassion, cultural literacy, information culture, issues related to self-­ evaluation, harmony with others, patriotism, global solidarity, conflict resolution, sustainable development, values and perceptions, and social justice • Focusing on inculcating core competencies related to GCE through social situations by emphasizing good behaviour, responsibility, and mutual interest. • Providing opportunities for students to discuss actions and their local and global implications.

References Al-Sagheer, A.  A. (2012). A proposed perception of the school’s role in educating its students for global citizenship in light of global trends (Analytical Study). Journal of the Faculty of Education Assuit University, 28(2), 84-11. Andreotti, V. (2006). Soft versus critical global citizenship education. Policy & Practice, A development Education Review (3). Andreotti, V. (2011). The political economy of global citizenship education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9(3–4), 307-310. Carter, A. (2001). The Political Theory of Global Citizenship. London and New York: Routledge. Centre for Universal Education. (2017). Measuring Global Citizenship Education: A Collection of Practices and Tools. Washington. Crawford, E. (2013). Exploring Our Roles as Global citizens. Educator’s Guides (Grades 3–5). UNICEF. Dill, J. S. (2013). The longings and limits of global citizenship education. New York, NY: Routledge. El Desouky, L. I. (2019). Promoting Education for Global Citizenship among High School Students in Egypt “A Suggested Concept”. The Education Journal, Sohah University, 59, 735–814.

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Escaros, P. (2015). Integration of the patterns of cultural exchange (applicable models) to confront the dilemma of universal values. the Nineteenth Annual National Conference (The Eleventh Arab) “Arab University Education and the Crisis of Values in a World Without Borders”, from 16–17 September. Cairo: Center University Education Development, Ain Shams University. Evans, M., Ingram, L. A., MacDonald, A., & Weber, N. (2009). Mapping the ‘global dimension’ of citizenship education in Canada: The complex interplay of theory, practice, and context. Citizenship, Teaching and Learning, 5(2), 17-34. Hegazy, A. M. (2009). Citizenship and Belonging between Theory and Practice, The Malaysian Experience as a Model in Citizenship and Human Rights Books in Light of the Current Changes. Cairo, Egypt: The Egyptian House Saudi Arabia. Humes, W. (2008). The Discourse of Global Citizenship, in Peters, M. & Britton, A. & Blee, H. (Eds.), Global Citizenship Education: Philosophy, Theory and Pedagogy. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Ibrahim, T. (2005). Global citizenship education: mainstreaming the curriculum? Cambridge Journal of Education, 35(2), 177–194. doi:https://doi. org/10.1080/0305764050014682 Marshall, H. (2011). Instrumentalism, ideals and imaginaries: theorising the contested space of global citizenship education in schools. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9(3–4), 411–426. Morais, D. B., & Ogden, A. C. (2011). Initial Development and Validation of the Global Citizenship Scale. Journal of Studies in International Education, 15(5), 445–466. Mustafa, N.  A. (2007). The Palestinian Civic Education Curriculum and its Role in Democratic Formation among Basic Stage Students in Palestine. M.A., College of Graduate Studies, An-Najah University. OXFAM, (2006). Education for Global Citizenship: A guide for schools. U.K: Oxfam. Oxley, L., & Morris, P. (2013). Global Citizenship: A Typology for Distinguishing its Multiple Conceptions,. British Journal of Education studies, 61(3). Peters, M. A., Blee, H., & Britton, A. (2008). Introduction: Many Faces of Global Civil Society: Possible Futures for Global Citizenship. In M. A. Peters, A. Britton, & H. Blee (Eds.), Global citizenship education: philosophy, theory and pedagogy (pp. 1–1). Rapoport, A. (2013). Global Citizenship Themes in the Social Studies Classroom: Teaching Devices and Teachers’ Attitudes. The Educational Forum, 77(4), 407–420. Reilly, J., & Niens, U. (2014). Global Citizenship as Education for Peacebuilding in a Divided Society: Structural and Contextual Constraints on the Development of Critical Dialogic Discourse in Schools. A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 44(1), 53–76. Saeed, H. M. (2019). The role of school principals in education for citizenship in basic education schools in the

64 Sultanate of Oman. The Educational Journal of the College of Education, 129–144. Scott, C. L. (2015). The Future of Education: Any Kind of Learning in the Twenty-first Century. UN Educational. Paris: Scientific and Cultural Organization. Singer, N., & Mahmoud, E.-F.  E.-S. (2020). MOTIVES OF THE EGYPTIAN EDUCATION FUTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN 2020 AND 2030. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, 8(2), 1–28. Singer, N., & Mahmoud, E.-F.  E.-S. (2021). Inherent Presence Of Children In Society “Proposed Criteria And Indicators”. Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT) 12(4), 1139. Singer, N., Mahmoud, E.-F. E.-S, & Elsaeed, K. (2019). Entrepreneurship Culture in Education Institutions: Future Practices and Aspirations. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, 7(1), 450-460. Stack, T. (2012). Beyond the State? Civil Sociality and other Notions of Citizenship. Citizenship Studies, 16(7), pp.  871–885. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1362 1025.2012.716197 Sterling, S. (2001). Sustainable Education: Re-visioning Learning and Change. Devan, UK: Green Books. Sullivan, M., & Pashby, K. (2008). Citizenship education in the era of globalization. In Canadian perspectives. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. The Encyclopedia Britannica. (1992). Encyclopedia Britannica Inc (15th ed.). Chicago., IL: Univercity of Chicago press.

N. Singer and E. F. El Sayed Toh, S., Shaw, G., & Padilla, D. (2017). Global Citizenship Education A Guide for Policymakers. Seoul: Republic of Korea: Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding. UNESCO. (2013). Global Citizenship Education: An Emerging Perspective (Outcome document of the Technical Consultation on Global Citizenship Education). UNESCO. UNESCO. (2015). Global Citizenship Education: Topics and Learning Objectives. Paris: UNES.  Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0023/002329/232993e.pdf UNESCO. (2014). Global Citizenship Education: Preparing Learners for the Challenges of the 21st Century. UNESCO. (2016). The ABCs of Global Citizenship Education. Paris: UNES. Retrieved from http: //unesdoc. unesco.org/images/0024/002482/248232E.pdf VanderDussen Toukan, E. (2017). Educating Citizens of The Global: Mapping Textual Constructs of UNESCO’s Global Citizenship Education 2012–2015. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 13(1), 51–64. Veugelers, W. (2011). The Moral and the Political in Global Citizenship: Appreciating Differences in Education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9 (3–4), 473–485. Wintersteiner, W., Grobbauer, H., Diendorfer, G., & Reitmair-Juárez, S. (2015). Global Citizenship Education: Citizenship Education for Globalizing Societies. The Austrian Commission for UNESCO.

Part II Curriculum

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Looking for a Better Future? Reconstruction of Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development in Polish National Curriculum Magdalena Kuleta-Hulboj and Dobrawa Aleksiak

Abstract

This chapter presents the results of a qualitative investigation of the Polish national curriculum with respect to the concepts of global citizenship and sustainable development. The aim of the study was twofold: (1) to re-­ construct discursive conceptualisations of global citizenship and sustainable development in the Polish national curriculum and (2) to investigate whether the curriculum creates opportunities to foster global citizenship. Three subject areas of the national curriculum for secondary schools  – history, citizenship education, and geography  – were chosen for the analysis as each most frequently accommodates the content and goals related to Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development. A thematic analysis was employed with the elements of Critical Discourse Analysis. The theoretical framework that informs the study is social constructivism with a critical and social jusM. Kuleta-Hulboj (*) · D. Aleksiak Faculty of Education, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland e-mail: [email protected]; d.aleksiak@ uw.edu.pl

tice orientation. Drawing on the results of the analysis, three main points could be argued: (a) global citizenship is almost non-existent in the curriculum; (b) Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development are not presented as intertwining nor cross-cutting approaches; and (c) the curriculum offers no transformative potential. To conclude, the national curriculum fails to prepare students as agents having the potential to shape the future for a sustainable world but embodies the strategy of ‘global washing’.

5.1 Introduction Global citizenship and sustainable development have been on the educational agenda of nations and states for a long time. These wide concepts became an axis for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCE) which entered educational policies as adjectival educations a few decades ago. However, only recently have they gained unprecedented popularity internationally with developments including the Global Education Charter (North-South Centre of the Council of Europe 1997), the Maastricht Global Education

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_5

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Declaration (2002), the UN Decade of ESD 2005–2014 (UN 2002), followed by the Global Action Programme on ESD 2015–2019 (UN 2014) and a recent framework, ESD for 2030 (UN 2020), or the declaration of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN 2015). All these initiatives have established a basis for local implementations and modifications in diverse national contexts. For Poland, as for the majority of the EU countries, ESD and GCE became official educational components in the first decade of this century. Although GCE and ESD should not be equated with each other as they have their own distinct roots, traditions, and trajectories, they have been increasingly intersecting, permeating, and intertwining recently. This is evident in the approach of the UN and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular, the SDG4 (Quality Education) and the target 4.7, which clearly envisages GCE and ESD as convergent approaches through this description: ‘By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through ESD and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development’ (UN 2015, p. 17). We can also see the tendency to look for synergies between GCE and ESD in the literature (Bourn 2005; Bourn et  al. 2016; Jimenez et  al. 2017; Khoo and Jørgensen 2021). Thus, despite being aware of different, contested, and sometimes even contradictory models and approaches in the GCE and ESD literature, at the same time we agree with Khoo and Jørgensen that: ‘There is no more urgent time than the present for thinking about how to mobilise GCE and ESD jointly, hopefully, and synergistically for alternative futures’ (Khoo and Jørgensen 2021, p.  1). Therefore, in this chapter, we frame GCE and ESD as convergent approaches that gesture toward sustainable futures (however contested and problematic is the concept of sustainability). Additionally, our understanding of GCE and ESD is informed by a theoretical framework

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rooted in critical and postcolonial perspectives in global education theory (Andreotti 2011; Jefferess 2008; Pashby and Swanson 2016). There is literature investigating the presence and shape of ESD and GCE in the national curricula on different levels and in various local contexts. Some interesting worldwide trends could be found in Jimenez et al. (2017), who analysed three cross-national longitudinal databases on textbook content related to ESD and GCE. The main finding of their study is the general rise of the topics such as sustainable development, global citizenship, diversity, gender equality, and human rights, which suggests that for the last decades these ideas have been prioritised in the school curricula in many countries all over the world. Cox (2017) performed a study of the content of key subjects related to GCE in the curricula of 10 countries. He found out that although most of the curricula recognised or even affirmed GCE concepts, the major challenge was ‘striking a balance between aligning with universal commitments and responsibilities and enduring centrality of the nation-state as the primary citizen agency for belonging and identity’ (Cox 2017, p.  38). According to Cox, few states addressed this challenge in their national curricula. Another UNESCO report about 14 countries underlined that most of the GCE-related content in the investigated curricula was only indirectly linked to GCE and lacked a global perspective (Browes 2017). Regarding the higher education level, Albareda-Tiana et al. (2018) explored the principles and practices of sustainable development through an analysis of the SDGs in the university curriculum. Their mixed-method study revealed several visions, difficulties, and challenges, such as a lack of consistency among the university documents or reductionist approaches to the concept of sustainability. In another study, teacher education in 17 countries, including Poland, was investigated by Bourn et  al. (2017), and the authors concluded that, although ESD and GCE were present in initial teacher education and continuous professional development, they are often treated as additional or extra-curricular content. Therefore, as this brief literature review shows,

5  Looking for a Better Future? Reconstruction of Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development…

introducing GCE and ESD into the curricula raises many questions not only about the extent of their presence but also about the shape and prefiguration of GCE and ESD, as well as their discursive and ideological orientation (Hopwood et al. 2005; Oxley and Morris 2013; Pashby et al. 2020). Building on the framework presented above, this chapter presents the results of a qualitative investigation of the Polish national curriculum introduced as part of the 2017 curricular and structural education reform with respect to the concepts of global citizenship and sustainable development. The purpose of the study was twofold: (1) to re-construct discursive conceptualisations of global citizenship and sustainable development in the Polish national curriculum and (2) to investigate whether the curriculum creates a space or opportunities to foster global citizenship. In other words, we attempt to answer the question of how well the Polish national curriculum prepares the young generations for tackling the greatest global challenges of the twenty-first century and shaping a sustainable future. The Polish case could contribute to the debate about how national education systems position GCE and ESD. The contribution might be especially intriguing for the particular status of Poland. Poland was one of the so-called A8 countries1 that joined the EU in 2004. Almost 20 years after the accession and the relentless chase after Western EU’s prosperity and status, it might still be considered as a semi-periphery. Since the tensions between the dominant and hardly ever questioned paradigm of economic growth and the conceptions of sustainable development could be found in educational discourse, an inquiry into educational documents could reveal how these framings are shaped by a national context. Within this framework, in this chapter, we first provide a glimpse into the country’s unobvious and ambiguous status, as an in-between (Chimiak 2016), semi-peripheral (Kuleta-Hulboj 2020; Mayblin As BBC put it: “the eight poor countries from Eastern Europe who joined the EU in the largest single expansion since its creation in 1957” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ programmes/panorama/4479759.stm). 1 

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et  al. 2014; Starnawski 2015), or a Global East country (Müller 2018), then we introduce the reader to a brief history of the mainstreaming of ESD and GCE into the Polish political agenda. In the next sections, we outline a theoretical framework that informs the study and present the methodologies related to the data gathering and analysis processes and describe the results. Finally, in Sect. 5.5, we draw some conclusions and discuss the limitations of the study.

5.2 Context 5.2.1 Poland: Emerging Economy, Developed Country, or the Global East? The market transitions and deep reforms that occurred after the communist era laid the foundations for Poland’s economic success. The fast and far-reaching political and economic transformation in the early post-communist stage had enormous social costs, including growing economic inequalities, high rate of unemployment, and increasing poverty. Despite the worsening socio-­ economic status of Poles, the transformation based on Western patterns continued. Since 1992, Poland has experienced remarkable economic growth. It was the only country in the EU that was not affected by the 2008–2009 recession. In less than three decades, between 1990 and 2017, the Polish GDP (Gross Domestic Product) more than doubled and HDI (Human Development Index) grew by 21.5%. Since the accession to the EU in 2004, the GDP yearly average increase was 4% for over a decade (Panek 2019; Piątkowski 2018; Raszkowski and Bartniczak 2019). Since 2020, the well-diversified Polish economy has also been facing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with one of the best economic outlooks in Europe and is expected to recover in 2021 (Błoński et al. 2021; The World Bank 2021). Poland nowadays is the largest economy of the ex-Eastern bloc countries and has been reclassified in some indices from ‘emerging markets’ to ‘developed markets’ (Raszkowski and Bartniczak 2019), but has Poland’s status

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transformed with the economic and political transition? How can we situate Poland in the global geo-political categories of thinking? The increasingly popular demarcation of the world to Global South and Global North enables academics, activists, and participants of public discourses to categorise and think of global differences (Müller 2018). Although more neutral than its predecessors (‘First, Second and Third World’ or ‘developed and developing countries’), it still fails to grasp the complexity of the post-­colonial and post-cold war world. The binary oppositions of the North–South cannot embrace the complex condition of the countries situated somewhere ‘in between’ (Chimiak 2016). Global South and Global North have monopolised not only the geographical division but also the political and epistemological space. This binary opposition excludes societies that are too rich to be Global South and too poor to be Global North. As Müller (2018) argues, these societies are the ones that took part in the most fateful experiment of the twentieth century – building communism. With the fall of communism, the West–East division disappeared, leaving the latter to fade into oblivion. Global East, as Müller calls these societies, is located somewhere in chasms of Global North and Global South. The power relations in the Global East are omnidirectional: its societies can be both an oppressor and an oppressed, a coloniser and a colonised. As Mayblin et al. (2014) argue, Poland is entangled in a triple post-­colonial relationship: with ex-soviet oppressor Russia; ideological hegemons from ‘the West;’ and the neighbouring Eastern territories that Poland incorporated from the fourteenth century up to 1945 (Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine). In recent years, the country has experienced a significant rise of populist and nationalistic sentiments, in which post-­ colonial resentment is strongly manifested. Poland, the former Soviet bloc country and foreign aid recipient, now transformed into an Official Development Assistance donor with a growing level of income, quality of life, and a stable economy cannot be simply positioned on a political and epistemological map. With its restless chase after the Global North, Poland can be situated as a semi-periphery (Kuleta-Hulboj

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2020; Mayblin et al. 2014; Starnawski 2015) or as a Global East (Müller 2018). This complexity should be considered when looking at contemporary Poland. Therefore, Poland is an interesting case study of a semi-peripheral country’s educational response to the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century.

5.2.2 Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship in Polish Political Agenda Neglected during the communist era and at the beginning of the transition period, environmental and sustainability issues started gaining attention in Poland at the end of the 1990s. Poland, to improve environmental conditions, opened up for new financial instruments such as the Polish EcoFund funded by OECD.  The newly opened national market attracted foreign investors and at the same time absorbed good environmental practices that helped in restructuring local companies (Kronenberg and Bergier 2012). Sustainability issues and environmental protection became institutionalised in several binding documents. First and foremost, it was incorporated into the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (Konstytucja 1997) as a fundamental right secured by the state. In subsequent years, those issues were addressed in various high-level documents such as Sustainable Development Strategy Poland 2025 (Ministerstwo Środowiska 1999) and Ecological Education Strategy (Ministerstwo Środowiska 2001). Along with its accession to the EU in 2004, Poland began adjusting national documents and policies to EU requirements. The process was lengthy and for over a decade there were no up-to-date strategies. Additionally, ESD suffered from a lack of formalised cooperation between ministries, academia, NGOs, and schools (ITTI 2012). The policies gained momentum in 2015, when Poland became one of 193 countries that signed the UN Resolution on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Similarly, to sustainability and environmental issues, GCE, in Poland referred to as global edu-

5  Looking for a Better Future? Reconstruction of Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development…

cation, gained greater attention only after the fall of communism. It owes its development primarily to NGOs and their engagement in implementing and popularising global issues in educational practice. Only since 2004, with Poland’s accession to the EU has GCE become a part of the state’s development cooperation policy. However, for the next few years, it was not a priority. Stronger institutionalisation of GCE came along with the educational reform in 2008 through both structural and curricular initiatives, which resulted in the incorporation of GCE into the national curriculum. It was followed by a multi-­ stakeholder process leading to the Memorandum of Understanding on Strengthening Global Education signed in May 2011 between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education and Zagranica Group2 (Grupa Zagranica 2011). The stakeholders committed to expand activities and to promote and support the development of global education. In the same year, the government passed the Development Cooperation Act (Sejm 2011) which made the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for coordinating and financing GCE. The Ministry of Education has not been substantially involved but limited itself to the provision of in-service teacher training. With the secured state funding and access to the EU programmes (like Development Education and Awareness Raising – DEAR), various GCE initiatives started to flourish. An abundance of educational resources was published, hundreds of teachers were trained, and a network of regional GCE school coordinators was established. NGOs played a pivotal role in all these initiatives. However, a few years later, due to the political changes in Poland, financing declined and the unfavourable climate slowed the developments and undermined GCE gains (Kuleta-Hulboj 2020). The UN Resolution on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development gave a new impetus to the hope for the development of GCE in Poland. In particular, target 4.7 broadened the possibiliGrupa Zagranica is a Polish non-governmental development organisations (NGDO) platform. 2 

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ties of bringing together GCE and ESD. So far, GCE and ESD have been developing in parallel, especially on the official and political level. Also, environmental and GCE NGOs see this target as an opportunity for bolstering content and skills related to global social and environmental justice (Bourn 2005) in educational settings. In 2017, Poland adopted ‘The Strategy for Responsible Development’ (Ministerstwo Rozwoju 2017), a national response to the Agenda 2030. The primary focus of this medium-­ term strategy is on the growth of the Polish residents’ income, coherent in social, economic, environmental, and territorial dimensions (Raszkowski and Bartniczak 2019). The subchapter dedicated to the environment defines it as ‘a natural capital and as such constitutes a potential for the development of concrete geographical space. Its resources [...] generate benefits known as ecosystem services’ (Ministerstwo Rozwoju 2017, p.  333). The environment is recognised first as a commodity and later as a common good to protect. Another strategic document presenting environmental goals and priorities, ‘Ecological Policy of the State’ (Ministerstwo Środowiska 2001), describes environmental education as one of the horizontal goals of this policy. However, this goal is vaguely described, it does not deal with sustainable development or ESD and the document has yet to be followed by a separate educational strategy. With regard to GCE, as it is a part of the country’s development cooperation programme, its framework documents are multiannual cooperation plans. They define the geographic and thematic priorities of the Polish overseas development and humanitarian aid setting goals and strategies. The plan currently in force is the Multiannual Development Cooperation Programme for 2021–2030  – Solidarity for Development, which is, in the ministry’s words, ‘closely correlated with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and has its priorities rooted in the SDGs’ (Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2021, Framework documents section). Among the priorities defined in the programme are peace, justice, and strong institutions; equal opportunities (education, decent work, entrepreneurship,

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reducing inequalities, sustainable cities, regional development planning, and development of rural areas); health; climate and natural resources (clean water and sanitary conditions, forests and biodiversity, renewable energy sources). Climate protection and equal opportunities for men and women are horizontal priorities of the Polish aid. GCE does not occupy much space in the Programme nor is it discussed in detail. In fact, the emphasis is on ‘promoting proper behaviour patterns on the local, regional and global level’, reducing stereotypes about the global South and changing the negative attitudes such as discriminatory attitudes or passiveness (Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2021, p. 26). However, this document also announces the work on ‘a strategic and operational document on global education in Poland, which will feature, among others, general and detailed goals of the Polish global education programme, include global education in the lifelong education perspective, and also establish a framework for cooperation between sectors, ministries, and other central administration institutions with a view to supporting the development of global education in Poland’ (Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2021, p. 26). This is noteworthy, as this is the first time that preparing a strategic document on GCE is mentioned. The opportunity for mainstreaming ESD and GCE in the national curriculum occurred in 2017, when the right-wing conservative governing coalition, Zjednoczona Prawica (The United Right), launched a curricular and structural reform of the education system. The axis of the reform was to return to the ‘good old days’ and reverse the changes made by the previous government (Wiśniewski and Zahorska 2020). Introduced in a top-down manner and carried out in a haste, the reform was widely criticised by teachers, students, parents, and academics as being ill-prepared and ideologically driven and having tokenistic consultation with stakeholders. Critical voices pointed to the new curriculum as inconsistent and anachronistic. The critics also argued that the curriculum was polono-centric and subordinated to the ruling party ideology (Grupa Zagranica 2017; Rada Języka Polskiego 2017; Śliwerski 2019).

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According to the official governmental data, GCE and ESD have been present in Poland since the beginning of the measurement, which is the year 2010. Both are said to be embedded in the Polish education policies, subject curricula, teacher education, and student assessment (GUS 2021). Official indicators suggest that the target 4.7 is reached and GCE and ESD are mainstreamed in the national curriculum. It is surprising, however, that implementation of ESD and GCE in education has been carried out separately. The SDGs and related issues are covered by separate ministries (ESD  – by the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Development; GCE – by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and the Ministry of Education and Science rarely involves itself in either. Apparently, there is neither a shared vision nor a close cooperation. Moreover, the studies show that the topics and goals related to GCE (Aleksiak and Kuleta-Hulboj 2020; CONCORD 2018) and citizenship participation (Kopińska 2020) have been marginalised in the curriculum. For instance, neither the citizenship education curriculum nor the history curriculum for primary school includes learning goals that refer directly to developing a global outlook. This is somehow contradictory to the optimistic picture that emerges from the official data. So why has there been such criticism when the curriculum is supposedly so good? The aim of this study is to examine the Polish curriculum to uncover whether there is a space for a vision of global citizenship and a sustainable future in the key Polish educational policy documents.

5.3 Theoretical and Methodological Framework This section presents the result of the qualitative analysis of the Polish national curriculum (Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej and Ośrodek Rozwoju Edukacji 2018) conducted in 2021. We examined whether the curriculum prepares the young generations for global citizenship and sustainable development. The rationale for focusing

5  Looking for a Better Future? Reconstruction of Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development…

on the national curriculum is multifaceted. First and foremost, the national curriculum performs a crucial role in determining the goals and objectives of formal education in Poland. Teachers are obliged to implement the national curriculum and the textbooks must comply with it. The national curriculum is determined by the Ministry of Education and Science and – as a recent history of educational reforms in Poland has shown – it changes as political governments change (Wiśniewski and Zahorska 2020). Therefore, the curriculum is a product and an expression of the political values, interests, and principles and as such it is political (Pinar et al. 1995). Examining the national curriculum for the presence and shape of ESD and GCE can help to determine whether they really are mainstreamed in the national education policies, as claimed by the national SDGs data on Target 4.7 (GUS 2021). Second, the curriculum representations of sustainable development and global citizenship are particularly relevant to an examination of the orientation of official educational policy documents towards the sustainable future. Last and a pragmatic reason is to provide continuity within our research. As we conducted our previous analysis of the presence of GCE on national curriculum of primary schools (Aleksiak and Kuleta-Hulboj 2020), the next step implies secondary schools (students aged from 14/15 to 18/19). Following our previous research, the three curriculum subject areas for the analysis were chosen – history (marked as HIS in references), citizenship education (marked as CE), and geography (marked as GEO). An identical preamble (marked as P) that states the general learning objectives and tasks of secondary school ­precedes each subject curriculum. The subject curricula contain general learning goals and detailed outcomes. In the Polish educational system, there are two paths which a secondary school student can undertake in each subject: basic or extended content. The extended curriculum is dedicated to students who wish to pass the final exam, Matura. It is an external exam for secondary school graduation. The basic curriculum was chosen for the three subjects given that it is compulsory for

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every secondary school student and is therefore a common base for all graduates. The research questions were: • How is global citizenship and sustainable development discursively constructed in the national curriculum? • How does the national curriculum orient students and teachers towards a sustainable future? • What challenges and opportunities for ESD and GCE does the national curriculum exhibit in cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioural domains? • What is the possibility of fostering global citizenship while following the content of the national curriculum? To investigate the national curriculum for the presence (or absence) of GCE and ESD and how these are conceptualised, the thematic analysis with elements of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was employed. CDA is not a research method but rather a special approach to the study of language, discourse, and communication (van Dijk 1993). It is eclectic and focuses on various methods and techniques, which are of help to education researchers (Mullet 2018). CDA tackles inequalities and injustice and aims to reveal the hidden power relations (Fairclough 2010), to ‘make the implicit explicit’ (Wodak 2014). We firmly believe that applying elements of CDA to the national curriculum might help to unveil the understandings of sustainable development and global citizenship. For the coding process, a modified version of the previous analytical tool (Aleksiak and Kuleta-­ Hulboj 2020) was used. It was informed by the works of Cox (2017) and Kopińska (2017). The tool, based on three domains of learning (cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioural) each consisting of several more detailed categories, was amended for the purpose of the present study. To look for the kinds of GCE and ESD envisaged by the SDGs, several categories in each domain were added. Table 5.1 presents the tool with amended categories (the new categories are italicised).

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74 Table 5.1  Analytical categories by domains of learning Cognitive domain Global and international structures, systems, institutions, and relations with particular reference to the global South; structural causes for unsustainable development

Exploring alternative solutions

Perception and understanding of global interdependencies, including references to the mutual influence of individual and global processes, and the world as a complex and dynamically changing system Multiple perspectives (multi-perspectivity), including all references to non-dominant narratives and perspectives, e.g. from the global South.

Attitudinal domain Dealing with difference and diversity, including references to cultural sensitivity and respect, reducing stereotypes and prejudices, empathy, dialogue and openness Cultivate empathy for the planet Multiple dimensions of identity

Key values for global learning (dignity, justice, solidarity, equality, peace, freedom)

Global issues and challenges, including: migration and refugees, sustainable development, biodiversity and climate change, global inequalities and poverty, world peace, conflicts and security, global health and diseases; human rights and human rights violations; environmental damage and protection; environmental rights; global framing of environmental issues

The extended version of the tool was used in the critical analysis process that involved separate coding and analysis to ensure research triangulation (Gibbs 2011). The theoretical framework which informs the study is social constructivism, with a critical and social justice orientation. We understand and investigate global citizenship and sustainable development as sociocultural, discursive constructs having their own history, linked to various theoretical and ideological contexts, and promoting particular worldviews (Hopwood et al. 2005; Oxley and Morris 2013; Pashby et  al. 2020). Some of them may contribute to a more socially just world while others may fail or even reinforce existing injustice. Our understanding of global citizenship and sustainable development is inspired by critical conversations on GCE and ESD, which problematise and challenge the very concepts and point out to the limitations of ‘soft’ or ‘weak’ approaches (Jefferess 2008; Khoo and Jørgensen 2021; Pashby et al. 2020; Pashby and Swanson 2016). As mentioned before, we con-

Behavioural domain Willingness to act individually and collectively on global issues

Willingness to take responsibility for actions and decisions Willingness to act ethically on global issues Collaborative decision-making

Transformations on individual, societal, and political spheres

sider GCE and ESD to be convergent and intertwined approaches with the shared goal to develop critical global citizens engaged in shaping alternative futures. And we base our study on the premise that the curriculum is political (Pinar et al. 1995).

5.4 Results 5.4.1 Non-transversal Sustainable Development The reconstruction of sustainable development discourse in the national curriculum presents itself as a troublesome task. The reason for that is its absence in all subject curricula but geography. The preamble contains a general reference to respect for the natural environment, activities orientated towards the protection of nature, and the development of an interest in ecology. The history and citizenship education curricula do not mention sustainability or sustainable develop-

5  Looking for a Better Future? Reconstruction of Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development…

ment. What is more, they do not even refer to the natural environment whatsoever. Contrastingly, the geography curriculum refers to sustainable development in learning goals and outcomes. In the learning goals, sustainable development is noticeable in each domain, yet with a particular mixture of cognitive in every other domain, e.g. ‘[students] understand the need for rational management of the geographical environment in accordance with the principles of sustainable development’ (GEO:15), or ‘[students] use the acquired geographical knowledge and skills in everyday life in accordance with the principles of sustainable development’ (GEO: 15). There is a general emphasis on an understanding of the world as an integral whole and identifying the interconnectedness between environmental, economic, social, and cultural spheres. The interdependencies are mentioned on the local, regional, national, and global level. The outcomes, which are more detailed in content, contain plenty of references to sustainable development. The selection of topics is wide: fair trade, green energy, discussion on tourism and transportation, sustainable forestry and water ecosystems management, ecological farming and certificates. Some outcomes refer to interconnections between society, economy, and environment as ‘[student] evaluates the impact of transportation on the living conditions and the natural environment’ (GEO: 21). Yet there are no associations between the natural environment and politics or cultures. It is impossible to find a discussion on the current economy or systemic reasons for the climate crisis. Also, there is not even a single mention of climate change. This is especially incomprehensible when there is an abundance of references to environmental damage and protection. Moreover, the curriculum barely refers to global interconnections. In most of the outcomes, the focus is on Poland, occasionally compared to ‘other countries’ e.g. ‘[student] characterises the changes in the structure of energy consumption including a division into renewable and non-renewable sources and compares the structure of energy production in Poland with that in other countries in the context of energy security’ (GEO: 20). In other examples, it

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is either an individual region of the world or no reference to a place or connections whatsoever. The general mention of multidimensionality from the goals is not reflected in the learning outcomes. The outcomes do not convey the impression of the world as interdependent rather focusing on the idea that the majority of the processes happen only in Poland. Sustainable development does not traverse the other subjects in the curriculum but geography, and in the geography curriculum, it is predominantly an environmental topic.

5.4.2 European, Not Global To recognise the need for global solidarity and social justice, learners must be included in the debate on their own identity, place, and impact on the world. If otherwise, students might not develop or strengthen their sense of global responsibility but feel detached and unwilling to engage in social change. The search for a sustainable future in our analysis included the investigation of a global outlook (Bourn 2014). First, no subject curriculum refers to a global level of identity. Remarkably, the citizenship education curriculum does not explicitly refer to any level of identity. Several outcomes that might shape the sense of belonging are limited to national level as ‘[student] characterises  – with the use of results of public opinion polls – contemporary types of families; explain problems connected with various functions of a family in the Republic of Poland’ or ‘[student] presents – with the use of public opinion polls  – the catalogue of values affirmed in the Polish society and analyse it; analyse the role of values in the world view’ (CE: 15). The citizenship education curriculum offers plenty of outcomes on structures, systems, and institutions. However, these outcomes are predominantly focused on Poland, in some cases – on  European level. The institutions mentioned are the ones that are dominant, like the UN, EU, and NATO. NATO and the UN are the only not fully Polish or European institutions. Furthermore, the curriculum refers to a meagre

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number of global issues like human rights violations, yet there is no explicit reference to the wider world outside of the European level. Despite the fact that Poland has been the destination for a significant number of migrants and Poles have a history of migration, migration is not mentioned in the basic citizenship education curriculum. This is so even though the citizenship education curriculum was introduced in 2017, that is, after the recent so-called migrant/refugee ‘crisis’. Additionally, minorities and dealing with cultural differences are only mentioned in the curriculum on a local level. We argue that the citizenship education curriculum suppresses possibilities for developing a global outlook. While this may be unintentional, it nevertheless unavoidably reproduces the domination of national perspectives. Identity levels in the geography curriculum are also limited. Surprisingly, the only explicit mention of identity is of a not particularly familiar region for a Polish learner: ‘[student] depicts the impact of the disappearance of the ice caps in circumpolar areas on the economy, life of the inhabitants and their cultural identity’ (GEO: 17). Global issues, on the contrary, are explicitly present in the goals and outcomes. Students have an opportunity to learn about the inequalities, conflicts, migration, refugees, consequences of colonialism, or income inequality. There are three indices presented: GDP, HDI, HPI (GEO:18), which give a chance to engage with various measurements of development. Global issues, as well as structures and processes, are presented on many levels: national, European, or global (although the word ‘global’ is never used, instead it is ‘world’). It is noticeable that European and Polish levels overshadow the global, e.g. ‘[student] discusses the effects of large migration movements on societies and economies of selected countries of the world, with particular emphasis on European countries, including Poland’ (GEO: 18). In the learning goals, the history curriculum reassures that world history is embedded more in the second level document than is the case for the primary curriculum. Peculiarly enough, this statement is positioned below the list of main

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pedagogical goals of history, where only one from the seven goals refers to a place different from Poland: ‘[It allows students to] shape the bond with homeland, civic awareness, attitude of respect and responsibility for the country; consolidate a sense of dignity and national pride; build respect for other people and the achievements of other nations and countries’ (HIS: 11). In the comment for history curriculum, a section in the history curriculum, student’s identity is explicitly referred in only one sentence, where it is stated that ‘the past is an important element that builds individual identity, as well as a creator of community identity, of which national identity is a particular dimension’ (HIS: 39). Here as elsewhere in the history curriculum, the emotional connection and attitude shaping is positioned implicitly on a national level. Historical events, structures, and systems are predominantly limited to the European and the Polish. Areas outside the Global North are present in only a few outcomes. These are ancient civilisations like ‘Middle and Far East’, conflict areas connected with Western interests like Afghanistan, Cuba or Korea or where ‘[student] explains the impact of Great Geographical Discoveries on the society, economy, and culture of Europe and non-European areas [emphasis added]’ (HIS: 18). We should also notice that there are very few global issues present, only migration and conflicts. Additionally, alternative narratives or perspectives are absent, despite a hopeful yet vague general goal, which states that the ‘[student] recognises the multiplicity of research perspectives and the various interpretations of history and their causes’ (HIS: 13). Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that the history curriculum refers to important social processes and changes such as emancipatory movements, sexual revolution, or elements of people’s history. In this, the second level history curriculum represents an improvement from the primary history curriculum, which does not facilitate engagement with these topics. A global outlook has great potential in orientating the learner towards a sustainable future. The citizenship education curriculum and history curriculum offer a limited identity level, do not

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refer to global dimension and present no other perspectives. The geography curriculum has more potential for a global outlook, yet it does not include different perspectives. The curriculum provides no basis for students to notice values beyond their own environment, and therefore challenge their worldviews and assumptions. This makes it hard to develop a global outlook and leaves the student with a European one at the utmost.

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local, national, European and global level and evaluates selected solutions to these problems and diagnoses the possibility of own influence on their solution’ (CE: 14). The complexity and interconnectedness of global challenges are compressed into this one outcome, without any specification and naming examples. The introduction to the geography curriculum declares that ‘the main aim of geography as a school subject is to learn about one’s country and the world as an integrated whole, where natural and socio-economic phenomena and processes 5.4.3 Simplified Worldview are closely related to each other on the basis of mutual conditions and relationships’ (GEO: 12). The need to see the world as full of global and Understanding the multidimensionality of prolocal interconnections and complexities as well cesses as well as identifying relations between as the necessity to engage in sometimes uncom- environment, society, culture, and economy are fortable and uneasy conversations have been stated as one of main educational goals. When argued as one of the core elements to raise global investigating the detailed outcomes, there are citizens (Andreotti 2006, 2011; Pashby and many references to various processes and topics Swanson 2016). In search of non-reductive re-­ that could be included to global citizenship and presentations of the world, we skip ahead to the sustainable development. However, these outpreamble that merely once refers explicitly to the comes are limited to effects e.g. ‘[student] disworld: ‘[The goal of secondary school is] to cusses the impact of colonialism and its develop [in students] a passion for exploring the disintegration on the modern political division of world’ (P: 7). the world, the diversity of population structures, The citizenship education curriculum refers to migration, armed conflict, and disparities in the the supranational level explicitly in a heading development of states’ (GEO: 17). There is no outcome ‘contemporary international relations’. reference to interconnections and complexity of It includes a few outcomes that suggest interde- these processes. pendencies. The most promising outcomes are: Additionally, there is a noticeable emphasis ‘[student] shows the complexity and multidimen- on economic topics. What seems especially intersionality of contemporary international relations esting is that none of these outcomes challenge and interdependence of states in the international the current economy and its consequences. On environment’ and ‘[student] explains the concept the contrary, the Western economic system as a of globalization and demonstrates its forms and common good is taken for granted: ‘[student] juseffects in the political sphere, culture and society; tifies the role of reindustrialization processes in diagnoses the influence of international law on the world, with particular emphasis on Europe this process of international law; presents the and Poland’ or ‘[student] explains the reasons most important challenges connected of the glo- and formulates theorems about the regularities in balization process’ (CE: 20). Although these out- the changing role of economic sectors (agriculcomes address interdependencies between ture, industry and services) in civilisational different spheres, they lack reference to the natu- development for selected countries of the world, ral environment. What’s more, they are limited to including Poland’ (GEO: 19). It is impossible to international relations and law. Another example find any problematisation of development or the of missed opportunity is the learning outcome on shape of the contemporary world and economy. global problems: ‘[student] diagnoses the multiAdditionally, there are tensions between an dimensionality of socio-political problems at the unquestioned economy and its growth and sus-

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tainability. What is more, the curriculum seems to be turning a student against the natural environment: ‘[student] identifies conflicts of interest in human-environmental relations and understands the need to solve them in accordance with the principles of sustainable development [...]’ (GEO: 21). This choice of words manifests disunion between a student and environment. How can one follow the principles of sustainable development if they should see them as conflicted with nature? In the history curriculum, the events and processes are predominantly reduced to the cause-­ and-­effect relationship. The effects are presented on social, economic, political, and cultural spheres. They refer to the consequences for Europe or Poland, except for few mentions, including the consequences of colonisation on ‘non-European regions’ (HIS: 18). The historical perspective is consistently presented from a Polish or European point of view. There might be even some signs of ethnocentrism in several outcomes, such as ‘[student] explains the universal character of culture in the Middle Ages, pointing to the unique role of Christianity’ (HIS:18). Moreover, there is no discussion on the interpretations of colonisation. The curriculum reproduces the criticised nomenclature ‘Great Geographical Discoveries’ and excludes the experiences of colonised nations by not explicitly referring to the atrocities of colonisers of that period. The aforementioned declarations of ­various interpretations and perspectives of history seem to be forgotten in the history curriculum. The curriculum creates a mixed vision of the world. On the one hand, there is an emphasis on interdependencies and global issues, on the other, they are not explored and they are presented merely from a Polish or European point of view. A reductionist vision of complexities and lack of different perspectives offered by the curriculum limits students’ possibility to develop a sense of global citizenship or a vision of alternative, sustainable future.

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5.4.4 Knowledgeable, yet Unskilled Future Generations When analysing the curricula, our attention is drawn to the prevalence of cognitive domain. There is a scarcity of attention given to the behavioural and attitudinal domains. The citizenship education curriculum goals and outcomes barely refer to dealing with difference and diversity, openness and key values for global learning, nor do they give due attention to engendering empathy for the planet. Only a few references to the attitudes and values are relevant for our study, and none of these explicitly refer to global citizenship and sustainable development, or to any specific challenges of an interconnected world or sustainable future. The references to ‘respect for the national and world heritage and cognitive curiosity, openness and tolerance’ (CE: 20) leave the students with a vague vision of ‘universal values’. The only outcome that opens a space for dealing with difference and diversity is where ‘[student] explains how the divisions in a society into “us” and “the other” are formed; recognises the causes, manifestations and effects of intolerance and stigmatisation and presents possible ways to oppose these phenomena’ (CE: 15). Interestingly, students do not have to stand up to intolerance, instead, they should ‘present ways to oppose’. The behavioural domain is surprisingly poor. There is little participation and engagement and only few references to collaborative decision-­ making and willingness to take responsibility for actions. Every goal and outcome which refers to action is framed cognitively, e.g. ‘[student] diagnoses socio-political problems at the local, national, European and global levels and evaluates selected solutions to these problems, as well as diagnoses the possibility of their own influence on their solution’ (CE: 14). Students are expected to diagnose their agency on solving the issues, not to act on them. Geography is the curriculum document with most references to values like social solidarity, empathy, and respect to other nations and ethnic groups. Through geography students have the opportunity to ‘shape the attitude of understanding and respect for traditions, culture and civili-

5  Looking for a Better Future? Reconstruction of Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development…

zation achievements of Poland, region and local community as well as people of other cultures and traditions’ (GEO: 15). The values are present, yet they are positioned in a universal values framework and additionally refer firstly to the Polish or local context. Oddly enough, the curriculum contains few values and attitudes connected with the natural environment and the Earth. Little attention is paid to shaping behaviour towards sustainability and environmental protection. As with the citizenship education curriculum, the content connected with behaviour is framed cognitively and is present on national level, e.g. ‘[the student] justifies the need for actions to protect the natural environment in Poland, identifies the possibilities of their own involvement in this area and presents various forms of nature conservation in Poland and their own region’ (GEO: 22). The students’ possibility to obtain skills needed to ensure sustainable development is not a priority. The history curriculum offers barely any attitudinal domain that can be connected with GCE. The only one is a goal where: ‘students are enabled in particular to: [...] Build respect for other people and for the achievements of other nations and countries’ (HIS: 11). Additionally, there are almost no remarks on shaping students’ behaviour towards global citizenship or sustainable development. There are references to ‘responsibly building the future’ (HIS: 11), but the orientation towards the future is vaguely presented. The absolute domination of knowledge over attitudes and skills in every of these ­curricula offers almost no critical or transformative potential (Khoo and Jørgensen 2021).

5.5 Conclusion ‘It is not us who should teach the system, it is the system that should teach us’3

The title of an open letter written by Youth Climate Strike addressed to the Polish Ministry of Education and Science. https://www.wwf.pl/aktualnosci/mlodziezowy-strajkklimatyczny. 3 

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The search for orientations towards a sustainable future in the Polish national curriculum leaves us with several final thoughts. First, we argue that ESD and GCE are not presented as intertwining nor cross-cutting approaches. There is no potential for synergy, as these two do not converge at any point in the curriculum. We assert that ESD, although present to a greater extent than GCE, is discursively limited to concern for the natural environment. It does not move beyond geography, neglecting the potential suggested by history and citizenship education. Also, the issue of sustainability exists separately from economic development. A fairly large number of goals and outcomes referring to sustainable development are not aligned with economic topics, nor is there any problematisation of current notions of development. It is as if sustainable development-­ related challenges are not associated with anything but environmental issues, offering little explanation of the origin of these issues. Additionally, there is no space for constructing relationships with nature and the feeling of being an integral part of the Earth. The curriculum is exclusively anthropocentric, leaving the student with no room for questioning the status quo. We also argue that GCE is almost non-existent in these three curriculum documents. The mere presence of several global issues, remarks of interconnections and multidimensionality, as well as vague references to the ‘universal values’ does not allow for a conclusion that the Polish curriculum contains knowledge, attitudes, and competences needed to foster global citizenship. The documents neglect the global dimension of identity, events, structures, systems, and issues in favour of national and European levels. These perspectives are unquestioned and linear. Students learn the cause-and-effect relationships, with no room for global interconnections. Poorly inclusive curriculum does not prepare the learner to deal with the differences, diversity, and complexities of the contemporary world, competences essential for global citizens. Another conclusion is that the curriculum offers little transformative potential. The prevalence of cognitive domain leads us to conclude that the document intends that the Polish students

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will be knowledgeable, yet unskilled. In line with Kopińska (2020), we argue the curriculum focuses on transmission of knowledge and limits the significance of civic participation and agency. Additionally, the values and attitudes related to GCE and ESD are insubstantial. There is no room for change, no shifting world-views, zero alternatives to current economic paradigms, no possibility to develop a student’s own perspective as they are only presented with narrowly constructed knowledge. We conclude that the Polish national curriculum does not open space for developing a complex understanding of GCE and ESD. Neither does it enable shaping attitudes and engagement in contributing to a more just and sustainable world. The curriculum offers a very soft version of understanding sustainable development and almost no place for global citizenship. The students are not oriented towards a sustainable future. What is more, they are not oriented towards any future whatsoever – there is no discussion on the shape and visions of what comes after the present. We argue that the national curriculum does not respond to current issues, interests, and needs of the students. To paraphrase the letter of the Polish Youth Climate Strike: ‘it’s not the students that should teach the system, it is the system that should teach the students’. Unfortunately, there is no space for a sustainable future nor is there a possibility of developing global citizens while following the content of the Polish curriculum. These conclusions lead us to believe that official governmental data are misleading. We argue that the presence of ESD and GCE in the national curriculum is a facade and is not in compliance with the Target 4.7 of Agenda 2030. The scattered knowledge, values intertwined mostly with local and national identity, lack of wholesome approach to sustainable development and almost non-existence of any activity and agency of students force us to state that the government claims about mainstreaming the SDGs in educational policy are nothing but greenwashing. Building on the results of this and a previous study, which focused on the presence of GCE in the primary school curriculum, we can coin this as a strategy

of educational ‘global washing’. We define it as a strategy to convey a false impression on formal education as one providing competences of global citizens and preparing the students to engage in global issues. ‘Global washing’ serves as a tool for providing a specific vision of education, to be in line with the international recommendations that a given country should fit in or to conform to the mainstream educational trends. By using critical analysis to examine official documents, it is possible to discern this strategy. This may contribute to further research examining the national educational policy documents in terms of GCE and ESD in other countries.

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Education for Sustainable Development Through Curricular Themes of Environmental Knowledge: An Analysis on Vietnam’s Biology Curriculum Thi Phuong Le, Trang Pham-Shouse , and Thuy Linh Do

Abstract

Realized in the form of Environmental Education, Education for Sustainable Development has long been a priority in Vietnam’s education. Specifically, both refer to learning about the environment and protecting the environment in Vietnam. This approach aligns with Hungerford’s framework of a 3-year Environmental Education curriculum consisting of a list of themes on Environmental Knowledge for the development of environmental literacy in learners. For this study, we adopted the framework to explore which themes are covered in Vietnam’s 2018 Biology Curriculum for high schools (Grades 10–12). Additionally, we identified which SDGs could be integrated into the curriculum. The findings reveal that the curriculum covers 17 out of 26 Environmental Knowledge themes and has the

T. P. Le · T. L. Do University of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] T. Pham-Shouse (*) Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

possibility to integrate nine SDGs in various contents. The most emphasized SDGs in the Biology Curriculum are the SDG2, SDG3, SDG6, SDG14, and SDG15, which are also reflected in the nationalized SDG targets of Vietnam. In this context, we recommend teachers to consider the local characteristics and school resources in selecting textbooks and organizing educational activities to provide personalized learning experiences for all students. Further research on the implementation of the curriculum in integrating Education for Sustainable Development and the SDGs into Vietnam’s education is also needed.

6.1 Introduction Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a holistic effort to ensure the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in all three dimensions: economic, social, and environmental (Berryman and Sauvé 2016; Hopkins and McKeown 2002; UNESCO 2006; UN 2016). According to UNESCO, ESD is the education that encourages the improvements in knowledge, perspectives, values, skills, and attitudes of people and raises their awareness and responsibility for mankind’s sustainability. ESD requires the

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_6

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integration of knowledge about sustainable development such as climate change, poverty, natural disasters, and loss of biodiversity into all subjects and topics, using multiple pedagogical approaches to encourage people to change their behaviours and take responsible actions (UNESCO 2006). ESD expects learners to become “actors for sustainability”, beyond theories or knowledge about the environment or sustainable development. Along that line, the discourse of sustainable development has been introduced to the general education system around the world in various ways.

6.1.1 Vietnam’s Approach to Education for Sustainable Development Vietnam’s overall [sustainable development] goal [to the year 2030] will be sustaining economic growth alongside with ensuring social progress and justice and environmental and ecological protection, effective management and utilization of natural resources, a proactive response to climate change; ensuring that all citizens are promoted their full potential, participate in development and benefit equitably from the results of development; and build a Vietnamese society that is peaceful, prosperous, inclusive, democratic, just, civilized and sustainable. (Office of Prime Minister 2017, p. 8)

Vietnam has nationalized 17 SDGs into 115 Vietnamese SDG (VSDG) targets as part of the “National Action Plan for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment 2018), reflecting the country’s conditions and development priorities. In a recent report, Vietnam moved up 5 ranks in the SDGs global rank, from 54th in 2019 to 49th in 2020, though still facing significant challenges in many SDGs (Sachs et al. 2019, 2020). Vietnam’s commitment to ESD and the SDGs was emphasized again in the new National Education Curriculum released in 2018 by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET). National Education Curriculum is the national guidelines consisting of three volumes: (1) General Education Curriculum (GEC) presents the overall objectives of the general educa-

tion for Vietnam from grades 1 to 12; (2) Subject Curriculum presents specific goals and contents for each subject by school levels and grades; and (3) Curriculum for Educational Activities recommends new teaching approaches and methods to introduce the subject contents. Based on the national guidelines, the subject textbooks, teacher guides and supplementary materials are designed, piloted, and used in teacher training workshops. The MoET plans to launch the new programs for high schools (Grades 10–12) in the school year 2022–2023, however, by now, the textbooks haven’t been officially published. Since 2018, the MoET has directed and coordinated with the provincial Departments of Education to train teacher leaders about the curriculum and how to execute the recommended educational activities. Teachers’ professional development activities take place during summer between June and August in a school-level-based manner either in person or online. Selected teacher trainers attend training sessions led by experts invited by the MoET, usually from major universities of pedagogy. These teacher trainers will later train their fellow teachers in respected provinces. Regarding training contents, though ESD integration is expected in each subject curriculum, including Biology, there are no specific guidelines in the documents on how to approach ESD and the SDGs. Due to the time limit of teachers’ professional development and the unavailability of the new textbooks, teacher trainers or instructors only have time to focus on the key points of the curriculum and introduce some new teaching methods or approaches based on the recommended educational activities. Being considered an essential part of Vietnam’s approach to ESD (MoET 2018b), Environmental Education (EE) is adopted across all disciplines, aiming to nurture learners with relevant knowledge about the environment and competencies for environmental protection. The new Biology Curriculum sets the standards for teaching and learning of biological knowledge, practical skills, and attitudes towards reality-­ related problems including sustainable development issues. Because our study is the first in Vietnam to examine ESD in the new Biology

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Curriculum, we will explore how ESD can be approached through EE in terms of Environmental Knowledge (EK) and the possibilities to integrate the SDGs into Biology lessons. Towards the national and international goals of ESD, this study will be a useful reference for Biology teachers and educational researchers.

6.1.2 Education for Sustainable Development and Environmental Education There is an on-going discussion on the connection between ESD and EE. On the one hand, Pavlova (2011) described three models of the relationship between EE and ESD: (i) equal; (ii) EE is part of ESD; and (iii) distinct, yet sometimes overlapping. On the other hand, other studies have addressed the distinction between EE and ESD. First, ESD aims to improve awareness, skills, viewpoints, and values that will guide and inspire people to seek sustainable livelihoods, engage in a democratic society, and behave in a sustainable manner, while EE focuses on the protection of the natural environment and cutting down on negative human impacts (Cecioni 2005; Hopkins and McKeown 2002). In addition, EE “is a well-established discipline, which focuses on humankind’s relationship with the natural environment and ways to conserve and preserve it and properly steward its resources”, whereas ESD “encompasses environmental education but sets it in the broader context of economic-cultural factors and the socio-political issues of equity, poverty, democracy and quality of life” (UNESCO 2006, p. 17). In Geography, ESD can be approached in all three aspects: economic, social, and environment (Raselimo et  al. 2013; Spahiu et  al. 2014; Winter and Firth 2007). Meanwhile, EE is more common in other subjects when the curriculum focuses on specific items or topics. Studies reported that the introduction of environmental issues as a separate program or an integrated component in different school subjects is a common practice among natural science subjects such as Biology, Chemistry, and Physics

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(Abdullah et  al. 2011; Mandler et  al. 2014). When it comes to specific subjects, teachers often introduce EE and ESD with the focus on smaller components of environmental knowledge or environmental issues, according to policy guidelines, teachers’ choices, or specific subject focus (Anyolo et al. 2018; Raselimo and Wilmot 2013). Such issues or topics include energy crisis, pollution, climate change, human–nature interaction, or impacts (Boylan 2008; Jeronen et  al. 2017; Spahiu et  al. 2014; Tracana et  al. 2008). For example, green chemistry is a popular approach in EE in several countries in teaching physical sciences such as water, mining, and pollution (Tsakeni 2018), situating sustainable development via systems thinking (Eaton et al. 2019), or enhancing students’ interests and learning of organic chemistry (Miller 2012). Simultaneously, the integration of environmental problems into chemistry is also reflected in practical activities with the same idea of green chemistry through chemistry-based experiments (Burmeister et  al. 2013; Miller 2012; Tsakeni 2017). Thus, teachers’ choices allude to comfort for teaching and the level of content knowledge of teachers may need to increase. In short, ESD could be approached as an independent subject with its own time and focus but could also be integrated into different school subjects to various extents. As mentioned above, the Vietnamese education system approaches ESD through EE with two focused areas: knowledge about the environment and environmental protection. For this study, we use EE as the best representation of ESD in the context of Vietnam, and we will use the two concepts interchangeably throughout the chapter.

6.1.3 Education for Sustainable Development Movements in Vietnam Like the other Member States of the UN, Vietnam has committed to achieve the SDGs towards 2030 by educating the population via both formal and informal channels. In response to the Rio Declaration (1992) and the World Summit on

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Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg ­students, the UN models have been a platform for (2002), on 17 August 2004, the Government of the Vietnamese youth to share their thoughts, Vietnam issued the “Strategic Orientation on visions, and expectations towards current and Sustainable Development in Vietnam”  – heated-debate issues including the SDGs. Vietnam’s Agenda 21 (Vietnam Government Outside the formal education system, 2004). With the main objective that “Human is Vietnam’s mass media and social media have the centre of sustainable development” (p. 4), one reported a strong movement promoting the SDGs of its most important tasks is to improve the edu- to the community since 2010. Community projcational system and increase the awareness of all ects have sprouted nationwide to raise people’s citizens, communities, businesses, and state awareness and promote environmental protection agencies at all levels about not only sustainable with the initiation and participation of governdevelopment but also the role of education in mental, non-governmental organizations, and reorienting society towards sustainability. In local communities. For instance, every year, vari2005, the MoET issued a Directive on Education ous environment-related days are celebrated in for Protecting the Environment, aiming at raising Vietnam such as World Environment Day (since the awareness of teachers, students, and commu- 2011), World Water Day (since 2012), or Earth nity about the importance of protecting the envi- Day and Earth Hour (since 2011) with slogans, ronment and education for environmental banners, campaigns, or community outreach proprotection. For high schools, the goal is “to equip grams. More and more youth-led volunteer students with knowledge, skills about the envi- groups and projects have focused on various ronment and protecting the environment using environmental themes such as fresh water, polluappropriate approaches in all subjects and tion, biodiversity, endangered species, and so on through extra-curricular activities” (MoET 2005, (Pham-Shouse 2021). All these movements p. 2). Between 2008 and 2013, another directive reveal an opportunity for teachers to get their stuinitiated a propaganda in all schools to “Build a dents engaged more in protecting the environfriendly school, active students”, integrating the ment and urge local research to better understand ideas of eco-schools, environmental protection, and recommend what Vietnam’s education can and life skills for future citizens (MoET 2008). do to promote the changes and call for more These policies strongly promote the engagement active involvement from all stakeholders, particand conversations about ESD in Vietnam, both ularly within the formal education system. inside and outside the formal education system. Within Vietnam’s school system, innovative teaching approaches, such as experimental, inter- 6.2 The Case disciplinary, project-based, or competence-­ oriented approach, have encouraged and allowed 6.2.1 Education in Vietnam students to participate in field trips, outdoor activities at museums, or science centres to learn Education in Vietnam is a state-run system that is about the nature, environment, forests, or water divided into five levels: preschool (3–5  years resources in classes of Geography, Biology, Civic old), primary school (6–10 years old), secondary Education, or Technology. National and interna- school (11–15  years old), high school (16– tional contests also raise environmental aware- 18  years old), and higher education (19 and ness at school levels such as the ASEAN above). According to the 2018 GEC, the basic Eco-Schools Awards (since 2012) or an interna- educational phase is from grades 1 to 9, and the tional writing contest featuring each of the 17 vocational-oriented phase is from grades 10 to SDGs every year by Trust for Sustainable Living 12. Both phases have mandatory and elective (since 2011). For high school and university subjects. The vocational phase has more subjects,

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from which students can select based on their aspirations and career plan to nurture their potentials and fortes. Mandatory subjects for high schools are Literature, Math, first Foreign Language, Physical Education, and National Defence Education. Each school year consists of 35 academic weeks. Though strictly following the national mandatory curriculum, educational institutions can hold either morning or afternoon sessions or both, depending on school facilities and resources. Each session in high schools has no more than 5 periods of 45  minutes. Most of the Vietnamese students complete 3 years of high school education whether they go to a normal high school or attend a vocational specialized school. There was only one set of national textbooks for each grade, whose organization of contents is vertically aligned to ensure the continuity of knowledge. Since the school year 2020–2021, however, the MoET has officially allowed multiple textbooks. Accordingly, provincial Departments of Education and school districts can examine and propose to use different sets of textbooks for their schools. The fact that one curriculum has various sets of textbooks poses both challenges and opportunities for textbook designers, classroom teachers, and trainer experts (Hoang Lan 2020). Each design team can approach the objectives and philosophy of the curriculum in a different way, accounting for the standard learning objectives and local characteristics. This allows the creative designs and the introduction of new teaching approaches for the textbooks and teacher guides. All sets of textbooks go through a rigorous process of evaluation and revision to receive approval, which also costs the MoET more time and resources. Meanwhile, classroom teachers have the opportunity to exercise autonomy and choose the set of textbooks that best fits their teaching situations, which is challenging and time-consuming, as well. Trainer experts will work with all sets of textbooks, thus, within limited time and resources, they can either focus on general aspects of the curriculum guidelines or provide customized trainings for one set of textbooks.

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6.2.2 Vietnam’s 2018 General Education Curriculum After 30 years of renovation, Vietnam has overcome many difficulties and challenges to move from the underdeveloped status to the group of low-income developing countries. To ensure sustainable development, Vietnam has constantly innovated its education system to improve the quality of human resources, equip future generations with a solid cultural foundation and high adaptability to all changes of nature and society. In that context, the National Assembly issued Resolution No.88/2014/QH13 on the renovation of the GEC and textbooks, contributing to the fundamental and comprehensive renovation of education and training (Vietnam National Assembly 2014). The 2018 GEC inherits and develops the advantages of Vietnam’s existing GEC, as well as considers research achievements in educational sciences and designs of competency-­ based national curriculum from developed countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia. The board analysed the advantages and disadvantages of each curriculum, and then adapted them to fit the characteristics of the Vietnamese people; the culture and traditional values of the nation; the common values of humanity; and the development orientation on education of UNESCO. The 2018 GEC aims to develop specific competencies and values as students’ learning outcomes through educational contents with basic, practical, and advanced knowledge. The GEC’s perspectives are highly integrated at lower levels, differentiated at upper levels and focusing on competencies of applying gained knowledge to practical activities. In addition to the teaching methods aiming to promote individual student’s potentials, the assessment methods are appropriately selected corresponding to educational goals. The 2018 GEC emphasizes the development of two core competency groups in students, including (i) general competencies such as autonomy and self-learning, communication and cooperation, problem solving and (ii) specific competencies such as linguistic competence, computing competence, natural and social learn-

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ing competence, technological and informatics competence, aesthetic competence, and physical competence. Besides, the 2018 GEC fosters core values such as Patriotism, Compassion, Working Hard, Responsibility, and Honesty. Particularly, students are expected to hold responsibility to themselves as well as their family, schools, society, and their environment. One of five perspectives in designing the 2018 GEC is providing and promoting ESD. This perspective is presented in various educational contents, in both social and natural sciences. Social science education is included in many subjects, among which the core subjects are Nature and Society (Grades 1–3); History and Geography (Grades 4–9); History and Geography (Grades 10–12). For instance, in Geography, students learn about the environment-related issues and human impacts on the environment in such themes as climate change and urbanization, natural resources, sustainable development, green growth, and sustainable tourism development. Natural science education is integrated in a variety of subjects and the core subjects are Natural and Social Sciences (Grades 1–3); Science (Grades 4 and 5); Natural Sciences (Grades 6–9); and Physics, Chemistry, Biology (Grades 10–12). These subjects develop in learners the awareness of general principles and laws of the natural world, the role of natural science in the development of society, and the initial application of natural scientific knowledge in using and exploiting natural resources sustainably.

6.2.3 General Information About Biology Education in Vietnam The Biology Curriculum follows the general guidelines of the 2018 GEC, focusing on helping students develop the ability to adapt with a constantly changing world; to live in harmony with nature and to protect the environment for sustainable development. The Biology content is spirally organized from grades 6 to 9 (secondary

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school) and grades 10 to 12 (high school). At secondary school, the themes are introduced at basic level while at high school, the Biology Curriculum systemizes and consolidates students’ knowledge, skills and core values they obtain in lower grades. For example, high school students learn to connect the knowledge about the basic unit of life as cells to that of other more complex living organizations such as Microorganisms (Biology 10), Plants and Animals (Biology 11), and in-­ depth knowledge about Genetics, Evolution, and Ecology (Biology 12). In addition, they learn how to apply knowledge from specialized topics to real-life practical issues. The content of Biology classes for high schools helps students understand the relationship between different aspects of the living world and sustainable development. For instance, the core topics of Biology cover all levels of living organizations, including molecules, cells, organisms, population, communities such as ecosystems and biospheres (Biology 10). Knowledge about each level of living organizations includes the structure, the function of living organization, and the relationship between structures, functions, and habitats (Biology 11). From knowledge about the levels of living organizations, the curriculum generalizes to characteristics of the living world such as metabolism; growth and development of organisms; reproduction, induction in plants and animals; genetics, variations, and evolution (Biology 12). The Biology Curriculum for high schools also presents some specialized topics on the fields of Industry 4.0 such as biotechnology in agriculture, medicine (pharmacy), food processing, environmental protection, renewable energy, and so on. The application of these technologies integrates the advancement not only in Biology but also in interdisciplinary sciences, in which information technology plays a particularly important role. The sustainability-oriented curriculum of Biology may offer abundant opportunities to incorporate sustainability into the classroom.

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6.2.4 Rationale to Choose High School Biology Curriculum as a Case of Analysis

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6.3 The Framework

In the early 1990s, Hungerford et al. (1994) introduced the document A Prototype Environmental Vietnam approaches ESD through EE, which Education Curriculum for the Middle School further refers to two areas (i) knowledge- (revised), A Discussion Guide for UNESCO oriented: learning about various aspects of Training Seminars on Environmental Education. the environment and (ii) action-oriented: The document was intended for curriculum learning how to protect the environment. developers, considering the goals for curriculum Even though UNESCO makes ESD e-learn- development and the ultimate aim of EE, which ing materials available to teachers in many is to develop environmental literacy in learners. countries, including Vietnam, the lack of Based on their earlier work, they modified and universal guidelines for material designs recommended the following four-goal levels: (i) and evaluation requires more studies on ESD Ecological Foundation level, (ii) Conceptual in the subject curriculum, ESD materials, Awareness level, (iii) Investigation and Evaluation and particularly, the integration of ESD into level, and (iv) Environmental Action Skill level, the curriculum of individual subjects corre- which “should be viewed as hierarchical” when sponding to country characteristics (Nguyen integrated into the curriculum (p. 1). Accordingly, 2019; UNESCO 2014). Additionally, most they outlined a 3-year program for students research on ESD in Biology focuses on the between 10 and 15  years of age, which they textbooks or teaching methods (Winter and referred to as “middle school” learners. The docFirth 2007), while limited knowledge is ument is a reference for all subjects, and one subknown about how the Biology Curriculum ject can cover the themes most relevant to its approaches or adopts ESD, particularly in specific content. They further identified themes high school education (UNESCO 2014). that are related and can be best discussed in some Furthermore, there were no precedent stud- subjects such as Science, Health, Social Studies, ies on Vietnam’s Biology Curriculum or the Math, Language Arts, Home Economics, and old textbooks regarding ESD. While the new Agriculture (Hungerford et al. 1994, p. 62). They textbooks are not available for pilot or eval- also presented a model of content development uation, an analysis of the Biology Curriculum and pedagogical approaches to teach some conwill provide classroom teachers with an tents effectively. However, Biology is not overview of what ESD and the SDGs should included in that document; thus, our study could look like in each unit and how they can be be a useful reference for curriculum developers integrated across themes. Thus, our analysis of Biology. of the document “the 2018 National Our team decided to use this framework for Education Curriculum” and our focus on the our analysis because of the alignment between Biology component for high schools (MoET the presented EK themes/subthemes and the 2018a) will identify how the two above-­ focused content of the Biology Curriculum as mentioned areas of EE are realized in the well as Vietnam’s approach to ESD. Additionally, document and to what extent. More specifi- the spiral organization of Vietnam’s Biology cally, the analysis will explore the themes of Curriculum is an advantage as the school levels environmental knowledge (EK) and the cor- or students’ age range no longer matter. The EE responding SDGs that are covered in the themes or EK themes can be repeated in higher curriculum. In the next section, we will levels with richer and more advanced informaintroduce our analytical framework which tion. We use the year themes/subthemes as referpresents the focused themes of EK when ence points to analyse Vietnam’s Biology considering curriculum development for EE Curriculum for high school (Grades 10–12) to and ESD. explore which EK themes are covered in the cur-

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riculum and in which grade. Besides, we identify which SDGs correspond to and could be co-­ introduced with which themes of EK. In the brief program below, we use the code EK (Environmental Knowledge) preceding the numbering of themes and keep the numbering continuing from Year 1 to Year 3 for a linear reference in the later sections. In general, the focus of Year 1 is Ecological foundation and humans as an ecological factor, covering seven themes. Year 2 focuses on Environmental science and environmental health, covering 12 themes. And Year 3 focuses on Issue investigation and citizenship action training, covering seven themes. Year 3 is more general and serves as capacity building for the implementation of previously acquired environmental knowledge. In the next section, we will present the general results of the analysis, followed by detailed results for each grade. Year 1: Ecological Foundations and Humans as an Ecological Factor –– EK1: What is ecology? What do ecologists do? –– EK2: Individuals, populations, and levels of organization in ecology –– EK3: The “Ecosystem concept” developed –– EK4: Energy and ecosystems –– EK5: Ecological succession: Ecosystems change over time –– EK6: Populations and their dynamics –– EK7: Humans as an ecological factor Year 2: Environmental Science and Environmental Health –– EK8: Human history of resource consumption –– EK9: Soils and allied problems –– EK10: Water and allied problems –– EK11: Food production and hunger –– EK12: Forest resources –– EK13: Plant and animal resources –– EK14: Air pollution –– EK15: Water pollution –– EK16: Noise pollution –– EK17: Solid waste disposal –– EK18: Hazardous waste –– EK19: Human population growth and control

Year 3: Issue Investigation and Citizenship Action Training –– EK20: Environmental problem solving –– EK21: Identifying issues and preparing research questions –– EK22: Using secondary sources for obtaining issues information –– EK23: Using primary sources for obtaining issues information –– EK24: Interpreting data from environmental issue investigations –– EK25: The independent investigation of a student-­selected environmental issue –– EK26: Issue resolution: skills and application

6.4 Results 6.4.1 Environmental Knowledge Themes and SDGs in Biology Curriculum (Grades 10–12) Table 6.1 presents the general results of our study, in which EK themes are used as reference points to identify the corresponding Biology content and SDGs that can be integrated. Only the contents matching with EK themes/subthemes are included in the table. In general, 17 EK themes and 9 SDGs are represented in the Biology Curriculum. 19 EK themes of Year 1 and Year 2 are covered across grades 10–12, except for EK16 Noise Pollution and EK18 Hazardous Waste, whose themes are more relevant to the content of Physics and Chemistry. EK themes are presented in the following order within the framework with the corresponding contents and SDGs. Some EKs are repeated, responding to different subthemes. Particularly, some EK themes are found in all three grades (EK2, EK7, EK14), in Grades 10 and 12 (EK1. EK17), in Grades 11 and 12 (EK4, EK13), only in Grade 11 (EK11), and only in Grade 12 (EK3, EK5, EK6, EK8, EK9, EK12, EK15, EK19). Besides, one SDG can be discussed in different contents and EK themes. Thus, whether one SDG is approached in a single lesson, across a semester or in a project, largely depends on teachers’ decision.

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Table 6.1  EK themes within Biology curriculum and corresponding SDGs EK themes EK1 What is ecology? What do ecologists do? EK2 Individuals, populations, and levels of organization in ecology

Grade 10 12 10 11

Content of biology curriculum Methodologies for learning and research Biology Environment and ecological factors General introduction about Levels of Living Organization Ecological factors that influence growth and development of organisms

12

SDGs (#) 12, 13 2, 14, 15 2, 14, 15 2, 12, 13, 14, 15 6, 14, 15

EK5

Ecological succession

12

EK6

Populations and their dynamics Humans as an ecological factor

12

Evolutionary theory General introduction of ecosystem Population ecology Biosphere, biome Components of ecosystems: biotic and abiotic variables Biogeochemical cycles Biological control Metabolism in organisms The process of photosynthesis in plants Energy flow Food chains and food webs The volatility of ecosystem (ecological succession, global warming, eutrophication, desertification) Population genetics

10

Ethical problems in Biology

11

12

Nitrogen Mineral nutrition of plants and clean agriculture Sustainable development (effective use of natural resources, reducing environmental pollution, biodiversity conservation, sustainable agricultural development, human population growth, environmental protection) Human ecology Human population overgrowth effects and control

12

Terrestrial biome

15

12

Aquatic biome

6, 14

11

Food safety and hygiene

2

12

Preservation of ecosystem

11

Reproduction in plants (asexual and sexual reproduction)

6, 12, 14, 15 2

12

Preservation of ecosystem

EK3

The ecosystem concept developed

12

EK4

Energy and ecosystem

11 12

EK7

12

EK8

EK9 EK10 EK11 EK12 EK13

Humans: Their history of resource consumptions Soils and allied problems Water and allied problems Food production and hunger Forest resources Plant and animal resources

2, 7

2 2 13, 14, 15 2, 14, 15 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15 2 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15 3, 5

6, 12, 14, 15 (continued)

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EK15

Water pollution

EK17

Solid waste disposal

EK19

Human population growth and control

Grade Content of biology curriculum 11 Respiration in animals 10 Microbiological technology in treatment of environmental pollution 12 Sustainable development (effective use of natural resources, reducing environmental pollution, biodiversity conservation, sustainable agricultural development, human population growth, environmental protection) 12 Sustainable development (effective use of natural resources, reducing environmental pollution, biodiversity conservation, sustainable agricultural development, human population growth, environmental protection) 10 Microbiological technology in treatment of environmental pollution 12 Sustainable development (effective use of natural resources, reducing environmental pollution, biodiversity conservation, sustainable agricultural development, human population growth, environmental protection) 12 Human genetics Human population overgrowth effects and control

All seven EK themes of Year 3 – Issue investigating and citizenship action training are not included in the curriculum as separate units, instead are introduced and integrated at different degrees in some advanced topics in each grade. While implementing different projects, students experience diverse learning methods and research techniques, learn to define the environmental issues, ask appropriate research questions, and collect and process the data. In Biology 10, when learning about viruses and applications, students will examine some diseases caused by viruses and propagate appropriate preventions. In the topic of “Microbial technology in environmental pollution treatment”, students will investigate the application of microorganisms to treat environmental pollution in the local area such as trash or wastewater treatment. In Biology 11, students will be able to carry out a project to investigate the current state of food insecurity in the locality. They will learn and apply various research methods to find out the causes of selected environmental issues and propose relevant solutions. In Biology 12, students will undertake large assignments or projects on different topics. For example, students can collect or explore biologi-

SDGs (#) 3 3 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15 3, 6, 14

3, 15 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15 3, 5

cal control applications in the area, build a scientific basis for technical and technological solutions, apply the laws of biological control in nature, and develop a clean ecology system for sustainable development.

6.4.2 Grade-Level Presentation of EK Themes/Subthemes In this subsection, we present EK themes/subthemes from Grades 10 to 12. Overall, we found the contents in each grade follow the same order as their corresponding EK themes. The contents associated with EK themes are elaborated below in more detail.

6.4.2.1 Biology 10 As the foundation for high school Biology, Biology 10 provides a general introduction of methodologies for learning and research in biology. Students learn about the close relationship between humans as an ecological factor and the environment and all living forms. Then, they will apply such knowledge and research skills to analyse and solve specific ecological problems caused by human activities.

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EK2 Individuals, populations, and levels of organization in ecology Students obtain a systematic view on all levels of living organizations, from the smallest to the largest unit, such as molecules, cells, organisms, population, community ecosystems, and biospheres. The information includes their definition, general characteristics, and the relationship among them. EK7 Human as an ecological factor Human has a profound influence on a variety of ecological variables such as soils, forests, wetlands, and wildlife. In the topic of “Ethical problems in biology” in Grade 10 Biology, students will become aware of the roles and impacts of humans on the ecosystem and learn about the solutions to improve it. For the first time, students are required to define sustainable development and describe the role of Biology in the sustainable development of the living environment. EK14 Air pollution, EK15 Water pollution, and EK17 Solid waste disposal Waste treatment is an urgent concern in Vietnam and around the world. Thus, pollution-related topics are already introduced at secondary schools, where students are made aware of the situation, its causes, and some possible solutions to reduce environmental pollution. Secondary school students are not yet actively engaged in exploring specific treatments or technologies. The unit “Microorganisms” specifically responds to the topic of “Microbial technology in the treatment of environmental pollution”, in which students are guided to intensively examine the process of decomposing compounds using microbiological technology such as aerobic, anaerobic, and fermentation. This knowledge enables students to understand the role of microorganisms in waste treatment and explore various technologies employing microorganisms in pollution treatments as part of their class project.

6.4.2.2 Biology 11 EK2 Individuals, populations, and levels of organization in ecology, EK4 Energy and ecosystem, and EK7 Humans as an ecological factor

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On the basis of Cell Biology study in Biology 10, students continue to learn about ecological factors that influence the growth and development of organisms in terms of plants and animals. These factors may include non-living factors such as temperature, light intensity, or pH level. EK4 Energy and ecosystem Biology 11 covers the knowledge on organism-­ related biological processes such as metabolism or the process of photosynthesis in plants. Students learn that green plants produce energy during their photosynthesis when the sunlight energy is transformed into chemical energy and stored in energy-rich organic compounds. EK7 Humans as an ecological factor Biology 11 focuses on the study of biological processes related to plants and animals. Through the core topic of “Nitrogen” and the advanced thematic topic of “Mineral nutrition of plants and clean agriculture”, students learn to minimize human impacts on the soil and enable clean agriculture by investigating relevant technical measures for appropriate amounts of mineral nutrients. They are also able to conduct a project investigating how fertilizers and proper fertilization techniques are used in local farms. EK11 Food production and hunger The two advanced thematic topics of “Clean Agriculture” and “Food Safety and Hygiene” require the combined knowledge from such fields as sustainable agriculture, sociality, medicine, or fitness. Understanding the harmful effects of excessive food production on the environment, students will apply the knowledge of microorganisms, animal physiology, human physiology, and hygiene to discuss measures for safe and sustainable production, preservation, and use of food. EK13 Plant and animal resources While learning about plant asexual and sexual reproduction, students learn that pollination acts as an essential ecological survival function of plants, and pollinators are crucial for the earth’s terrestrial ecosystems and humans to survive.

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EK14 Air pollution By learning about animal respiration, students understand the connection between biological processes and some environmental issues. Thus, knowledge about the respiratory system allows students to understand how good indoor air circulation helps prevent such diseases as chronic respiratory or acute respiratory disease.

6.4.2.3 Biology 12 The majority of the EK themes and SDGs are present in Biology 12. The curriculum covers all EK themes of Year 1 and most themes of Year 2 except for EK11, EK16, and EK18. The description of all relevant content corresponding to each EK within Biology 12 is presented below. EK1 What is ecology? What do ecologists do? In the topic of Environment and Ecological Factors, our 12th graders learn to define the term “ecology” as the science that deals with the interrelationship between plants, animals, and their environment. Ecologists in Biology 10 are biologists, while in Biology 12, they are scientists who use data to make predictions about the ecological (environmental) impacts of human activities. EK2 Individuals, populations, and levels of organization in ecology, ecology The curriculum introduces the topics of Theory of Evolution, General Introduction to Ecosystems, Ecological Populations, Biosphere and Biomes. Students learn about several levels of living organization, including individuals, populations, communities, ecosystems, biospheres, and the characteristics and their relationships. In addition, students will learn about the major biomes in Vietnam and around the world, thus, understand that climate is the key variable in creating biomes. EK3 The Ecosystem concept developed and EK4 Energy and ecosystem The curriculum covers the topics of Components of Ecosystems, Biotic and Abiotic variables, Biogeochemical cycles (carbon cycle, water cycle, nitrogen cycle…), Biological Control (use one creature to control another) and The Food

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Chains and Food Webs. Knowledge about the cycle of matter in nature enables students to explain the nutritional relationship between species, how the food chain works, and how biological controls can enhance plant protection and improve the quality of agricultural products. EK5 Ecological succession: Ecosystems change over time The Ecosystem theme mentions the topic of “The volatility of the ecosystem”, including ecological succession, global warming, eutrophication, and desertification. Specifically, students will discuss the concepts of ecological succession, analyse the causes and the importance of ecological succession in nature and its observable forms in practice. Different aspects of this EK such as Succession as a natural phenomenon or Succession as an orderly phenomenon with specific characteristics are all clearly demonstrated. This knowledge will allow students to explore ecological successions in a local ecosystem and conserve the system from both natural and unnatural causes. EK6 Populations and their dynamics This EK matches the topic “Population genetics and population ecology”. Some subtopics include population characteristics, population growth pattern, and impacts of population growth on the environment and ecosystems. Students will learn how species populations form communities and the characteristics of species populations. It emphasizes the importance of the groups (populations) in foraging or predatory activities. The interactions between and within are also carefully considered as an influential factor on the development of the populations. EK8 Humans: Their history of resource consumption and EK19 Human population growth and control The content of “Human population overgrowth effects and control” highlights the growth characteristics of human populations and analyse the consequences of a too-fast-growing population. This content gives learners an overview of the human population in Vietnam and the world, the

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growth scenarios of the human population, and the interaction among resources, environment, and population. The knowledge about humans, their history of resource consumption, agricultural societies, or industrial societies are not covered in Biology, but other subjects such as Geography or History. EK9 Soils and allied problems and EK10 Water and allied problems The “Terrestrial biome and aquatic biome” content discusses the characteristics of such biomes as climate, fauna, and flora. Through this, students understand more about biomes and how to conserve biodiversity. The role of these biomes is also mentioned, but knowledge about soil formation, chemical weathering, irrigation problems is not present in Biology 12. Macro issues such as specific strategies for water conservation, soil conservation strategies are not the focus of the Biology Curriculum at high school level, either. EK12 Forest resources and EK13 Plant and animal resources The topic of “Preservation of Ecosystem” discusses the restoration and conservation of the ecology, its importance, and restoration methods. The importance of forest resources and the fauna and flora is also emphasized many times in the Biology Curriculum. EK14 Air pollution, EK15 Water pollution, and EK17 Solid waste disposal The topic of Sustainable Development largely discusses these EK themes. Students learn about a range of subtopics such as effective uses of natural resources, environmental pollution reduction, biodiversity conservation, sustainable agricultural development, human population growth, environmental protection education, and so on. The knowledge about environmental pollution and the effects of environmental pollution on humans and other living things will enable students to promote environmental protection activities in their local community.

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6.4.3 Possible Integration of SDGs into Biology Curriculum Through EKs We identified some goals which are more closely connected and having high possibilities of integration into the Biology Curriculum, referencing the EK themes and VSDG targets. In the most recent Sustainable Development Report, Vietnam ranked 49 (of 166 countries) with an index score of 73.8 over 100, higher than the East and South Asian regional average score (Sachs et al. 2020, p.  480). Open Development Initiative (ODI) reported that targets of the VSDG3, 5, 6, 7 are similar to Global Goals, while those of the VSDG2, VSDG12, VSDG13, VSDG14, and VSDG15 have some differences (ODI 2020). SDG2 Zero hunger The SDG2 has a broader range in Vietnam, not limited to gender, vulnerable groups, or children. The curriculum shows that the SDG2 can be approached through the Biology content across all three grades and connected with 10 EKs. For instance, knowledge about the growth and development of organisms will help people to sustainably cultivate and access safe and nutritious food. In addition, understanding the digestive process in animals will help prevent digestive diseases in humans and nutrition-related diseases such as obesity and malnutrition. SDG3 Good health and wellbeing In general, the living standards of the Vietnamese people are improving. However, the quality of the environment and its effects on human health are still problematic. This SDG is a good topic for students in all three grades via such subtopics as bioethics, human impact on the environment and ecosystems. The knowledge will help citizens to enjoy good health to live, study, and work well. Moreover, knowledge about viruses, bacteria, and infectious diseases will help people to prevent or avoid virus-related diseases.

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SDG5 Gender equality Located in Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese culture still holds a conservative view towards women regarding education, employment, or marriage; thus, gender equality is an important conversation for high school students. And it’s equally relevant to extend it to the LGBTQ community as they also experience discrimination. The SDG5 is expressed through but not limited to the content of bioethics or the growth of the human population. In addition, students will learn about male and female productive systems and safe and consent sexual activities. This SDG will also discuss gender roles and the socio-­ economic consequences of gender imbalance on future generation and natural resources. SDG6 Clean water and sanitation The SDG6 is approached through many topics in all three grades, such as Microbiological technology in the treatment of environmental pollution, Population ecology, or Sustainable development. Students will learn how to improve water quality, use water wisely, or reduce water pollution.

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all ecological factors of the environment will affect the growth and development of organisms, so any changes on the environment will impact the organisms. Biology 11 encourages students to propose solutions and take actions to make sure that the production and consumption processes follow the laws of nature. Biology 12 focuses more on the sustainable use and management of natural resources and waste treatment in the topic of sustainable development. SDG13 Climate action Significantly affected by climate change and natural disasters, Vietnam has implemented many policies and strategies to tackle these challenges. In Biology, students can discuss this SDG in grade 12 and explain why and how such phenomena as global warming affect the ecosystem and may cause its imbalance.

SDG14 Life below water Vietnam includes ocean-acidification as a new focus, together with increasing Marine Protected Areas (ODI 2020). The contents related to the SDG14 are present across all three grades through SDG7 Affordable and clean energy the following themes: “Levels of living organizaBiology 10 and 12 cover this SDG in some topics tion”; “Ethical problems in Biology”; such as “Ethical problems in biology”, or “Microbiological technology in the treatment of “Sustainable development”. Students will explore environmental pollution” (Biology 10); modern energy sources, the percentage of renew- “Ecological factors that influence growth and able energy in use, and energy efficiency. development of organisms” (Biology 11); and Students learn to use energy more efficiently “Environment and ecological factors and the volfrom the knowledge about renewable and non-­ atility of ecosystem” (Biology 12). These topics renewable resources and discuss how controlling discuss the importance of the ecosystems around population growth can contribute to balance the us and call for students’ action to protect the demand and supply of energy. environment. Some subtopics include protecting marine life and coastal ecosystems, reducing SDG12 Responsible consumption and water pollution from activities on land or plastic production waste. Students will learn about overfishing and Vietnam focuses more on sustainable production how to prevent exploitation of marine resources. compared to sustainable consumption, and there is a need to increase social awareness and finan- SDG15 Life on land cial support for this goal (ODI 2020). This SDG Vietnam especially focuses more on forest ecocan be approached through different Biology systems than aquatic, marine, or coastal environthemes in all three grades. In grade 10, students ments (ODI 2020). The curriculum has many learn about the close relationship between topics promoting the SDG15. For example, the humans as an ecological factor, the surrounding knowledge of environment and ecological factors environment, and all living forms. For instance, will help our students understand and take appro-

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priate measures to protect the ecosystems. Similarly, by learning about biomes, students will understand the potential harms when introducing alien organisms and greatly reduce the impact of invasive alien species on soil and ecosystems. Students learn how to manage and conserve the ecosystems of the forests and mountains, reduce the rate of degraded lands, or promote effective farming through the knowledge of terrestrial biome and preservation of ecosystem.

6.5 Discussion 6.5.1 Strengths and Weaknesses of Biology Curriculum In general, the Biology Curriculum presents both strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, the curriculum content shows a strong alignment with ESD through an explicit presentation of 17 EK themes and a possible integration of nine SDGs across three grades. Some topics such as bioethics, ecology of restoration, conservation, and sustainable development are included in the Biology Curriculum for the first time. Furthermore, there are three advanced thematic topics in each grade, such as microbiological technology in pollution treatment, environmental pollution, food hygiene and safety, clean agriculture, and so on. These topics aim to help students expand their knowledge from the core topics and further apply to practical situations. As the fields of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics have been developing rapidly, the Vietnamese students are expected to access the latest biological technologies and engineering. Besides, the curriculum allows local educational institutions and teachers to choose the most appropriate textbook among available sets. The curriculum stipulates general principles and guidelines about students’ learning outcomes (values and competencies) and teaching practices (educational contents, teaching approaches, and assessment methods). Teachers then decide to adapt specific contents to

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meet the expected learning objectives and conditions of the locality as long as the main guidelines are guaranteed. The curriculum also encourages the personalization of materials and tasks so that students can engage in more interactive and meaningful learning experiences. On the other hand, the curriculum may bring additional challenges to the Vietnamese teachers. First, the curriculum is competency-based rather than content-based. As a result, teachers and students need time to adjust their teaching and learning approach in practice, particularly when Vietnam has an exam-oriented education system and competence-based teaching approach is alien to teachers. Simultaneously, teachers may struggle to identify the observable components of each competence and how to evaluate students’ competencies, especially when the curriculum does not come with guided scales to measure students’ competencies (Pham-Shouse 2021). Furthermore, some advanced thematic topics require teachers to have comprehensive, deep, and broad knowledge of both the subject matter and practical experiences, together with a wide range of pedagogies to effectively facilitate the student tasks, assignments, and projects. Thus, intensive professional development courses are essential for teachers to effectively implement the curriculum. Besides, school facilities and resources vary across regions in Vietnam, which means some of the recommended educational activities are not feasible enough in some areas. These challenges also agree with the literature on the integration of ESD in schools around the world. In many cases, teachers are willing to implement and integrate ESD and the SDGs in their classrooms but may hesitate due to a range of obstacles, such as the lack of teacher preparation, teachers’ beliefs and knowledge about ESD, concern about students’ outdoors safety, school contexts, time constraints, exam-oriented teaching approach, lack of administrative support, insufficient school facilities, or the complexity of the subject (Amos and Levinson 2019; Burmeister et  al. 2013; Cecioni 2005; Corney 2006; Jeronen et al. 2017).

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6.5.2 Presentation of EKs in Biology Curriculum

6.5.3 Presentation of SDGs in Biology Curriculum

This subsection will discuss the presentation of EKs in the Biology Curriculum, focusing on what EKs are missing, underemphasized or overemphasized. Overall, EK themes are less emphasized in Grade 10 and 11 with only six themes in each grade. Meanwhile, Biology 12 covers 17 of 19 EK themes in different units. Various subthemes of EK2, EK7, and EK14 are present in all three grades, which shows how relevant these themes are to Biology and to Vietnam’s national SDG targets. EK2 provides general knowledge about the environment through lessons on living organizations, ecological factors that influence the growth and development of organisms, and different levels of living organizations. EK7 and EK14 focus more on how people should behave to the surrounding environment (ethics in biology), how to deal with current environmental issues such as the development of advanced technologies, and what it means by “sustainable development”. However, EK16 on Noise Pollution and EK18 on Hazardous Waste are not covered in the Biology Curriculum sufficiently but demonstrated in other subjects such as Science, Physics, or Chemistry. For example, EK16 is covered in the Natural Science program for secondary school (Grades 6–9). In Science 7 and 8, students learn about sound transmission in the human ears, explain some health-related issues, propose simple solutions to limit noise pollution, or prevent some hearing-related diseases. Similarly, students learn about EK18 in Science 6 when they identify sources of air pollution and present different measures to improve the air quality. Then in Physics 10, students explore pollutants from fossil fuels, acid rain, nuclear energy, stratification of the ozone, and climate change. In Chemistry 11 and 12, they examine the risks of oil spills or waste treatment during the process of petroleum extraction or how to reduce plastic waste and protect human health.

Vietnam is still facing challenges in many SDGs, thus, achieving those SDGs is emphasized in the curriculum of all subjects. Overall, the Biology contents can approach 9 out of 17 SDGs, with the most coverage of the SDG2 (Zero Hunger), SDG3 (Good Health), SDG6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG14 (Life Below Water), and SDG15 (Life on Land). These SDGs are important to Vietnam because Vietnam is “one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change” (UNICEF 2018, p.  1). The curriculum shows a great potential to integrate these SDGs into various topics and interdisciplinary educational activities because they are connected vertically across themes and grades and horizontally across SDGs. For example, natural science subjects like Biology, Chemistry, and Physics share mutual responsibility in providing students with knowledge about the natural world and its effects on human life. Students study fertilizers and how to use eco-friendly fertilizers in Chemistry and learn about clean and renewable energy in Physics to discuss the SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy). Some SDGs are missing in the Biology Curriculum because they are more closely associated with the content of other subjects. For instance, the economic, social, and industrial aspects of sustainable development are covered in Geography. The subtopic “governance role in sustainable development” is introduced through globalization and international collaboration in trading and solving global issues (Nguyen 2019). Similarly, students learn about the relationship between economic growth and sustainable development, equal rights, fundamental democratic, and rights of citizens in Civic Education.

6.6 Conclusion and Implications We used 17 SDGs and the 3-year EE framework consisting of 26 EK themes to examine how Vietnam’s Biology Curriculum for high schools approaches ESD. The EK themes and specific

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Biology content provide students with necessary background knowledge, and the SDGs call for changes in behaviours, attitudes, and actions. We identified all EK themes and their respective Biology content, together with the potential SDGs that can be approached through such contents. We found that the curriculum covers 17 EK themes and creates a possibility to integrate nine SDGs into Biology Education. However, the EK themes of Year 3 are only integrated in advanced seminars equipping students with scientific knowledge and research skills to conduct real-life projects tackling local environmental issues. While some EK themes and SDGs are emphasized and can be discussed in different topics across 3 years, others are associated with one or two units. From the findings, we have some implications for the Vietnamese Biology teachers in approaching ESD. First, teachers should be aware that Vietnam has nationalized the SDG targets with specific priorities and local objectives towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Thus, teachers should exercise their authority in selecting the most suitable set of textbooks and consider organizing research or projects that best fits the local educational objectives and school resources. This helps students personalize their learning experiences and enhance their sense of belonging to their local community. Second, teachers can refer to the findings in Table 6.1 to select what content to focus to deliver the specific SDGs more effectively in each grade and each semester. As one SDG can be approached in many topics, teachers need to decide which Biology topics are the best to introduce the SDGs of interest. Our findings on how Vietnam’s Biology Curriculum approaches ESD and the SDGs have built the foundation for future research. When the textbooks are available and the program is officially launched in the fall 2022, we plan to investigate the alignment between the curriculum and textbooks, teacher guides, and actual implementation of the curriculum. Besides, an examination on interdisciplinary approach and cross-level Biology Education as well as Science Education to promote the

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SDGs will be useful to provide an overview of ESD in Vietnam’s education. Moreover, comparing curricula from other international contexts with a focus on how they approach and implement ESD or more specifically how the Biology Curriculum across different settings contributes to raising global citizens to tackle environmental issues would definitely add meaningful knowledge to the international literature.

References Abdullah, S.  I. S.  S., Halim, L., & Shahali, E.  H. M. (2011). Integration of environmental knowledge across Biology, Physics and Chemistry subject at secondary school level in Malaysia. Procedia  - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15(December), 1024–1028 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.233 Amos, R.  I. J., & Levinson, R. (2019). Socio-scientific inquiry-based learning: An approach for engaging with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals through school science. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 11(1), 29–49 (2019). https://doi.org/10.18546/ijdegl.11.1.03 Anyolo, E.  O., Kärkkäinen, S., & Keinonen, T. (2018). Implementing Education for Sustainable Development in Namibia: School Teachers’ Perceptions and Teaching Practices. Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability, 20(1), 64–81 (2018). https://doi. org/10.2478/jtes-­2018-­0004 Berryman, T., & Sauvé, L. (2016). Ruling relationships in sustainable development and education for sustainable development. The Journal of Environmental Education, 47(2), 104–117. Boylan, C. (2008). Exploring elementary students’ understanding of energy and climate change. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 1(1), 1–15. Burmeister, M., Schmidt-Jacob, S., & Eilks, I. (2013). German chemistry teachers’ understanding of sustainability and education for sustainable development - An interview case study. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 14(2), 169–176 (2013). https://doi. org/10.1039/c2rp20137b Cecioni, E. (2005). Environmental education and geography of complexity. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 14(4), 277–294 (2005). https://doi. org/10.1080/10382040508668360 Corney, G. (2006). Education for sustainable development: An empirical study of the tensions and challenges faced by geography student teachers. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 15(3), 224–240 (2006). https://doi.org/10.2167/irgee194.0

100 Eaton, A.  C., Delaney, S., & Schultz, M. (2019). Situating Sustainable Development within Secondary Chemistry Education via Systems Thinking: A Depth Study Approach. Journal of Chemical Education, 96(12), 2968–2974 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1021/ acs.jchemed.9b00266 Hopkins, C., & McKeown, R. (2002). Education for sustainable development: an international perspective. Education and sustainability: Responding to the global challenge. In D. Tilbury, R. B. Stevenson, J. Fien, & D.  Schreuder (Eds.), Education and Sustainability: Responding to the Global Challenge. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education (pp. 206). IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. Hungerford, H. R., Volk, T. L., Ramsey, J. M., & Bluhm, W.  J. (1994). A prototype environmental education curriculum for the middle school. UNESCO-UNEP International Environmental Education Program. Jeronen, E., Palmberg, I., & Yli-Panula, E. (2017). Teaching methods in biology education and sustainability education including outdoor education for promoting sustainability—a literature review. Education Sciences, 7(1), 1–20 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci7010001 Lan, H. (2020, August 18). “Một chương trình, nhiều bộ sách” là chủ trương đúng. Hanoi Moi News, pp.  1–6. Retrieved from http:// h a n o i m o i . c o m . v n / t i n -­t u c / G i a o -­d u c / 9 7 6 0 7 9 / mot-­chuong-­trinh-­nhieu-­bo-­sach-­la-­chu-­truong-­dung Mandler, D., Blonder, R., Yayon, M., Mamlok-Naaman, R., & Hofstein, A. (2014). Developing and implementing inquiry-based, water quality laboratory experiments for high school students to explore real environmental issues using analytical chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 91(4), 492–496 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1021/ed200586r Miller, T. (2012). A context based approach using green chemistry/bio-remediation principles to enhance interets and learning of organic chemistry in a high school AP Chemistry classroom. Michigan State University. MoET.  Directive on enhancing education for environment protection, Pub. L.  No. 02/2005/CT-BGD&ĐT (2005). Vietnam. MoET.  Directive on Propaganda to “Build friendly schools, active students” in all schools between 2008-­ 2013, Pub. L. No. 40/2008/BGDĐT (2008). Vietnam. MoET.  National Education Curriculum  - Biology Curriculum (2018a). Vietnam. data.moet.gov.vn. Access 19 March 2021. MoET.  National Education Curriculum  - General Education Curriculum (2018b). Hanoi, Vietnam. data. moet.gov.vn. Access 5 April 2020. Nguyen, T.  P. (2019). Reviewing Vietnam geography textbooks from an ESD perspective. Sustainability (Switzerland), 11(9), 1–16 (2019). https://doi. org/10.3390/su11092466 Open Development Initiative. (2020). Sustainable Development Goals. https://vietnam.opendevelopmentmekong.net/topics/sustainable-­d evelopment-­

T. P. Le et al. goals/#:~:text=Vietnam is likely to meet SDG 1 on,for gender%2C vulnerable groups%2C children and geographical location. Access 6 September 2021. Office of Prime Minister. (2017). National Action Plan for the Implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Pavlova, M. (2011). Environmental education and/or education for sustainable development: What role for technology education. In K.  Stables, C.  Bonson, & M. Vries (Eds.), PATT 25: SCRIPT8. Perspectives on Learning in Design & Technology Education. London: Goldsmiths, University of London. Pham-Shouse, T. (2021). Water Wise Youth Leadership Camp: A model for competence development via service learning. In B.  H. Duong, A.  D. Hoang, & H.  T. M.  Bui (Eds.), General Education in Vietnam: Challenges, Innovation and Change (1st ed., pp. 323– 338). Hanoi: IPER Quảng Văn - NXB Dân Trí. https:// doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/vxndy Raselimo, M., Irwin, P., & Wilmot, D. (2013). Exploring the congruence between the Lesotho junior secondary geography curriculum and environmental education. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 22(4), 303–321 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1080/10382046.2013.826547 Raselimo, M., & Wilmot, D. (2013). Geography teachers’ interpretation of a curriculum reform initiative: The case of the Lesotho Environmental Education Support Project (LEESP). South African Journal of Education, 33(1), 1–15 (2013). https://doi.org/10.15700/saje. v33n1a681 Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G., Woelm, F. (2020). Sustainable Development Report 2020. Cambridge. https://s3.amazonaws.com/ sustainabledevelopment.report/2020/2020_sustainable_development_report.pdf. Access 13 May 2021. Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., & Lafortune, G. (2019). Sustainable Development Report 2019. Spahiu, M.  H., Korca, B., & Lindemann-Matthies, P. (2014). Environmental Education in High Schools in Kosovo-A teachers’ perspective. International Journal of Science Education, 36(16), 2750–2771 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2014.933366 Tracana, R.  B., Ferreira, C., Ferreira, M.  E., & Carvalho, G.  S. (2008). Analysing the theme of pollution in Portuguese geography and biology textbooks. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 17(3), 199–211 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1080/10382040802168289 Tsakeni, M. (2017). The promotion of sustainable environmental education by the Zimbabwe Ordinary level science syllabi. Perspectives in Education, 35(1), 2005– 2014 (2017). https://doi.org/10.18820/2519593x/pie. v35i1.7 Tsakeni, M. (2018). Opportunities for Teaching Sustainable Development through the Chemistry Component of CAPS Physical Sciences. African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 22(1), 125–136 (20178. https://doi.org/10.1080/18117295.2018.1446498

6  Education for Sustainable Development Through Curricular Themes of Environmental Knowledge… UNESCO. (2006). Framework for the UNDESD International Implementation Scheme. UNESCO’s workshop. UNESCO. (2014). Shaping the Future We Want UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. 2005-2014 Final Report. UNESCO. http://unesdoc. unesco.org/images/0023/002301/230171e.pdf. Access 10 May 2021. UNICEF. (2018). Children and Climate Change: An Overview. https://www.unicef.org/vietnam/children-­ and-­climate-­change. Access 15 September 2021. UN. (2016). The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. Arsenic Research and Global Sustainability  Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on Arsenic in the Environment, AS 2016. https://doi. org/10.1201/b20466-­7 Vietnam Government. Decision No. 153/2004/QD-TTg on Promulgating the Oriented Strategy for Sustainable

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Development in Vietnam (Vietnam’s Agenda 21) (2004). Vietnam. Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment. (2018). Vietnam’s Voluntary National Review on the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Voluntary National Review 2018. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/19967VNR_of_ Viet_Nam.pdf. Access 16 September 2021. Vietnam National Assembly. Resolution No. 88/2014/ QH13 on Renovating General Education Curriculum and Textbooks (2014). Vietnam. Winter, C., & Firth, R. (2007). Knowledge about Education for Sustainable Development: Four case studies of student teachers in English secondary schools. Journal of Education for Teaching, 33(3), 341–358 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1080/02607470701450528

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Global Citizenship in a National Curriculum: The Case of Pakistan’s Single National Curriculum Zahra Zaheer

Abstract

This chapter analyses the Single National Curriculum of Pakistan and discusses how well it is designed to prepare young people for global citizenship. Using the UNESCO’s Global Citizenship Education framework for a normative comparison, the chapter evaluates the emphasis placed on key global issues or concepts related to global citizenship within the curriculum. Additionally, the chapter assesses whether the curriculum provides authentic learning opportunities for learners to develop global citizenship skills. Through a systematic textual analysis of the 2018 National Curriculum Framework and the curriculum documents for the subjects of English, Urdu, and Social Studies, the author concludes that the coverage of Global Citizenship Education in the curriculum is limited. On the contrary, there is an express focus on creating a national identity, which might conflict with the cosmopolitan values of global citizenship. The curriculum emphasizes spiritual values of kindness, honesty, and empathy over more active forms of citizenship that encourage advocacy and action. Finally, texts selected from four provincial textbooks demonstrate Z. Zaheer (*) Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA

that the enacted curriculum, which is heavily dependent on the textbooks, prevents rigorous and meaningful reflection, privileges a didactic and rote memorization-based pedagogy, and does not support the development of knowledge and skills relevant to the twenty-­ first century.

7.1 Introduction An increasingly globalized world has led to significant interdependencies between people irrespective of national boundaries, thus leading to the rise of the global citizen as an important agent of the present and the future. The flattened global economy and changing demands of work, high volume of global migration, climate instability, political interconnectedness prompted by the proliferation of media, and crises of global health are key forces shaping the future of our world. People today are more dependent and, consequently, more vulnerable to the impact of others on their lives than ever before. The choices and actions of one group of people might create externalities for other groups due to this increased interconnectedness. In this context, an important function of education becomes the socialization of young people into becoming part of a global community, with interrelated challenges and successes (Reimers 2006).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_7

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7.1.1 Importance of Global Citizenship Education for Pakistan Pakistan is a prime example of a country that faces domestic challenges that have implications for a globalized world. With nearly 140 million young people under the age of 30 (Constable 2017), and limited investments in education and skills, the country risks raising a generation that will have scarce access to economic opportunities, thus exacerbating inequality and its associated global challenges. Graduates from tertiary education are also not positioned to take a place in the global economy: Pakistan ranked 125th out of 140 countries on skills in the WEF’s most recent Global Competitiveness Index (Schwab 2019). Despite successes against domestic violent extremism, young people are still at risk of becoming radicalized, especially as the state struggles to provide civic freedoms and economic opportunity (Afzal 2021). In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the eradication of communicable diseases from the world is a central priority to assure the safety and well-being of the global population. As one of the only two countries in the world where polio is endemic, Pakistan continues to pose a risk of transmission to other countries, especially those with weak public health and immunization services. With this background, Pakistan faces an imminent need to educate its citizens about their potential impact and interdependence on the wider world.

7.1.2 Understanding Global Citizenship Education Global citizenship is broadly conceptualized as the possession of skills and attitudes required to understand and act on issues of global importance. Globally competent learners investigate the world around them, are aware and mindful of their impact on their surroundings and the world, recognize and respect diverse perspectives and identities, communicate their ideas, and act for their communities as well as the global community at large (Mansilla and Jackson 2011). Oxley

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and Morris (2013) note that global citizenship, or its variants such as “global dimensions” or “global awareness”, is subject to a variety of interpretations in the diverse contexts that appropriate it. Consequently, global citizenship education is also associated with a range of concepts including development education, democratic education, civic education, peace education, and human rights education. In the presence of this variety of interpretations, the use of a universal definition and framework for global citizenship education to conduct a comparative analysis of a curriculum becomes imperative. The UNESCO’s conceptualization of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) bridges this gap and provides a comprehensive framework for reference by defining global citizenship as a sense of belonging to a broader community, with an emphasis on political, economic, social, and cultural interdependency at the local, regional, and global level (UNESCO 2015). It further cascades the definition of global citizenship education into domains of learning, key learning outcomes, learner attributes, topics, and learning objectives by age. The framework is universally applicable but could also be adapted to specific contexts as needed.

7.1.3 Review of Key Literature and Significance of the Study Goren and Yemeni (2017) conducted an extensive review of empirical literature related to Global Citizenship Education that was produced over the past decade. In an analysis of 435 studies published regarding GCE, they make two key observations. First, most of the studies on GCE emerged out of North America and Europe. Collectively, over 63% of the reviewed articles either focussed on North America or Europe. In contrast, Latin America and Africa accounted for only 6% of the reviewed research. It is also important to note that while Asia Pacific accounted for 20% of the reviewed research, this region was represented solely by China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Thus, there is not only a dearth of empirical studies related to global citizenship emerging from developing

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countries, but this lack of knowledge is more pronounced for South Asia, which accounts for over 30% of total adolescents in the world (UNICEF 2019). Second, the authors provided a helpful categorization of the empirical research on GCE as follows: (1) studies with students or educators and (2) studies of curricular reforms, formal curricula, and textbooks. Broadly, the studies focussing on students investigated the outcomes of specific global citizenship education programs or the perceptions about GCE through ethnographic methods, focus groups, interviews, or surveys. Similarly, teacher-centred studies typically evaluated teachers’ perceptions about GCE or investigated the structural, technical, and behavioural factors that limit the teaching and learning of GCE in certain contexts. In their review of research regarding curricular issues, the authors concluded that while GCE is mentioned more frequently in national and global education debates and documents, the manifestation of GCE in textbooks is rather limited and narrow. Specifically, the manner in which this information is presented does not foster a deep knowledge or critical engagement with global issues (Goren and Yemeni 2017). There are only a handful of studies that have emerged from Pakistan regarding GCE in the past few years, and all of them are empirical as opposed to conceptual in nature. Primarily, most of them could be categorized into the first two strands mentioned by Goren and Yemeni (2017): studies focussing on either students or teachers. Within this body of research, Pasha (2015) used semi-structured, in-depth interviews to analyse the familiarity with, and understanding of, GCE in an urban school in Pakistan and concluded that students have a superficial knowledge of what it means to be a global citizen and typically position global citizenship as a direct challenge to national interests. Even in the case where they believe that awareness of other countries and cultures is a desirable ideal, the ethos behind this belief is to promote a positive image of Pakistan in the global community. While teachers who had received training through an internationally funded and delivered program aiming to develop global connections between classrooms were

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able to explain global citizenship and its advantages, they emphasized the unidirectional flow of knowledge and values from “developed countries” as the key advantage of global citizenship. This study reinforces the argument that citizenship in the context of education in Pakistan is conceptualized predominantly through the lens of nationalism and that many consider globalization as a neoliberal tool for extending western influence on indigenous communities. A similar study by Ashraf, Tsegay, and Ning (2021) confirms some of these observations and trends by conducting 24 semi-structured interviews across schools that use the national, international, and religious curriculum. The study found differences between teachers’ understanding and beliefs about GCE. Teachers from the national and religious curriculum sectors often framed the concept of GCE as contradictory or opposed to Islamic values, whereas those teaching at international curriculum schools emphasized the role of GCE in the creation of market-based citizens who could compete in the global economy. Other studies related to values that coincide with global citizenship also refer to this polarization in students. A survey with over 600 students across religious schools, high-fee private schools, and public or low-fee private schools showed that students attending these schools often held vastly different world views about peaceful political conflict resolution and provision of equal rights for minorities and women (Rahman 2004). While there have been studies on evaluating textbooks, most of them describe the conception of citizenship in the Pakistani textbooks with little specific reference to the treatment of global citizenship. A seminal research related to textbooks in Pakistan concludes that they typically promote government agency as opposed to citizen agency, thus promoting a passive conception of citizenship. Even in the texts that touch upon global themes such as environmental protection, the themes are expressed in the context of cursory references to keeping one’s neighbourhood clean (Dean 2005). Moreover, the conception of citizenship in most of the textbooks is presented in a way that emphasizes a singular national iden-

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tity and could imply the exclusion of certain religious minority groups from citizenship (Nayyar and Salim 2003; Durrani and Dunne 2010). In this context, the present study is crucial in two ways: (1) It augments the global corpus of knowledge in GCE by offering an in-depth analysis of GCE in a post-colonial developing country. (2) As stated above, much of the emerging empirical GCE research in the Pakistani context is related to the behaviours or beliefs of teachers and students. This study adds to the local research from Pakistan by analysing one of the institutions, i.e. the written curriculum, that might underpin and promote these behaviours and beliefs.

7.2 Context 7.2.1 Role of Central Government vis-à-vis Federating Units in Education In 2010, Pakistan moved from a centralized governance system towards one with a more federal parliamentary character under which provincial governments were given greater autonomy to legislate over key areas such as education, health, agriculture, social welfare, and population planning. Broadly, this implied that provinces were required to develop legislation on these subjects and implement programs to address these areas. Specifically, within the education sector, this meant that curriculum, planning, policy, and standards of education were to be developed at the provincial level (Rana 2020). However, for reasons such as ensuring similar learning outcomes in learning and assessment, honouring national and international commitments, and providing cross-provincial equity and linkages, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (MoFEPT) developed a National Curriculum Framework in 2018 through consultations with the federating units (MoFEPT 2018a). This framework was then used to develop the Single National Curriculum (SNC), a set of documents that lay out the expected learning areas, standards, and outcomes for key subjects across K-12 levels for all students in Pakistan.

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7.2.2 Public, Private, Non-formal, and Religious Education One of the distinct features of the Pakistani education system that makes the discussion around curriculum more nuanced is the presence of parallel education provisions and systems. State-led education provision is managed through public schools across the country. These cater to the majority of the students in Pakistan. Historically, this provision has been characterized by challenges of access and quality that are typical of other developing countries. A parallel system of private education is also prevalent in most areas across Pakistan. This private provision could be divided into two categories based on the cost of schooling: a low-fee private school market and a premium-fee private school market. Third, a system of religious education through seminaries (madrassahs/madaris) has been in place for decades. Madaris were offered state patronage in the 1980s, and the government has recently begun engaging in an effort to integrate them into mainstream education. Finally, the non-formal system is an outreach-based education provision designed to support the learners unable to access mainstream public education. Each of these systems follows their own curriculum and assessment program. The public education system follows the National Curriculum, which was previously approved in 2006. In practice, this means that education department’s textbook development boards develop or approve textbooks based on the curriculum for use in public schools. Therefore, typically the only interface that teachers have with the curriculum document is its manifestation in the textbook (Dean 2005). The low-fee private schools do not follow any uniform curriculum. Since these are mostly entrepreneurial ventures in local communities, the curriculum is enacted through a combination of textbooks used by public schools or others developed by local publishers. High-fee private schools typically follow an international curriculum in the secondary grades, leading up to international qualifications such as General Certificate of Secondary Education in the British system, International

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Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma, and American High School Diploma. In the primary grades, high-fee private schools might use international benchmarks such as the British Key Stages or IB Primary and Middle Years Programmes or might develop their own curriculum and associated set of teaching and learning resources. Madaris offer religious learning for students leading up to qualifications such as the Hafiz-ul-Qur’an (a person who has memorized the Arabic text of the Qur’an) or Qaris (those who can recite Qur’anic verses with proper Arabic pronunciation). Lastly, the non-formal basic education system provides alternative education options through accelerated learning programs for learners who have missed part of their formal public education. Under these programs, primary education is condensed from 5 years to 3 years, and middle school is reduced from 3  years to 2  years, with the possibility of integration to mainstream schools at the end of the program.1 However, with the introduction of the SNC, all systems have been mandated to follow the curriculum developed by the federal government.

7.2.3 Pakistan’s Single National Curriculum Considering the political aspirations of the incumbent government to standardize the national education system in terms of the minimum learning outcomes for all students, Pakistan’s SNC (2020) has been developed through a national consultation process spread over 2  years. While a national curriculum had been in place for the last 14 years, there are two key challenges that the SNC had to respond to: First, the standards and content within the SNC had to cater to a vast range of student populations  – public school students, low-fee private The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector is separate from the K-12 education system. Depending on the complexity of the course, students might enrol in a TVET course after completing Grade 5, Grade 8, or Grade 10 from a mainstream K-12 school. As the curriculum is completely skill-based, TVET is not considered for analysis in this study. 1 

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school students, premium-fee private school students, and madrassa students. Second, as this curriculum would set the tone for the next decade of education in Pakistan, it had to respond to the demands of global competitiveness and future readiness of learners for work and life.

7.3 Methodology 7.3.1 Research Questions This study evaluates GCE in Pakistan’s SNC by answering two primary questions: • To what extent does the curriculum address key concepts of GCE such as knowing about local, national, and global issues and governance structures and their interdependence, valuing differences and diversity, and behaving in ethically responsible and socially engaged ways? Specifically, are these concepts developed through addressing topics such as democratic processes, gender equality, environmental awareness, media literacy, economic interdependence, and conflict resolution? • Are the learning outcomes in the SNC designed to offer rigorous and meaningful reflection and development of knowledge and skills?

7.3.2 Analysis This chapter presents the analysis from the three types of documents related to the curriculum. The first one is the National Curriculum Framework Pakistan (MoFEPT 2018a), which sets out the principles and goals that underpin the government’s education policies and provides guidelines regarding the development of the curriculum, textbooks and other learning materials, teacher education and continuous professional development, language of instruction, assessments, and examinations. The second set includes the subject-specific curricula that describe the learning expectations and intended learning out-

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comes for each subject by grade level. The final set of the examined documentation consists of examples drawn from textbooks published by the textbook development boards of Punjab and Sindh, the two most densely populated provinces of Pakistan. To carry out the analysis, first an open-ended review of the normative framework, the UNESCO’s Global Citizenship Education Guidance, was conducted to identify relevant units of the analysis (UNESCO 2015). To minimize any bias as a result of interpretation, the most specific elements of the framework, i.e. learning objectives and key themes, were identified as the unit of interest. This was followed by a similar exercise for the Single National Curriculum. As a result, “themes” in language-­ based subjects and “learning outcomes” in non-­ language subjects were found to be directly comparable to the learning objectives and key themes proposed in the UNESCO’s GCE framework. Next, all learning objectives and themes were exported from the UNESCO framework into a separate document, and a deductive systematic content analysis of the text (Fairclough 2003) of the SNC was conducted to map the learning outcomes and themes to those of the UNESCO framework (see Fig.  7.2 for a visual representation of the mapping process). If a theme or learning outcome from the SNC was related to multiple learning objectives and themes in the UNESCO framework, it was listed against both. Since the entire mapping consists of extensive documentation, it is not presented fully in this chapter. However, two excerpts are provided in the Appendices 7.3 and 7.4 as an illustration of the outcome of the analysis. Finally, in order to further the discussion from the intended to the enacted curriculum, four Social Studies textbooks developed and approved by the provincial Departments of Education were selected. Social Studies was chosen as its typical content aligns most closely with citizenship education, which increases the possibility of finding relevant material within these textbooks. The textbooks, approved by the government, are mandatory for all students studying in public schools

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and are typically used by most private schools with the exception of a few high-fee private schools (Dean 2005). Textbooks for Grade 4 and 5 were selected as the analysis of the curriculum shows the relatively higher prevalence of GCE related outcomes in these grades. Finally, units in the textbook related to culture were sampled purposefully due to the greater likelihood of finding topics related to GCE in it. While the images presented in Appendix 7.5 are only of selected pages, the entire chapter was reviewed to draw conclusions presented in the key findings section of this chapter.

7.3.3 The Framework: UNESCO’s Global Citizenship Education Guidance In this study, the Global Citizenship Education framework developed by UNESCO was used as a reference framework to define global citizenship education as a sense of belonging to a broader community, with an emphasis on political, economic, social, and cultural interdependency at the local, regional, and global level (UNESCO 2015). This definition is reinforced by other conceptualizations of global citizenship put forth by other international organizations. For instance, Oxfam defines GCE as a framework to prepare learners for critical thinking and engaging with opportunities and challenges of living in a fast-­ paced, interdependent world (2015). The Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning reinforces the UNESCO definition by defining GCE as the capacity and disposition of young people to understand and act on globally significant issues (Mansilla and Jackson 2011). This guiding framework has been chosen for two reasons. First, as an international framework, it is independent of any subject-based knowledge specific to a particular country or education system. Therefore, it is useful as a normative comparison for this study and other studies that replicate this analysis with a curriculum from a different region or country. Second, the framework cascades the definition of GCE to detailed

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learning outcomes and key themes for different stages of general education, which minimizes any potential bias due to the author’s interpretation. The framework includes five key elements: domains of learning, key learning outcomes, key learner attributes, topics, and learning objectives by age/level of education. The first element sets out three domains of learning within GCE (UNESCO 2015): • The cognitive domain refers to the knowledge and thinking skills learners should develop to understand the world and global challenges. • The social-emotional domain encompasses the values, beliefs, attitudes, and interpersonal skills that enable learners to respect and coexist peacefully with others. • The behavioural domain refers to the skills for practical action and engagement that allow learners to mobilize and act to promote global issues of interest (p.22). The two subsequent elements of the framework describe the key learning outcomes and the key learner attributes that are developed through GCE. These key learning outcomes are further subdivided into nine broad topics, and progressively complex learning objectives are suggested for each topic across four grade levels: pre-­ primary and lower primary (5–9  years), upper primary (9–12  years), lower secondary (12– 15 years), and upper secondary (15–18+ years). As an example, the first topic in this framework is related to local, national, and global systems and structures. This topic has four learning objectives developed for learners of different ages: • Pre-primary and lower primary: Describe how the local environment is organized and how it relates to the wider world and introduce the concept of citizenship. • Upper primary: Identify governance structures, decision-making processes, and dimensions of citizenship. • Lower secondary: Discuss how global governance structures interact with national and local structures and explore global citizenship.

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• Upper secondary: Critically analyse global governance systems, structures, and processes and assess implications for global citizenship. The final element of the framework provides age-appropriate themes for each learning objective. The topics of “local, national, and global systems and structures” are presented as subdivided into four learning objectives by age level and associated themes for each learning objective.

7.3.4 Structure of Single National Curriculum Figure 7.1 outlines the broad structure of the SNC along with the learning outcomes cascaded down from competency, standard, and benchmark, respectively. Descriptions and examples of each of these categories are also provided.

7.3.4.1 Language Subjects (English and Urdu) The key competency areas in the Urdu and English curricula are related to skills for language learning including oral communication, reading and critical thinking, lexicon, grammar, and composition skills. To provide the necessary content to develop these skills, both curriculum documents specify a list of themes and sub-­ themes that typically become textbook units. A sample of these themes and how they are presented in the English curriculum for Grades 1–5 (NCC 2020a) is shown in Appendix 7.1. 7.3.4.2 Other Subjects (General Knowledge, Social Studies, and History) Non-language subjects such as General Knowledge and Social Studies are organized by content areas such as citizenship, culture, economics, history, and geography. These content themes are then subdivided into topics and learning outcomes by grade level. An example of this content-driven curriculum is provided in Appendix 7.2.

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Fig. 7.1  Structure of Single National Curriculum adapted from NCC (2020a)

7.3.5 Inclusion Criteria for Curriculum Documents At the time of writing this chapter, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training of Pakistan had published the finalized version of the Grades 1–5 curriculum for statutory subjects and released the draft version of the Grades 6–8 curriculum.2 No information was available for the curriculum for Grades 9–12. While the intent of the study was to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of these subjects across all K-12 grades, the non-availability of the curriculum for Grades 9–12 led to the inclusion of only Grades 1–8. The subject-specific documents analysed for this study are listed below:

1. English for Grades 1–5 (NCC 2020a) 2. Urdu3 for Grades 1–5 (NCC 2020b) 3. General Knowledge4 for Grades 1–3 (NCC 2020d) 4. Social Studies for Grades 4–5 (NCC 2020c) 5. English for Grades 6–8 [Draft] (NCC 2020e) 6. History for Grades 6–8 [Draft] (NCC 2020f) 7. Urdu for Grades 6–8 [Draft] (NCC 2020g) These subjects were selected, firstly, because most of the content related to global citizenship is likely to be embedded in these subjects as they are related to humanities or social sciences. Secondly, these subjects are part of the mandaUrdu is the national language of Pakistan. General Knowledge for Grades 1–3 comprises Science and Social Studies and is split into these constituent subjects for Grades 4 and 5. 3  4 

Curriculum documents are available at http://www. mofept.gov.pk/ 2 

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tory curriculum. There are subjects such as Islamic Studies,5 Ethics, and Religious Studies that might also have components of global citizenship. However, as these are electives, or only offered to specific populations of children, they are excluded from the analysis. Figure 7.2 shows a simple visualization summarizing the general structure of the UNESCO’s framework and the SNC as well as the mapping between the respective elements of interest that the current analysis is based on.

7.4 Key Findings 7.4.1 Global Citizenship in National Curriculum Framework As a starting point, it is promising to observe that the National Curriculum Framework explicitly lists global citizenship as one of the guiding principles for the development of the new curriculum. In this line, Sect. 7.3.5 of the National Curriculum Framework (Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training 2018b) lists the following principles for developing the single national curriculum: 1. Faith-based teaching of Holy Quran and Sunnah6 as well as the ideology of Pakistan 2. National integration through knowledge about the history of Pakistan, patriotism, equality of opportunities, and social justice 3. Respect for the rights and freedoms of minorities as envisaged in the Constitution 4. Promotion and protection of national identity; national and provincial languages; and cultural diversity in the country

Islamiat (Islamic Studies) is offered to Muslim students, and Religious Education (Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Baha’i religion, Kailasha Faith) is offered to minorities based on their religious affiliation. 6  In Islam, Sunnah are the traditions and practices of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. 5 

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5. Democracy, tolerance, peace, non-violent resolution of conflicts, and global citizenship 6. Holistic development of children through optimum cultivation of abilities and discovery of potentials for promotion of life skills 7. Scientific knowledge, research, technical, vocational, and agro-tech training and other relevant skills for economic development (pp.18–19) The inclusion of global citizenship is dwarfed in comparison to the greater emphasis on building a national identity as illustrated through the principles linked to the national ideology and patriotism as well as the promotion and protection of the elements of a national identity. Therefore, the curriculum development approach, from the onset, seems to be more inward-looking and to focus more explicitly on the socialization of learners into a system where their primary identity is national rather than supranational or global. Other elements of these principles, such as rights of minorities, democracy, peace education, and global citizenship, are included in response to Pakistan’s international commitments as outlined in the UN’s SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) that require member states to inculcate the concepts of sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, peace, and diversity in the school curriculum (MoFEPT 2018b). The emphasis of the national vis-à-vis other identities in the curriculum is a manifestation of history and politics of the country. Mass displacement and communal violence at the time of the partition of the South Asian subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947 prompted a rise in ethnic nationalism (Talbot 2019). The Pakistani state responded to this increase in ethnic nationalism by increasing efforts to forge a national identity. For example, a “One-Unit” scheme was issued, under which all regions and provinces in Pakistan were to be considered a single administrative and political unit, thus trying to erase ethnic or local identities by creating a larger, national identity. Moreover, a strained relationship and three major

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Fig. 7.2  Elements of SNC mapped against UNESCO’s GCE framework

armed conflicts with the neighbouring country, India, further cemented nationalistic sentiments in Pakistan and their consequent transfer to the curriculum (Lall 2008).

7.4.2 Learning Outcomes Related to Global Citizenship Education The curriculum includes a few specific references to global citizenship and its associated topics. Examples of these include gender equality, environmental education, peaceful coexistence, civic rights and responsibility, and global warming in the context of climate change. Appendices 7.3 and 7.4 provide extracts from the mapping for Grades 1–3 (lower primary) and 4–5 (upper primary) for English and General Knowledge. In Appendix 7.3, the first three columns list the topics, learning objectives, and key themes from the UNESCO’s Global Citizenship Education framework, and the fourth and fifth columns list the relevant learning outcomes or themes from the SNC. Appendix 7.4 is similar but has an addi-

tional column for the themes and topics for Social Studies listed by Grade.7 Concepts linked to GCE are mostly found, as expected, in the Social Studies curriculum. The apparent reason for this is the close alignment between the content taught in Social Sciences and concepts in GCE. At a first glance, in Grades 4 and 5, students are expected to cumulatively study over 50 concepts that may, in some form, be associated with GCE, whereas 25 learning outcomes across English for Grades 1–5 might be indirectly associated with GCE. Nevertheless, these high numbers mask a systemic limitation regarding the qualitative depth and rigor of the learning outcomes that is addressed in the next section. The prevalence of GCE-related topics in the draft lower secondary school curriculum is limited at best. From a pedagogical standpoint, Learning outcomes and topics for Urdu were analysed but are not shown in the appendix, as a general audience might not be able to read Urdu/understand the vocabulary. However, the coverage of GCE in the Urdu curriculum was even lower than the English curriculum, with most topics focussed on social and ethical behaviours such as kindness, cooperation, and hard work. 7 

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learners at this stage should build upon the knowledge that they have developed in the past 5 years of schooling and continue to engage more deeply with the community and world around them. However, the draft English curriculum (NCC 2020e) merely offers further repetition of earlier topics such as “…knowing people of different religions, ethnicity, languages, and nationalities” (p.  54), “…showing moral courage” (p.  53), and “…Civic responsibilities (making queues, avoiding spitting or public urination” (p. 59). Social Studies is replaced by History in Grades 6–8. A review of the draft history curriculum indicates that while an earnest attempt has been made to introduce learners to their place in the world through dedicating up to one-fourth of the curriculum to the world history, the curriculum does not adequately address the learners’ place in the present environment. The only learning outcome related to Pakistan’s international position is for Grade 8 students to “…identify Pakistan’s role in the UN, Organization of Islamic Countries, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation” (NCC 2020f, p. 32). Although the identified learning outcomes refer indirectly to generic topics within GCE, these outcomes are often implicit and are not methodically designed to foster the cognitive, social, and behavioural skills required for global citizens. There are three key concerns with the quality and rigor of the learning outcomes: the emphasis on a political and spiritual conception of global citizenship, the recurrence of certain themes and absence of others, and the lack of progression or challenge in the curriculum for higher grades.

7.4.2.1 Emphasis on a National and Spiritual Conception of Citizenship Through an extensive literature review, Oxley and Morris (2013) propose a typology to categorize the different conceptions of global citizenship. The eight categories they propose include:

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• Political global citizenship focussing on the relationship between the individual and the state or other polity • Moral global citizenship focussing on ideas of overarching, global values of human rights and justice • Economic global citizenship focussing on the interrelatedness of capital, a global market, and international development • Cultural global citizenship focussing on symbols of unity and diversity, such as the globalization of arts, languages, and technology • Social global citizenship focussing on interconnections and advocacy between groups and the formation of a global civil society • Critical global citizenship focussing on advocacy for subaltern and dispossessed individuals and groups • Environmental global citizenship focussing on awareness of the interaction and impact of humans on the environment and promotion of sustainable environmental and economic practices • Spiritual global citizenship focussing on the intangible aspects of human relations, with an emphasis on caring, love, empathy, and so on The themes and learning outcomes in the SNC are disproportionately weighted in favour of specific political concepts such as performing civic duties, patriotism, and national cohesion as well as spiritual elements such as sharing, honesty, caring, and obeying elders. Of the 87 sub-themes or concepts in the entire primary curriculum mapped to global citizenship, over 40 could be categorized as political. However, these themes and learning outcomes are not cosmopolitan in nature; they rather focus on a narrow conception of citizenship grounded in national identity. For example, in the Social Studies curriculum for Grade 5 (NCC 2020c), a benchmark for students is to “explain the responsibilities with respect to their rights and concept of global citizenship” (p. 13). However, when cascaded into a learning outcome, the curriculum requires students to “recognize the rights and responsibilities of citizens as defined by Constitution [of Pakistan]”

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(p. 19), thus limiting the scope of citizenship to Pakistan instead of a global community. Although there are occasional references to cultural and moral citizenship in the English and Social Studies curricula, they are also typically framed in a way that stimulates national cohesion (e.g. learning more about regional languages and religious or cultural festivals of political minorities), rather than adopting a global outlook and openness to learning about the world. The Urdu curriculum is specifically focussed on spiritual citizenship. Honesty, tolerance and respect, ethics, national and religious fraternity, and kindness are presented as recurrent themes for every grade level in the primary curriculum. To summarize, while there are a considerable number of themes and learning outcomes described in the SNC that have the potential to be linked to GCE, they are framed to privilege the formation and consolidation of a local or national identity, rather than a global one. The express focus on nationalistic values and outcomes seems to be in direct conflict with the concept of global citizenship: hyper-nationalistic narratives often otherize other nation states and seek to amplify commonalities of people sharing a common geographical boundary, distinct from the “others” that do not share the same common characteristics (Barrow 2017).

7.4.2.2 Recurrence of Certain Themes and Absence of Others A second, related concern is the repetition of certain themes and topics and the absence of others. As an example, the theme “obeying rules” occurs multiple times in the curricula as follows: Themes in the English curriculum for Grades 1–3 (NCC 2020a, p. 59–61) 1. “Following classroom rules” (p.59) 2. “Following school rules” (p.61) 3. “Following simple traffic rules” (p.61) 4. Themes in the English curriculum for Grades 4–5 (NCC 2020a, p. 59–61) 5. “Respecting school rules” (p.61) 6. “Obeying rules and regulations” (p.61)

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7. Topics in the General Knowledge curriculum for Grades 1–3 (NCC 2020d, p. 25–46) 8. “Define rules” (p.25) 9. “Recognize the importance of following rules” (p.25) 10. “Observe and identify the rules when playing a game” (p.25) 11. “Share and understand the rules they follow in class and school” (p.25) 12. “Understand why following rules is important” (p. 27) 13. “Identify some traffic rules” (p.28) 14. “Identify safety rules they should follow while walking on and crossing a road, travelling by bus” (p. 28) 15. “Identify their responsibilities with respect to each right (careful use of food, water and other resources, regularity and hard work towards education, taking care of surroundings and hygiene, treating everyone equally, and following rules and regulations)” (p. 32) 16. “Identify the ways they can demonstrate good citizenship (playing fairly, helping others, following rules, taking responsibility for one’s actions)” (p. 46) Thus, the agency of the state vis-à-vis the citizen is emphasized, resulting in a “passive” and disempowered body of students (Dean 2005). As another example, “an introduction to oneself” is a recurrent theme in all subjects for the early grades (1–3) but is only limited to introducing oneself in the context of one’s family, village, or country, rather than situating oneself in the broader world. Based on the framework used in this chapter, the SNC provides a wide coverage and recurrence under the topic of “local, national and global systems and structures” (UNESCO 2015, p.25), but very few outcomes relate to topics such as “underlying assumptions and power dynamics”, “levels of identity”, “ethically responsible behaviour”, and “engaging and taking action”. The SNC in the primary grades does not have a single outcome that is explicitly related to advocacy and action (see Appendices 7.3 and 7.4).

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7.4.2.3 Lack of Progression or Challenge for Higher Grades In order for students to progress from elementary to advanced grades, they are expected to demonstrate increasing mastery over challenging content. This vertical progression of learning outcomes related to global citizenship seems to be weak, i.e. oftentimes, the learning outcomes in advanced grades are similar, or even less challenging than learning outcomes in earlier grades. The first reason for this gap is the change of domains and social science-based subjects across the K-12 educational cycle. The SNC is structured in a way that students in Grades 1–3 study a subject called “General Knowledge”, which encompasses Science and Social Studies. In Grades 4–5, “Social Studies” is presented as a stand-alone subject, and in the secondary grades, it is presumably subsumed within “History”. As the overall number of instructional hours for each of these subjects remains similar, the coverage of GCE-related concepts is more extensive in Grades 4 and 5 but is limited in other preceding and succeeding grade levels. The implication of this inconsistency in structure is that students do not progressively build additional knowledge and skills and might also lack adequate exposure to critical present-day knowledge and skills in secondary school. Another reason for the weak vertical progression is the articulation quality of the learning outcomes and themes. Learning outcomes are not developmentally incremental and are often at the same level of challenge throughout the entire curriculum. For example, the “importance of the use of biodegradable products” is a suggested theme in the English curriculum for Grades 1–3 (NCC 2020a, p. 60), as well as for Grade 6 (NCC 2020e, p.  56). As another example, “effects of littering and damaging surroundings (avoid using plastic bags or wall chalking)” (NCC 2020e, p. 59) is a recommended theme for Grade 8 students. This exact sub-theme is also recommended for Grades 4 and 5 in English (NCC 2020a, p. 60). In comparison, while the UNESCO framework suggests learning about personal choices and their impact

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on the environment, which is similar in difficulty to the suggested theme in the SNC, at the lower secondary level (Grades 6–8), it prescribes a progressively more challenging outcome, i.e. effective, and ethical engagement with global issues such as the environment (UNESCO 2015, p.39). Similarly, “media as a source of instant knowledge” is a recommended theme for all three lower secondary grades, i.e. Grades 6, 7, and 8 in the English curriculum (NCC 2020e, p.  57). As an issue, there are multiple facets to media literacy, not only limited to the use of media for information, as highlighted in this learning outcome. As an example, the theme in Grade 6 could relate to identifying credible and false news and information on the internet, and Grade 7 could be related to privacy, security, and the student’s digital footprint, whereas that in Grade 8 could be related to the impact of media on society and the world around us. Such incremental topics and themes would enable students to progressively develop knowledge and skills across their education rather than repeat content that they are already aware of.

7.4.3 From “Intended” Curriculum to “Enacted” Curriculum 7.4.3.1 How Textbooks Set the Stage for Classroom Learning The pedagogy and classroom instruction of developing systems such as Pakistan are heavily reliant on textbooks (Aftab 2011; Crossley and Murby 1994; Panezai and Channa 2017). The National Curriculum Framework 2018 also acknowledges the paramount importance of textbooks by stating that “students rely heavily on textbooks as their source for essential information and as the basis for examination and appraisal” and “Textbooks serve as the main resource for teachers by steering their teaching process and helping them in planning lessons and expected learning outcomes. Textbooks are the prime source of assistance for teachers as they set out the general guidelines of the syllabus in con-

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crete form and provide foundation to the content” (MoFEPT 2018b, p.  31). In this environment, textbooks become the only interface that teachers have with the curriculum (Dean 2005), and their centrality to the teaching and learning process makes them an important unit of analysis. While textbooks aligned to the SNC were not yet released at the time of writing this chapter, I present excerpts from four textbooks in Appendix 7.5 as examples, currently taught across two of Pakistan’s largest provinces. While the author recognizes that textbooks published after the SNC might be different, the examples presented are developed and approved by the same pool of publishers and government departments that are developing and publishing the post-SNC textbooks, thus making it likely for the pre- and post-­ SNC textbooks to be similar. Further information on the methodology of selecting these books and the relevant units in the books is provided in Sect. 7.3.2. These texts show how learning outcomes in the curriculum related to culture, the advantages of a multicultural society, and conflict resolution are interpreted in textbooks. There is a global consensus that active, participatory, and experiential approaches are key to authentic learning (Tanner 2007). In the case of global citizenship education, four elements of a critical pedagogy to developing global citizenship skills are critical thinking, dialogue, reflection, and responsible action (Blackmore 2016). None of the analysed texts allow for students to use critical thinking to examine how having diversity in a group of people might be useful, or how conflicts arise and could be resolved. Instead, the topic of multiculturalism, cultural diversity, and conflict resolution is explored in a didactic manner, with little attention or effort to contextualize the content for the learner. The tone of the text is moralistic, and the language and vocabulary are developmentally advanced. It is also important to note the absence of relevant textbook features such as questions to reflect on as the students read. Finally, while the elements of dialogue and responsible action relate more to the pedagogical techniques used in classrooms, the average Pakistani classroom often features the transmission of knowledge in a passive

process of listening to the teacher read to ensure rote memorization (Dean 2005). Therefore, these avenues of developing global citizenship skills are also inaccessible for most children. In practice, students end up unable to reflect on their own culture, cultures around them, explore their biases or assumptions about others, and understand how these assumptions could prevent the establishment of tolerant and harmonious relationships between different groups. The associated implication of this process of dilution from the intended to the enacted curriculum is that the quality of textbooks is the limiting factor for the effectiveness of any written curriculum document. Therefore, one recommendation in the next session pertains not only to the intended curriculum but also to the textbooks, which become the basis of the enacted or taught curriculum.

7.5 Conclusion and Recommendations By analysing the National Curriculum Framework 2018 and SNC documents for English, Urdu, General Knowledge, Social Studies, and History, this study concludes that the coverage of GCE in the Pakistani curriculum is, at best, limited. There is an express focus on building a national identity and narrative, which conflicts with cosmopolitan values of global citizenship. Global citizenship is mentioned explicitly in the goals of the curriculum and in the curriculum documents to honour international commitments, and a few related concepts such as gender equality, human rights, conflict resolution, and environmental awareness are included in the curriculum. However, the selected learning outcomes and themes typically emphasize spiritual values of kindness, honesty, and empathy over more active forms of citizenship and are often repetitive and not developmentally progressive. The learning outcomes, while tangentially related to concepts in global citizenship education, are not developed systematically to develop the knowledge and behaviours associated with global citizenship. Arguably, the ways these concepts are developed encourage passive compliance to rules and do not inspire advocacy

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or activism in the face of local or global chalthe form of a specific national program and lenges. Finally, sample texts selected from four campaign with a turnkey curriculum, instrucprovincial textbooks demonstrate that the content tional resources, and teacher training. is presented in a manner that prevents meaningful Curriculum researchers and government bodies reflection and privileges a didactic, rote responsible for the development of national memorization-­based approach that does not supand provincial curricula: A review of the curport the development of knowledge and skills relriculum in light of the findings presented in evant to global citizenship or other this chapter might be conducted in conjunctwenty-first-century educational paradigms. tion with a broader review process with The process of developing values or non-­ ­relevant subject-matter experts. The objective academic, social-emotional skills that support of this review would be to include holistic global citizenship education requires a “whole coverage of global citizenship education topschool approach” (Veugelers and Groot 2019). In ics and learning objectives across all grades in practice, this means incorporating the teaching a progressive manner. Moreover, it could and learning of these skills in four ways in a review the qualitative rigor of the learning school: first, through a specific, dedicated subject outcomes and include outcomes that encourto explicitly teach specific related concepts; secage responsible action as opposed to only ond, by integrating values into related subjects building knowledge. where applicable; third, by using cross-curricular Textbook authors and the government institutions activities to model these values and skills and responsible for developing and approving engage with the community; and finally through textbooks: To ensure that the learning outestablishing a more democratic school culture comes are delivered in an experiential envicentred on dialogic pedagogy, student participaronment, the development of specific resources tion, and inclusion of different groups of students such as lesson plans or guidance for teachers and teachers into the activities. and engaging child-friendly content for stuStakeholders in Pakistan’s education sector dents must be developed. could take four actions to operationalize this Teacher educators and government institutions whole school approach for fostering these skills responsible for teacher training and profesincluding but not limited to global citizenship sional development: Develop and deliver education. training to teachers on global citizenship education, diversity, and pedagogies that foster Policymakers: To provide legislative legitimacy critical thinking and participatory citizenship. to this cause, a policy and framework need to To institutionalize this training, a course be in place to secure and consolidate the finanrelated to GCE and its associated pedagogical cial and political resources to implement techniques and concepts could be included in global citizenship education. This could manithe pre-service or in-service training for fest in the form of an additional statutory subteachers. ject to be taught across the K-12 sector, or in

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Appendix 7.1: A Sample Language-­Based Subject in SNC (NCC 2020a, p.59) Themes 1. Ethics and values (moral character in accordance with rules of right and wrong) (Values established ideals of life, objects, customs, ways of acting that even members of a society regard as desirable)

2. Peaceful coexistence/peace education

Sub-themes Grades I–III Honesty/ truthfulness Bravery Sense of fair play Respect for elders Punctuality Patience Following classroom rules Tolerance Making friends Sharing/charity Cooperating Collaboration

Grades IV–V Honesty/truthfulness Courage Respect/regard for family, neighbours, and peers Politeness Responsibility Tolerance

Friendship Keeping promises Helping others/generosity Hospitality Resolving quarrels Respecting others and self Recognizing presence of ethnic and religious groups in society Avoiding/resolving conflicts Global citizenship

Appendix 7.2: A Sample Content-­Driven Subject in SNC (NCC 2020d, p.14) Responsible citizenship Standard 2: Students recognize the need to respect rules and rights, fulfil their responsibilities, and appreciate diversity at local and global level Benchmarks Grade I–III Students will: 2.1 Demonstrate disciplined behaviour at home, school, on the road and in the playground 2.2 Identify and practice responsible behaviour to keep their home and surroundings clean and green 2.3 Recognize role of government and rights and responsibilities of good citizen 2.4 Appreciate diversity at local and global level 2.5 Show respect and care for children and adults with special needs Progression between levels Grade I Grade II Grade III Individuals and community Roles and responsibilities of government Rules of playing games Key problems in the community Right and responsibilities of people/citizen Common traffic rules Need of government Sustainable consumption of water Safety rules and road sense Government and people Ways to save water and land Cleaning homes Good citizenship Fairness and unfairness Respect for worship places Promoting fairness Obeying school rules

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 ppendix 7.3: An Extract of the Mapping of the SNC Topics for English A and General Knowledge Against UNESCO’s Global Citizenship Education Framework for Lower Primary Grades (Grades 1–3 Ages 5–8 Years)

Topics 1. Local, national, and global systems and structures

Learning objectives Describe how the local environment is organized and how it relates to the wider world and introduce the concept of citizenship

2. Issues affecting interaction and connectedness of communities at local, national, and global levels 3. Underlying assumptions and power dynamics 4. Different levels of identity

List key local, national, and global issues and explore how these might be connected

5. Different communities people belong to and how these are connected 6. Difference and respect for diversity

Name different sources of information and develop basic skills for inquiry Recognize how we fit into and interact with the world around us and develop intrapersonal and interpersonal skills Illustrate differences and connections between different social groups Distinguish between sameness and difference and recognize that everyone has rights and responsibilities

7. Actions that could be taken individually and collectively 8. Ethically responsible behaviour

Explore possible ways of taking action to improve the world we live in Discuss how our choices and actions affect other people and the planet and adopt responsible behaviour

9. Getting engaged and acting

Recognize the importance and benefits of civic engagement

English (Themes for Grades 1–3) 1. Self, people, places, and globe: myself, my family, my home, my village/city 2. Peaceful coexistence: Making friends, cooperating, collaboration 3. Ethics and values: Following classroom rules

General knowledge (Grades listed against each outcome) 1. Rules of playing games, traffic rules, school rules (Grade 1) 2. Introduction to self (Grade 1)

1. Individuals and the community (Grade 3) 2. Key problems in the community (Grade 3)

1. Gender equality and equity: little boys and girls are equal 1. Tolerance

1. Environmental education: importance of the use of biodegradable products, conservation of natural resources, importance of plants and trees

1. Need and ways to respect all people (Grade 2) 2. Comparison of village and city life (Grade 2) 3. Conflicts: identification, causes, impact, prevention, and resolution (Grade 3)

1. Sustainable consumption of water (Grade 2) 2. Ways to save water and land (Grade 2)

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 ppendix 7.4: An Extract of the Mapping of the SNC Topics for English A and Social Studies Against UNESCO’s Global Citizenship Education Framework for Upper Primary Grades (Grades 4–5, Ages 9–12 Years)

Topics 1. Local, national, and global systems and structures

Learning objectives Identify governance structures, decision-­ making processes, and dimensions of citizenship

English (Themes for Grades 4–5) 1. Global citizenship 2. My country, my world 3. Obeying school rules 4. Traffic rules education 5. Obeying rules and regulations 6. Being a responsible and helpful citizen

Social Studies (Grade 4) 1. Define and differentiate between the term’s citizen, global citizen, and digital/cyber citizen 2. Define the term human rights 3. Explain fundamental human rights 4. Differentiate between rights and responsibilities 5. Define the term nation and nationality 6. Define state and government. Differentiate between state and government 7. Describe what a constitution is and describe the basic characteristics of the constitution of Pakistan 8. Recognize the rights and responsibilities of citizens as defined by the constitution 9. Describe the organs of the government: legislature, executive, and judiciary 10. Distinguish between rules and laws and how they help create a just and political environment 11. Describe the concept of democracy and why it is preferred 12. Define the term general elections

Social Studies (Grade 5) 1. Identify civic rights and responsibilities and why they might change over time 2. Recognize the ethics of being digital citizens when connected online and deal with difference of opinion 3. Identify fundamental human rights as stated by the UN Charter 4. Understand that all individuals have equal rights irrespective of religious and ethnic differences 5. Compare the formation of government at federal, local, and provincial level 6. Analyse the importance of constitution 7. Discuss the rights and responsibilities of a Pakistani citizen according to 1973 constitution 8. Describe the importance of rule of law against unjust and illegal activities 9. Describe the functions of political parties in a democratic system 10. Explain the interdependence between federal, provincial, and local governments in Pakistan

(continued)

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Topics 2. Issues affecting interaction and connectedness of communities at local, national, and global levels

Learning objectives Investigate the reasons behind major common global concerns and their impact at national and local levels

English (Themes for Grades 4–5) 1. Gender equality and equity: Importance of female education 2. Gender-balanced roles in domestic setup 3. Gender-balanced access to basic needs 4. Effects of littering and damaging surroundings (avoid using plastic bags, graffiti) 5. Respecting human rights

Social Studies (Grade 4) 1. Describe the concept and need for food security in Pakistan 2. List the major problems caused by overpopulation

Social Studies (Grade 5) 1. Describe the factors affecting population increase in Pakistan 2. Describe the impact of population increase on the quality of daily life of the students

1. Learning to respect individual differences in opinions 2. Explain the importance of freedom of speech 3. Define mass media and social media and differentiate between them 4. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of various means of information 1. Understand the importance of discussion and negotiation as tools for resolving conflicts at home and at school 2. Propose ways to create peace and harmony 3. Identify the diverse cultural groups living in Pakistan and the cultural diversity of Pakistan (religion, language, clothing) 1. Identify the advantages of a multicultural society

3. Underlying assumptions and power dynamics

Differentiate between fact/ opinion, reality/fiction, and different viewpoints/ perspectives

1. Media as a source of general information 2. Types of media

4. Different levels of identity

Examine different levels of identity and their implications for managing relationships with others

1. Recognize the causes of disagreements at the personal and peer level and household and neighbourhood level

5. Different communities people belong to and how these are connected

Compare and contrast shared and different social, cultural, and legal norms

1. Knowing children from all provinces and areas of Pakistan 2. Religious/ cultural festivals in Pakistan

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1. Define culture and its components; recognize diverse cultures of Pakistan 2. Describe the term interfaith harmony and how different minorities celebrate their festivals

(continued)

Topics 6. Difference and respect for diversity

Learning objectives Cultivate good relationships with diverse individuals and groups

7. Actions that could be taken individually and collectively

Discuss the importance of individual and collective action and engage in community work

8. Ethically responsible behaviour

Understand the concepts of social justice and ethical responsibility and learn how to apply them in everyday life

9. Getting engaged and acting

Identify opportunities for engagement and initiate action

English (Themes for Grades 4–5) 1. Peaceful coexistence/ peace education: friendship, resolving quarrels/ conflicts, recognizing the presence of ethnic and religious groups in society, tolerance 2. Patriotism: including minorities as well when talking about what it means to be a Pakistani 3. Eluding prejudice, eluding bullying, avoiding stereotyping, degrading, and blaming

Social Studies (Grade 4) 1. Define the term diversity and identify the key characteristics of diverse groups within a society 2. Relate how diversity aids society to prosper 3. Define the term tolerance 4. Describe the importance of living in harmony with each other by accepting differences (social and cultural) 5. Define the terms peace and conflict and explain that attitudes create conflict and peace 6. Resolve conflicts through discussions 7. Demonstrate respect for diversity in cultures of Pakistan in different regions

Social Studies (Grade 5)

1. Explain civic sense by giving examples (traffic rules, cleanliness, WASH) 2. Explain how human activities have changed the natural environment (e.g. deforestation, dams, industry) 3. Identify the factors affecting climate 4. Identify the major imports and exports of Pakistan

1. Describe the factors affecting climate and the impact of global warming on climate change 2. Define the importance of international trade for the development of Pakistan

1. Understanding and appreciation of natural environment 2. Plantation of trees 3. Making sustainable lifestyle choices 4. Introduction to climate change

Note. Key themes from the UNESCO framework have not been shown here due to concerns for brevity. These could be found at https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232993

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Appendix 7.5: Excerpts From Textbooks 1. Grade 5 Social Studies, with section titled, “Advantages of having blended cultures in a society” (Shirazi et al. 2018b)

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2. Grade 5 Social Studies, with section on respect in a multicultural society (Dean et al. 2014b)

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3. Grade 4 Social Studies, section on resolving conflicts (Shirazi et al. 2018a)

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4. Grade 4 Social Studies, section on culture (Dean et al. 2014a)

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References

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Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. Routledge. Goren, H. & Yemini, M. (2017). Global citizenship eduAftab, A. (2011). English language textbooks evalucation redefined  – A systematic review of empirical ation in Pakistan [Unpublished doctoral dissertastudies on global citizenship education. International tion, University of Birmingham]. University of Journal of Educational Research, 82(1), 170-183. ­Birmingham Research Archive. https://etheses.bham. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib. ac.uk/id/eprint/3454/1/Aftab12PhD.pdf org/p/204025/. Afzal, M. (2021). Terrorism in Pakistan has declined, but Lall, M. (2008). Educate to hate: The use of educathe underlying roots of extremism remain. Brookings tion in the creation of antagonistic national idenInstitute. Retrieved from https://www.brookings. tities in India and Pakistan, Compare: A Journal edu/blog/order-­from-­chaos/2021/01/15/terrorism-­in-­ of Comparative and International Education, pakistan-­has-­declined-­but-­the-­underlying-­roots-­of-­ 38(1), 103-119. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ extremism-­remain/ abs/10.1080/03057920701467834 Ashraf, M. A., Tsegay, S. M., & Ning, J. (2021). Teaching Mansilla, V. B., & Jackson, A. (2011). Educating for global Global Citizenship in a Muslim-Majority Country: competence: Preparing our youth to engage the world. Perspectives of Teachers from the Religious, National, https://asiasociety.org/files/book-­globalcompetence. and International Education Sectors in Pakistan. pdf Religions, 12(5), 348. MDPI AG.  Retrieved from MoFEPT. (2018a). National education policy framehttps://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050348 work 2018. https://aserpakistan.org/document/2018/ Barrow, E. (2017). No Global Citizenship? Re-­ National_Eductaion_Policy_Framework_2018_Final. envisioning Global Citizenship Education In Times pdf of Growing Nationalism. The High School Journal MoFEPT (2018b). National curriculum framework 100(3), 163-165. Retrieved from https://eric. Pakistan. https://www.pc.gov.pk/uploads/report/NCF. ed.gov/?id=EJ1131935 pdf Blackmore, C. (2016). Towards a pedagogical framework NCC. (2020a). Single national curriculum: English for global citizenship education. International Journal grade I-V 2020. Ministry of Federal Education & of Development Education and Global Learning, 8, Professional Training. Retrieved from http://www. 39-56. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ mofept.gov.pk/Detail/NWJmMmM2YTQtM2Yz EJ1167830.pdf Yi00NjJkLTgzNDEtYzMxMTI4MTllY2Qw Constable, P. (2017, September 9). ‘A Disaster in NCC. (2020d). Single national curriculum: the making’: Pakistan’s population surges to General knowledge, grade I-III 2020. Ministry 207.7 million. The Washington Post. Retrieved of Federal Education & Professional Training. from http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ Retrieved from http://www.mofept.gov.pk/ asia_pacific/a-­d isaster-­i n-­t he-­m aking-­p akistans-­ Detail/NWJmMmM2YTQtM2YzYi00NjJkLTgz p o p u l a t i o n -­h a s -­m o r e -­t h a n -­d o u b l e d -­i n -­2 0 -­ NDEtYzMxMTI4MTllY2Qw years/2017/09/08/4f434c58-­926b-­11e7-­8482-­8dc9aNCC. (2020c). Single national curriculum: Social 7af29f9_story.html. 17 April 2021. studies grade IV-V 2020. Ministry of Federal Crossley, M., & Murby, M. (1994). Textbook provision Education & Professional Training. Retrieved and the quality of the school curriculum in developfrom http://www.mofept.gov.pk/Detail/ ing countries: Issues and policy options. Comparative N W J m M m M 2 Y T Q t M 2 Y z Y i 0 0 N j J k LT g z Education, 30(2), 99-114. http://www.jstor.org/ NDEtYzMxMTI4MTllY2Qw stable/3099059 NCC. (2020b). Single national curriculum: Urdu grade Dean, B.  L. (2005). Citizenship education in Pakistani I-V 2020. Ministry of Federal Education & Professional schools: Problems and possibilities. International Training. Retrieved from http://www.mofept.gov. Journal of Citizenship and Teacher Education, 1(2), pk/Detail/NWJmMmM2YTQtM2YzYi00NjJkLTgz 35-55. Retrieved from https://ecommons.aku.edu/ NDEtYzMxMTI4MTllY2Qw pakistan_ied_pdck/30/ NCC. (2020e). Zero Draft, Single National Dean, B, Hafeez, O., & Khan, S. (2014a). Getting along Curriculum: English grade VI-VIII 2020. with others. Social Studies for Class 4 (pp.  99-109). Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Sindh Textbook Board, Jamshoro. Retrieved from Training. Retrieved from http://www.mofept. https://ebooks.stbb.edu.pk/ gov.pk/Detail/NWJmMmM2YTQtM2YzYi00Nj Dean, B., Saeed, A., & Khan, S. (2014b). Culture. Social JkLTgzNDEtYzMxMTI4MTllY2Qw Studies for Class 5 (pp. 78–92). Sindh Textbook Board NCC. (2020f). Zero Draft, Single National Jamshoro. Retrieved from https://ebooks.stbb.edu.pk/ Curriculum: History grade VI-VIII 2020. Durrani, N., & Dunne, M. (2010). Curriculum and Ministry of Federal Education & Professional national identity: Exploring the links between religion Training. Retrieved from http://www.mofept. and nation in Pakistan. Journal of Curriculum Studies, gov.pk/Detail/NWJmMmM2YTQtM2YzYi00Nj 42(2), 215-240. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ JkLTgzNDEtYzMxMTI4MTllY2Qw abs/10.1080/00220270903312208

128 NCC. (2020g). Zero Draft, Single National Curriculum: Urdu grade VI-VIII 2020. Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training. Retrieved from http://www.mofept.gov.pk/ Detail/NWJmMmM2YTQtM2YzYi00NjJkLT gzNDEtYzMxMTI4MTllY2Qw Nayyar, A.H., & Salim, A. (2003). The Subtle Subversion. The state of curricula and textbooks in Pakistan. Sustainable Development Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://sdpi.org/the-­subtle-­subversion-­the-­ state-­o f-­c uricula-­a nd-­t extbooks-­i n-­p akistan/ publication_detail OXFAM. (2015). Education for global citizenship: A guide for schools. OXFAM GB.  Retrieved from https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/ handle/10546/620105/edu-­g lobal-­c itizenship-­ schools-­guide-­091115-­en.pdf?sequence=11&isAllow ed=y Oxley, L., & Morris, P. (2013). Global citizenship: A typology for distinguishing its multiple conceptions. British Journal of Educational Studies, 61(3), 301-­ 325. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/ doi/abs/10.1080/00071005.2013.798393 Panezai, S.  G., & Channa, L.  A. (2017). Pakistani government primary school teachers and the English textbooks of Grades 1-5: A mixed methods teachers-­ led evaluation. Cogent Education, 4(1), 1269712, Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full /10.1080/2331186X.2016.1269712 Pasha, A. (2015). Global citizenship in Pakistan. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 7(1), 33–52. Retrieved from https:// eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1167831 Rahman, T. (2004) Denizens of Alien Worlds: A Survey of Students and Teachers at Pakistan’s Urdu and English Language-Medium Schools and madrassas. Contemporary South Asia, 13(3): 307–326. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/0958493042000272212. Rana, M.A. (2020) Decentralization Experience in Pakistan: The 18th Constitutional Amendment. Asian Journal of Management Cases,17(1):61-84.

Z. Zaheer Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ full/10.1177/0972820119892720. Reimers, F. (2006). Citizenship, identity and education: Examining the public purposes of schools in an age of globalization. Prospects, (36), 275-294. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-­006-­0009-­0 Schwab, K. (2019). The Global competitiveness report 2019. WEF.  Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The GlobalCompetitivenessReport2019.pdf Shirazi, S. A., Sandhu, A. H., Hussain, M., & Ullah, R. (2018a). Culture: the way of living together. Social Studies 4 (pp.  58–68). Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board, Lahore. Retrieved from https://pctb. punjab.gov.pk/download_books Shirazi, S. A., Sandhu, A. H., Hussain, M., & Ullah, R. (2018b). Culture. Social Studies 5 (pp. 53–64). Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board, Lahore. Retrieved from https://pctb.punjab.gov.pk/download_books Talbot, I. (2019). Legacies of the partition for India and Pakistan. Politeja, 59, (pp.  7–25). Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/26916350 Tanner, J. (2007), Global citizenship. In D.  Hicks, & C.  Holden (Eds.), Teaching the global dimension: Key principles and effective practice (1st ed.). Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-­t he-­G lobal-­D imension-­Key-­ Principles-­and-­Effective-­Practice/Hicks-­Holden/p/ book/9780415404495 UNICEF. (2019). Adolescents in South Asia. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/rosa/what-­we-­do/ adolescents UNESCO. (2015). Global citizenship education: Topics and learning objectives. UNESCO.  Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/ pf0000232993 Veugelers, W., & Groot, I. de. (2019). Theory and Practice of Citizenship Education. In W.  Veugelers (Ed.), Education for Democratic Intercultural Citizenship (Vol. 15, pp.  14–41). Brill. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/10.1163/j.ctvrxk389.6

8

Integrating Education for Sustainable Development into a Local Formal Kindergarten Curriculum: A Curricular Practice From China Guangheng Wang, Ying Gong, and Hua Cui

Abstract

This chapter outlines the process of integrating Education for Sustainable Development into the curriculum of Changning  Hongqiao Kindergarten in Shanghai, China. This process has taken a decade and occurred in three main periods. In the first period, the integration was mainly related to the environmental domain based on the characteristics of the curriculum in Hongqiao Kindergarten, and it served to enrich the traditional environmental education. In the second period, the integration was implemented in three (environmental, economic and sociocultural) domains, and the concentric characteristics of the objectives and the methods of integration were reviewed and refined. Finally, an innovative practice was conducted in the third period to cope with the challenges faced by the field of Early Childhood Education. These challenges were attributed to the rapid social and economic developments impacting children’s daily lives. This curricular practice facilitated the combiG. Wang (*) Shanghai Changning Institute of Education, Shanghai, China Y. Gong · H. Cui Shanghai Changning Hongqiao Kindergarten, Shanghai, China

nation of new activities with social-emotional learning and the introduction of financial literacy education into the program. Portraying the coordinated and discordant aspects of Education for Sustainable Development integration into the curriculum, the authors discuss the implications for a long-term and effective development of  practices and provide valuable information for similar contexts aiming to implement Education for Sustainable Development in Early Childhood Education.

8.1 Introduction UNESCO has been promoting sustainable development since 1992, and in this initiative, education has always been regarded as ‘the key to the formation of environmental and moral awareness, values, attitudes, skills, and behaviours for sustainable development’ (UN Conference on Environment and Development 1992, p.  39). Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is deservedly one of the most important missions within the field of education and plays an important role in the Education for All initiative, as defined in the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action (World Education Forum 2000). The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development clearly defines education as both a stand-alone goal (the SDG4: Quality Education) and a significant factor to help achieve the 16 other

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_8

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SDGs (UN  2015). As the SDGs seek to reduce educational inequality, promote child protection in early childhood and foster early childhood education (ECE), ESD is expected to start in early childhood years (Feine 2012), given that these comprise a key period for the formation of children’s values, attitudes, lifestyles and habits. Early childhood should be the most appropriate and natural starting point of all policies and practices for sustainable development (Siraj-Blatchford et al. 2010). Many other arguments have expressed the same viewpoint that ESD must begin in early childhood years (Davis 2010; Wals 2009). A study by Zhou (2010) in the Chinese context showed that a child already has the ability to think deeply on social and environmental issues, which demonstrates the feasibility of adopting and implementing ESD for every child in the early childhood period. Environmental Education (EE), which seeks to promote protection of the environment, was proposed to be added to the ECE curriculum in China about 40 years ago. EE in ECE in China came to the fore as people paid more attention to environmental issues. More goals and content regarding how young children should understand the interdependence of nature, the environment and human beings based on their own life experiences appeared in early childhood curriculum and practice in China. Globally, there were also projects on ESD in ECE. EE was well developed in many countries, including China. For example, Forest School activities aiming to develop young children’s awareness of nature and concern about the environment were popular in many countries (Bruce 2012; Davis 2009). Research in the Scandinavian context showed that experiencing the outdoors in childhood could help young children connect with nature and develop an appreciation of protecting the ­environment (Chawla 2006). The need for ESD in ECE in Sweden was first identified in the Gothenburg Recommendations on Education for Sustainable Development (Davis et  al. 2008). However, research on ECE for sustainability is relatively new compared to the practice. The World Organization for Early Childhood Education (Organisation Mondiale pour l’Education Prescolaire [OMEP]) has been working on various international projects related to

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ESD since 2008. The main purpose of these projects has been to strengthen the awareness and implementation of ESD within the field of ECE. The UN’s World Summit Report stated that sustainable development includes three domains: environmental, economic and sociocultural (UN Economic and Social Council 2005). An international project on ESD in ECE was implemented on the 7Rs (respect, reflect, rethink, reuse, reduce, recycle and redistribute) (OMEP 2010). ESD practices in ECE were involved in some of these aspects. The results of an opportunity sample survey involving 14 countries showed that activities to encourage children’s early awareness of protecting the environment were the most developed initiatives in ECE (Siraj-Blatchford and Samuelsson 2013). ESD in the early childhood curriculum also included concepts such as gender education (MacNaugton 2000), social justice, racial equality and bias (Derman-Sparkes and Olsen Edwards 2010). However, the practitioners of ECE could not be aware of the integral objectives and domains of ESD. With the development of the economy and technology, the economic domain of ESD, which was originally unknown to young children, has drawn more attention. Recycling and the redistribution of resources are the two areas of emphasis. Recycling of resources means that products can be used again instead of being discarded after they have been initially utilized. Redistribution of resources means that products should be assigned to the people in need instead of being average distributed. The eventual aim of a circular economy is to meet the need for social and economic development by using only a small amount of resources. The goals of ESD in the economic domain are to help children realize how and why sustainable development can affect every person and every community in various ways and to cultivate the consumption concept and a lifestyle of sustainable development.

8.1.1 Early Childhood Education in China There are more than 100 million children aged 6 and below in China, accounting for about one-­

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fifth of the world’s population of the same age. The majority of the Chinese children in the urban areas attend kindergarten by the age of 3. The Chinese kindergartens cater to children aged 3 to 6. These children are generally divided into different classes according to age. The kindergarten  curriculum is designed and implemented based on the national curriculum guideline, the Guidelines for Kindergarten Education (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China [MOE] 2001). The MOE (2012) also issued the Learning and Development Guidelines for Children Aged Three to Six. There are five major fields covered in the Chinese kindergarten  curriculum: physical education and health, social learning, language, science (including mathematics) and art. ESD in ECE in China started with EE as early as the 1980s. It was proposed in the first meeting of the Environmental Education Committee of the Chinese Society of Environmental Sciences in 1979 that EE should be implemented from the kindergarten to the university level to help promote the welfare of the environment. The goal was to develop young children’s interests in, appreciation of and responsibility for taking care of animals and plants. As EE developed in China, more practices have focussed on the relationship between nature, the environment and humans based on children’s own life experiences. However, the two other domains of ESD, the economic and sociocultural domains, were left out. Many kindergarten teachers were only familiar with the environmental domain of ESD.

8.1.2 Education for Sustainable Development Practices in Hongqiao Kindergarten Hongqiao Kindergarten started its action research in 2010 when it participated in an international collaborative project on ESD initiated by OMEP. On the one hand, this action research was implemented to inspire children, teachers and parents to understand the concept of sustainable development and do something in their daily lives to help promote it. On the other hand, the

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action research was carried out to determine the objectives, detailed content and implementation methods of ESD in order to integrate ESD into the kindergarten curriculum and optimize it. At the beginning of ESD practice in Hongqiao Kindergarten, some ESD activities were tried based on the characteristic field of the kindergarten curriculum, which was ESD in science education. The initiative was relevant because the idea of ESD, especially in the environmental domain, was similar to that of traditional EE. Along with the development of ESD practice, the activities of ESD were expanded from the environmental domain to include the two other domains. Nevertheless, there have been many changes in the science and technology field, as well as in the social and economic environment, in China in recent years. For example, China has become the largest market for mobile payments in the world (State Information Center, China Economic Information Service, Ant Financial 2019), which means that people have few chances to access notes and coins. Based on this, new requirements have been put forward for ESD in ECE, especially in the economic domain. It was found that children lacked early life experience in the economic field (Guo 2019). This had negative effects on children’s early awareness of the concept of money and the development of good behaviours relating to sustainable development within the economic domain. Therefore, there is an urgent need to carry out ESD activities for children in the economic domain, which has become a prioritized area at present. The goal is to effectively design and implement more ESD activities, especially those in the economic domain, and help make children and parents aware of ideas and practices related to the recycling and redistribution of resources.

8.2 The Case 8.2.1 Setting Hongqiao Kindergarten, located in Changning, a downtown district in Shanghai, China, was established in 2007. It is a public kindergarten with

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above-average performance. Its mission is to nurture ‘happy children who are healthy, lively and curious to explore’ (Changning Hongqiao Kindergarten 2019). It served children aged 3 to 6 until August 2021. In September 2021, 2-year-­ old toddlers were accepted as per the government mandate to extend educational services to more families. There are approximately 190 children and 7 classes altogether, which are arranged by age. Hongqiao Kindergarten is a typical public kindergarten in Shanghai, which implements the formal curriculum developed by the local government (Shanghai Municipal Education Commission 2004) according to the national Guidelines for Kindergarten Education (MOE 2001). The curriculum is followed based on the kindergarten’s practical conditions.

8.2.2 Procedures ESD practice in Hongqiao Kindergarten was studied using participatory action research, which was designed and managed by the head of the school and the researcher from the institute of education in Changning District. All teachers in Hongqiao Kindergarten are supposed to implement ESD practices. There were three periods of ESD practice, and this involved the four steps of planning, action, observation and reflection (Lewin 1946) to design, carry out and improve ESD activities and thus achieve the goals of each period (see Table 8.1). Teachers put forward their problems with ESD practices before they designed the ESD activities. Subsequently, a series of different ESD activities was formulated to solve the problems identified and achieve ESD goals. When these activities were carried out, the teachers observed the children’s behaviours and tried to understand their perceptions of sustainable development. After implementing the activities, the teachers assessed the effects of the activities, adjusted the activity plans and summarized unresolved issues. Furthermore, new questions were raised, and ESD practice proceeded to the next period.

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8.2.3 Steps for Integration of Education for Sustainable Development The steps followed in the integration of ESD into the curriculum of Hongqiao Kindergarten in each period are presented in Fig. 8.1 and discussed in the following sections.

8.2.3.1 Enrichment of Traditional Environmental Education EE, which has always been an important aspect of the kindergarten  curriculum in China (Zhou et al. 2016), belongs to the field of science. The first period of exploratory ESD practice was implemented in the field of science education, as it is the characteristic of the curriculum in Hongqiao Kindergarten. The objectives and content of traditional EE were mainly to teach children about the various kinds of pollution and learn how to reduce waste, which was linked with the main aim of the environmental domain—to reuse resources and reduce the use of resources. Specifically, the ESD environmental domain aims to help children obtain knowledge of the environment as related to their daily lives, form critical skills and a vision and learn to make decisions, including those concerning the future (OMEP 2010). In other words, the environmental domain of ESD emphasizes that children should be able to pay attention to the rational and effective use of environmental resources in the sustainable future rather than just focus on environmental protection as espoused in traditional EE. Clarifying the similarities and differences between the environmental domain of ESD and EE was a good place to start. First, the teachers discussed the goals and scope of the two Rs corresponding to the environmental domain to clarify how ESD goals can be achieved in the activities of traditional EE. Second, the objectives and content of the activities of the environmental domain were put forward based on the children’s habits, teachers’ teaching behaviours and parents’ behaviours.

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Table 8.1  Overview of ESD practices in Hongqiao Kindergarten Original purposes of ESD practice Practical problem to be solved Practical goals

Key domains

2010–2015 To be a participant of OMEP international projects on ESD in ECE Lack of attention to ESD in ECE in China To pilot the practice of ESD in science education Environmental

Enrichment of traditional EE (2010–2015)

2016–2019 To extend practical experiences to all ESD domains Limited ESD practice

To implement the comprehensive practice of ESD integrated into the kindergarten curriculum Environmental Economic Sociocultural

2019–present To meet the challenges of social and economic development faced by ECE Insufficient educational activities related to the economy in ECE To make ESD a regular part of the kindergarten curriculum Environmental Economic Sociocultural

• Preliminary objectives and content of the environmental domain • Implementation of strategic ESD activities

Construction of objectives and content in all ESD domains (2016–2019)

• Cocentric characteristics of objectives • Methods of integration of ESD into the current curriculum

Innovative practice of ESD in diverse domains (2019–present)

• New activities in the three ESD domains • New attempt in the economic domain

Fig. 8.1  Steps for ESD integration in Hongqiao Kindergarten

Preliminary Objectives and Content of the Environmental Domain The objectives of the environmental domain were implemented in two aspects: natural observation and environmental protection. The following four key objectives were formed: • To be familiar with the surrounding environment and have knowledge of relevant resources in the environment

• To know that some resources are recyclable and that protecting natural resources is important • To refrain from doing things that may affect others’ quality of life now or in the future • To support the sustainable development of the environment (Wang et al. 2012) The activities were implemented in a thematic way in terms of content. Some themes were

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selected from the themes of science education of the current kindergarten  curriculum, such as water and shadow. Others were designed based on the current curriculum for specific age groups, such as sound for 3- to 5-year-olds and magnet for 5- to 6-year-olds. For example, the content of the activities under the theme of sound included knowledge of the different kinds of sounds in nature, the dialectical relationship between music and noise and their influence on life. The types of activities were diverse. There were group activities, individual activities, home and kindergarten collaborative activities, parent– child activities and activities integrated into a whole-day course. The involvement of parents was given attention. Recommendations and instructions for collaborative education at home were given to parents. Implementation of Strategic ESD Activities All ESD activities emphasized a child-centred approach. This meant that the activities sought to answer the children’s questions, make them learn the concept of sustainable development by doing and motivate the children to do what they can to contribute to sustainable development in their daily lives. The random questions raised by the children, which were related to the concept of sustainable development, drew teachers’ attention and were expanded to form ESD activities. These questions reflected the children’s interests and served as the premise and foundation for them to actively participate in the activities. In addition, first-hand experience or learning by doing was emphasized. Only hands-on  experiential  learning could help the children understand the idea of sustainable development. Both the simulation of situations in real life and the creation of fun play situations were effective ways to promote the children’s participation and thinking. For instance, the ­children liked to ask many questions every day. They might be curious about where the dirty water goes whenever they see the cleaner mopping the floor. This question focussed on the reuse of water resources. An activity related to wastewater treatment was then

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designed and carried out to assist  the children with comprehension. During the activity, the children purified dirty water using various materials, and they watched a video of sewage treatment. The children put the reuse of water into practice. They flushed the toilet with the water used for rinsing clothes and collected rainwater to water plants.

8.2.3.2 Construction of Objectives and Content in All Domains of Education for Sustainable Development The experience and practice of ESD in the environmental domain were transferred to the two other domains to implement comprehensive ESD. In integrating ESD into the current formal curriculum, the objectives of early child development in the formal kindergarten curriculum listed in Learning and Development Guidelines for Children Aged Three to Six (MOE 2012) were sorted first according to the three domains of ESD (see Table 8.2). As reflected in Table 8.2, many objectives of the Chinese formal kindergarten  curriculum are related to ESD, especially its environmental and sociocultural domains. Regarding EE, objectives such as obtaining an understanding of objects and natural phenomena, plants and animals and understanding the surrounding natural environment, the importance of natural resources and environmental protection are already included in the formal kindergarten curriculum, and they are also areas of emphasis of ESD. Regarding social learning, including interpersonal communication and social adaptation, the main purposes cover part of the objectives of ESD in the sociocultural domain, such as learning to share, collaborating, helping others and showing empathy. All these provided the possibilities and basic conditions for the integration of ESD and the current formal curriculum. In other words, part of the ESD objectives was the same as the objectives of the formal curriculum, although not from the perspective of promoting sustainable development. Therefore, the formulation of the objectives in all three domains of ESD was the first step to accom-

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Table 8.2  ESD-related objectives in China’s formal kindergarten curriculum Domain Environmentala

Field Social learning

Science

Economic

Social learning

Socioculturalb

Social learning

Objective To obey basic social conduct regulations To take good care of the surrounding environment To be cognizant of surrounding objects and phenomena in the process of exploration, including the following:  To obtain knowledge of the natural environment and its direct and close relationship with people’s lives  To determine the relationship between common technology products and people’s lives  To know the advantages and disadvantages of using different technology products To take good care of one’s own and others’ toys and other items To save food and other resources (such as water and electricity) To pay attention to resource conservation To get along well with peers, including the following:  To not compete for toys and not monopolize the use of toys  To be willing to share toys that everyone likes with others  To know that sometimes, others’ opinions are different from one’s own  To listen to and accept others’ opinions, as well as to give reasons for rejecting opinions To care about and respect others, including the following:  To respect others’ emotions  To respect others’ professions and source of living  To accept people whose habits are different from one’s own and to respect others’ living habits and practices To have a preliminary sense of belonging, including the following:  To love the motherland and one’s hometown  To know all nations should respect, unite and love one another

There are more supplementary objectives related to the environmental domain of ESD stated in the local curriculum guidance document entitled Shanghai Preschool Education Curriculum Guide (Shanghai Municipal Education Commission 2004), such as to get close to nature and society, to preliminarily understand the interdependence between man and environment and to have interests in understanding and exploring. b There are also more supplementary objectives related to the sociocultural domain of ESD stated in the Shanghai Preschool Education Curriculum Guide (Shanghai Municipal Education Commission 2004), which are to initiate contact with multi-cultures, to be able to discover and feel the beauty in life and to develop aesthetic interests. a

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plish when the second period of ESD practice in Hongqiao Kindergarten was entered.

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The other approach was to start with the same theme. The objectives determined in this way were often implemented through home and kinConcentric Characteristics of the Objectives dergarten collaborative activities. For instance, An objective system of all three ESD domains the theme of water was under the environmental was developed. A significant feature of this sys- domain. There were three series of activities cortem was that it was concentric, which meant that responding to the three age groups focussed on the objectives and content of the same sub-­ this theme, which were water baby at home for dimensions focussed on one theme. This charac- 3- to 4-year-olds, the journey of a little water teristic was not only reflected in the way the drop for 4- to 5-year-olds and the expert in savthemes and their corresponding content of ESD ing water for 5- to 6-year-olds. Although the activities were selected (Wang et  al. 2019) but content of the three series of activities varied, also referred to the formulation of the objectives they all aimed to let the children experience and of the ESD activities integrated into the current understand the concept of protecting natural curriculum. In practical terms, the theme, the resources. There were three same stages in each content of the theme and the objectives of differ- series of activities: telling a story about saving ent ESD domains were all designed and imple- water in the first stage, making a plan for saving mented based on the characteristics of the water with the help of adults in the second stage children’s development, their experiences and and implementing the plan and presenting the their interests in different age groups. The objec- effect of saving water in the third stage. The spetives of the same theme were developmental and cific objectives of the activities were determined progressive. based on the three stages so that they were suitThere were two concrete ways to determine able for the children based on their ages. This is the specific objectives focussed on the same an example of how the ESD objective system is theme and content for children of different ages. concentric. One approach was to start with the same sub-­ dimension of an ESD domain. For example, pur- Methods of Integrating ESD into the Current chase was one of the sub-dimensions in the Curriculum economic domain of ESD. Under this sub-­ Integrating ESD into the current formal kinderdimension, the objectives of the three age groups garten curriculum has always been the target of were as follows: ESD practice in Hongqiao Kindergarten; making (a) Children aged 3 to 4  years can choose the ESD activities a regular part of kindergarten edugoods they want or like with the help of cation can help cultivate children’s ideas, behavadults and learn the purpose of money. iours and habits of sustainable development in (b) Children aged 4 to 5 years can try to choose their daily lives. For a better implementation of and buy goods within a certain range and ESD, some methods were used repeatedly, and experience using money. they were verified to be effective. (c) Children aged 5 and 6 can participate in the First, the objectives about the core ideas of decision of buying goods in real-life situa- ESD that were suitable to children aged 3 to tions and know the value of money and not 6 years were determined and added to the curricbuying goods blindly. ulum. Second, content was integrated. There All three objectives focussed on buying goods. were four ways to integrate the content of ESD Children were able to choose goods and then buy into the current curriculum of Hongqiao them with the help of adults and then on their Kindergarten. own. Regarding money, the children were expected to know first about money, use it and • First, the thematic method used during the finally understand its value. All three objectives pilot practice in the environmental domain reflected the focus on the children’s development was retained. Specialized ESD activities were of cognition and the behaviour of purchasing. designed under themes.

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• Second, segments related to ESD were added to the existing activities of the curriculum, which could expand the scope of the current curriculum. The current status of children’s development, their experiences and their interests were given attention when using both approaches. • The third method proceeded with the curriculum implementation. The different types of ESD activities were organized into a 1-day course. That is, the ESD activities became components of the kindergarten-based implementation of the formal curriculum, which guaranteed time for ESD implementation. ESD activities were divided into two types: required activities that every child should participate in and optional activities that the teachers could decide to carry out according to the children’s actual situations in class. • Considering the 7Rs across the three domains of ESD to design the ESD activities was the fourth method in facilitating the integration. The 7Rs were initially proposed to correspond to the different domains of ESD, but their deliberate limitations in a specific domain were not desired and not in line with the children’s life experiences. The ESD activities in all the domains were therefore designed with a focus on all 7Rs, which could help cultivate  the children’s ideas and behaviours of sustainable development comprehensively. This cross-domain approach was consistent with the comprehensive characteristic of the Chinese kindergarten  curriculum, which ­provided the condition for the integration of ESD and the formal kindergarten curriculum. All the above methods could not be applied effectively without the teachers’ learning and research. The teachers of Hongqiao Kindergarten read the literature, discussed the design of the activities and prepared the activities together to implement ESD effectively. Improving teachers’ ideas and behaviours in promoting sustainable development was one of the key factors in achieving integration. The ideas and behaviours of the parents, who were the children’s primary educa-

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tors, should also be considered in order to set good examples for the children in their daily lives.

8.2.3.3 Innovative Practice of Education for Sustainable Development in Diverse Domains ESD practices in Hongqiao Kindergarten were implemented in the third period, and more challenges surfaced. In the global setting, abnormal climate events, environmental pollution and the COVID-19 wreaked havoc across  the world. In the educational environment, a series of education reforms, such as a reduction in the academic burden of students, a bidirectional adaptation between kindergarten and elementary school and the combination of nursery and kindergarten education, is being carried out in China. These developments in all aspects at both the domestic and international levels have caused a rethinking of ESD practice in kindergarten. What characteristics do children need to imbibe to be able to adapt to the current and future world? How can children promote sustainable development in their lives and in the environment? Based on the first two periods of ESD practice in Hongqiao Kindergarten, new themes, new content and new types of ESD activities that meet the requirements of the time were proposed and implemented. New Activities in the Three Domains of ESD In the environmental domain, the relationship between the environment and people’s lives has received much attention. The activities in this domain emphasized the early cultivation of children’s behaviours and habits on protecting the environment and the development of their ability to reflect on the relationship between their own behaviour, their lifestyle and the environment. There were two long-term activities carried out in full swing not only in Hongqiao Kindergarten but also in other kindergartens. These were the clean plate campaign and waste classification. The former activity was about consuming food resources responsibly, which meant fully eating what was

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on one’s plate, to help cope with the global food problem. This advocacy was spearheaded by a group of public-spirited people (IN_33 2013), promoting the ordering, serving and cooking of food based on demand. This campaign was supported by Chinese President Xi Jinping (Xinhua News Agency 2020) and the national government (The National People’s Congress of China 2021). Therefore, the entire society was united in this initiative, providing a good context for kindergartens to carry out the activity and for children to develop the habit of saving food. The waste classification activity was also supported by the government, the community and families to help reduce the consumption of resources and environmental pollution. The prevention and control of environmental pollution coming from domestic waste were stipulated as supplements to the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Solid Waste Pollution (The National People’s Congress of China 2020). Many provinces and cities issued regulations on the management of domestic waste, especially metropolises, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen. Therefore, both the national context and the educational climate at the time provided a good environment for effectively implementing the activities under this theme. Children could cultivate appropriate behaviours and acquire awareness of pursuing environmentally sustainable development in their daily lives. The economic domain of ESD has always been the weakest domain in the integrated curriculum. This is partly attributed to children’s limited development level. It is not easy to design activities for the economic domain for very young children. The other reason is that the objectives and content related to this domain belonged to the mathematics field (included in the science field) of the Chinese kindergarten curriculum. Teachers paid more attention to the traditional content of mathematics education compared with the economic ESD. Furthermore, teachers were not familiar with the content of the economic domain. The innovative practices adopted by Hongqiao Kindergarten referenced

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financial literacy education to design and implement the activities of the economic domain. The standard framework of financial literacy education for children aged 3 to 6 (China Collaborative Innovation Center of Financial Literacy Education  2018) became the important basis to enrich the activities of the economic domain. There were few activities about the topics of labour, personal consumption, currency and so on. In the sociocultural domain, respect, reflect and rethink of the 7Rs were the keywords. Empathy was the main theme of the activities in this domain, as everyone faced the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020. Understanding and experiencing others’ feelings were important content of this domain. Some new activities in the sociocultural domain of ESD were designed and implemented in combination with social-emotional learning in Hongqiao Kindergarten. In addition, the guidance of families was emphasized to encourage parents’ involvement, which could strongly support the achievement of ESD goals. New Attempt in the Economic Domain The rapid development of socio-economics has reached an unprecedented level. With technological advances, people are facing many new situations and, at the same time, new problems. This scenario is particularly significant in China, impacting people’s lives (Shanghai iResearch 2020), such as the effects of the internet of things on people’s consumption habits and lifestyles. Undeniably, these changes in the social and economic environment also affect children’s concept of money and their purchasing behaviours (Xie 2019). For example, in a role play on electronic payment, the children pretended to scan a two-­ dimensional code for their payment, which is a commonly used payment method in China; therefore, it was difficult for the children to understand the concept of the equivalent exchange of goods and money (Guo 2019). Most of the children aged 5 to 6  in Hongqiao Kindergarten were observed to have paid extra or spent all the money they had when they bought goods during the play.

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It could be seen that neither were they able to think how to distribute their money reasonably to buy the goods they needed nor did they question the economic value of the goods or the rationality of the price (Gong 2021). Based on these practical problems, the new attempt in the economic domain tried by Hongqiao Kindergarten referred to financial literacy education and adopted a similar form of project-based learning. We take the activity toy flea market for children aged 5 to 6 as an example. As its name implied, the children brought their own old toys to the kindergarten and sold them as second-hand toys in a flea market. This was a big event across classes to help develop children’s understanding of the economic value of commodities and the effects of consumption on the environment, as well as children’s comprehension of the ideas of recycling and redistribution by reducing the number of toys that go to waste. The activity started with the question, ‘How can we make old toys create more value?’ There were three stages: toy collection and valuation, toy repair and value promotion and toy marketing and trading. In the first stage, the children brought their toys for the flea market to the kindergarten, and then they classified and priced all the toys with their peers in the group activity. Through this activity, the children could g­ radually build up their understanding of pricing rules and further comprehend the relationship between commodity attributes and values through this process. Subsequently, the children repaired their broken toys in the individual activity and realized the value of recycling. In the last stage, the children acted as customers and sellers. They experienced the redistribution of resources by selling their own toys, receiving money, using the money they earned to buy other favourite toys and playing with their newly bought toys. This new integrated activity, focussing on the theme of toys, which the children were interested in, involved multiple stages, various types and several tasks. It provided opportunities for the children to experience sustainable development in the economic domain and its influence on them in the entire activity.

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In addition to the new activities in the economic domain of ESD, other attempts by management in Hongqiao Kindergarten were also implemented. These included multiple use and sharing of teaching aids amongst the teachers of different classes and repair of children’s books.

8.3 General Evaluation The Environmental Rating Scale for Sustainable Development in Early Childhood (Siraj-­ Blatchford 2016) was used to determine the effects of ESD practice in Hongqiao Kindergarten. It consists of three subscales: social and cultural sustainability, economic sustainability and environmental sustainability. The items are scored on a seven-point scale, ranging from 1 (inadequate) to 7 (excellent), and they apply the same rating procedures as the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (Harms et al. 1998). Each class was observed in 2016 and in 2021. Each observation was carried out for 2 to 3  hours in one morning of any one workday in a week by the managers of ESD practice in Hongqiao Kindergarten.

8.3.1 Results of Rating Scale The descriptive data on the ESD rating scale are shown in Table  8.3. The mean score of seven classes in 2016 was only 2.33, lower than the minimum score of 3, as the score in social and cultural sustainability was very low. This result could be attributed to the idea of sociocultural sustainability being new to the teachers in Hongqiao Kindergarten. The teachers generally perceived it as a cultural issue, not an issue of Table 8.3  Scores of ESD rating scale between 2016 and 2021 Dimensions Social and cultural sustainability Economic sustainability Environmental sustainability Total Mean

2016 1 2 4 7 2.33

2021 3 4 6 13 4.33

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equity and social justice. Compared with the results in 2016, the mean score in 2021 was almost double. The scores in each of the three subscales were improved by 2 points. This reflects that the ESD practice in Hongqiao Kindergarten has been effective to a certain extent.

8.4 Discussion and Implications ESD practices in Hongqiao Kindergarten have been implemented over a decade, mainly in the environmental domain, and then spread to all three ESD domains, including the focus on innovative practice in the economic domain. The objectives, content and methods of ESD implementation have been gradually improved. ESD practices have been increasingly integrated into the current formal kindergarten curriculum based on the coordinated aspects of ESD and the current formal curriculum. However, there are still some discordant aspects of the integration. The coordinated and discordant aspects of the integration of ESD and the formal kindergarten curriculum are summed up as follows, which serve as references for the subsequent practice of ESD in ECE in China. ESD could be integrated into the Chinese formal kindergarten  curriculum because of their commonalities, which were the foundation for their practical concordance. They had three aspects and one characteristic in common. The first aspect was their objective. The goal of both ESD and the current kindergarten curriculum was to make children adapt to society and future life. The same was true for the specific objectives of both, such as the objectives of the environmental domain of ESD and those of traditional EE (Zhou et al. 2016). The similar objectives of both served as the starting points for their integrated implementation. The second aspect was their content. Content was selected and determined in a thematic way and according to the objectives. Some contents were quoted from the formal curriculum, whereas others were designed according to the children’s life experiences. The third aspect was the organizing form. The children took part

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in ESD activities of various types, including group activities, individual activities, home and kindergarten collaborative activities, parent– child activities and activities integrated into a whole-day course. Regardless of the type of activity, both experience and learning by doing were emphasized. These types of activities were the same as those in the formal kindergarten curriculum. Therefore, current activities added to the content of ESD, and the specific activities of ESD were easily integrated into practice within the framework of the current curriculum. The common characteristic of the two was their comprehensiveness. The idea of sustainable development was consistent across various fields. Hence, the concept of 7Rs of ESD was implemented, breaking the three domains. This same characteristic was evident in the ESD activities. For the Chinese kindergarten  curriculum, comprehensiveness was embodied in its principle. The curriculum emphasized the promotion of children’s holistic development in all activities they engage in, integrating multiple fields. This was also in line with the ideal characteristics of ECE. Many methods of and experiences in conducting ESD activities and facilitating the integration of ESD and the formal curriculum have been accumulated, but two major issues have been observed. These were faced not only by Hongqiao Kindergarten but, to a certain extent, all kindergartens in China, in general. The first one is the different domain division. The number of dimensions in ESD is different from that in the Chinese formal kindergarten curriculum. There has been a lack of research on or an official document describing the relationship between the two categories of dimensions. Although comprehensiveness was a common characteristic of both, specific activities focussed on certain domains, and some activities had certain objectives. These objectives might be simply accumulated or combined in one integrated activity. The second issue was the lack of teaching materials. Although there are a few materials related to ESD content in kindergarten books for teachers, the emphasis and difficulties presented

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therein are not ESD oriented. The currently available books about ESD are mainly for primary and secondary schools (National Working Committee 2021). There are few reference books in Chinese about ESD practices for ECE teachers. As a result, most ESD-related activities had to be designed by the teachers themselves in Hongqiao Kindergarten. This problem was evident especially in the economic domain. Moreover, the teachers were not familiar with the objectives and content of the economic domain. Despite the introduction of financial literacy education into the economic domain of ESD, it was not popularized in ECE. All these factors made it difficult for teachers to implement the activities of the economic domain. Based on the ESD practice in Hongqiao Kindergarten, the educational content and methods developed during the integration of ESD into the Chinese local formal kindergarten curriculum could be considered good experiences in promoting ESD in ECE in urban areas in China. There are several implications for the long-term and effective development of ESD practice, which are not limited to the Chinese context. First, national policy documents regarding ESD in ECE should be formulated. For example, it is necessary to add a section on ESD in the national Guidelines for Kindergarten Education and Learning and Development Guidelines for Children Aged Three to Six in order to standardize the objectives and implementation of ESD in the Chinese kindergartens. This way, ESD practice can rely on unified standards. Second, the implementation of ESD should be adjusted according to local conditions, especially daily social and economic life, as well as to the national policy, the current local curriculum and other factors. The localization of ESD could ensure its smooth implementation. Third, the dissemination of information about sustainable development should be strengthened to increase people’s awareness, which would help create a good atmosphere for implementing ESD in kindergartens and in children’s lives. Fourth, more empirical research and practices on ESD integration into ECE in the Chinese context should be

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carried out to draw teachers’ and parents’ attention to cultivating children’s responsibility towards sustainable development from a very young age. In working towards better ESD implementation, teaching materials on the ESD activity plans to be implemented and teacher guidance in the activities are essential. Teacher training should also be carried out.

References Bruce, T. (2012). Early childhood practice: Froebel today. Sage. Changning Hongqiao Kindergarten. (2019). Curriculum implementation plan of Changning Hongqiao Kindergarten (Unpublished manuscript) [in Chinese]. Shanghai Changning Hongqiao Kindergarten. Chawla, L. (2006). Learning to love the natural world enough to protect it. Barn, 2, 57–78. China Collaborative Innovation Center of Financial Literacy Education. (2018). China standard framework of financial literacy education [in Chinese]. University (Research edition), 2, 9–39. Davis, J.  M. (2010). Young children and the environment: Early education for sustainability. Cambridge University Press. Davis, J. M. (2009). Revealing the research “hole” of early childhood education for sustainability: A preliminary survey of the literature. Environmental Education Research, 15(2), 227–241. Davis, J.  M., Engdahl, I., Otieno, L., Samuelsson, I.  P., Siraj-Blatchford, J., & Valladh, P. (2008). The Gothenburg recommendations on education for sustainable development.https://cms. i t . g u . s e / i n f o g l u e D e l ive r Wo r k i n g / d i g i t a l A s sets/1278/1278409_1270373_Gothenburg_recommendations_on_ESD_Adopted_Nov_12_2008.pdf Derman-Sparkes, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-­ bias education for young children and ourselves. National Association for the Education of Young Children. Feine, J. (2012). Learning for a sustainable future maximizing the synergies between quality education learning and sustainable human development. A paper prepared on behalf on the inter-agency committee for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable development. UNESCO. Gong, Y. (2021). A study on the development of money cognition ability and the cognitive characteristics of payment methods of children aged 5-6 [in Chinese]. [Unpublished master’s dissertation, Shanghai Normal University]. Shanghai Normal University. Guo, Y. (2019). Discussion on children’s financial quotient education in the era of electronic payment [in Chinese]. Educational Modernization, 6(89), 60–62.

142 Harms, T., Clifford, R.  M., & Cryer, D. (1998). Early childhood environmental rating scale, revised edition (ECERS-R). Teachers College Press. IN_33. (2013). Public welfare 2013 - Participation gathering energy: “clear your plate campaign” has been forwarded 50 million times [in Chinese]. http://dangjian. people.com.cn/n/2013/0125/c117092-­20321311.html Lewin, K. (1946). Action research and minority problems. Journal of Social Issues, 2(4), 34–46. MacNaugton, G. (2000). Rethinking gender in early childhood education. Sage. Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (MOE). (2001). Guidelines for Kindergarten Education [in Chinese]. http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A06/s3327/200107/t20010702_81984.html Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (MOE). (2012). Learning and Development Guidelines for Children Aged 3–6 [in Chinese]. http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A06/s3327/201210/ t20121009_143254.html The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China. (2020). Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Solid Waste Pollution [in Chinese]. http://www.mee.gov.cn/ywgz/ fgbz/fl/202004/t20200430_777580.shtml The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China. (2021). Anti-Food Waste Law of the People’s Republic of China [in Chinese]. http://www.npc.gov. cn/npc/c30834/202104/83b2946e514b449ba313eb4f 508c6f29.shtml National Working Committee of UNESCO Project on ESD in China. (2021). Local school-based teaching materials [in Chinese]. http://www.esdinchina.org/ Organisation Mondiale pour l’Education Prescolaire/World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP). (2010). ESD world project part 2: ESD in practice. Shanghai iResearch Market Consult Co., Ltd. (2020). China’s new economy typical market data release report [in Chinese]. http://report.iresearch.cn/report_ pdf.aspx?id=3564 Shanghai  Municipal  Education  Commission. (2004). Shanghai Preschool Education Curriculum Guide [in Chinese]. Shanghai Education Press. Siraj-Blatchford, J. (2016). The OMEP ESD Research and Development Project. In J.  Siraj-Blatchford, C.  Mogharreban, & E.  Park (Eds.), International research on education for sustainable development in early childhood (pp. 17–28). Springer. Siraj-Blatchford, J., & Samuelsson, I.  P. (2013). Survey of provisions for ESD in ECCE [Unpublished report]. University of Goteborg. Siraj-Blatchford, J., Smith, K.  C., & Samuelsson, I.  P. (2010). Education for sustainable develop-

G. Wang et al. ment in the early years. Organisation Mondiale pour L’Education Prescolaire (OMEP). State Information Center, China Economic Information Service, & Ant Financial. (2019). 2019 China mobile payment development report: Mobile payment enhances the future competitiveness of the city. 2nd Digital China Summit, 8. UN. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.https:// www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/ RES/70/1&Lang=E UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). (1992). Agenda 21: Earth Summit  - The UN Programme of Action from Rio.https://www. un.org/en/conferences/environment/rio1992 UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). (2005). UNECE strategy for education for sustainable development.http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/documents/2005/cep/ac.13/cep. ac.13.2005.3.rev.1.e.pdf Wals, A. (2009). A mid-decade review of the decade of education for sustainable development. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 3(2), 195–204. Wang, G., Hu, H., Wu, Y., & Ruan, Q. (2012). Education for sustainable development in science education [in Chinese]. Education for Young Children, 7, 18–19. Wang, G., Zhou, X., & Cui, H. (2019). Exploring education for sustainable development in a Chinese kindergarten: An action research. ECNU Review of Education, 2(4), 497–514. World Education Forum. (2000). Dakar framework for action: Education for all, meeting our collective commitments. UNESCO. Xie, F. (2019). Economic empowerment: Appropriate financial literacy education for children  - dialogue with Roeland Monasch, CEO of Aflatoun International [in Chinese]. The Management of Primary and Middle School Management, 12, 49–51. Xinhua News Agency. (2020). Cherish food and stop waste - Various localities take positive actions to resolutely stop food waste [in Chinese]. https://www.chinanews.com/gn/2020/08-­18/9268284.shtml Zhou, X. (2010). Chinese children’s understanding of the concept of sustainable development: Listen to children’s voices [in Chinese]. Early Childhood Education (Educational Sciences), 12, 13–17. Zhou, X., Liu, Z., Han, C., & Wang, G. (2016). Early childhood education for sustainable development in China. In J.  Siraj-Blatchford, C.  Mogharreban, & E.  Park (Eds.), International research on education for sustainable development in early childhood (pp. 43–57). Springer.

Part III Practice

9

Creating a Safe, Free and Equal World for Our Children: Think Equal – A Holistic Early Years Programme Leslee Udwin, Giulia D’Amico, and Amber Paulson

Abstract

Recent research suggests that investment in and implementation of early years’ education emphasising social and emotional learning presents a myriad of positive benefits in the lives of children, their families and the surrounding community. However, accessible and affordable materials for teachers to utilise in their classrooms are scarce, leaving teachers with additional work to add to their already heavy workload. Recognising this challenge, the Think Equal Programme has developed tangible, research-based resources for teachers of all backgrounds to bring into their classrooms and to ensure the crucial elements of early years’ education in their teaching practice. The Think Equal Programme posits that integrating social and emotional learning in the early years as a compulsory subject for children help children thrive in a safe, free and equal world. Being comprehensive, replicable, scalable and cost-effective, this holistic programme is currently implemented in over 16 low-, mid- and high-income countries including Colombia, India, Mexico, North Macedonia, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and the UK.  A randomised control L. Udwin · G. D’Amico · A. Paulson (*) Think Equal, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]

trial based in Australia and supported by Federation University and Yale University (Emmett et  al., Australian Randomised Control Trial: Think Equal Early Childhood Program. Federation University, Yale University, Melbourne, AU, 2021) found that children exposed to the Think Equal Programme had more emotional regulation than those not exposed to the programme as well as experienced health benefits such as less anxiety and greater emotional control. This chapter outlines the components of the programme along with its philosophical foundations as well as practical effectiveness.

9.1 Introduction Early years’ education is vital in ensuring children grow into empowered and aware citizens of the world. Providing meaningful opportunities to engage with social and emotional learning (SEL) content such as empathy, equality and diversity in the earliest years of children’s development helps children retain these competencies and build vital neural pathways that will grow stronger throughout their lives. However, access to high-quality education in such a key subject like SEL is exceptionally challenging. The Think Equal Programme provides access to such education through a tangible and accessible approach so that teachers

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_9

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and children can engage with the crucial skills that will help them develop into global citizens who will soon be the individuals enacting and leading meaningful changes in the world. Educators, ministries and curriculum developers across the globe have begun to recognise the substantial value of integrating SEL into the school curricula. This stems from a plethora of studies that suggest SEL is beneficial not only in the years children are at school (Blewitt et  al. 2018; Denham and Von Salisch 2015; Durlak et al. 2008, 2011; Flook et al. 2019; Sklad et al. 2012) but also in subsequent adult years (Barnett et  al. 2005; Crowley et  al. 2015; Durlak et  al. 2011; Duke University 202; Heckman and Karapakula 2019a; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 2015). In addition, a lot of studies also suggest the economic benefits of both early childhood education and adopting SEL in the early years (Belfield et al. 2015; Grunewald and Rolnick 2003; Heckman and Karapakula 2019b; Karoly et al. 2005; Luo et al. 2018). In response to this profusion of research, governments have begun integrating SEL into national curricular frameworks and identifying various skills for teachers and administrators to consider while preparing SEL content for their classrooms. However, many frameworks lack tangible materials for classroom implementation, which leads to additional stress on teachers many of whom are already overwhelmed by lesson planning and other recent day-to-day changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By working closely with such teachers, Think Equal, a not-­ for-­ profit education organisation based in London, UK, aims to fill this gap and provides high-quality, cost-effective and accessible SEL materials for use in classrooms with children aged 3 to 6. Think Equal bridges this gap across the globe, regardless of their economic standing, by developing and disseminating tangible teaching and learning materials designed by global experts. The Think Equal Programme is currently implemented in a wide breadth of settings including South Africa, North Macedonia, the UK, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Mexico, Colombia and more.

9.2 Literature Review There is a lot of evidence-based support of early learning and socio-emotional learning. Over the past several decades, longitudinal studies have been launched to investigate the potential benefits of early childhood interventions. Building on the related research, several studies have also been designed to specifically examine the possible benefits of SEL both in the early years and at school (Barnett et  al. 2005; Blewitt et  al. 2018; Crowley et  al. 2015; Denham and Von Salisch 2015; Duke University 2021; Durlak et al. 2008, 2011; Flook et al. 2019; Heckman and Karapakula 2019a; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 2015; Sklad et al. 2012; Taylor et al. 2017). Such studies have sparked a movement around SEL integration in the early years and laid the foundation of the principles behind the Think Equal Programme.

9.2.1 Importance of Early Learning Both theorists and educational researchers have outlined and evidenced the importance of cognitive stimulation in the early years. For example, a report from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (n.d.) suggests that the brain’s ability to adapt and change in response to specific experiences significantly decreases as humans age. It also indicates that the effort required to make such changes in the brain increases as humans age, and developing circuits in the brain at a young age is easier and less costly than attempting to intervene later in life (Center on the Developing Child, n.d.). This observation suggests that exposing young children to learning as early as possible is crucial. Additionally, there is a significant economic benefit to investment in early learning. Research suggests that adults aged 40 who received high-­ quality early years education had higher earnings, committed fewer crimes, were more likely to hold a job and graduate from high school (Barnett et  al. 2011). Moreover, early years investment yields up to $17 return for each $1

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invested (Karoly et  al. 2005). One well-known study in this area is The High/Scope Perry Preschool study (Barnett et al. 2005). Conducted from 1962 to 1967 and eventually leading to longitudinal research, the High/Scope Perry Preschool study identified a sample of 123 low-­ income African-American children assessed to be at high risk of school failure. It randomly assigned 58 of these children to a programme group that received a high-quality preschool programme at ages 3 and 4 and 65 to another group that received no preschool programme. The findings of this study confirm that the long-term effects are lifetime effects. The return per dollar invested is estimated to be $12.90 (Barnett et al. 2005). The chief conclusion of the above research suggests that high-quality preschool programmes for young children in poverty contribute to social development in childhood and their overall school success. A linked paper on pre-schoolers’ late midlife by Heckman and Karapakula (2019a) presents an examination of the long-term outcomes through late midlife (approximately age 55) for the participants of the Perry Project. It indicates lasting positive effects on crime, employment, health, cognitive and non-cognitive skills and other outcomes for Perry participants through statistical testing. Heckman and Karapakula’s another study (2019b) examines the positive influence of the Perry Project on the children and siblings of the initial participants, suggesting positive effects. This further indicates that investing in the Early Years has positive implications that reach beyond the individual participant. While the above study is a well-known longitudinal study of early years’ education, other research also indicates positive results from high-­ quality early years programmes, specifically in the realm of economic benefit. Karoly et  al. (2005) provide a thorough review of the impact and return on investment for 20 early childhood programmes. This study concludes that the period from birth to age 5 is a vital opportunity for strong physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. It suggests that early childhood interventions might improve the lives of children and families in both

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the short term and long term. It also concludes that the encouraging societal effects of early childhood programmes translate into fiscal advantages  – it calculates that the returns to society for each dollar invested range from $1.26 to $17.07. Building on this, García et al. (2017) suggest even further economic benefits. Here, findings deduce that quality birth-to-­ five programmes for children, mainly those disadvantaged, can deliver a 13% per year return on investment. Moreover, this return is represented in improved academics and productivity and lesser social costs such as prison and welfare.

9.2.2 Importance of Social and Emotional Learning in Early Years Education researchers have found social and emotional teaching benefits in the early years. As addressed above, several studies over the past four decades have concluded that higher social and emotional scores have had powerful and positive impacts on life outcomes school (Barnett et  al. 2005; Blewitt et  al. 2018; Crowley et  al. 2015; Denham and Von Salisch 2015; Duke University 2021; Durlak et al. 2008, 2011; Flook et  al. 2019; Heckman and Karapakula 2019a; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 2015; Sklad et  al. 2012; Taylor et  al. 2017). There is also strong evidence that SEL in early childhood leads to a significant decrease in antisocial behaviour. Furthermore, evidence from evaluation metrics shows that SEL has a significant positive effect on academic outcomes in other subjects. Research shows that children exposed to SEL in the early years earned higher marks on report cards in learning, health and social-emotional development (Flook et al. 2014). In contrast, the control groups without access to SEL exhibited more selfish behaviour over time (Flook et al. 2014). In addition, Brackett and Rivers (2014) found that one academic year of SEL resulted in an increase in warmth between children and students, more autonomy and leadership amongst students, less bullying amongst students and teachers who focussed more on students’ curiosities and incentives, thus improving their academic perfor-

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mances. Durlak et  al. (2011) also found that students exposed to SEL showed improved academic performance, more positive attitudes and behaviours, fewer negative behaviours and reduced emotional stress. The positive effects of SEL in the early years also correlate with individual experiences in adolescence and into adulthood. Durlak et al. (2008) found that students in ethnically diverse and urban areas demonstrated fewer emotional and behavioural challenges during their adolescent years both in school and after school. Research also suggests economic returns following investment in SEL. A study from Columbia University suggests an $11 return from each $1 invested in SEL (Belfield et al. 2015). To expand on the above, researchers have compiled various studies in this area. For instance, Taylor et  al. (2017) provide a meta-­ analytic review synthesising results from 82 school-based SEL interventions, involving 97,406 kindergarten to high school students from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. In evaluating whether SEL interventions yield significant effects at follow-up, the study indicated several positive outcomes. In addition to nurturing social and emotional skills and positive attitudes in students, these programmes enhanced long-term academic performance and serve as a protective factor against the development of subsequent life challenges (i.e. conduct, emo­ tional distress and drug use). In one subsample, improvement in future social relationships amplified high school graduation rates and college enrolment and reduced later adverse outcomes such as criminal activity or the presence of clinical ailments. Building on this, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis of 79 studies (across six continents) examined 18,292 children aged 2–6 who experienced a universal SEL intervention. The review indicated significant improvement in social and emotional ability, behavioural self-regulation, emotional and behavioural problems and early learning outcomes (Blewitt et al. 2018). As clearly indicated in the research above, investment in and implementation of high-quality early education programmes provides long-term

personal and economic benefits. Moreover, the integration of SEL programmes during these influential years results in further expanded benefits. However, there is a shortage of accessible and financially affordable global programmes for teachers to implement in their classrooms. This is the innovative contribution of the Think Equal Programme – a holistic SEL programme, which is easy to implement, cost-effective, comprehensive, replicable and scalable. It is currently implemented in over 16 countries across low-, mid- and high-income countries, including South Africa, North Macedonia, the UK, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Mexico and Colombia, as mentioned above.

9.3 The Programme Think Equal has a vision of a safe, free and equal world. The organisation’s mission is to achieve a global system change in education by introducing SEL as a compulsory early years subject on national curricula worldwide and asking: ‘How can it be deemed compulsory for a child to learn numeracy and literacy, and yet it is optional for a child to learn how to value another human being and lead healthy relationships?’ (Think Equal2021). Within this framework, the Think Equal Programme is an early childhood SEL programme that recognises that education must address the whole child – numeracy, literacy and cognitive skills, emotional, psychosocial well-­ being and life skills. Its foundational base consists of a social constructivist, interventionist and preventative approach. The programme includes specific activities, carefully curated original narratives and teacher guides designed for practical, simple implementation without extensive training. The Think Equal Programme mediates 25 competencies and skills, ensuring children a foundation in empathy, critical thinking skills, peaceful conflict resolution, breaking down stereotypes, collaboration, problem-solving, resilience, gender sensitisation, emotional intelligence, environmental stewardship and self-­ regulation. As posited in an unpublished report from one of the programme’s original imple-

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menting countries, Botswana, ‘Think Equal… develop[s] the value of the self, and fellow human beings, experientially teaching children to respect, communicate and co-exist with others’ (Mutheto and Kamanakao 2017, p. 4). Moreover, Think Equal is committed to social, gender, racial and religious equity, diversity, inclusion, social and emotional health and well-being and global citizenship. The programme regards children as individual components of a collective, global fabric and agents of social change. It aims to support children as they embark on a lifelong learning journey, helping them to be relieved by the limitations of discriminatory mindsets. It encourages and empowers them to assume duties as global citizens and transform society through critical, inclusive and creative thinking.

9.3.1 Aims The Think Equal Programme targets children aged 3 to 6 across three levels, one per school year. Based on the research surrounding brain sensitivity and the ability to adapt to new experiences at an early age (Center on the Developing Child, n.d.), this design aims to enhance children’s learning experiences early, while ­behaviours are first taking root, and ultimately co-create pro-social neuropathways in their developing brain. It also purposes to shift early narratives that might be biased due to prejudice, trauma and dysfunctionality and replace these with new hopeful and positive narratives focussed on human dignity, diversity, inclusion, gender equality, justice, empathy and compassion.

9.3.2 Principles The Think Equal Programme respects the child as a powerful being, bestowed with full human rights as per Article 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Observing the terms of the convention with specific emphasis on education, the programme also purposes several tangible goals including but not limited to:

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• Modelling appropriate behaviour for children as per the fundamental principles of the Montessori philosophy for them to develop self-­esteem, courtesy and respect for themselves, their peers, their families and others • Co-constructing the positive language of global diversity and human rights and responsibilities in terms of gender, ethnicity and ability • Creating space for imaginative/role play/ perspective-­ taking as foundational for empathy • Encouraging all children to explore all opportunities available to them • Providing varied learning experiences and activities based on the process of narrative (the experience of, creation and expression of stories) and linking this learning to other areas of the curriculum • Providing learning activities that accelerate the child’s social cognition • Developing the child’s emotional intelligence through fostering emotional literacy and strategies for self-regulation • Developing the child’s self-confidence and resilience through the use of positive, accurate language • Developing the child’s insight and search for logical evidence through activities that encourage critical and creative thinking and problem-solving • Developing empathy through the use of narrative and characters’ journeys through stories (Lumgair et al. 2018) As indicated in the above foundational concepts, the programme begins with the child and acknowledges the disposition, culture, customs, knowledge, perspective and experience a child brings to their learning environment. Fresh and significant learning could only occur once the child’s first-hand, cultural and educational background have been recognised and appreciated. This approach inspires and empowers children to adopt their responsibilities as global citizens, become ‘upstanders’ and transform societies through critical, inclusive and creative thinking,

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which will help stop the cycle of violence and discrimination so widespread in today’s society (Lumgair et al. 2018).

9.3.3 Foundational Values Designed by experts in education, psychology, gender, human rights and neuroscience, including global thought leaders such as the late Sir Ken Robinson, the Think Equal Programme stems from six core tenets outlined below. In turn, these tenets lead to child-centred areas of learning, which inform lesson plan content, structure, objectives and topics.

9.3.3.1 Six Core Tenets The design of the programme centres around six core pedagogical tenets manifested in programme activities, which ultimately lead to direct outcomes/competencies. These tenets are as follows: The first one is the notion of the child as an empowered being. Children are ‘rich in potential, strong, powerful, competent and, most of all, connected to adults and children’ (Malaguzzi 1993 p.10). Children thrive in an environment where their ideas are heard and respected by both adults and peers and where they feel comfortable making mistakes and asking questions (Brunton and Thornton 2014). An autonomous and empowered child is the basis of all healthy social development. Isaacs (n.d.) details the impact of children’s autonomy on the life of society as follows: • Children grow into individuals with a strong sense of responsibility. • Children have respect for themselves, others and the environment. • The trust and time afforded them in their childhood are reflected in their own attitude to life and society. • Children enjoy learning and engage with society. Secondly, an active, constructive learning environment is an essential part of constructing

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new ideas. Furthermore, learning through action and constructing ideas through play is a vital teaching tool. This is based on the concepts of Vygotsky’s (1978) theory of social development. The third one is the use of positive language, which is vital in establishing healthy, balanced development. Think Equal believes that a primary role of educators is to model and utilise positive language within the classroom. Positive language includes reinforcing, reminding and redirecting and the use of open-ended questioning and concrete and specific instructions (Denton 2007). Following this is the fourth tenet of Ubuntu that underpins and links all of the learning resources of the programme. Ubuntu is a term roughly translating to ‘human-ness’ or ‘I am because you are’. Ubuntu has its roots in African humanist philosophy, where the idea of community is one of the building blocks of society (Ifejika 2006). Ubuntu is a quality that includes the essential human virtues of compassion and humanity, which we see evidenced in various cultures. Its value in this programme is how it connects universal experiences manifested in different cultures in different ways. The fifth tenet is the narrative, which is central to SEL and social cohesion as well as the spine of the programme. Finally, the sixth tenet is the use of social cognition as a tool for teaching and learning. It is widely believed that children learn in a social context through a communal relationship between individuals and the social context in which they exist (Blades et al. 2003), as per Lev Vygotsky’s model of cognition, is how the child acquires the tools of thinking and learning. Social cognition includes recognising feelings, implementing humour as a helpful tool, hypothesis formation and being empathetic (Lumgair et  al. 2018).

9.3.3.2 Areas of Learning and SEL Outcomes The next layer of the programme is the areas of learning, which stems from the foundational tenets presented above. These child-centred learning areas expand into 36 subtopic areas (6 focusses for each area of learning), containing prolific resources designed to promote positive

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life outcomes. These topic areas contribute to developing personal, ethical, social and emotional competencies in early childhood settings – and through the widespread use of narrative and a focus on social cognition in the larger context of a child’s life (Think Equal2021). The areas of learning and the supporting subtopics place the child at the centre of the programme designed with the view that the child is empowered to direct and navigate their learning. These include: • I Have A Strong Sense of Who I Am: Global Citizenship; Self-Esteem; Resilience; Empowerment; Self-Acceptance; Diversity • I Am Able to Look After Myself: The Things I Can Do; Self-Regulation; Emotional Literacy; Self-Awareness; Finding Positive Solutions; The Choices I Make and Their Outcomes • I Am Able to Look After Others: Kindness and Friendship; Inclusion; Perspective-Taking; Taking Care of Nature, Animals and the World I Live In; Using Empathy; Being an Upstander • I Am Able to Contribute and Create: Self-­ Expression; Creativity; Collaboration; Turn-­ Taking; Sharing Ideas; Using My Head, Heart and Hands to Help Others • I Am a Critical Thinker: Creating Strategies; Problem-Solving; Self-Knowledge; Similarities and Differences; Peaceful Conflict Resolution; Gender Equality • I Am Able to Communicate: Recognising Feelings; Self-Confidence; Listening to Others; Role-Play; Story Telling; Being Kind and Considerate of Others (Lumgair et  al. 2018)

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awareness; resilience; emotional literacy; perspective-­ taking; self-esteem; relationship-­ building skills; self-regulation; inclusion; self-­ confidence; kindness; gender equality; being an advocate for others  – an ‘upstander’; problem-­ solving; moral and ethical values; communication skills; global citizenship; critical thinking; peaceful conflict resolution; mindfulness; environmental awareness and action; creativity; a celebration of diversity; and goal-setting (Lumgair et al. 2018).

9.3.4 Core Components Specific areas of the programme hold tremendous value in informing the curriculum development process. Firstly, as mentioned above, the importance of narrative is at the centre of the Think Equal approach. Additionally, the pedagogical design of the lessons is rooted in fundamental education theories such as Lev Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory (1978), Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1984) and educational philosophies of the Montessori approach (2009).

9.3.4.1 The Narrative as a Significant Component At the heart of the programme is the power of the narrative, which connects to the programme structure where children’s books drive learning and form the fulcrum of the weekly Think Equal lessons. These rich resources enable teachers to create learning opportunities that will engage young children, build on existing knowledge, explore the knowledge of others, think independently, probEach of the above is designed with the tenets lem-solve, analyse, synthesise, evaluate, make in mind, shifting concepts to a tangible set of decisions and thereby build on their own learning. skills. To embody the tenets and learning areas, Think Equal believes that empathy, the core buildThink Equal has further developed these con- ing block of respectful and caring behaviour, cancepts and skillsets into a collection of 25 core not be taught cognitively or theoretically. Instead, outcomes that are simply expressed and allow for the most effective way for children to learn and a comprehensive overview of the programme’s develop empathy is experiential; this is enabled goals. These specific outcomes are a constant through their emotions in the narrative and identipresence in the Think Equal  narrative picture fication with the characters’ journey. books, activities and resources. These SEL Think Equal views the narrative as critical in Outcomes are empathy; collaboration; self-­ engaging children in classroom content and as an

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ideal vehicle to share personal, social and emotional experiential learning. It allows for the creation of new stories, where children can develop the skills to see things from the perspective of others. Narrative describes the basic conflicts of human life. It helps children devise ways to resolve these conflicts and challenges in a safe environment. Teaching children about feelings through narrative provides a safe space to explore new and sometimes challenging concepts through perspective-taking and empathising with characters in various contexts and situations. The narrative offers the opportunity for a child to reflect on their own culture and celebrate the diverse cultures of others. Moreover, as aforementioned, they provide a safe space, which prepares the child to navigate and integrate larger world intricacies and safely learn about relationships, thus creating an environment where empathy, critical thinking, perspective-taking, compassion, creativity and empowerment could flourish. What is more, the narrative component specifically encourages children to forge global connections, respect differences and commend similarities and enable children to pursue alternative endings through collaboration, analysis and discussion. The narratives also invite children to analyse the past, challenge the limitations of history (gender bias, prejudice, racial and religious discrimination) and equip children with newly constructed knowledge to create a future with a promising alternative to their wider community (Lumgair et al. 2018). Individual and Collective Aspects of the Narrative One primary goal of the programme is to meet children where they are at in their individual narratives and to create a positive collective narrative within the group through stories. The Individual Narrative Model posits that every person has their own story and the ability to share their stories with peers, uncover connections and, as a result, form positive relationships with others (Lumgair et  al. 2018). Moving on from the Individual Narrative, children are invited to identify with the stories of others, placing themselves in the story they hear. Once this iden-

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tification is made, a sense of identity develops, encompassing self-esteem and an increased sense of belonging. Following this, children begin to tell their own stories to others to connect and enhance relationships. This process, during which children connect with others and enhance their growing sense of self, leads to collaboration, friendship and community. It continues to repeat the cycle and continue the creation and sharing of individual narratives (Lumgair et  al. 2018). The Collective Narrative Model, as outlined in Lumgair et  al. (2018), reflects the programme’s aims to cultivate positive and hopeful narratives shared by the class. This model suggests that all children enter a classroom with their own narratives, which vary from child to child, based on their personal experiences. These narratives will always cover a range of backgrounds – from children who might have an unstructured, complicated home life to children who have had little to no adverse experiences in their personal lives. Through experiencing new narratives as a group and learning SEL skills together, a shared Collective Narrative develops amongst the children (Lumgair et  al. 2018). Because of this, all children’s books included in the programme focus specifically on these various SEL outcomes. Think Equal proposes that through these hopeful narratives, which focus on the regulated self, development of SEL and a knowledge of and regard for equal rights, the individual stories of children will change. These children will, in turn, begin to affect the stories of others in their community, eventually resulting in a positive and tangible change in the collective narrative of society.

9.3.4.2 Fundamental Theories of Education While Think Equal appreciates all academic input into dialogue and research surrounding early learning, the programme approaches three primary educational theories as a foundation to the pedagogical approaches that best support the programme’s success. As the first one, educationalist Lev Vygotsky developed the Social Development Theory

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(1978). Within this theory is his assertion that social interaction precedes learning  – children learn in a social context. To effectively learn how to navigate social interactions, children must learn to recognise feelings in themselves and others, including how to name, think about, express and reflect these feelings. While teaching social cognition (thinking about interacting socially), children will, in turn, develop emotional literacy, including: • Self-awareness: self-monitoring; linking thoughts, feelings and behaviour • Decision-making: self-monitoring of actions and identification of their consequences; differentiating between thought-led and feeling-­ led decisions • Managing emotions: recognising any triggers for powerful feelings; navigating ways of handling fears, anxieties, anger and sadness • Managing stress: self-monitoring for signals of stress, recognition of where stress comes from, learning to use methods of relaxation • Empathy: recognising the feelings and worries of others; knowing that different people will often have different perspectives • Finding positive solutions: engaging in solving problems through consideration, strategic/ critical and creative thinking, perspective-­ taking (Adapted from Blades et al. 2003)

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to explore, create and gain knowledge are supported by their learning environment. Children are encouraged to see themselves as ‘citizens of the world’, and practitioners are encouraged to help children connect with the wider local and global community (Isaacs n.d.). The Montessori philosophy also states that the mind absorbs cognitive understanding from birth to the age of 6, forming the foundation of cognitive development. This is called the First Plane of Development: The Absorbent Mind (Montessori, M. 2009). Paired with the research presented above, this further demonstrates the crucial intervention ages of 0–6.

9.4 Effectiveness The effectiveness of the Think Equal programme is discussed through educational materials designed for teachers, implementations adopting collaborative, community-based and contemplative learning and a sample of evaluation done in an Australian case.

9.4.1 Educational Materials

The Think Equal programme consists of tangible materials for teachers to implement in their classrooms for children aged 3–6. Organised through Secondly, educationalist Howard Gardner of three levels of learning, based on age and includHarvard University (1984) set forth the MI theory ing developmentally appropriate activities and that there are eight identifiable areas of intelli- resources, teachers can easily pick up the lessons gence: visual-spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, musi- and bring them into their classrooms with ease. cal, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, The children’s books in the Think Equal logical-mathematical and naturalistic. Each area Programme address a series of SEL components of intelligence learns concepts differently – there- (as outlined in Sect. 9.3.3.2). Each level of learnfore, teachers must ensure that lessons appeal to ing comprises at least 22 children’s books as many learning methods as possible. Think throughout a 30-week programme. The children’s Equal aids in this by including various activities books are designed to fit the needs of learners in in lesson plans such as games (bodily-­ the designated age group and provide a concrete kinaesthetic); songs (musical); art (visual-­ teaching method and address the sometimes-­ spatial); partner work (interpersonal); reflective abstract concepts included in SEL.  The stories activities (intrapersonal); reading stories (linguis- incorporate both fiction and non-fiction settings tic); and experimenting (logical-mathematical). and human and fantasy characters to ensure a Finally, Maria Montessori’s teachings propose variety of children’s interests are engaged and that children learn best when their natural desires integrated.

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Each week of the programme includes three 30-minute lesson plans which teachers can easily implement after reading through before teaching. This is delivered to teachers in the form of a booklet to store and access the content easily. The programme also includes a Resource Booklet, which provides tangible resources to print, show or trace. To ensure the programme is accessible to all communities, the language of the lessons is simple, and the instructions are highly detailed so that any teacher, regardless of training, will be able to pick this up and bring it into their ­classroom. In addition, because Think Equal is a global programme, the content aims to be accessible to all  – from rural areas with little to no teacher training to areas of the world where teachers are highly trained and might embellish lessons where appropriate.

9.4.2 Implementation Effective implementation of the programme requires an integrated pedagogical approach that accounts for all aspects of child development. As described in a qualitative evaluation of the Think Equal randomised control test in Australia by Emmet et  al. (2021), these approaches include three dominant methods. The first method is collaborative learning, which ‘highlights the importance of the social and cultural context of language, and provides ample opportunities for children’s participation with each other; and promotes play in the learning process by providing additional opportunities for children to engage in culturally meaningful activities’ (Emmet et  al., p. 4). The second approach is community-based learning, which ‘can often fill gaps in the provision of, and access to government education systems through participation in development and delivery of community education. Finally, Think Equal promotes contemplative learning, which integrates Eastern and Western educational traditions of contemplative mindfulness awareness practices, helping students to know themselves more deeply and to engage constructively with others’ (Emmet et  al., p.  4). These pedagogical approaches help ensure that Think Equal is effec-

tive in various social and cultural contexts, emphasising individuality and variance between teaching philosophies and cultures.

9.4.3 Evaluation The Think Equal Programme has been evaluated and has received quite positive results by external parties (Emmett et al. 2021). The randomised control trial was prepared by a group of researchers at Federation University Australia (Dr Susan Emmett, Dr. Lynne Reeder, Dr. Chris Turville and Karen Schneider) and Assistant Professor Craig Baily of Yale University in the USA and conducted in the states of Victoria and Queensland, Australia. The evaluation found that children who underwent the Think Equal Programme in their early years’ education exhibited increased emotional regulation and heightened mental health benefits such as less anxiety and greater emotional control.

9.4.3.1 Background In February of 2019, educators of children aged 3–5 from Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia, underwent training sessions, amounting to 7 full hours. In addition, these educators implemented a cascade training model. They continued training for other centres involved in the study – this method allowed for consistency and a comprehensive understanding of the practice and teaching materials. Implementation of the programme was monitored by members of Think Equal Australia, with 237 children in the intervention group and 118 children in the comparison group (Emmett et al. 2021). The early learning settings involved were private and community-based early childhood centres (Emmett et al. 2021). 9.4.3.2 Methodology This evaluation was completed within a randomised control trial design. Baseline data surrounding child demographics and characteristics and children’s social and emotional behaviour was collected in April 2019, and post-data was collected in November/December 2019 (Emmett et  al. 2021). Evaluation measures included an Emotional Regulation Checklist, Social Competence and Behaviour Evaluation-30 and

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Early Childhood Behaviour Questionnaire – Very Short Teacher Form (Emmett et  al. 2021). They included the outcome variables of ‘Emotion Regulation’, ‘Emotion Dysregulation’, ‘Anger and Aggressive’, ‘Anxious and Withdrawn’, ‘Social Competence’, ‘Effortful Control’, ‘Extraversion’ and ‘Negative Affect’ (Emmett et al. 2021, pg. 6).

9.4.3.3 Results Statistical analysis of the data suggested that, ‘the children that participated in the Think Equal program were more emotionally regulated ­ (d  =  0.38), less emotionally dysregulated (d = 0.32), less anxious and withdrawn (d = 0.33), demonstrated greater effortful control (d = 0.45), demonstrated greater extraversion (d = 0.24), and had lower negative affect (d = 0.37). These findings provide very strong evidence-based validation for the extensive benefits of the Think Equal program within the Australian context’ (Emmett et  al. 2021, pg. 5). While this is the first completed study on the Think Equal Programme, the findings suggest positive outcomes for children who experience it. The organisation is currently conducting similar research in other settings, in partnership with local universities, intending to build evidence of the programme’s effectiveness.

9.5 Future Directions and Conclusion Education is a primary vehicle for citizens of the world to move closer to attaining the SDGs. If children are taught skills and techniques that help them relate to and understand these goals, the next generations will be well equipped to continue the mission of improving the state of the world. As demonstrated above, the Think Equal programme has significant positive effects on children who engage with the programme, and we believe this will help them continue to reach these goals. However, there is always room for growth and improvement. The Think Equal programme undergoes a revision process on a biyearly basis (wherever possible), where teacher feedback and data from implementing focus groups are examined and discussed by experts within the team. This collection

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of data sets the foundation for the revision process of the actual materials provided for teachers. Think Equal’s LEVEL 1 (for children aged 3–4) underwent this process in 2019, and LEVEL 2 (for children aged 4–5) will occur in 2022. The Think Equal strategy leading to 2023 is to scale and develop within existing implementing countries, to reach as many children as possible, as we believe that each group of children not receiving SEL – be it Think Equal or any other SEL approach – is a group of children who are missing a crucial element of social and personal development. Moving beyond 2023, Think Equal plans to revisit our strategy and define more geographies to add. It is our ultimate goal to advocate for changes in policies on ECD systems globally. One distinctive element about Think Equal is that anyone could adopt the programme – it has been designed for that. Lesson plans are easy to follow, and teachers from any background could pick up a book and a lesson plan and bring the content into their classroom. However, the global nature and character of the programme must be preserved, and all implementing teachers are encouraged to follow the scope and structure of the programme as it is designed. The programme is intended to be available to anyone interested and depends on the assistance of philanthropic supporters to ensure the programme reaches schools and teachers across the globe. The Think Equal Programme provides meaningful and accessible SEL to all communities – no matter the economic status. The programme is designed with the child at the centre of the learning, aiming to teach the psychosocial competencies and skills often ignored in the classroom. SEL is equally important as numeracy, literacy and science. However, teachers often don’t have the tools to teach this crucial missing dimension to education. By providing these tools in a manner that any educator could navigate, Think Equal is closing the gap in this area and providing opportunities to children worldwide, which have been initially shown in the evaluation results from the first evaluation of the programme. We hope that in providing these tools, children have the chance to grow into empathetic and compas-

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sionate individuals. Thus, they will create the future, enact meaningful change called for by the SDGs and ensure a safe, free and equal world. Information About the Contributors This chapter was formulated collectively by the entire Think Equal team, based on the information developed and gathered by the internal staff

and consultants over the years. These individuals include Leslee Udwin (Founder), Giulia D’Amico (CEO) and Amber Paulson (Director of Education). The Think Equal team works across the globe and has put forth efforts to change the world and enact positive change by implementing accessible, high-quality early years teaching materials since 2015.

Appendix 9.1: A Collection of Think Equal Books

Appendix 9.2: Think Equal Lesson Plan Booklet and Resource Booklet

9  Creating a Safe, Free and Equal World for Our Children: Think Equal – A Holistic Early Years Programme

References

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Building Global Competence in Pre-school Settings: One World – A Global Citizenship Education Program in Guerrero, Mexico

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JoAnne Ferrara, Joseph Carvin, and Rita del Pilar Zamudio Ochoa

Abstract

This chapter portrays an educational enrichment program called “One World” operating in the state of the Guerrero, Mexico, with the purpose of promoting Education for Sustainable Development at the pre-school level with an emphasis on Global Citizenship Education and the SDGs. Described as a successful partnership between innovative Mexican educators, who are from an education system with a commitment to civics education and educational reforms, and a global nonprofit organization, which is committed to using emerging communication technologies to build a global platform, One World is a program which seeks to develop global citizens who possess the knowledge, skills, and values of globally competent individuals and leaders. The authors first present the historical emergence of the program along with its core components and values, then provide sample stories of implementation, and finally evaluate

J. Ferrara (*) · J. Carvin · R. del Pilar Zamudio Ochoa Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York, USA e-mail: [email protected]

the effectiveness of the program from the perspectives of the parents, teachers, and administrators from 13 different pre-school settings in Guerrero. In addition, they provide a case for national education systems for the freedom and bandwidth to experiment and innovate in a society where citizens are struggling to make sense of an increasingly complex world.

10.1 Introduction Children are growing up in a rapidly globalizing world of exponential change, and the needs of twenty-first-century classrooms are changing in the same way. None of the serious problems facing humanity today could be solved by any single nation-state. On the contrary, recent events happening during the last decade underscore the need for all nations across the world to seriously consider their educational approaches to globalization and create a context for human beings to share fundamental principles and connections. The Oxford Martin School of the twenty-first century brought together global leaders from around the world who came to a similar conclusion for future

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_10

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generations in the report entitled Now for the Long Term. Accordingly, the report argues that in order to address today’s global challenges we need to: Establish a Common Platform of Understanding: The ability to address today’s global challenges is undermined by the absence of a collective vision for society. To remedy this, the Commission urges renewed dialogue on an updated set of shared global values around which a unified and enduring pathway for society can be built. (Oxford Martin Commission 2000, p. 7)

This kind of thinking has been echoed by other global commentators like Jeffrey Sachs the former director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Sachs writes, in his book Commonwealth, that: the defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet. Our common fate will require new forms of global cooperation, a fundamental point of blinding simplicity that many world leaders have yet to understand or embrace. (Sachs 2008, p. 3)

Sachs (2008) makes clear that far too few understand this challenge by claiming that “our global society will flourish or perish according to our ability to find common ground across the world on a set of shared objectives and on the practical means to achieve them” (p. 4) These geopolitical views have also been picked up by other educators as well. Similarly, Reimers concurs that “globalization is deeply transforming the context of the lives of many people around the world. Those who are educated to understand those transformations and how to turn them into sources of competitive advantage are likely to benefit from globalization; but those who are not will face real and growing challenges” (Reimers 2009, p. 190). The former President of the National Education Association (NEA), Dennis Van Roekel, tells us that “public schools must prepare our young people to understand and address global issues … so that all students can thrive in this global and interdependent society and global competence must become part of the core mission of education – from K-12 through graduate

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school” (National Education Association n.d., p. 1). Another report produced by a commission of educators from the Asia Society and the National Middle School Association was even more emphatic: Today, we stand at a critical moment in our history. The quickening pace of globalization over the past twenty years – driven by the profound technological changes described by Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat;… has produced a whole new world. Education is at the core of responding to its challenges and opportunities. (Asia Society n.d., p. 1)

As Dewey (1902) posits, the purpose of all education, regardless of the approach, is to respond to the needs of the society. With this thinking in mind, educators and parents across the world are being challenged by the needs of the world society as never before. They are being asked to prepare our youth for a world that no one understands and for jobs that do not exist yet. Advances in technology and globalization are bringing us closer and closer in a hyper-connected world (Reimers 2020); therefore, preparing youth for this ever-evolving world means changing the trajectory of their lives to reflect interconnectedness and cross-cultural learning. The brave new world hurdling our way is a world full of opportunity and challenge. Students entering school today will live well into the twenty-second century. The best way to prepare our youth for the unprecedented opportunities and challenges of our twenty-first-century world is to provide them with future ready skills of global citizenship and competence (Boix Mansilla and Jackson 2011). While cultivating GCE is the task of educators, the global community is equally responsible for supporting and encouraging, in a collaborative manner, the education of global citizens to whom the needs of humanity are first and foremost. Indeed, none of formidable challenges facing humanity – climate change, nuclear proliferation, and managing artificial intelligence – could be solved by any single nation-state. If humanity is to survive well into this century and beyond, we are going to need a global platform of understanding. Such a platform of understanding is also needed to help

10  Building Global Competence in Pre-school Settings: One World – A Global Citizenship Education…

shape the exponential challenge of technological change. In his book The Fourth Industrial Revolution, the Davos founder Klaus Schwab asserts that the defining challenge of our age is to understand and shape the technology revolution. As he illustrates:

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educates students to understand the world around them and empower themselves and their community through service-learning projects focusing on the SDGs. The end goal of One World’s program is to create a global learning community of leaders of character, knowledgeable of the world around them and capable of changing our world for the better. This definition is entirely consisOf the many diverse and fascinating challenges, tent with other leading global education leaders we face today, the most intense and important is how to understand and shape the new technology such as Reimers (2009), OECD (2020), PISA revolution, which entails nothing less than a trans(2020), and the Asia Society (n.d.). One World formation of humankind. We are at the beginning views global citizenship as seeing oneself as a of a revolution that if fundamentally changing the part of humanity with an awareness that global way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, what I consider to be citizenship transcends geographical and political the Fourth Industrial Revolution is unlike anything borders. In short, global competence includes the humankind has experienced before. (Schwab 2017, skills and knowledge, while global citizenship p. 1) embodies a mindset. In an article entitled Educating for the Fourth The development of global competence is not Industrial Revolution, Harvard Professor a luxury but a necessity if our youth are to sucFernando Reimers makes clear that GCE is cessfully compete in and contribute to a global essential for seizing the enormous possibilities of society. If global competence is truly a goal for the fourth industrial revolution. In this article, the twenty-first century, then educators must think Reimers outlines five principles that will be deeply about the qualities they want future graduneeded to seize these possibilities: (1) start with ates to embody once they leave the PK-12 setting the end in mind, that is, start with GCE as your (Boix Mansilla and Jackson 2011; Reimers 2020). end goal; (2) leverage improvement networks to It is no doubt that a combination of both academic design curriculum; (3) learn by doing – don’t be and nonacademic skills is required for students to afraid to experiment and innovate; (4) utilize the lead a successful and productive life. Broadly power of problem-based learning; and (5) find speaking, skills like collaboration, communicaways to collaborate across diverse teams. These tion, cultural awareness, problem-solving, ethics, five principles played an important role in One and service learning are the academic and nonacaWorld’s program development and its efforts to demic skills of the twenty-first century (Welsh bring GCE to Mexico particularly at the pre-­ and Swain 2020). As educators create opportunischool level. ties for students to develop these skills, a comprehensive and integrated school approach is called for (UN 2015a). One way to achieve the skills 10.1.1 One World: A Global related to global competency is in partnership Citizenship Education with a worldwide network of educators. That is Program precisely why One World was created with the aim of providing a kind of global platform to As a GCE Program, One World seeks to develop respond to the call by scholars in the field (Reimers global citizens who possess the knowledge, 2009; Oxford Martin Commission 2000; UN skills, and dispositions to become globally com- 2015b; Asia Society n.d.). petent individuals and leaders. With this task in Founded in 2006, One World, a New  York-­ mind, One World defines global competence based nonprofit educational enrichment program, across three educational disciplines: global began as a study group for adults interested in ­education, character education, and service learn- contemporary global thinkers. In those days, the ing. One World’s character-based curriculum group’s main focus was to discuss the global

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issues confronting humanity using case studies and a speaker series program organized to facilitate a deeper understanding of the issues at hand. As the group became more rooted in global matters, teachers looked to their own classrooms as well as the youth of the world to join them on a journey towards global competence. One World started GCE in earnest in 2013. The first after school program was launched in a suburban, high-poverty school district in New York State. Since that time One World has grown from one classroom in New York State to over 200 classrooms serving more than 5000 students in 10 different countries around the world. In the last several years, One World has developed a global learning community that operates after-school enrichment clubs as well as school-­ wide programs. It is widely influenced by Reimers’ teachings on global education as delivered at his annual Think Tank on global competence. One World believes in the power of educators to promote change. With this in mind, One World works closely with teachers and administrators and provides them with professional development opportunities. One of them is international visits that are sponsored for teachers and school administrators to spend a week with a host family in another country. The purpose of these school visits is to enable the participating educators to learn about the community and develop collaborative partnerships. Upon returning home, the teachers create a joint service-learning project with their partner school(s). To ensure the quality program, webinars and technical assistance help are provided to the participants. In addition to the ongoing technical supports, the access to a global network of educators is among the largest benefit of the One World program. Working with Dr. Reimers and his book, Empowering Students to Improve the World in Sixty Lessons (2017), One World took GCE enrichment program school-wide in several schools using a 5-step plan to global competence, a plan that is an abbreviated version of 13-step plan outlined in the book. To support this effort, One World organized in-person and virtual conferences led by Dr. Reimers where educators

from across the globe were encouraged to share ideas and experiences implementing GCE school-wide. Educators from Mexico consistently participated in these ongoing professional development opportunities.

10.2 The Case 10.2.1 Mexican Education The Mexican education system has a commitment to civics education, student-centeredness, and value-based education, because Mexico has been teaching civics education from pre-school years to the end of secondary school for a number of years with a set of goals which include: 1. To encourage students to orient their life projects in a way that is consistent within their rights and responsibilities as Mexican citizens such that they participate in the betterment of society 2. To recognize the need to make life decisions in a responsible manner based on ethical values that respect both human rights and democratic values 3. To understand that all Mexican groups are of equal value and dignity and that in spite of differing customs all Mexican enjoy the same rights 4. To understand and appreciate democracy as a way of life and government Civics education was strengthened as a result of a prominent reform undertaken by Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to address the increasing level of violence in the country. Called La Nueva Escuela Mexicana (The New Mexican School), this reform reinforced and strengthened Mexico’s commitment to civics education, placed greater emphasis on values education, introduced a humanist perspective, and encouraged educators to experiment on introducing innovative student-centered activities. This reform created considerable overlap and synergy with One World’s student-centered, global competence programs.

10  Building Global Competence in Pre-school Settings: One World – A Global Citizenship Education…

In Mexico, pre-school education is recognized as an educational service that aims to improve children’s academic opportunities throughout their lives, particularly for those living in unfavorable socioeconomic conditions. The pre-­ school education policy endorses the need for students to recognize the part they would play in a global community and sees them as the inhabitants of the planet whose preservation is everyone’s responsibility. The philosophy behind pre-school education, as well as that the entire National Education System, is underpinned by the Article 3 of the Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico, which was first drafted in 1917 by stating that the education system must develop “harmoniously all the faculties of the human being and promote in it, at the same time, love of the homeland, respect for human rights and awareness of international solidarity, independence and justice” (Mexico Political Constitution of the United Mexican States 1917, p. 13).

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Mexico) to shape One World’s offerings for Mexico. From Mexico City, One World opened its doors in Acapulco in the state of Guerrero shortly thereafter. One World’s program has met with success in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. That success owes in part to the insightful and innovative Acapulco citizenship supervisor who saw an opportunity to incorporate GCE into the citizenship classes that were being given every week in the schools she supervised. Then she and her colleagues innovated further, taking One World to a pre-school setting for students aged 3–6, whereas originally the program was designed for students aged 8–110. While building up its program in Mexico, One World’s founder who is fluent in Spanish visited Mexico to conduct professional development training sessions. On one such occasion in 2018, Acapulco’s supervisor for pre-school education attended that training session. After the training she inquired as to whether One World had worked with pre-school students. The answer was “no” as the One World program at the time was designed for grades 4–12. However, One World 10.2.2 Mexico’s Educational was eager to support educators in this initiative Innovators and Emergence with pre-school students. The supervisor was of One World Program convinced that pre-school students would be able in Mexico to incorporate One World’s global competence education program into their pre-school program, Over the course of the last 3 years, a number of since pre-school is the developmental stage to committed Mexican educators have adapted the begin teaching values. Her view was that ages One World program to pre-school settings 3–6 are the appropriate ages to begin understandthereby creating a robust and impactful pre-­ ing the importance of values like appreciation of school educational program on GCE in 13 the environment and the SDGs. As children schools in the state of Guerrero. This work is the develop, they construct knowledge based on their result of a terrific North-South partnership interactions in the world (Piaget 1973). They between One World and a group of dedicated make sense of the world through concrete experiMexican educators. These innovative forward-­ ences. At this stage children are learning about thinking educators in the state of Guerrero took the world around them while also moving from a up the charge to start a global competency initia- focus on themselves to learning how to engage tive in pre-school. Prior to this pre-school col- and be part of group. During these formative laboration, One World operated solely in grades 4 years, introducing young learners to life skills through 12. This collaboration created a new that enable them to become problem-solvers and opportunity for One World to move to a younger resourceful is critical. If educators hope to raise a age group. generation of globally proficient individuals, One World started its first operations in building children’s capacity to understand global Mexico City in 2014 working with a professor issues could and should be part of the pre-school from UPN (National Pedagogical University of curriculum.

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At the pre-school education level, Mexico works very hard to help students transition from a self-centered, individually focused world to learning how to become a member of a group with all that entails in terms of self-control and sharing. It was clear to this supervisor that pre-­ school students would be able to incorporate One World’s global competence education program into the pre-school curriculum given the schools’ emphasis on the teaching of socialization, values, and citizenship. Early on in this process, the Acapulco citizenship supervisor, the pre-school education supervisor, and the director of new teacher training for the state of Guerrero traveled to attend One World’s year-end event in Nanjing, China. During that trip, these educators were motivated by seeing the students in China so enthused with their education. The trip further inspired them to share their views that most learning takes place before 7 years old particularly attitudes and values that lead to important concepts like global competence. They returned to Mexico more committed than ever to expand the teaching of global competence and the SDGs at the pre-school level. Following an initial successful implementation of the program at the CENDI school in Acapulco, the One World classroom organized a videoconference call with a private school in Chilpancingo called CEAM.  The educators at CEAM so liked the program that they decided to adopt the One World program as well. When a third supervisor heard and saw the program, she decided she would like to take the One World program to her cluster of schools for the 2019–2020 school year. By then the government of Guerrero had agreed to sponsor a One World professional development training session in August 2019. This third supervisor encouraged schools in her cluster to attend the training along with other pre-school educators interested in ­taking GCE to the pre-school level. As a result, the One World program grew to 13 pre-schools delivering One World’s global competence program. Bringing One World into the schools simply extended the group’s commitment to the

importance of global competence. It is with this mindset that the pre-school program was conceived. The pre-school program took place in the cities of Acapulco and Chilpancingo in the state of Guerrero, Mexico.

10.3 Implementation 10.3.1 Program Components The first attempt at teaching global competence was for Mexican citizenship supervisor to identify schools and teachers to apply One World’s E–C–E award-winning program where teachers Educate for global awareness, Connect students of good character, and Empower students through service learning (see Fig. 10.1). The One World program is designed to bring educators and students from across the globe into a single learning community so that students learn with and from one another. One World has developed a comprehensive GCE curriculum which includes lessons developed by One World educators as well as curated global open-access sources. The curriculum is centered on a robust set of essential lessons that guide core competencies and ensure quality control. The student-centered essential lessons include core values that are often enacted school-­ wide, making global connections with at least one other school and engaging in collaborative sustainability projects like taking part in a UN-sponsored Climate Neutral Now solution project to reduce carbon emissions and promote the SDGs. Every school conducts at least one service-learning project that, where possible, is linked to one or more of the SDGs. Service learning is the cornerstone of One World’s GCE program. Through service learning, One World students are empowered to feel that one person could make a difference in their school, their community, and the world. Examples of One World’s student-centered service projects ranged from school-wide kindness and ­anti-­bullying programs to projects where students partnered with a

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Fig. 10.1 Educational framework of One World

group called Sole Hope to provide 60 Ugandan youth with shoes to help them combat jigger parasites that create painful wounds, to students in New  York who raised monies to send mosquito nets to malaria-ridden communities saving 260 lives, to students from Ciudad Nessa of Mexico City, who gathered plastic bottles converted them into toys and other items to be sold and then used the proceeds to buy school supplies for students of families living in the nearby garbage dump. When one of the young girls was asked what she learned, she replied, “I learned to change the world.” Each of these components work in tandem to support global competence and global citizenship. The three principles that are foundational to One World are as follows: • All human beings share an essential human connection. • Humanity needs new forms of global cooperation if it is going to survive well. • We need to generate respectful, fallible conversations across borders if we are going to understand our complex world.

10.3.2 Mexican Pre-schools Addressing SDGs Through One World Program Socioeconomic status (SES) varied among the pre-schools that have adopted One World’s GCE program. Of the 13 pre-schools that participated in the One World program, two were private and the rest public. In terms of SES, the private schools and one public school were affluent. The remaining schools were considered to be in poverty as defined by Guerrero standards. Teachers in conjunction with the pre-school supervisor began to incorporate the elements of One World. They strongly agreed that the lessons were easily adaptable to young children and wanted students to be exposed to these concepts at an early age. As a result, pre-school teachers delivered One World’s global competence program via clubs in schools. In Mexico, the club format is part of the regular school day, unlike American schools where it is an after-school program or extended day activity. The program served approximately 395 students.

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Once the schools were selected, the teachers want to uphold over the course of the year. As were introduced to foundational elements of the part of that process, the mothers accompanied program and sent the curriculum. One World’s this work supporting the children with the stofounder went to Mexico several times to provide rytelling explaining these values. Once the in-person training. After the initial trainings, One values were chosen, the students created their World offered a differentiated two-tier level of own handprints with values written in the support. The citizenship supervisor provided palms of their hands. Following this activity, local support, while the One World founder prothe students put into practice the value of care vided the second level of support through and love with an altruistic act by visiting a monthly video conferencing and individual “Casa de David” nursing home in the phone calls. Teachers had robust examples of the Renacimiento neighborhood. The entire One World curriculum to support their instrucschool community supported this activity  – tion. They used the One World curriculum, global teachers, parents, and students – by donating webinars, access to global network of schools, clothing, footwear, bags, speakers, sweets, and professional development travel opportuniand fragrances, among other things. These ties to China, the United States, and the United items were delivered by the students and the Kingdom to see One World programs in action. principal of the school and the One World Teachers in the various pre-schools followed the teacher to each of the elderly who live in the One World curriculum and selected between two home. It was yet another example of putting and four SDGs that were incorporated into the the One World ethos into practice. existing pre-school curriculum that became the Centro Educativo Años Maravillosos: At the focus for the year. Teachers decided which eleCentro Educativo Años Maravillosos (CEAM) ments of the program made the most sense to School in Chilpancingo, teachers delivered a their setting. During staff meetings, teachers lesson on fundamental values, through which “cross walked” the curricula to find global constudents recognized the value of love for the nections to what they were already doing. environment in which they live as well as Educators reinforced the concepts of the pre-­ respect for nature and responsibility towards school education program, which were directly nature. As part of this effort, the school develaligned with the SDGs. In this curricular space, oped a new library in a vacant room using students were encouraged to reflect, analyze, diarecycled materials. This effort was fully suplogue, discuss, and take a position around prinported by both parents and teachers. A school ciples and values that ​​ make up an ethical and garden was also built incorporating the fundacivic perspective. One overarching goal was to mental values of cooperation, effort, and promote a peaceful coexistence free of violence responsibility to help students understand the along with the global emphasis. The curriculum skills needed when caring for the plants and incorporated recreational activities and games to vegetables that were planted within the school achieve its goals. garden. A project that worked particularly Some examples of the pre-schools addressing well was One World’s Eco Passport project the SDGs through One World Program include where students in the weeks leading up to the following: Earth Day were encouraged to undertake 10–15 acts over the week to reduce their carMaria Curie Public School: At the Maria Curie bon footprint – things like walking to school Public School, Acapulco, One World’s core or eating no red meat. One World teachers values lesson is central to meet local needs. A encouraged students to build recycled materiteacher worked with students on the core valals into a new school library and other new ues and the students chose the values they school-based facilities.

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Centro de Atención Infantil (CAI) de Acapulco: A kindergarten in Acapulco took on a Service Project entitled: Recycle, Reuse and Reinvent. Students separated the garbage that is generated in the class and lunchrooms into plastic cans that could be recycled. These items were then brought to life by reusing the plastic jars and turning them into flowerpots. Because of the space, small gardens were made with the flowerpots. This activity was rewarding and fostered the love of a plant-life. Tops of lids from other items were also put together and used for counting, classification by color, size and shape, likewise these lids support the students in counting, lottery game to score and play to form towers, and create robots. The students also made preventive posters inviting people not to generate garbage and promote self-care values. The posters lined the walls of the school so that children, teachers, and parents could observe the recycled materials such as magazines, newspapers and used their own drawings. To further support sustainability, the classroom library was brought to life with wooden boxes (huacales) that were painted, and the idea that we could reuse everything was consolidated. These activities empowered the students to take action and demonstrated the importance of recycling to help the environment. This project aligned to the circular economy framework which posits that humans could change the world if “waste is eliminated, resources are circulated, and nature is regenerated” (Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation n.d.). The circular economy describes the impact sustainability efforts have on climate change and highlights the need to slow down the depletion of the world’s natural resources (Ekins et al. 2019). Educators involved in the program indicated that this project developed a great social bond and alliance among the children. They hoped to sow a better future with this small effort that might not be seen now but will be in a future of great strength. A teacher thanked One World for:

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Improving the quality of life of the community via education for the natural world, expanding student opportunities and capacities to see how profitable it is to live with values ​​and protection of the world of which we are part.

Child Development Center: In moving beyond the school setting, the first school in Mexico to adopt One World at the pre-school level, the Child Development Center (CENDI), conducted a service-learning project called “Caring for the Environment.” For this project teachers and children decided to clean the beaches of Acapulco with parents as their partners. One of the goals in clearing the beaches was to protect the turtles who often suffocate with plastic bags as well as fish and marine animals who are threatened from polluting the sea. One student remarked that “the turtles are part of our global community, and it is our responsibility to care for them.” In total 200 people from the CENDI educational community joined this activity. Family engagement was another aspect the teachers and administrators sought to foster. The sustainability classes and projects were particularly important as they enabled Guerrero educators to get parents involved. Indeed, students were guiding and encouraging their parents to adopt recycling practices which had not happened in the past. One point made by Guerrero educators was that securing family involvement at the pre-school level was more robust given the students’ young age and natural involvement of parents during the early school years. During open houses families celebrated the schools’ work to promote sustainability and global connections. For example, when it came time for the students to choose their core values, these values were printed on T-shirts that both the parents and students wore to an event to commemorate the students’ value and painted a rainbow at the entrance of the school and invented a song that they sang to the parents where the theme was to conduct a healthy life free of violence. In addition, families reg-

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ularly received updates about the projects undertaken at the school to promote global awareness with the intention of engaging adults to embrace a global perspective. The involvement of the students’ families met with great success.

10.4.1 Method of Evaluation

This case study assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of the program implemented at early childhood level through the perspectives of teachers, administrators, and parents. A case study explores and depicts a particular setting As mentioned above, news of the success in with a view to advancing knowledge (Cousins the pre-schools caught on quickly, another pre-­ 2006) on a particular issue. With this in mind, school Cien Años Maravillosos from the city we gathered the data from 13 pre-schools that Chimpanzingo learned about the program via implemented the elements of One World provideoconference. The students in both schools gram. A mixed methods approach was used to were extremely enthused to participate in the vid- provide an initial look at the program’s impact. eoconference meeting. After the introductions, A convenience sampling was used to collect students learned about one another and their surveys, interviews, and artifacts. Given that respective communities. Chimpanzingo teachers One World’s program had not been in prewere excited to replicate the activities in their school settings before, we wanted to ascertain own settings and to jointly plan with their stakeholders’ (parents, teachers, and adminisAcapulco counterparts. trators) perceptions and identify effective activities used to promote global competence. Moreover, we hoped to identify elements of 10.4 Evaluation practice to further programming in pre-schools throughout the network. The following quesThe impetus for this study was to assess the tion guided our investigation: What are the impact of bringing One World’s global compe- stakeholders’ perceptions on the program’s tence to the pre-school level. Prior to the under- effectiveness? taking in Mexico, the program only operated in grades 4 through 12. If the initial data provided promising results, a pre-school program could be 10.4.2 Participants further developed. The move to the pre-schools highlighted what could happen when In the study which took place in 13 pre-schools in forward-­ ­ thinking educators are empowered to the state of Guerrero, Mexico, parents, teachers, take charge of the curriculum and create a foun- and administrators from 13 different school setdation for opportunities that serve students. tings were included as the participants. The Moreover, the Mexican educational arena was schools served approximately 395 students. A looking for ways to promote “love of the home- total of 22 teachers are employed at the sites. land, respect for human rights and awareness of Each school has one or two teachers on staff. international solidarity, independence and jus- Most teachers have 5 or more years of pre-school tice” (Constitution of the United Mexican, States experience. School demographics indicate that p. 3). One World’s program created a perfect syn- 77% are under resourced and 23% of the schools ergy of innovation and a response to an educa- in the study are designated as well-resourced and tional need. affluent sites.

10  Building Global Competence in Pre-school Settings: One World – A Global Citizenship Education…

10.4.3 Findings Now in its third year of existence, the partnership yields promising results from families and teachers. Surveys (Appendix 10.1) consisted of five questions on a continuum of 1–5 ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Although surveys were sent to each school, at the time of the data collection, only two schools had parents that completed the surveys yielding (n = 35) return. Data indicated that 100% of families agreed or strongly agreed that their children were developing skills of global competence including taking action towards sustainability and increasing students’ overall awareness of the factors that would impact the whole society. The low rate of participation by the schools could be attributed to circumstances caused by the global pandemic as well as the lack of the access to the Internet. However anecdotal impressions from parent–teacher conferences and school celebrations indicated parents were pleased with schools’ global focus. Going forward the intention is to have full participation from each school within the network. On the teachers’ side, similar results were indicated by teachers (n = 22) who were given the same surveys (Appendix 10.2). 99% of the teachers agreed or strongly agreed with each of the questions posed. During focus groups, it became quite clear that teachers thought that they, as well as their students, benefitted from participating in the program. Teachers’ insights indicated that the elements of global competence flourished within their students and school environment. They ­supported their opinions through the following quotations: Carrying out learning and activities with a global vision of contribution and service is impacting the world (respecting religion, customs and traditions). It has been reflected in the transversality and sustainability that students are achieving, we are working to create awareness about caring for the environment as well as that students have a sense of belonging and make decisions for a global improvement.

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With One World we have a view of the world and of our own personal contribution to live better and how we should act. Through lived experiences, where students raise awareness, assume responsibility and take action to improve their community, impacting the world. Educate in a global vision for a global world.

Finally, the administrators also highlighted the positive impact of the program; conversations with Acapulco’s citizenship supervisor and pre-­ school supervisor provided anecdotal evidence that they were pleased with the outcomes thus far: What we discovered in implementing the program was not only could the program be implemented at the pre-school level, it should and must be implemented at the critical time for student learning. We discovered that the pre-school age is the time to connect students to the environment and to begin to discuss climate change and its impact. We discovered that it is at the pre-school age we need to begin to create not just good Mexican citizens, but good global citizens imbued with global competence.

10.5 Conclusion This is the first year that data was collected. Thus far the anecdotal evidence from families and teachers is positive. Initial data suggests pre-­ school is the perfect time to begin exposing children to a world beyond their local environment. Teachers were encouraged to see children at this young age understand the importance of caring for the environment, showing empathy for others, and beginning to see the interconnectedness of the world. Teachers reported that the children were interested in thinking about ways to help others. Similarly, administrators and parents agreed with the sentiments expressed by teachers. Moreover, the children’s input helped in the selection of projects which, in turn, supported their commitment to their community and the SDGs. Although the general feedback is encouraging, the schools must make an effort to increase

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family participation. As is often the case, school practitioners are more focused on the implementation of a program rather than collecting data to assess its success. A larger sample size is needed to make any generalizations about the program’s impact. However, the findings are transferable to other sites within the One World community that are considering a pre-school implementation. More importantly, the findings were consistent with the curriculum framework and global competence research used to guide One World’s program. The framework outlines five principles of an effective global education program: (1) start with the end in mind, that is, start with GCE as your end goal; (2) leverage improvement networks to design curriculum; (3) learn by doing – don’t be afraid to experiment and innovate; (4) utilize the power of problem-based learning; and (5) find ways to collaborate across diverse teams. The teachers used the framework to guide their practice and organically design the activities and goals that met their local community needs. Implementing the framework was the defining element of practice for the program’ success. It gave the teachers a roadmap that was not prescriptive, and that allowed flexibility based on professional judgment. As recommended by Reimers, One World started with an ambitious mission to create a context to build global competence and to educate global citizens. In turn the Mexican educators embraced One World’s thesis in the work ­undertaken at their pre-schools. Collectively, the schools enacted the five principles. In doing so, educators used the resources of the One World network to design their curriculum; they learned by doing, they used place and problem-based education to organically respond to the SDGs, and they collaborated with students and the community to identify needs and design solutions. The next step for teachers is to measure how an emphasis on global competence influenced other areas of learning and development. The program should also consider the voices of other members of the community who participated in the initiatives. Furthermore, school administra-

tors and One World’s executive team should assess the program’s impact on the surrounding communities. Going forward a comparative case study analysis is recommended to investigate impact at each school.

10.5.1 Opportunities and Challenges The Mexican educators set the stage for pre-­ schools around the world to begin incorporating global competence and global citizenship at an early age. This is the first time in One World’s history that the program was offered at the pre-­ school level; it was initially designed for 4th to 12th grade. Mexico’s educational reform program known as La Nueva Escuela Mexicana helped provide educators tremendous latitude to put in place programs like this. When educators take a leadership stance and give their own time and and effort, innovation happens. Given the outcomes, we could leverage the Mexican success at the pre-school level. Going forward, these schools could serve as dissemination sites and provide training to the network. Clearly an opportunity was created in these schools to move beyond a theoretical framework for global competence to a practical application. One of the principal challenges faced is that education is constructed and implemented at the nation-state level. At least in the United States, few, if any educational systems, are incentivized to build global competence and encourage global citizenship. Now more than ever, global citizenship should be a part of the educational system with a national focus on funding for cross-border initiatives. The events occurring during the pandemic have further reinforced the need for individuals to move beyond their borders and collectively address global issues and problems.

10.5.2 Final Thoughts A small group of dedicated Mexican educators created and implemented a GCE program cen-

10  Building Global Competence in Pre-school Settings: One World – A Global Citizenship Education…

tered on the UN’s 2030 Agenda at the pre-school level. In our evaluation, their success results primarily from these educators’ creativity and initiative as they took advantage of Mexico’s supportive citizenship education context to bring One World’s global competence program into their schools and continuously adapted this global program to their local environment. The key element underlying the success of this project was a cross-border commitment to educating for global competence in an environment where innovation and collaboration were encouraged between several different parties who shared a profound sense of mutual respect and trust built up over time. This catalyst for change was a global educational enrichment program designed by a unique combination of non-­ educators, rich in global experience and professional educators, steeped in educational theory and practice. Looking back at this experience, it seems clear that human agency, coupled with the five fundamental principles essential to Educate for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Reimers 2019), was critical to the success of this project. One World starts with an ambitious end in mind  – educating global citizens. The multiple professional networks that came together in this project clearly leveraged our collective, cross-­ border intelligence to develop the curricula. Moreover, the participants in this project did not wait for the next theory to act; they experimented as a way of creating new knowledge in what we hope will become a large laboratory that fosters continuous experimentation. They provided pre-­school students and parents real opportunities to develop their agency and breadth of skills, something essential to preparing them for the demands of an ever-changing world. The Mexican educators used their background in civic education and pre-school education to adapt the program to the pre-school level. They

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broke new ground in applying pre-school teaching methodologies and concepts to global competence education, such that the program flourished. The local voices of parents, teachers, and administrators were critical to the success of this program in Acapulco. Teachers were encouraged to see children at this young age understand the importance of caring for the environment, showing empathy for others, and beginning to see the interconnectedness of the world. Given the anecdotal evidence from parents and teachers about the positive experiences thus far, the next step for teachers is to measure the impact the global competence has on other areas of learning and development. Their fervor and enthusiasm for global competence education was instrumental in adapting the teaching of global goals to a local context. Their conviction that GCE and the SDGs could be taught at the pre-school level has been born out. Clearly the lesson is that the kinds of global collaborative learning and teaching opportunities that worked so successfully here need to be replicated across the globe. The idea that educators could continue to work in rigid educational silos and hope to meet the educational challenges of today’s world is unrealistic. The project illustrated through the creation of global learning platforms that started with GCE as the end goal brought together diverse teams to leverage our collective human and educational intelligence. Thus, a large laboratory of continuous experimentation that encouraged students and educators to come up with innovative project-based learning solutions was established. We believe the lessons learned here are that in a rapidly globalizing world of exponential change, educators will do well to look for opportunities during the pre-school years and beyond to identify and participate in global learning experiences.

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Appendix My child is investigating the world beyond their immediate community Disagree

Strongly Agree 1

2

3

4

5

My child was encouraged to take action to improve sustainability Disagree

Strongly Agree 1

2

3

4

5

My child is learning to recognize others’ global perspectives Disagree

Strongly Agree 1

2

3

4

5

My child demonstrates curiosity about global issues Disagree

Strongly Agree 1

2

3

4

5

As a result of my child’s participation, I’ve learned more about the SDGs and globalization Disagree

Strongly Agree 1

2

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Appendix 10.1  Parent survey

The students are investigating the world beyond their immediate community Disagree

Strongly Agree 1

2

3

4

5

The students have taken action to improve sustainability Disagree

Strongly Agree 1

2

3

4

5

The students are learning to recognize others’ global perspectives Disagree

Strongly Agree 1

2

3

4

5

The students demonstrate curiosity about global issues Disagree

Strongly Agree 1

2

3

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5

As a result of this project, I’ve learned more about the SDGS and globalization Disagree

Strongly Agree 1

Appendix 10.2  Teacher survey

2

3

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References Asia Society. (n.d.). Putting the world into world-class education: A national imperative and a state and local responsibility. https://asiasociety.org/files/nationalpolicyrecommendations.pdf Boix Mansilla, J., & Jackson, A. (2011). Educating for global competence: Preparing our youth to engage in the world. Asia Society. https://asiasociety.org/files/ book-­globalcompetence.pdf Dewey, J. (1902). The school as social center. The Elementary School Teacher, 3(2), 73–86. https://www. jstor.org/stable/992485 Ekins, P., Domenech, T., Drummond, P., Bleischwitz, R., Hughes, N., & Lotti, L. (2019), “The Circular Economy: What, Why, How and Where”, Background paper for an OECD/EC Workshop on July 5, 2019 within the workshop series “Managing environmental and energy transitions for Paris” Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation. (n.d.). Circular economy introduction: What is a circular economy? September 19, 2021, from https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/ topics/circular-­economy-­introduction/overview OECD (2020), PISA 2018 Results (Volume VI): Are Students Ready to Thrive in an Interconnected World? PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi. org/10.1787/d5f68679-­en. Oxford Martin Commission. (2000). Now for the long term. The report of the Oxford Martin Commission for future generations. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac. uk/downloads/commission/Oxford_Martin_Now for_ the_Long_Term.pdf Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. (1917). Constitution of Mexico. Amended paragraph DOF 06-10-2011. Refurbished and relocated (previously second paragraph) DOF 05-15-2019. Reimers, F. (2009). Educating for global competency. In J.  E. Cohen & M.  B. Malin (Eds.), International

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Perspectives on the Goals of Universal Basic and Secondary Education (pp. 183–203). Routledge. Reimers, F. (2019, 1st Quarter). Educating for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Global Citizenship Review, The Education Issue, 38–41. https://cdn1.sph.harvard. edu/wp-­content/uploads/sites/134/2019/06/Reimers-­ Educating-­for-­the-­Fourth-­Industrial-­Revolution.pdf Reimers, F.  M. (2020). Transforming education to prepare students to invent the future. PSU Research Review, 4(2), pp.  81–91. https://doi.org/10.1108/ PRR-­03-­2020-­0010 Reimers, F. (with Adetunji, A., Ball, A., Bautista, C., Benson, D., Buchbinder, N., Byusa, I., Cui, W., Dhariwal, M., Ding, E., Fuenmayor, C., Howard, K., Kesselman, H., Kinnaird, K., Lee, M., Jiae Lee, S., Lockwood, Q., Miao, X., Martinez Orbegozo, E. F., … Yoshida, C.). (2017). Empowering students to improve the world in sixty lessons. Harvard University Press. Sachs, J. (2008). Commonwealth: Economics for a crowded planet. Penguin Press. Schwab, K. (2017). The fourth industrial revolution. Random House. UN. (2015a). Sustainable Development Goals. http:// w w w. u n . o rg / s u s t a i n a b l e d eve l o p m e n t / n ew s / communications-­material/ UN, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2015b, September 25–27). Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://sdgs. un.org/2030agenda Van Roekel, D. (n.d.). Global competence is a 21st century imperative [Policy Brief]. National Education Association. https://multilingual.madison.k12.wi.us/ files/esl/NEA-­Global-­Competence-­Brief.pdf Welsh, R. O., Swain, W. A. (2020). (Re) defining urban education: A conceptual review and empirical exploration of the definition of urban education. Educational Researcher, 49(2), 90–100.

A Rational View on Irrational Outcomes: Influence of an Intercultural Collaborative Program on Indian Students’ Perspectives

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Martin Dür , Michaela Zint, and Lars Keller

Abstract

Education for Sustainable Development is expected to play a crucial role in the societal transformation toward sustainability. However, these expectations might not be congruent with what can be achieved in reality. For one, education takes place within specific socio-economic structures and pre-conditions. If these are not suitable for a transformation toward sustainability, and if scientific evidence that confirms the need for sustainable solutions and actions is ignored on political level, how realistic can it be to expect students to develop the competences identified by the field of Education for Sustainable Development? To explore associated challenges, this chapter describes ten Indian adolescents’ “quality of life” perspectives before and after participating in an intercultural research and education collaboration along with Austrian peers. The AustrIndia-4QOL initiative’s goal was for students from the Global North and Global South to have the opportunity to conduct research on two SDGs together in order to develop solutions for a M. Dür (*) · M. Zint · L. Keller University College of Teacher Education Tyrol, Innsbruck, Austria e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

more sustainable future. The Indian students’ non- and informal personal experiences during their stay in Austria influenced their perspectives to a far greater extent than the scientific information they acquired as part of the formal workshops.

11.1 Introduction To overcome the grand challenges of the twenty-­ first century (Mertens and Barbian 2015), societal transformation and, thus, far-reaching changes in human thinking and acting are indispensable. Against this backdrop, the international community has committed to the UN’s Agenda 2030, i.e. to reach the 17 Sustainable Development Goals between 2015 and 2030. Today’s children and adolescents will be directly affected by the success or failure of this global initiative, and in turn, their perspectives on what it means to lead a quality life will contribute to the quality of life for all people on our planet. The important role of education in achieving sustainable development was recognized as early as 1992, at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Since then, its role has continued to be emphasized and further strengthened (Cebrián et al. 2020; UNESCO 2016, 2020). What makes Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) tremendously

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_11

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difficult is the fact that the grand challenges of the twenty-first century are extremely complex, interconnected and of global proportion. Therefore, they have no simple or clear-cut solutions (Cebrián et al. 2020; UN 2019; Wals 2015). Sustainable solutions require inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation and need to be culturally appropriate. Negotiations between disparate interests across local to global scales are indispensable. It is therefore essential for young people to acquire the skills necessary for cooperation across national and cultural borders (UNESCO 2017, 2020; UN 2019). Within the project AustrIndia-4QOL (Austria and India for Quality of Life), adolescents from the Day Star School in Manali in India jointly performed research with adolescents from the BRG and BORG Feldkirch in Austria on the connection between quality of life and sustainability as part of an intercultural research-­ education collaboration. This collaboration lasted for more than 2 years and brought together students with highly different sociocultural backgrounds. The project’s goal was to strengthen students’ competencies for “Sustainability Citizenship” (Huckle and Wals 2015; Lenglet and Wals 2016) by supporting them in developing lifestyle strategies for a sustainable future. In addition to collaborating digitally, ten Indian students also had the opportunity to visit their Austrian counterparts for 10 days. This enabled them to take part in face-­to-­face workshops and to experience lifestyles in a new and different cultural environment. Because of the unique experience these ten students had, this article focusses exclusively on the concepts they expressed and on how these conceptualizations changed throughout the program. Before collaborating in person, participating ­ students had the opportunity to choose two sustainability topics they wanted to focus on. Consistent with the SDG5, the students chose “Gender Equality” and closely connected to the SDG8 “Decent Work and Economic Growth”; they also wanted to explore the tensions between economy and ecology. In this chapter, we focus on the challenges the students faced in developing an argumentation structure for discussions concerning

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topics within the context of sustainable development. Results revealed that students had difficulty in reconciling their personal experiences and observations with scientific information. It is important to emphasize that the chapter focusses exclusively on the Indian students’ perspectives. The economic development in emerging countries like India entails substantial changes in the lifestyles of a rising number of people. The success or failure of the SDGs will increasingly depend on whether young people in these countries use their new socio-economic possibilities in a responsible and sustainable way.

11.2 Conceptual Framework 11.2.1 Grand Challenges and SDGs as a Focus of Learning The quality of life for today’s and tomorrow’s children and adolescents will largely depend on their ability to cope with the grand challenges of the twenty-first century (Mertens and Barbian 2015; Reid et  al. 2010; UNESCO 2020). Their lifestyle choices will also influence others’ quality of life and the success of the society’s transformation toward sustainability. Unfortunately, scientific studies show that our current lifestyles are irreversibly changing the environmental conditions of the Holocene in ways that risk the humanity’s continuous development. Far-­ reaching measures to reverse these trends are urgently required (Steffen et al. 2015; UN 2019). By supporting the Agenda 2030, the Member States of the UN have agreed to achieving the 17 SDGs by 2030 (UN 2015). In contrast to the prior eight Millennium Development Goals from 2000 to 2015, education is emphasized to a far greater extent within the framework of the SDGs (Shulla et al. 2020; UNESCO 2017). For one, education is seen as a key to achieve all of ESD (UNESCO 2016). In other words, “sustainable development, if it is going to happen, is going to be a learning process” (UNESCO 2020; Vare and Scott 2007, p.  2). Moreover, education is not restricted to transferring knowledge but as a process integrating knowledge, skills and attitudes. The latter

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requires new pedagogies that focus on learning objectives for this SDG include understanding instead of teaching (Dlouhá et al. 2019). “the concepts of sustained, inclusive and sustainA separate goal, the SDG4 (Quality Education), able economic growth” or how “decoupling of focusses solely on education, with the aim of economic growth from the impacts of natural “ensuring inclusive and equitable quality educa- hazards and environmental degradation” can be tion and promoting lifelong learning opportuni- achieved. Socio-emotional learning objectives ties for all”. According to subordinate goal 4.7, all include the ability “to discuss economic models learners are expected to acquire the knowledge and future visions of economy and society critiand skills they need to promote sustainable devel- cally and to communicate them in public opment by 2030. The latter promotes education spheres”. A sample behavioural learning objecon democracy and human rights to strengthen tive is “to engage with new visions and models of global citizenship, tolerance and social commit- a sustainable, inclusive economy and decent ment, along with sustainable development work” (UNESCO 2017, p. 26). (UNESCO 2020). Similarly, the subordinate goals Despite the high quantity and diversity of the of the other SDGs (e.g. health, economic growth listed learning objectives, however, one of the and employment, sustainable consumption and most crucial questions is whether our society is production and climate change) also refer to the actually prepared to support the comprehensive importance of corresponding education. Not sur- socio-economic transformation necessary for a prisingly, therefore, UNESCO (2017) has defined sustainable future. This would require a willingeight cross-cutting key competencies (i.e. collab- ness to reflect and fundamentally question curoration, critical thinking or integrated problem- rent balances of power, as well as political, solving) which should be strengthened through economic and social systems. The analysis by ESD, along with specific cognitive, socio-­ Huckle and Wals (2015) published as a part of the emotional and behavioural learning objectives for Decade of Education for Sustainable each SDG (UNESCO 2017). Development (2005–2014) documents by the UN There are two SDGs that are directly linked to revealed clear associated deficits. By not considthe scope of this program and selected by the par- ering these questions, ESD runs the risk of supticipants (AustrIndia-4QOL students) as a focus porting “business as usual” rather than the of this collaborative study. urgently needed transformative changes, thus In case of the SDG5 (Gender Equality), cogni- contradicting its own goals (Dlouhá et al. 2019; tive learning objectives address gender equality Huckle and Wals 2015). and discrimination, the basic rights of women and girls and the benefits of full gender equality for the whole society (UNESCO 2017). 11.2.2 Role of Intercultural Associated socio-emotional learning objectives Collaborations in Education include the ability “to recognize and question trafor Sustainable Development ditional perception of gender roles”, “to identify and speak up against all forms of gender Sustainable development challenges often ­discrimination” or “to reflect on their own gender include controversial topics that have no simple identity and gender roles”. The learner’s ability and clear-cut answers (Wals 2015). On the conto “evaluate, participate in and influence decision-­ trary, they tend to consist of socio-ethical dilemmaking about gender equality and participation” mas with inherent value conflicts (Tsai 2018). In or “plan, implement, support and evaluate strate- a pluralistic society, the negotiation of solutions gies for gender equality” are two of several pos- takes place between multiple actors characterized sible behavioural learning objectives (UNESCO by diverging interests, values, perspectives and 2017, p. 20) in support of the SDG5. constructions of reality. Furthermore, solutions The second theme is tied to the SDG8 (Decent cannot be achieved solely domestically but have Work and Economic Growth). Cognitive learning to be considered globally. International collabo-

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rations are therefore a necessity (UNESCO 2017). Such collaborations, in turn, require understanding the role of conflicts and appreciation of diversity for different norms, values, interests and constructions of reality (Wals 2011). For this reason, it is not surprising that mastering collaborations is among the necessary key competencies required to address the complexity of global sustainability challenges (Cörvers et  al. 2016; UNESCO 2017). According to UNESCO (2017, p. 10), collaboration competency includes “the abilities to learn from others; to understand and respect the needs, perspectives and actions of others (empathy); to understand, relate to and be sensitive to others (empathic leadership); to deal with conflicts in a group; and to facilitate collaborative and participatory problem solving”. And yet, when identifying solutions to problems, learners tend not to be able to critically examine their own perspectives and to be satisfied with naive solutions (Miyake 2013). When identifying collaborative solutions with others, individuals learn about different perspectives on a problem and thereby have the opportunity to develop their ideas into more abstract, complex and flexible ones (Miyake 2013). Pluralism and heterogeneity should result in improved learning outcomes than singularity and homogeneity. Sharing and discussing different perspectives openly should enable learners to reconsider their perspectives. Shared learning experiences may therefore have the potential to lay the foundation for improved solutions and thus lead to a more reflective and resilient society (Wals 2011). In the field of ESD, pedagogies that emphasize collaboratively developing solutions seem particularly essential (Siegel et  al. 2018). Partnerships particularly between learners from the Global North and South may have the potential for deep learning through enabling exchange of different worldviews (UNESCO 2017). Discussing socio-ethical dilemmas within a heterogeneous group may strengthen learners’ argumentation and problem-solving competencies (Tsai 2018). During group discussions students may hear varying perspectives, have opportunities to evaluate arguments based on different value systems and learn to find collective

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solutions. In case of sustainability, learners in groups will learn to negotiate the tensions between social, economic and ecological interests. Instead of having correct answers, as called for by prevailing traditional forms of education, socio-ethical dilemmas tend to be open-ended and require critical reflection and judgement (Tsai 2018). However, social cohesion between group members will play a role in how effectively learners will be able to engage in the latter, and if mutual respect, empathy and consideration are missing, learners’ differences may instead become barriers for successful learning about and for sustainability (Wals 2011). This may be particularly true for a collaboration of adolescents between the Global North and South. Numerous studies report a feelings of superiority among individuals from the Global North over those from the Global South (Asbrand 2009; Höhnle 2014; Krogull and Landes-Brenner 2009). This perspective appears grounded in perceptions of the Global South’s economic poverty instead of recognizing its cultural, historical and social wealth (Martin and Griffiths 2012). Donation campaigns for projects in the Global South, which are widespread in school life in the Global North, can exacerbate perceptions of the Global South’s dependency on the Global North or as poor and needy (Andreotti 2011; Asbrand 2009; Bourn 2014; Martin and Griffiths 2012). Disney (2009) speaks in this context of a new form of colonialism in which people in poorer countries are used at school as a resource for learning contents. Moreover, encounters with individuals from other regions of the world do not necessarily lead to a reduction of prejudices or the development of community (Leutwyler and Meierhans 2016; Thomas and Perl 2010). In some instances, a tendency toward an “enlightened nationalism” has been observed. When fears about others are reduced, individuals may emphasize their own national identity (Jones 2014, p. 693). When designing international education collaborations, a central goal must therefore be to ensure students learn as equals (Cook 2013; Disney 2009; Martin and Griffiths 2012; Oxfam 2007; Scridon 2014). Within the context of col-

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laborations between learners from the Global South and the Global North, differently distributed financial resources may be of concern, and therefore, placing all project partners including students on equal footing is important (Krogull and Landes-Brenner 2009). In practice, collaborations between learners from different sociocultural backgrounds represent a great challenge for everyone involved and must be viewed as an ongoing, mutual learning and adaptive improvement process. Consistently reflecting on and addressing inequalities are key to such partnerships (Brendel et al. 2016; Höhnle 2014; Krogull and Landes-Brenner 2009). In summary, international collaborations have tremendous learning potential, including for ESD, but they need to be designed carefully to ensure conditions under which learners with question and adjust their perspectives.

sion based on considering multiple options (Eggert and Bögeholz 2010). Note that these findings are in contrast to widespread rational choice theories suggesting that individuals can discuss socio-scientific issues in rational and evidence-­based ways (Sander and Höttecke 2018; Tsai 2018). In fact, the level of argumentation among students has been found to be low (i.e. they rarely engage in rational decision-making). As a consequence, socio-scientific issues characterized by a high amount of diverging interests and values and/or lacking data that can be used to guide decisions tend to be evaluated mainly based on intuitive schema (Sander and Höttecke 2018). Instead of rational arguments, interwoven sociocultural factors, knowledge, values as well as interactions by the individual with their environment or fellow human beings are likely to shape their personal perspectives and willingness to act sustainably (Siegel et  al. 2018). Personal values and emotional arguments seem to domi11.2.3 Challenge of Decision-Making nate individuals’ decision-making (Sternäng and in Sustainability Issues Lundholm 2012). Individuals’ perspectives also have a high level of stability, further hindering “Contrary to routine decisions such as waste sep- personal development (Sander and Höttecke aration, decision-making situations about socio-­ 2018). scientific issues cannot be solved intuitively or A final characteristic of sustainable developspontaneously only” (Eggert and Bögeholz 2010, ment challenges are the high levels of uncertainty p. 233). This is the case with sustainable develop- that are associated with them. These uncertainties ment challenges that tend to be highly complex, have and continue to lead to inaction, paralysis based in part on underlying inherent value dilem- and/or apathy (Wals 2011). While science may be mas and conflicts. As such, these challenges pose able to reduce some uncertainties, it cannot elimgreat difficulties for learners. Due to the absence inate them, nor does it so quickly enough. of clear-cut scientific answers, the development Moreover, the effects of our current way of life of solutions to sustainability challenges demands and economic activities on the environment and an engagement in argumentation processes, i.e. society cannot be sufficiently understood, nor are the ability to compare and evaluate different there simple, clear, scientifically sound or socially options and the willingness to integrate compet- undisputed solutions to address negative impacts. ing perspectives (Eggert and Bögeholz 2010). Instead, we all have to learn to live with uncerEmpirical research has shown that learners tainty and adopt sustainable lifestyles despite of tend not to draw on scientific information when it (Wals 2011). discussing complex socio-scientific issues. Instead, personal experiences and habits tend to dominate learners’ valuations and justifications, 11.3 The Programme as pre-existing knowledge, which is frequently used to confirm preconceptions, does (Sander During AustrIndia-4QOL, which lasted from and Höttecke 2018). Learners seem to struggle 2015 to 2018, 57 students from the Day Star with applying structured strategies to make deci- School in Manali in Northern India and 46 stu-

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dents from the BRG und BORG Feldkirch in Austria participated as parts of two cohorts, each lasting 1.5 years. The classes were invited to participate in the program by the respective school administrators and teachers introducing the project. The students were not only willing to take part in the collaboration but also agreed to engage in research activities. The whole project followed a moderate constructivist understanding of learning. After an initial phase during which the students introduced their surroundings and way of living by producing short videos with their mobile phones, they jointly designed a questionnaire to assess the quality of life perceptions of the adolescents in their respective regions. Subsequently, they conducted research in both countries with the help of this questionnaire and then exchanged their results. For the next phase of the project, the Indian and Austrian students agreed on two sustainability topics they want to focus on. They chose the topic gender equality (the SDG5  – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and the tension between economy and ecology (the SDG8  – Promote sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all). Accordingly, constructivist learning activities were designed on these topics. According to their interest, small groups of students chose one particular aspect of each of the two sustainability themes (SDG5 and SDG8), developed research questions, conducted review about the current stage of research and evaluated and discussed the results. For this ­purpose, a closed Facebook group was created, and several Skype sessions were conducted. In addition to these digital media exchanges, 10 Indian students travelled to Austria to take part in a 10-day face-to-face collaboration with their project partners who are 22 Austrian students. For all ten Indian students, seven females and three males between 16 and 17 years old, it was their first time abroad. Their families had different Indian religious and social caste backgrounds. Financially, they came from their region’s upper middle class and were able to pay for travel expenses. The Austrian project partners assisted with obtaining the necessary visas. A few additional interested Indian students were not able to

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travel to Austria because they did not have the documents to apply for a passport (e.g. birth certificate). During their stay in Austria, the Indian students were hosted by the families of their Austrian project partners. This reduced their financial costs and made it possible for them to gain direct insights into the lifestyles of these Austrian families. During this week-long collaboration, the Austrian’s students’ regular school schedule was suspended so that they could participate in several 3- to 4-hour workshops. The workshops allowed for active student participation and intensive peer discussions. In small groups, the students worked to collect, discuss and present information on their chosen topics. Several dilemmas were presented (e.g. a discussion of whether a hydroelectric power plant should be built in an ecologic sensible area to produce “clean” energy and to support the economic development in this region) to demonstrate the conflicting interests and values that tend to arise in social decision-making processes. Emphasis was placed on how to develop a more sustainable society based on different points of view. Excursions in the region, involving experts on the respective topics, were also conducted. Immediately before and after the AustrIndia-­ 4QOL, the students were given 10  minutes to write their spontaneous answers to the question: “What does the term ‘Quality of Life’ mean to you?” Next, they completed a questionnaire with a mix of open- and closed-ended questions about the topic “quality of life” with the help of the online platform SoSci Survey (www.soscisurvey. de). Before and after the face-to-face workshop, the participating students were asked to write about 200 words for each of the two sustainability topics chosen by the students in response to guiding questions. Individual interviews with the Indian students were also conducted toward the end of their time in Austria. As part of these informal interviews, the students were asked about their experiences of the workshops and their overall stay in Austria in general by relating their interpretations to the topics of gender equality and the tensions between economy and ecology in Austria compared to India. The specific

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questions out of the questionnaire evaluated for the purpose of this study as well as guiding questions for the two texts to write and for the informal interviews are listed in the Appendix. The open-ended data from both the questionnaires and the interviews with the ten Indian students who were able to travel to Austria were analysed using MAXQDA through qualitative content analysis criteria and processes (Mayring 2015). In this framework, this chapter reports on the effectiveness of an intercultural face-to-face collaboration on the quality of life perspectives of the ten Indian students. We acknowledge our sample’s small size and encourage readers to take this limitation into account.

11.4 Results and Discussion 11.4.1 Changes in Students’ Perspectives on Gender Inequality At the beginning and end of the week-long collaborative workshops, the students were asked to write a short text according two guiding questions: (a) What personal experiences have you had within your family, your circle of friends and in your personal environment regarding the issue of gender inequality? (b) How do you evaluate the situation in your own country in general regarding the issue of gender inequality? Comparing the pre- and post-tests, the analyses of the given answers revealed an increase in the awareness of the gender inequality. In the post-test, nine out of ten students (compared to seven students in the pre-test) described specific forms of gender inequality they experience in their personal lives. On the other hand, their perspectives on gender inequality in India got worse in the post-test, with eight students (compared to three students in the pre-test) describing India as a country in which gender inequality is manifest. In addition to these quantitative assessments, we turn to how students expressed their perspectives on the topics. Before doing so, however, it is important to note that students received a lot of statistics and other information on gender

inequality in both India and Austria. Special attention was paid to presenting gender equity in Austria being far from satisfactory as Austria is one of the European countries with the highest gender pay gap (Statistik Austria 2021). This information, however, was only referred to by one student, and they only addressed it indirectly: Student 4: “I think that after this project I learnt one thing: That not only India is a country which has a gender gap, but also other countries of the world have the same problem. We should take out something together so that there would be gender equality in the whole”.

Within the texts written by the students according the two guiding questions, the students mainly concentrated on comparing the personal experiences regarding gender equality in India with their experiences they gained during their stay in Austria: Student 8: “In Austria no one judges you on what are you wearing, but in India people judge women on basis of what they wear”. Student 9: “In my region the only main task of girls is to get married, but here in Austria girls first prefer the jobs and after they get married”. Student 6: “Here my hostess is the one who every day goes out for her hobbies like singing, dancing, and acting but we in our place are not allowed to go out in the night for something, generally it is not safe”.

Apart from their personal experiences, they also shared observations about their (female) project partners’ lives. In particular, observed differences in job market opportunities made a big impression: Student 3: “Here I was able to see some of the women going for work and men staying at home. This was quite different for me because it is very rare in India. In Austria, we can find woman conductors, waitresses, cashiers”. Student 8: “I saw some women driving the bus but in India no woman drives a bus because they are not allowed to do so. It is considered as shame”.

An exclusive focus on personal observations carries the risk of simplifying the actual situation. For example, although scientific data were shared during the workshops, information that was not

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directly experienced or observed (such as Austria’s gender pay gap) was not mentioned in the students’ responses. Instead, personal impressions and experiences dominated how they perceived and described gender inequality in Austria and India.

11.4.2 Changes in Students’ Perspectives on Economy-­ Ecology Tension The AustrIndia-4QOL program engaged adolescents from both Austria, one of the economically wealthiest countries worldwide, and India, one of the economically disadvantaged countries. The disparity between the two countries’ ecological footprint was also obvious since Austria’s footprint is 6.0 global hectare, whereas India’s footprint is much lower at 1.2 global hectare (Global Footprint Network 2021). Against this background, we examine the effects of the Indian students’ stay in Austria on their perspectives of the tensions between the economy and ecology. For the second theme, the participants were asked the following guiding questions both at the beginning and end of the week-long collaborative workshops: (a) In his speech alongside the climate conference in Paris 2015, the Indian Prime Minister Modi stressed that the poor countries cannot be blamed for the actual climate change and their pursuit of economic development must not be neglected. How do you personally evaluate this statement? (b) Are there environmental problems due to economic development which have a direct negative impact on your personal life? If yes, specify the impact! The analyses of the students’ responses indicated that after the workshop seven students (compared to five in the pre-test) agreed with the statement of the Indian Prime Minister. Eight of the ten students (compared to five in the pre-test) stressed the high negative impacts on the environment of economically developed countries,

and four students explicitly demanded better economic possibilities for their own country. When asked during the interviews, however, which country is more ecologically sustainable, India or Austria, nine students describe the way of life and economy in Austria as more sustainable. Strikingly, the differences in the country’s ecological footprints, which were addressed and discussed in great detail during the workshops, were not mentioned by the students. Instead, they shared their personal experiences and perspectives of both lifestyles. For example, both during the interviews and as a response to an open-ended question in the post-test questionnaire (List at least five terms, dates and/or facts, which come to your mind spontaneously if you think about Austria), the students emphasized Austria’s cleanliness. They tended to do so in connection with Austria’s waste management system, which they held in high regarded. Interviewer: “After your experiences here in Austria: How do you value the situation in Austria compared to the situation in India regarding our topic in the last workshop [tension between economy and ecology]?” Student 5: “I think in India as well nowadays the prime minister is doing something to make the place clean, but I think that will not work out because it’s too late. Austria is very much I think forward in case of the cleanliness”. Interviewer: “So you have the feeling that Austria is more sustainable?” Student 5: “Yes, Yes”. Student 4: “The mentality of the people here [in Austria] is that they don’t throw away waste, they have to separate. I think it’s very important for us to separate waste”.

Only one of the ten students articulated a more nuanced perspective: Student 10: “I don’t think they harm the environment but because of the high standard of living indirectly they pollute and consume more than an Indian”.

When the interviewer specifically prompted students about Austria’s ecological footprint, however, students were able to recall and express what they had learned.

11  A Rational View on Irrational Outcomes: Influence of an Intercultural Collaborative Program on Indian… 183 Interviewer: “You describe Austria as more sustainable than India. But do you remember the ecological footprint of Austria?” Student 1: “Yes, we were told something about 5”. Interviewer: “6.0 for Austria and 1.2 in India. So, isn’t India much more ecologically sustainable than Austria?” Student 2: “Yes, but we [in India] are not so developed”. Student 1: “Yes, because if we were developed, our footprint would be much higher than in Austria”.

In addition to cleanliness, seven students also raised the topic of technology in their open-ended questionnaire responses, and all of them did so during the interviews. Student 5: “Advanced technology which we haven’t yet seen in India”.

Closer examination revealed diverse evaluations of the technology the students observed. On the one hand, four students recognized the benefit of technology that supports sustainability. On the other hand, three students recognized potential limitations of technologies and their use within the context of sustainability. Student 5: “I think Austria is more a developed place than India and I think there is more sustainable living in Austria because of the technology they using to treat the water and protect the environment and save trees, plant trees and the cleanliness is much more effective in Austria”. Student 10: “I saw Austria, how developed it is, how balanced it is, but it also has some negative points too. They are so influenced by higher standard of living that the people don’t know what it used to be like 100  years back. They use up so many resources to make a good life, they have all the facilities, but they are not using them”.

In addition to answering open-ended questions as part of the pre-post questionnaires, students also responded to a set of closed-ended items about sustainable behaviours. These data revealed that six out of the ten Indian students expressed a lower willingness to buy organic products, eat less meat, save electricity or use consumer goods for a longer time period in the post-test compared to the pre-test. As such, their direct experience with one of the highest living

standards worldwide appeared to cause a decline in willingness to act sustainably. One reason for this decline may be that most students rated the impact of their lifestyles on the planet as low. In response to the question “In how far do you consider your consumption habits a burden for other human beings on our planet?”, eight students described the impact of their clothing purchases as “absolutely no burden” or as a “low burden” in the post-test. Six students similarly chose one of these two categories to describe the impact of their mobility as well as eating habits. In contrast, their “waste disposal” (eight students) and “energy consumption” (six students) were seen as problematic (high burden and extraordinary high burden) by the majority of the students. When asked “What aspects do you consider by going shopping?” and provided with fours response options, seven students indicated that fashion trends and specific brands were of greater importance than ecological considerations. This was surprising, because earlier in the questionnaire all students agreed (“agree rather”, “agree” or “totally agree”) with the statement “It is important for me that my way of living does not reduce the quality of life for future generations”. Moreover, when asked to select 3 from a list of 12 important global challenges for a high quality of life on earth, “Sustainability and Climate Change” as well as the “High Amount of Resource Consumption” were identified as two of the greatest challenges. This response was consistent with seven students’ agreement (“agree rather”, “agree” or “totally agree”) that “the planet’s ecological sustainability has already been exceeded”. These ecological considerations were, however, not on top of their minds with regard to their quality of life. When asked to choose the five most important factors to their quality of life (from a list of 18 options), only two students considered environmental factors as important. Moreover, none mentioned ecological concerns in response to the open-ended question, “What does the term ‘quality of life’ mean to you?” Still, students emphasized that they understood the difference between the concepts “standard of living” and “quality of life”.

184 Student 10: “By seeing all this, I got to differentiate between standard of living and quality of life”.

And yet, when asked “What does the term ‘quality of life’ mean to you?”, students did not write about important concepts such as inter- and intra-­generational justice (Hauff and Jörg 2017; Holden et  al. 2017; Robeyns and van der Veen 2007) or about how sustainable lifestyles can support individuals’ quality of life (Costanza et  al. 2007; Spangenberg and Lorek 2003). Similarly, a sustainable lifestyle was often equated with a decreasing quality of life or vice versa that a higher quality of life leads to a greater ecological burden. Eight students, for example, agreed (“rather agreed”, “agreed” and “totally agreed”) with a statement regarding the latter. It was clear that their perspectives of the quality of life were closely connected to their standard of living and therefore the economic development of their region. If students believe that actions in support of a sustainable future have negative impacts on their quality of life, it is unlikely that they will be willing to engage in the behaviours consistent with that of active “sustainability citizens” (Huckle and Wals 2015; Lenglet and Wals 2016). It is disappointing that even the students’ own research completed during the workshops, along with intensive intercultural interactions with peers, turned out to be insufficient in this regard. Even more disappointing was that their willingness to act sustainably appeared to even decline slightly over the course of the project. Additionally, our more in-depth analyses show additionally that students’ perspectives on the tension between economy and ecology contain a number of contradictions. The students clearly had difficulty with such complex dilemmas and to draw on the scientific information that they were introduced to as a result of the project.

11.5 Conclusion and Implications As part of the project AustrIndia-4QOL, adolescents from Austria and India formed small groups and chose one particular aspect as well as for “gender equality” as for the “tension between

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economy and ecology” according to their interest and frequently discussed their results with the corresponding group from the other country via Facebook. This chapter does not discuss those research results but focusses on the effect this research had on the perspectives of the ten Indian students who had the opportunity to take part in face-to-face workshops in Austria. Despite their collaborative learning experiences with Austrian students during which they collected relevant scientific information and had the opportunity to discuss scientific information with experts, scientific information did not seem to have much of an impact. In fact, their perspectives mainly reflected the subjective experiences students had during their stay in Austria, through the lens of their North Indian background. With regard to gender equality, the professional activities of Austrian women that they observe and the lifestyle of their female project partners dominated their perspectives. This is despite the fact that the workshops focussed on and discussed that Austria is one of the countries in Europe with a particularly large gender pay gap and one where women are underrepresented in management positions in business and politics. Instead of this information, however, students’ personal observations increased their awareness of gender inequality in their home country of India. Overall, it appears that their experiences in Austria as a result of AustrIndia-4QOL resulted in a more negative perspective of gender inequality in India. As a result of drawing on almost exclusively on their personal observations, the students did not incorporate scientific information (i.e. information not immediately visible and/or part of their experience). This was the case with regard to the topic of gender inequality as well as the tension between ecology and economy. While the students appreciated Austria’s “cleanliness” and waste management process, the high ecological footprint of countries like Austria or low footprint of countries like India was not taken into account. The high standard of living the Indian students experienced while with their host families was rarely viewed critically from an ecological point of view.

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The intensive focus on the tension between economy and ecology increased the Indian students’ awareness of the importance of ecological aspects for quality of life. Despite awareness that not only “having” but also “loving” and “being” (Allardt 1993) is key to a high quality of life, “having” strongly dominated their concepts of a good life. Experiencing Austria’s high standard of living may explain why students’ increased in their demand for economic development opportunities for countries like India and why their own willingness to act sustainably decreased from pre- to post-test (Dür and Keller 2019). It was also clear that better technological development in their own country is partly being seen as a prerequisite for sustainable development. Because of our study’s small sample size of ten Indian students, findings cannot be generalized and must be interpreted with caution. Nonetheless, it was clear that these particular students drew primarily on their personal experiences rather than scientific information we shared during the workshops. While we do not have evidence as to why the resulting contradictions and irrationalities occurred, it may be the “business as usual” reality of society which has a profound influence on the way we think and express ourselves. How we shared the scientific information may also have played a role. For example, in addition to focussing on individuals, a greater emphasis on socio-economic structures may also have been helpful (Kopnina 2020). It should be noted that even analyses of the UN documents on the SDGs reveal contradictions and irrationalities. On the one hand, having “economic growth” as a suitable SDG must be questioned in light of the extent to which planetary boundaries have already been exceeded (Helne and Hirvilammi 2015; Holden et al. 2017; Kopnina 2020). In fact, should economic development not be limited to ensure basic needs on a global level? On the other hand, references are made to inadequate quantification of numerous indicators. Of the 17 goals’ 169 targets, an analysis by the International Council for Science and the International Social Science Council (ICSU and ISSC 2015, p. 6) described only 29% as well developed, 54% to be specified in more detail and

17% to be fundamentally revised. The lack of quantification is particularly concerning within the context of ecology-oriented goals (the SDGs 12–15) where frames such as “support” or “strengthen” are common. As such, they have been described as “vague, weak or meaningless” in contrast to the economy-oriented goals (the SDGs 1–6) which have specific quantified targets (Holden et al. 2017, p. 213; Nilsson and Costanza 2015). The SDGs have therefore been criticized as a step backwards compared to the prior Millennium Development Goals (Griggs et  al. 2013; Hajer et al. 2015; Holden et al. 2017; ICSU and ISSC 2015). Considering that it was not possible for the UN to develop a theoretical framework that addresses the tensions between ecology and the economy, among others, it is perhaps not surprising that the students who participated in our study were not able to identify solutions for societal dilemmas by drawing on scientific information. The goal of AustrIndia-4QOL was to support students’ ability to develop skills needed to address sustainability development challenges by drawing on scientific information. To achieve this goal, the project relied on constructivist pedagogies including intercultural research collaborations and discussions with peers. Although students developed greater awareness of the topics that were addressed, contradictions remained. Instead of recognizing, for example, the need for reducing the global carbon footprint, as was one of AustrIndia-4QOL’s goals, the Indian students experience with the high standard of living in Austria resulted in declines in their willingness to act consistent with sustainable ways of life. As such, non- and informal learning played a much stronger role in this case than students’ formal learning experiences. After all, prior life experiences, attitudes reflecting their cultural and social backgrounds, values they had acquired before they arrived and the individual experiences they had during their stay in a totally different country were stronger than the constructivist ESD setting we were able to offer. Providing key lessons or future directions for intercultural collaborative programs is thus very hard to give, yet the potential to create irrational outcomes in the most

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rational of approaches is always present in ESD, and, eventually, it must not be interpreted as a negative project outcome overall. Trying to find new pathways into an unknown future, discussing sustainability and translating insights into real-life scenarios with unexpected outcomes are all part of ESD. Non- and informal learning experiences should therefore always be taken into account in ESD, especially with regard to contradictions that exist when it comes to sustainable development. No one should be discouraged based on our experience but continue on the untrodden path of sustainable development.

the following question: What does the term “quality of life” mean for you? 2. Out of the following list, choose the five factors which are most important for your personal quality of life. Social justice Work/job Education Financial security Leisure time/hobbies Civic participation Intact environment Family/friends Gender equality Landscape Material possessions/luxury goods (TV, own car) Access to nature Personal freedom Health Social security Security against terrorism, crime Religion Protection against natural hazards Housing situation 3. List at least five terms, dates and/or facts, which come to your mind spontaneously if you think about Austria. 4. Which statements are correct according to your opinion?

Appendix Appendix 11.1  Considered questions for an insight into the Indian students’ perspectives

(A) Pre- and post-test conducted at the beginning and at the end of the AustrIndia-4QOL The questionnaire was conducted with the online platform SoSci Survey (www.soscisurvey.de). 1. Freewriting: During the next 10 minutes, write down your spontaneous ideas about

It is important for me that my way of living does not reduce the quality of life for future generations The planet’s ecological sustainability has already been exceeded An increase in the life quality of people in less developed countries would lead to a higher environmental burden

Totally disagree O

Disagree O

Rather disagree Rather agree O O

Agree O

Totally agree O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

11  A Rational View on Irrational Outcomes: Influence of an Intercultural Collaborative Program on Indian… 187

5. In your opinion, which are the three most important global challenges (listed in randomized order) for the quality of life on earth? Sustainable development and climate change Clean water High amount of resource consumption Democratization

Rich-poor gap Health issues Peace and conflict Status of woman Transnational organized crime Energy Science and technology Migration

6. In how far do you consider your consumption habits a burden for other human beings on our planet?

Mobility habits Eating habits Leisure behaviour Water consumption Waste disposal Clothes

Absolutely no burden O O O O O O O

Low burden O O O O O O O

High burden O O O O O O O

Extraordinary high burden O O O O O O O

7. For my shopping I consider… Price Ecological criteria (route of transportation, type of production) Quality The latest brands and fashion trends

Never O O

Seldom O O

Rather seldom O O

Rather often O O

Often O O

With every shopping O O

O O

O O

O O

O O

O O

O O

8. For my future life, I could consider ….

Buying more food out of organic farming although it may cost more Eating less meat to protect the environment Saving electricity Using clothes and other consumption goods for a longer period of time and wait with new acquisitions to save resources

Not an option at all O

Rather not imaginable O

Rather imaginable O

Imaginable O

I want to or I already realize it consequently O

O

O

O

O

O

O O

O O

O O

O O

O O

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(B) Pre- and post-test conducted at the beginning and at the end of the face-to-face workshops in Austria 1. Write a text with 200 words according to the following guiding questions: (a) What personal experiences have you had within your family, your circle of friends, and in your personal environment regarding the issue of gender inequality? (b) How do you evaluate the situation in your own country in general regarding the issue of gender inequality? 2. Write a text with 200 words according to the following guiding questions: (a) In his speech alongside the climate conference in Paris 2015 the Indian Prime Minister Modi stressed that the poor countries cannot be blamed for the actual climate change and their pursuit of economic development must not be neglected. How do you personally evaluate this statement? (b) Are there environmental problems due to economic development which have a direct negative impact on your personal life? If yes, specify the impact! ( C) Informal interview conducted with the Indian students at the end of their stay in Austria 1. After your experiences here in Austria: How do you value the situation in Austria compared to the situation in India regarding our topic in the last workshop [tension between economy and ecology]? 2. Is the lifestyle in India or in Austria more sustainable according to your valuation?

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Environmental Education Networks for Social Empowerment and Global Citizenship: A Case of Non-formal Education From Mexico

12

Rosalba Thomas Muñoz

Abstract

One practical way of adopting a vision for social empowerment and global citizenship is through citizen networks where groups, collectives, or associations of people meet in order to carry out actions to promote their objectives related to human rights, environmental protection, sustainability, or any other topic of social or public interest. This chapter aims to publicize the role of the Mexican citizen networks, as a space of non-formal environmental education, in promoting social empowerment and global citizenship. Through an evaluative study that shows the didactic strategies for social empowerment which has been managed by these citizen networks, the

chapter discusses how these networks conceive global citizenship and identifies the fundamental competencies to develop this citizenship. The analysis is guided through a structured questionnaire sent through the Google platform to 33 members of the environmental educators’ networks across the country. The categories of the analysis are framed around three specific objectives to identify: (a) what didactic strategies are created for environmental education; (b) how these networks conceive a global citizenship; and (c) what competencies are necessary to allow the development of global citizenship in similar contexts.

12.1 Introduction

Education is much more than an entry to the job market. It has the power to shape a sustainable future and better world. Education policies should promote peace, mutual respect and environmental care. Statement by the UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon, 26 September 2012.

R. T. Muñoz (*) University of Colima, Colima, Mexico e-mail: [email protected]

A socio-environmental context is a fundamental element to locate our understanding of volatile and variable social processes that a society experiences because of current environmental issues. As in all societies, environmental problems in Mexico also require a position taken by education through a resilient approach, which should focus on how capable educational institutions are in addressing the consequences and developing the capacities of not only the students at school but also the entire community. To do this, we

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_12

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need to know what the contextual conditions are and how these conditions would encourage citizens to adopt a vision for social empowerment and global citizenship. One practical way of doing this is through citizen networks. Citizen networks are mainly groups, collectives, or associations of people who meet in order to carry out actions to promote their objectives related to human rights, environmental protection, sustainability, global citizenship, or any other topic of social or public interest. The network concept has a polysemic character and is not limited only to the virtual networks that have been so widely used in recent years. Networks have an important tradition in social anthropology where they have been conceived as a field with empowerment strategies or as tools for the analysis of empirical relationships (Sánchez 2014). Technically, networks involve nodes and links between people or groups. For Girardo (2010), citizen networks represent NGOs, civil associations, independent groups, student groups, and foundations that promote environmental education (EE) and sustainability projects in Mexico. In this process of socialization, interactions arise between private initiatives, the state, public and educational institutions, and civil society, giving rise to the formation of citizen networks. The exclusion of face-to-face work as an official measure in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic has not been an impediment for citizen networks to maintain their purposes and means, placing solidarity and social empowerment above all else. Therefore, it is important to recover not only their mission and motivations but also the strategies, methods, and practices they have been committed to and working independently with. As a good sample of citizen networks, the antecedents of Mexican EE are presented in this chapter through a case of nonformal education. Delving into the concept of global citizenship, the chapter first presents the main characteristics of citizen networks in Mexico and then highlights the achievements of these networks in conscious participation.

R. T. Muñoz

12.1.1 Global Citizenship Education One of the discourses that is born with an ethical component of and has a special resemblance to EE is global citizenship. The impetus that has been given to this discourse reinforces the tasks of EE as it also focuses its bases on the development of the community and the people. Global Citizenship Education (GCE), in any case, “constitutes an original, necessary and forward-­ looking mental framework, which seems to be indispensable to education in times of globalization and a global society” (Wintersteiner et  al. 2015:3). This Global Education First Initiative launched in 2012 by the UN Secretary-General includes GCE “as one of its three priorities, along with access and quality of education” (UNESCO 2020: 1). For Bachelet (2016) global citizenship proposes a social and political model that respects the dignity of people, in which each person is aware of their membership to a local and global community and is actively engaged in the construction of a more sustainable world by contributing to eradicating injustice and poverty and adopting the SDGs. However, this discourse is not fashion; in any case, GCE is a framing paradigm which encapsulates how education can develop the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes learners need for securing a world which is more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure, and sustainable (Wintersteiner et  al. 2015: 7). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Brown 2016:120) recognizes “the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, as minimum standards for social understanding and a founding root of the current global citizens, which is understood as a type of citizenship that transcends the national space, withdraws from a specific identity and/or territorial scope and embraces a global ethics in constant development”.

12  Environmental Education Networks for Social Empowerment and Global Citizenship: A Case…

According to Wintersteiner (2015: 4), GCE: • Responds to globalization by expanding the concept of civic education to global society • Adopts the ethical values of peace education and human rights education. • Draws upon the “global society” perspective provided by global education, which not only investigates global topics but more specifically merges the global and the local into the “glocal.” • Combines mainly these three pedagogical fields through the concept of global citizenship in terms of political participation as such, but particularly on a global scale. GCE is increasingly gaining recognition as an umbrella term that includes other pedagogies like peace education, intercultural learning, global education, and citizenship education (UNESCO 2020). In the new world order, it seeks to broaden its scope and exercise a democratizing role in public decisions that may negatively affect the basic aspects of our societies, especially minorities and vulnerable groups. The struggles of global citizens appear without boundaries or geographical distinctions and go beyond traditional spheres of power (Bachelet 2016). Their objective is to defend human dignity and promote social responsibility or international solidarity, in which tolerance, inclusion, and recognition of diversity occupy a central place not only in its discourse but also in its practice, which is reflected in the multiplicity of actors involved in actions regarding global citizenship. These concepts have acted as guidelines to generate a precedent for the international commitment to implementing a global development agenda. This agenda is composed of three elements that take sustainability as a model, namely, economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection. For this, some articulated work between society and decision-makers is necessary. This alliance would facilitate the development of global ethics based on universal responsibility and solidarity. Additionally, cooperation must be inclusive by enriching itself from regional differences and universal experiences.

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This ethical outlook allows us to face many of the conflicts of our world. Simultaneously, it is ­necessary to develop innovative and democratic actions that allow us to successfully overcome the challenges that exceed us and that threaten the ways of life that we know.

12.1.2 Environmental Education According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA 2021), EE is a process that enables people to “explore environmental issues, participate in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment. As a result, people develop a deeper understanding of environmental problems and have the skills to make informed and responsible decisions,” but for this a change in economic and social paradigms is essential, transcending the economic pressure on resources and redefining the symbolic and cultural value of nature: that education is free from ideological control or manipulation and allows generating spaces for the liberation of the human being, supporting people in their understanding and decision-­making in the face of the world in which they live. EE is an interdisciplinary and heterogeneous pedagogical field that seeks to generate processes for the construction of environmental knowledge, values, ​​and practices (Semerjian et al. I. 2004). It is concentrated in three modalities: formal, non-­ formal, and informal education (Sauvé 2005). Formal education is immersed in the traditional educational system and organized in a transversal curriculum. Informal education occurs spontaneously, is unplanned, and does not respond to institutional pedagogical structures. Non-­ formaleducation is based on the transmission of knowledge, skills, and values outside ​​ the traditional educational system; its purpose is not to achieve certifications or degrees. According to Novo (2005), the characteristics of non-formalEE include contextualized education, interdisciplinary processes, participatory awareness, flexibility in the role of the teacher, stimulating relationships between education and work, multiple resources and pathways for learning, and creation

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solidarity networks. For Castells, environmental NGOs tend to integrate into social networks, which allow them to be more effective (2000, 155, cited in Villadiego-Lorduy 2017:136–137). However, for these organizations to continue promoting non-formalEE, reassessing the relationship of human beings with nature is paramount, thus contributing to the development toward global citizenship.

12.2 Context Mexico is part of the group of nations that have great biodiversity and multiculturalism. It has almost 70% of the world’s diversity of amphibian, reptile, bird, mammalian, and vascular plant species (CONABIO 2020). However, Mexico has suffered sustained processes of degradation and loss of natural and cultural heritage so important that even those ecosystems that were kept safe already show clear signs of alteration due to political, social, and economic conflicts. According to the organization Global Witness (2021), and several media like BBC (BBC 2019), The New  York Times (Aridjis 2020), El País (Torrado et  al. 2020), and Expansión (2021), Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for defenders of the environment, problems that are reflected in the large number of conflicts associated with the management of natural resources: the change of land use, community forest management, megaprojects with high economic impact, loss of biodiversity, mining, and fracking, among others. However, of all the challenges facing the Mexican state and society, there is one that is vital: reducing citizen apathy, especially in cities. According to recent reports from Sectorial Program of Environment and Natural Resources 2020–2024 of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT 2021), it has been the lack of legal mechanisms to promote participation, as well as the weaknesses of the existing instruments, that have impaired society to participate in the elaboration and implementation of public environmental policies of a more efficient way.

R. T. Muñoz

In the 1990s, the presence of Mexican EE had a great boost. However, from the first decade of the twenty-first century, it was weakened both in national policies and in local initiatives: a problem pointed out by specialists when highlighting the complexity, interdisciplinary, and transversality required by the educational-environmental processes (Reyes y Castro 2017). During this period, SEMARNAT, through the Center for Education and Training for Sustainable Development (CECADESU), promoted the Green School program, so that basic education schools would promote environmental management actions with the participation of the educational community. The lines of action of the program were environmental education, solid waste management, saving and efficient use of water, efficiency in electricity consumption, reduction and efficient use of electricity consumption, and community environmental actions, all of which were carried out with an instrumental approach. In Mexico, the weaknesses of EE are also the weaknesses of education in general, because despite the critical pedagogies that have emerged in recent decades, the Mexican school is permeated by the instrumental approach with a biased and productivist vision, where the highest values ​​are effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity, but not the formation of a conscious citizenry. The crisis of EE in Mexico is the crisis of its schools. Non-formal EE in Mexico is sustained mainly through civil society organizations with a great variety of forms, ideological profiles, legal and organizational frameworks that do not have lucrative functions, or political or religious proselytism. Its objective is “to carry out a series of activities aimed at satisfying human needs” (Girardo 2010: 14–15). In this process, different interactions arise between for-profit and non-­ profit organizations, the state, and civil society, giving rise to the formation of social and environmental networks. One of the programs that aims to reconcile development with ethics and sustainability is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mexico sets certain goals to monitor 169 of the 232 indi-

12  Environmental Education Networks for Social Empowerment and Global Citizenship: A Case…

cators proposed in the 2030 Agenda (INEGI 2015), but despite this, the national goals pay little to change the reality of the country, where women, indigenous peoples, and people living in poverty are the most lagging and vulnerable groups. To guide the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs, the Federal Government’s proposal focuses on seven strategic axes:

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grams will be kept up to date with a science-­ based education view promoting human development and sustainability.

Nevertheless, none of these goals have an operational strategy. At the initiative of the German agency GIZ Mexico and the Presidency of the Republic, the Network of Solutions for Sustainable Development was created in 2019, 1. Leave no one behind, leave no one out. coordinated by the National Autonomous Assume education as a human right, not only University of Mexico and the Monterrey Institute to develop instrumental capacities. of Technology and Higher Studies. This network 2. Promote and expand early childhood education. mobilizes scientific and technological expertise Expand preschool and initial education ser- to promote practical solutions for the implemenvices, in order to make them obligatory for all. tation of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. 3. Ensure the excellence of education, levels and They created a bank of projects with university modalities of the National Educational initiatives that they promote with technical and/ System. Have a relevant curricular offer dif- or financial support for their execution. There ferentiated by regions. are currently 23 projects in the categories of edu 4. Incorporate education for sustainable devel- cation, environmental, social management, and opment in the study plans and programs of all security. educational levels. An alliance was established between the 5. Promote teacher professionalization as a long-­ Ministry of Education, the Education for Sharing term comprehensive process. Strengthen pub- organization, the STEAM (Science, Technology, lic teacher training schools and institutions. Engineering, Art, and Math) Movement, the 6. Analyze and understand the causes of school Cemex company, and the UNESCO Mexico dropout. The analysis will be promoted con- Office, to promote education for sustainability sidering factors such as poverty and lack of through the implementation of the SDG16, seekresources, distance from schools, adolescent ing to contribute with inclusive, participatory, and early pregnancy, and domestic violence, and representative actions at the local level, to among others. fulfil the Federal Government’s axis Leave no 7. Deepen the link between the education sector one behind. and the labor market. Promote the corresponIn Mexico, the proposals of the SDGs navidence between the needs of the labor market gate at a rhetorical level, and their eminently and vocational training. technical approach fails to analyze the causes of the Mexican socio-environmental crisis, As the main goals, the Federal Government since the use of natural resources and the design (2019: 40) intends to guarantee, by the year 2030, of environmental public policies do not conthat: sider the ethical dimension of the problem. There is an ideological and political back• All girls, boys, adolescents, and young people ground to the 2030 Agenda in Mexico, hiding will have access to compulsory and free edu- the fact that we live in an urban-agro-industrial cation from preschool to higher education. model that is predatory of natural resources, • Teachers will be fundamental agents of change socially unjust, and inequitable in the distribuin educational processes and contribute to tion of wealth. This can be clearly seen in the social transformation. National Strategy for the Implementation of the • Teachers’ professionalization and training 2030 Agenda, where EE does not have a relewill be promoted and the study plans and pro- vant role.

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12.3 The Study As a research method of the study, survey was adopted and the data were collected through a structured questionnaire designed through the Google platform and sent to 33 Mexican networks of environmental educators. The intended data were obtained from the official directory of networks of environmental educators of CECADESU and guided by the following questions: 1. What strategies are used by the citizen networks to communicate the SDGs? 2. How do citizen networks conceive the concept of global citizenship? 3. What competencies for global citizenship are being developed from these networks? Table 12.1 shows the categories of analysis and variables that guided the analysis of the research. The results were analyzed by means of quantitative and qualitative discourse analysis, and the data were organized according to the theoretical framework proposed above.

12.4 Results Out of 33 networks that responded to the invitation to participate in the study, 22 responses came from the female members and 11 from the male members, concentrated in ages between 31 and 50 years. In relation to the year of formation of these networks, it is striking that they are relatively young, only two of them were created before 1990, and the most recent ones were so after 2020. The average creation was around 2010. The following illustration highlights the origin of the networks (Fig. 12.1).

12.4.1 Strategies to Communicate SDGs The networks consider themselves as promoters of the aims of EE, they recognize the official discourse of the SDGs, but only some have managed

Table 12.1  Questionnaire items and categories Categories Knowledge of SDGs

Items Recognize the SDGs as an international campaign to promote sustainable development

Identify any of the 17 SDGs

Strategies for communicating SDGs

Conceptualization of global citizenship

Identify the relationship between your NGO and the SDGs Carry out activities to promote the SDGs Identify the communicative foundations of your activities to promote the SDGs Evaluate the results of your activities to promote the SDGs Identify the concept of global citizenship

Evaluative scale Yes/No

Yes/No. Which one(s): Yes/No

Yes/No. What activities: Yes/No. Which one(s):

Yes/No. How: Open answer:

What is your definition of global citizenship? What are the actions you take to promote global citizenship?

Open answer:

Competences associated with the concept of global citizenship

Open answer:

Open answer:

to land activities toward their goals. They do not have a work plan in which SDGs are openly promoted, but when they reflect on the didactic strategies they have made, they do show linkage. The categories into which the strategies were grouped are described below. • To promote citizens’ participation: The networks actively participate in the councils, consultations, and official evaluations of both government and formal and informal educa-

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Fig. 12.1  Geographical representativeness of the study

tional organizations regarding land use, water management, and updating of norms and laws, among others. • To ensure media and social dissemination: The members of the networks seek to position environmental and sustainability issues in the media, social networks, and websites, among others, with which they promote their actions and seek to expand the members of their groups. This is one of the strategies mostly used by the networks, especially in the last months of confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • To motivate learning: Use of digital platforms to share information; attend conferences, courses, and workshops; answer questions directly; and send bibliographic materials, among others. • To promotecritical thinking: They organize academic activities, such as workshops, conferences, talks, and field trips, which are also the preferred way to promote ties and collaboration nodes among members.

• To promote community dialogue: These focus on supporting rural communities primarily through the management of resources: water, soil, and sustainable technologies mainly. • To strengthen nodes and social ties: One of the activities most promoted by the networks is the organization of reforestation, recycling, and river and beach cleaning brigades and the creation of commemorative campaigns and events and public events that also allow them to publicize the network in the community. The following graph shows some actions to motivate learning (Fig. 12.2). According to the theoretical framework, the formation of a global citizenship indirectly represents one of the goals of the Mexican environmental educator networks, but to achieve this, they consider that critical thinking must be promoted. The strategies networks use to achieve this are described below (Fig. 12.3). The Mexican networks coincide with the search for social empowerment, the need to raise

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Fig. 12.2  Actions to motivate learning

Fig. 12.3  Activities to promote critical thinking

awareness in the population, the creation of nodes of solidarity, the promotion of responsibility, the commitment to social transformation, and the improvement of vulnerable communities. Therefore, they were asked about the alternatives they use to achieve it. The responses were grouped in Table 12.2. Even though all strategies prioritize working with subjects more than with methods, for the Mexican networks, the continuous training of their members, the practice of their reflec-

tions, and the creation of links with the communities are important, that is, in practice, the formation of a global citizenship that, according to the context, must be guided by the conditions and needs of the country. Of the actions carried out by the networks directly in relation to the SDGs, the following were identified (Table 12.3): It was a surprise to find that the Mexican networks continue to use the Earth Charter program. Since 2000, this Declaration of Principles has

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Table 12.2  Actions for social empowerment Capacity expansion Build autonomy and independence in actions with communities

Carrying out actions Evaluate and monitor the activities that are carried out

Creation of social ties Involve neighbors in network activities

Promote individual awareness

Know the environment of the region and its biodiversity

Seek the satisfaction of the population with whom they work

Reinforce what is learned

Find a continuous job

Share information with members

Organize days of cleaning, art, and painting Organize festivals, forums, and conferences Promote proximity to the community on environmental issues and their effects on quality of life Promote the realization of family gardens

Participate in municipal and state environmental education councils Promote environmental culture in communities Promote environmental education in communities Promote the principle of joint responsibility in actions

Show the economic, environmental, and social impacts of networking Train members on issues of quality, environmental management, safety, and occupational health Train teachers or donation of items to collection centers, generation of teaching material Rescuing public spaces

Seek constant work with the neighborhoods in the collection of plastics, reforestation, cleaning common areas

Promote work with the youth sector in alliance with other organizations Disseminate the actions of the network in the media

Table 12.3  Actions related to SDGs Actions Multidisciplinary activities related to watershed management Reduce waste and pollution and educate people Positive actions to conserve nature

SDGs #6. Clean water and sanitation

EE topics to improve the quality of life

#3. Good health and well-being

Regenerative agriculture and livestock

#2. No poverty

Peace, environment, education, values Workshops on climate change

#16. Peace, justice and strong institutions #4. Quality education #13. Climate action

Design educational projects on the 2030 Agenda

#4. Quality education

Workshops for the generation of food free of agrochemicals, responsible consumption, and the empowerment of women

#2 No poverty #12. Responsible production and consumption #5 Gender equality

promoted a global movement toward a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world (Earth Charter Commission 2021). Although this statement precedes the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, it basically focuses on the promotion of values.

#12. Responsible production and consumption #15. Life and land

12.4.2 Conceptualization of Global Citizenship Regarding the concept of global citizenship, 22 of the 33 networks identified the concept, 5 of

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them had never heard it, and another 5 were not sure. However, all of them were able to describe it with a brainstorming session that highlighted the link with values ​​and the search for well-being as the main objective. Some outstanding values​​ were responsibility in the face of the global emergency, respect for local and global actions, awareness of the environment, community collaboration, and respect and recognition of biodiversity and sociocultural diversity, among others. The discourse of the networks in relation to global citizenship is mainly linked to the dimension of identity, to the environmental emergency, and to world governance  – aspects that represent a link with sustainability and the SDGs due to their character of civil and ethical belonging. However, there were other discursive threads that also highlighted a relationship with the adaptation to the current conditions of the ecosystem, to the supranational community through the slogan “think local, act global” created at the Earth Summit in 1992. Some networks offered their own definition of global citizenship, a valuable contribution of this chapter that is expected to be useful to readers from other countries. “Political condition that transcends physical and cultural borders to work for common principles and causes such as the preservation of nature, peace and democracy, the end of hunger and poverty” (Movimiento de Colibríes de Guanajuato) (Guanajuato, network created in 2015). “Person from planet earth who has rights and obligations, also implying intergenerational equity” (Red Mexicana de Cuencas) (CDMX, Morelia, network created in 2007). “It is the awareness that we are a connected world” (Comunidad Educativa Monarca) (Nayarit, network created in 2019). “Being a global citizen presupposes a supra-state community or the world understood as a community where one of the main values ​​is collaboration and the search for a solution to each of the great problems facing humanity” (Sociedad Ecologista Hidalguense) (Hidalgo, network created since 1999). “Social and political model in which each person is aware of their belonging to a local and global community and is actively committed to building a more just and sustainable world” (Red Ciclo Ambiental) (State of Mexico, network created in 2021).

R. T. Muñoz “Community and international collaboration based on the principles of the common good, from the respect and recognition of biodiversity and sociocultural diversity” (Grupo Ecologista “La Promesa”) (CDMX, network created in 2014). “It is the status that would allow any inhabitant of this planet to live in conditions of equality, justice and equity” (OXXO Award for Values and ​​ Ecology) (Chihuahua, network created in 1987).

The interdisciplinary quality that the networks associate with the concept of global citizenship is highlighted, because, although they focus on the creation of identity values to ​​ co-exist in a world without borders, as some network members said, they also highlight the need to associate the term with democracy and sustainability as models that motivate social transformation.

12.4.3 Competencies for Global Citizenship Although the participants were not asked to define a competence, the research instrument allowed us to identify some components of competencies that have been organized by authors such as, McLagan (1997, cited in Navío 2001), Le Boterf (1998, cited in Navío 2001), Navío (2001), and Thomas (2011), among others, in three types of knowledge: conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal. For instance: “A competence is the ability to act efficiently, effectively and satisfactorily on some aspect of personal, social, natural or symbolic reality. Each competence is thus understood as the integration of three types of knowledge: conceptual (knowing), procedural (knowing how to do) and attitudinal (being)” (Pinto 1999: 14).

Thus, the information was organized as follows (Table 12.4). However, the description of a competence cannot be limited to a list of knowledge or procedures because the subject who issues it and the context in which it is situated must also be considered. The concept of competence designates a dynamic and not static reality (Le Boterf 1998); therefore, to be competent is to set the competence in motion. The competition as such is empty, if not for the context.

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Table 12.4  Global citizenship competencies Conceptual knowledge Deep knowledge of social and environmental problems

Procedural knowledge Communication skills to inform or transmit knowledge to citizens

Knowledge of natural resources

Organizational skills to be able to bring together the largest number of citizens around common objectives Communication and social interaction

Human rights ecology, sowing and care of the land Socio-environmental complexity Ecology and climate change Sustainability

Skills to communicate with local and global communities Adaptation to the global environment and ecosystem conditions Analysis of reality

Attitudinal knowledge Respect, commitment, constancy, consistency, critical thinking, common sense, efficiency, continuous preparation, and a vocation for service Solidarity, critical thinking, empathy, collaborative work Be critical about the responsibilities that we as individuals have Citizen responsibility, tolerance Be reflective about the processes established in terms of teaching education mechanisms Trust others to establish strong links of change in community processes

Table 12.5  Capacities and contexts of actions Capabilities                                    Contexts of action Self-management of environmental training and culture In contexts of school and social crisis Manage information for decision-making Understand and develop strategies to achieve human well-being, inclusion, and sustainability

In times of social, economic, and political uncertainty Faced with situations of uncertainty and social and economic instability

Work openly, inclusively, and collaboratively

In search of job stability or search for innovation in learning In situations of change and search for social stability In situations of negotiation of actions to start programs, projects, or personal or community decisions In institutional contexts

Link the relationship between information and action Communicate effectively and efficiently in relation to today’s complex issues Be able to generate and/or participate in multidisciplinary and intersectoral alliances to achieve the SDGs Recognize the SDGs, actions, and programs of local governments Design public policies with recognition of diversity

In public, social, or environmental policy contexts

Be able to motivate or promote ecological literacy

As teachers of the formal, non-formal, and informal system of environmental education

In Mexico, the context that most attends or prioritizes global citizenship are rural communities, due to the environmental problems mentioned in the previous sections. Although it consists of urban populations who have been most informed about global citizenship, an example of the capacities and contexts identified in this study was listed in Table 12.5. Competencies are defined by Cinterfor/Oit as “the real capacity to achieve an objective or a result in a given context” (1995 cited in Thomas

In public, social, or environmental policy contexts

2011: 57), so it is important to remember that the essence of environment education is fed in a scenario of liberation of the individual and of empathy between communities. In the context of this civilizational paradigm shift, the text coordinated by Jacques Delors, Education contains a treasure, highlights the need to learn to be and learn to live together, accompanied by learning to learn and learning to do. These four pillars of education are the ethical scenario that guides this study.

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12.5 Conclusion

R. T. Muñoz

water care, and recycling, but in other cases the use of innovative methods reveals their selfOne of the pressing tasks is to promote collective management and commitment to the tasks of work and exchanges of networks with institu- their networks. tions, in order to respond to social, political, ecoThis study supports creativity to implement nomic, environmental, and institutional needs EE strategies that could also promote global citidemanded by the current context around the zenship, but it is important to highlight the role of world. This task requires the participation of all government as a leader in the search for social sectors, where new forms of social and institu- well-being and sustainability. It cannot be forgottional co-responsibility can converge that seek to ten that despite the commitment of citizens, they transform actions, behaviors, knowledge, values, must be accompanied by policies that prioritize a thoughts, and reflections of citizens, for a better range of values toward ​​ sustainability, because relationship with the environment. today, this is a necessary practice of the global It is interesting to note how confusing it was citizen. EE is a tool for social empowerment, but for the study participants to understand and han- the key instrument is the values that ​​ are shared by dle the large number of concepts and speeches all these homologous discourses. that have been issued in recent decades by The Mexican example is important because it International Agencies such as the UN, the recognizes as its main characteristic social adapUNEnvironment Programme (UNEP), the Food tation to any development model. A project and Agriculture Organization (FAO), or the UN adapted to the context and to civilizational emerEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization gencies must start from the defense of life, build(UNESCO), in relation to the search for a better ing a new science linked to reality that generates quality of life: sustainable development, global new forms of knowledge. citizenship, the SDGs, the Agenda 2030, and so From a critical environmental theory standon. The idea of ​​well-being is associated with all point, it is necessary to rethink the pedagogical of them, but the specific characteristics motivate proposals, to recognize human multidimensionpeople’s disinterest because it implies ality and emphasize that the possibility of being complexity. happy is not subject to univocal schemes. EE is Although the official measures of social dis- called to propose a different civilizational and tancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic do not humanity project, to promote a political formaallow face-to-face work, the training and recre- tion that encourages broad citizen participation in ational activities of the networks have generated the construction of new realities, starting from a other types of social ties and interests: a self-­ deep review of the development model and artictaught training of knowledge, the international- ulating with other expressions that seek to transization of training environmental, overcoming the form not only education but also reality. physical limitations, and being able to collaborate It is important to note that beyond official govwith international networks, among others. ernment programs, it is important to know that Without forgetting the success of previous pro- civil society decisions can overcome the chalgrams such as Escuela Verde, the continuity of lenges of organization, motivation, training, and projects started before the pandemic, it’s neces- commitment required to exercise global citizensary to support the creation of new programs that ship. Hence, this chapter highlights the work of consider the current context and emergencies. the Mexican networks of environmental educaThe Mexican networks are an example of tors who have achieved what even the governresilience, because even though institutional EE ment has not been able to. has been in decline, they have not fallen into The Mexican educational system requires that apathy and continue to work with their own its institutions transform and base their programs means and methods. Sometimes they only con- and plans with a rationality oriented toward sussider popular topics such as climate change, tainability, through flexible curricula that favor

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citizen participation, according to regional needs and contexts. It is urgent to design and operate teacher training and updating programs that promote social empowerment and global citizenship.

References Aridjis, H. (2020, February 3). En Mëxico te matan por defender la naturaleza. The New  York Times, p. Opinión. Bachelet, M. (2016, july 21). Crónica ONU. Retrieved from United Nations site: https://www.un.org/es/chronicle/ article/ciudadania-­global-­una-­fuerza-­nueva-­y-­vital BBC. (2019, july 30). Los países en los que matan a más ambientalistas en el mundo y el terrivle récord de América Latina. BBC, p. BBC News World. Brown, G. (2016). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the 21st Century: A Living Document in a Changing World. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. CONABIO. (2020). Sexto Informe Nacional de México al Convenio sobre Diversidad Biológica. México: Semarnat. EPA. (2021, october 25). Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/ education/what-­environmental-­education Expansion. (2021, septiembre 13). Colombia y México son los países donde más se asesinan a defensores del ambiente. Expansión, p. International. Girardo, C. (2010). El trabajo y sus peculiaridades en las organizaciones de la sociedad civil en México. México: El Colegio Mexiquense. Global, W. (2021). Última línea en defensa. England: Global Witness. INEGI. (2015, june 01). Report of the Inter-Institutional and Expert Group on SDG Indicators. Retrieved from https://www.inegi.org.mx/eventos/2017/genero/ doc/p_EnriqueOrdaz.pdf International, E. C. (2021, october 13). The Earth Charter. Retrieved from https://earthcharter.org/ Navío, G. (2001). Las competencias del formador de formación continua. Análisis de los programas de formación de formadores. Tesis doctoral no publicada.

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Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Barcelona. Barcelona: 653 p. Novo, M. (2005). Educación ambiental y educación no formal: dos realidades que se realimentan. Revista de Educación (338), pp. 145-166. Pinto Cueto, L. (1999). Currículo por competencias: necesidad de una nueva escuela. . TAREA No. 43, 10-17. Reyes Ruíz, J.; Castro Rosales, E. (2017). México y el decenio de la educación para el desarrollo sustentable de la UNESCO. In COMIE, Compendio del Congreso Nacional de Investigación Educativa (p. November). S.L.P.: COMIE. Sánchez Barreto, R. (2014). Redes ambientales y turismo en el Parque Nacional Nevado de Toluca. Perspectiva teórico-metodológica desde los sistemas complejos. México: Tesis doctoral, Facultad de Turismo,UAEM. Sauvé, L. (2005). Una cartografía de corrientes de educación ambiental. In M. C. Sato, A pesquisa em educação ambiental: cartografias (p.  22). Porto Alegre: Artmed. SEMARNAT. (2021, junio 26). Biblioteca SEMARNAT. Retrieved from https://biblioteca.semarnat.gob.mx/ janium/Documentos/Ciga/agenda/DOFsr/148.pdf Semerjian, L.; El-Fadel, M.;Zurayk, I. (2004). Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Education. Journal of Proffessional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 173-181. Thomas, R. (2011). Educación ambiental y para la sustentabilidad orientada al cambio y la innovación en educación superior. Colima: Universidad de Colima. Torrado, S., Betim, F., Salindas, C. (2020, july 29). Colombia, Brasil y México encabezan la lista negra de asesinatos de ecologistas. El País. UNESCO. (2020, October). The ABCs Of Global Citizenship Education. Retrieved from https://aspnet. unesco.org/en-­us/Documents/The%20ABCs.pdf Villadiego-Lorduy, J.; Huffman-Schwocho, D.; Guerrero Gómez, S.; Cortecero-Bossio, A. (2017). Base pedagógica para generar un modelo no formal de educación ambiental. Luna Azul (44), 316-333. Wintersteiner, W; Grobbauer, H.; Diendorfer, G.; Reitmair-Juárez S. (2015). Global Citizenship Education. Citizenship Education for Globalizing Societies. Klagenfurt, Salzburg, Vienna: Austrian Commission for UNESCO.

Incorporating Education for Sustainable Development Into Teachers’ Continuous Professional Development Through Critical Environmental Agency

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Lacey D. Huffling , Heather C. Scott, and Sydney Rushing

Abstract

Educational reforms contend that to build vested student interest in sustainability issues, students need enhanced sustainability literacy skills. We believe that the connection between Education for Sustainable Development and public change in behavior and action will become more prevalent when students are afforded personal community-based connections to the environment. In this chapter, we discuss how the framework of Critical Environmental Agency could be used to align this personal connection with Education for Sustainable Development. We present a case study of a teacher professional development program as an example of how this alignment was strengthened, which led to enhanced content and pedagogical practices.  The program was designed for middle school and high school science teachers from rural school districts in geographic regions whose watersheds flowed to the Gulf of Mexico. The challenges L. D. Huffling (*) · H. C. Scott · S. Rushing Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

experienced by rural science teachers presented in this case study, though less severe, nod to the similar experiences of teachers of the Global South where perspectives of educators and learners need to be heard and valued. The findings from this study lead us to shift the way we plan for Continuous Professional Development experiences and work to encourage implementation in rural classrooms.

13.1 Introduction The purpose of education has a long and debated history, and education agencies, be they local, regional, national, or international, have their own goals and agendas in terms of what curriculum is privileged, taught, and implemented. One such educational agenda is Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which is different in that it goes beyond the acquisition and use of scientific knowledge and necessary skills associated with the environmental sciences to encourage behavioral changes and actions stimulated by Environmental Education (EE). Rather, it uses multiple disciplines and values to develop a more interconnected and sustainability-aware public, leading to a less degraded natural world and a

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_13

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more equitable global society (Nolet 2009). With the complexity of socio-ecological issues the world faces (Di Minin et al. 2021; Grimm et al. 2008; Hirt et  al. 2021; Wilson and Fox 2021; Vitousek et al. 1997), the integration of ESD into teacher education and development activities is of paramount importance. However, few countries have a national mandate for embedding ESD into teacher preparation programs (Evans et  al. 2017), and national standards for practicing teachers also do not have an emphasis or requirement for ESD. Thus, it appears that even though ESD is needed, its inclusion within teacher education and development programs is left mostly to individual institutions and instructors to take upon themselves (Evans et al. 2017). We define ESD as “teaching and learning collective problem-solving skills to address critical environmental, economic, and social issues” (Santone et  al. 2014) with the ultimate goal of learners being able to “develop the necessary knowledge, understanding, skills, values, capabilities and dispositions to respond to the complex socio-ecological issues of the 21st century” (Evans et  al. 2017, p.  406).  Given the need for ESD in teacher education (Leichet et al. 2018; Nolet 2009; Warren et al. 2014), we propose the use of Critical Environmental Agency (CEA), a conceptual framework developed for EE, as a means to embed ESD within Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programs for practicing teachers. In this chapter, we first explore the origin and development of CEA. Next, we demonstrate how CEA aligns with ESD. Then, we present a case study of using CEA to design and implement an immersive CPD summer program for middle school and high schoolscience teachers. Our case study resulted from the first year of our grant-funded professional development opportunity  – Okefenokee: Understanding Real-world Relevance through Suwannee Watershed Assessmentand Monitoring Project (Our2Swamp; NAS Grant #2000009821) – to monitor local watershed conditions and examine impacts on the Gulf of Mexico. The focus of our research was to expand and broaden the understanding of how teachers, who teach historically underrepresented youth in low socioeconomic rural areas in our state, come to see themselves as

L. D. Huffling et al.

people who care about creating a more just world for their students and their communities. In this context, we retroactively examine how the CPD program aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN2015) and explore the meanings that our participants attributed to the program in terms of the embedded SDGs. Finally, we discuss possible implications this study could have for those implementing ESD in teacher education and development programs and how CEA might inform international ESD work; however, we acknowledge that the conversation of how to integrate ESD mostly comes from a global north perspective of which we are part (Nagendra 2018). For ESD to advance, we believe everyone is needed at the “global table” to bring about the UN’s sustainable goal for quality education (the SDG4) for all.

13.1.1 Critical Environmental Agency CEA is a conceptual framework that was developed to use with EE to deepen critical environmental literacy (Huffling 2015; Huffling and Scott 2021) and builds upon Critical Science Agency, a former conceptual framework used in science education examining critical science literacy development (Tan et al. 2012). It is predicated upon two overarching ideas: (1) that people’s lives belong inEE, thus broadening its practices, and (2) EEenriches people’s lives by empowering them with knowledge and skills that lead them to opportunities for CEA. In addition, CEA makes place explicit, by exposing decolonization (the changing nature of the land and its inhabitants based upon human use and disturbance of the ecosystem) and enabling re-­inhabitation (learning to sustainably live with all inhabitants of the ecosystem) (Greenwood 2012). This, in turn, enables people to make decisions about and act on local environmental issues. The five principles of CEA are as follows: (a) Gain a deep understanding of the disciplines that inform EE (Calabrese Barton and Tan 2008)

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(b) Identify themselves as experts in one or more realms associated with EE (Calabrese Barton and Tan 2008) (c) Gain a deep understanding of place, leading to a critical consciousness of place (Greenwood 2012) (d) Demonstrate behaviors, actions, and/or agency to consider, discuss, and/or act on environmental issues (NAAEE 2011) (e) Use EE as a foundation for individual and/or community change to what they envision as more just (Calabrese Barton and Tan 2008). Though we present CEA’s principles separately, CEA is not linear nor do the principles develop within a specific sequence. Rather it is multidirectional, interconnected, and fluid. CEA is both iterative and generative in that a person is constantly reflecting upon and modifying her identity and knowledge base. As her knowledge base expands, her expertise and influence grow, which affords more access to social and cultural capital. In addition, CEA assumes a place-based curriculum. The value of land and sustainable resources resonates with people who both utilize and understand the use of water or land and the impacts that limited or lost resources make. CEA affords people the opportunity to make place explicit (Principle c) and highly valued. For example, student concern for limited resources is stronger for students who have personal connections to a place or resource. Therefore, immersing students into the environment is critical, as they learn to recognize local organisms as well as the direct impact a changing habitat could have on these organisms. Naturally occurring rhythms of seasons, such as migration patterns or plant life cycles, are lost on students whose personal place is removed from nature. Thus, as understanding of place transforms, one is able to consider the benefits and drawbacks of individual and collective actions in that place. These ­reflections cumulate together to further help her develop, articulate, justify, and then act upon what she sees to be as a just and equitable place for all. Thus, using CEA in curriculum development and/or research enables her to consider questions such as the following: Whose views are

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being privileged? Whose views are being silenced? How are lived experiences being leveraged? How are they constrained? What types of agency are enabled for individuals? What types are constrained? How is the local community being portrayed? What voices are missing? Though CEA was originally designed with critical environmental literacy in mind, we believe it could also be utilized in regard to sustainability literacy development. In this regard, we have mapped the five principles of CEA to Nolet’s (2009) sustainability literacy, UNESCO’s Learning Objectives for teachers to promote ESD (Leicht et  al. 2018), and Warren et  al.’s (2014) Sustainability Education Framework (SEF) for teachers (see Fig. 13.1). We selected these three resources as they not only emphasize but also consider teacher education to be part of the solution for achieving local and global sustainability. Nolet (2009) presented nine themes for sustainability literacy in his analytic essay that examined current sustainability discourse through the lens of teacher preparation. UNESCO’s learning objectives for teachers also emphasize sustainability as Leicht et al. (2018) state: “For teachers to be adequately prepared to facilitate ESD, they must develop key sustainability competencies, including knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, motivation and commitment” (p.  55). Finally, Sustainability Education Framework considers sustainability literacy for teachers through the four lenses of futures, values, systems, and strategic thinking. By mapping these three distinct yet complementary references to CEA, we demonstrate how the principles of CEA align with and support sustainability goals for teachers. Given this, the research question we addressed with our case study was: How does a CPD program developed using CEA aid in the incorporation of ESD into teachers’ professional development?

13.2 The Case: Our2Swamp 13.2.1 Context School systems represented by this study are rural, in frequently underfunded school districts

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Fig. 13.1  CEA principles aligned to sustainability frameworks for ESD integration in teacher education

that also struggle to find certified teachers at all grade levels across content areas. In addition, other struggles that they experience are limited access to higher education for the faculty, lack of Internet access for students outside of school, and underrepresentation in science funding both for resources in the classroom and for funded grant opportunities as opposed to urban areas (Beckman and Gallo 2015).  The state’s Adopt-a-Stream database, which contains an extensive long-range data source, includes very little data reported for most of these rural areas over time. Okefenokee: Understanding Real-world Relevance through Suwannee Watershed Assessmentand Monitoring Project (Our2Swamp) started as a vision to inform local communities through teacher education and development activities about the health and resilience of local watersheds as well as predict the impact that upstream water health could have on downstream communities. As we developed the CPD program on watershed ecology, we made connections through citizen science to other data sources and

as well the teachers’ lived experiences to engage them with the content. Our2Swamp recruited middle grade and secondary science teachers from rural school districts in geographic regions whose watersheds flowed to the Gulf of Mexico. A weeklong, immersive, professional development experience was planned onsite in the Okefenokee Swamp in South Georgia.  During this workshop, place-­ based activities were modeled for teachers to learn the environmental content and practice skills to take back to their own classrooms. At the end of the week, the teacher participants presented their school site plans of implementation to describe how their students would engage with the environment, collect and analyze data, and make plans to inform their communities. We designed the Our2Swamp program using the five principles of CEA (see Fig. 13.2). For Principle a, we provided opportunities for our participants to delve into scientific content connected to water quality chemistry, bacterial monitoring, macroinvertebrates, coastal plain

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Fig. 13.2  Our2Swamp program mapped to CEA principles

food webs, fire ecology, and human impacts on water quality and usage. To aid our participants’ science identity work (Principle b), we embedded opportunities for our participants to see themselves as scientists through data collection, reporting, and analysis. We also had discussions reflecting upon how content learned could be integrated into classrooms, which provided moments for them to engage and further develop their teacher identities. We attempted to infuse Principle c (critical consciousness of place) by immersing the participants in the Okefenokee Swamp. We also utilized local guides to hopefully help the participants situate further within the sociocultural context of the place. We also tried to use a Photovoice (Wang and Burris 1997) assignment to help the participants unpack their understanding of place in regard to their local communities, and with this purpose the participants shared their photographs and their meanings throughout the week. The schoolyard plans the participants developed and presented were

connected to Principle d as an actionable way to introduce their students to their local watersheds and issues surrounding its health and resilience. Finally, in our discussions throughout the week and, in particular, with regard to the participants’ Photovoice and schoolyard presentations, we all shared our hopes, dreams, and visions of more equitable and just opportunities for students and communities to learn and engage their lived experiences to positively impact and sustain their local watershed’s health.

13.2.2 Participants In order to be considered for the CPD program, the participants filled out an online application. The project team scored the application using a rubric that gave preference to those from areas with historically underrepresented populations in science and/or in a region that drained to the Gulf of Mexico. Nineteen participants, of which 17

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were from rural school districts and 2 were from urban areas, were selected.  Four of the participants taught in middle grades (grades 6–8) and the other 15 taught in high school (grades 9–12). Thus, our sample selection was purposeful, given we screened and invited the participants based upon the criteria set forth in our grant application.

13.2.3 Data Collection and Analysis Data collection was iterative and ongoing throughout the CPD program, including the orientation days prior to the summer weeklong workshop. Data sources included pre-/post-­ science content assessment, pre-/post-watershed mapping assessment, pre-/post-teacher environmental identity surveys, Adopt-a-Stream tests, videos of whole group discussions, Photovoice homework assignments, schoolyard project plans, and individual semistructured interviews conducted at the conclusion of the CPD program using a predesigned interview protocol. In our previous study, we analyzed these data sources for evidence of teacher CEA development (Huffling and Scott 2021); however, for this case study, we focused our data analysis on our CPD program and the individual transcribed interviews. First, we identified the SDGs that were the most pertinent and apparent in our curriculum document (SDG4, Quality Education; SDG6, Clean Water and Sanitation; SDG14, Life Below Water; SDG15, Life on Land; and SDG17, Partnerships for the Goals). Then, we used Dedoose software to individually code our interviews with the participants for the SDGs (Table 13.1). Finally, we took our prior coding for CEA (Huffling and Scott 2021) and examined how these codes intersected with the codes of the SDGs.

13.3 Findings 13.3.1 Our2Swamp Program and SDGs In our mapping exercise, we examined the contents, activities, and scientific projects that our

Table 13.1  Identified SDGs and definitions used for coding Identified SDGs SDG4: Quality Education

SDG6: Clean Water and Sanitation SDG14: Life below Water SDG15: Life on Land SDG17: Partnerships for Goals

Data cues in transcripts Discuss creating learning environments that enhance education for students (e.g., encouraging life-long learning for their students, working to improve teaching strategies, providing access to scientific research) Discuss local water resources and how actions affect the quality of clean water Mention of macroinvertebrates along with fishes and other organisms that live in the water Mention of birds, mammals, insects, and other life forms that live on land Mention of partnerships with their communities where the students can get active in using science to help the local community

participants are engaged in during the immersive weeklong CPD program against the identified SDGs (Table 13.2). Accordingly, we could readily identify connections to clean water, life below water, and life on land through the science content we weaved into the CPD as these were explicitly a part of the CPD program. Clean water and the basic human right to have access to clean water was explored and discussed each time we entered the swamp as water quality is essential to the area and the swamp drains to both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Life below water was often discussed in our identification of macroinvertebrates, our observations of alligators, and our discussions of how the Southern region of our state compared to the Northern parts of the state in terms of life supported below water. Life on land was highlighted through data collection on bird and tree phenology, as well as through causal identification of insects and herps (amphibians and reptiles) we encountered each day during fieldwork. In addition, our discussions on human impacts and watersheds brought everyone’s attention to life beyond human life that inhabits the land and water of our local communities.

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Table 13.2  Our2Swamp program for immersive weeklong CPD Content Deepwater Horizon

Activity Whole group viewing of Deepwater Horizon movie (opening night of CPD to set the stage for the weeklong CPD) Problem-based learning module developed using the question: Can upstream water quality affect downstream water quality?  Crumpled paper watershed model  Notes on what a watershed is  Use Model My Watershed (computer program that maps watersheds using USGS data) to map watershed  DataClassroom (online data analysis statistical tool) analysis of historical Adopt-a-Stream Data for watershed during dates Deepwater Horizon was actively releasing oil into the Gulf of Mexico

Okefenokee Swamp

Locally guided tours of the three different entrances into the Okefenokee Coastal plains’ food web examined and discussed and example lesson provided Discussion advantages of fires to the coastal plains and example lesson provided Escape Room Review designed for review across all content; teacher participants competed in teams

Adopt-a-­Stream Training

Hands-on lectures with collaborative fieldwork for  Water chemistry sampling techniques and data reporting  Macroinvertebrate sampling techniques, identification, and data reporting   E. coli sampling, identification, and data reporting Assessments completed for certification

Birding

Modeled/practiced using binoculars outside in small groups Flatbirds used in a designated outdoor area to train how to use in the classroom eBird App used in whole group training  How to record sightings and practice in small groups  How to set up an eBird classroom account

Phenology

Whole group discussion regarding phenology (what is it, why is it important, how to structure data collection for classrooms) Practice with tree phenology using local tree cards and forest area around lodging Practice with bird phenology using bird cards that corresponded to flatbirds from the birding curriculum Discussion of how to use Nature’s Notebook app as a classroom account

Participant Assignments

Photovoice assignment – pre-­assignment to have participants consider their own place prior to the immersive CPD Community science schoolyard plan – final assignment as means for participants to demonstrate their understanding and design an action plan for the upcoming school year

Though we did not purposefully think of including discussion on quality education and partnerships for goals, these two goals were implicitly addressed due to the nature of us being teacher educators and working with teachers and the focus of the community-based science we were using with our participants. Quality education was captured in nightly debriefs on how to connect what we were learning back to classrooms and providing opportunities for all participants to engage in such work. Adopt-a-Stream emphasizes community partnerships in its name as the “p” in adopt stands for partnerships; thus,

we introduced participants to various community partners that were focused on preserving local water quality. We also brainstormed ways for our teacher participants to utilize these partnerships to expose their students to sustainability careers and ways to serve their communities when they were out of school. Making the teachers aware of the partnerships further built their understanding of how to take action in their local communities. Our analysis on the Our2Swamp program confirmed that CEA is beneficial for designing a curriculum that promotes the SDGs that we retroactively identified (Table  13.3). In using

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212 Table 13.3  CEA principles’ alignment with CPD program and SDGs CEA principle Principle a: gain a deep understanding of the disciplines that inform EE

CPD program Present scientific content through Adopt-a-Stream training, interactive lectures, and fieldwork into the swamp

Principle b: identify themselves as experts in one or more realms associated with EE

Science identity: engage in data collection, reporting, and analysis. Teacher identity: discussions on how to implement aspects of CPD into classroom

Principle c: gain a deep understanding of place, leading to a critical consciousness of place

Immersive experience in swamp with locals as guides; Photovoice assignment and presentations with discussion

Principle d: demonstrate behaviors, actions, and/or agency to consider, discuss, and/or act on environmental issues Principle e: use EE as a foundation for individual and/or community change to what they envision as more just

Completion and presentation of a schoolyard action plan with whole group discussion Collaborative discussions throughout the week

CEA to design our curriculum, we accounted for the SDGs without specifically designing curriculum to address them. This demonstrates that CEA inherently connects to the SDGs, so in using CEA for curriculum development, the SDGs are also infused into the curriculum. This is especially while working with teachers as training them to use CEA for curriculum development will ensure they are also attending to the SDGs. This led us to ask if the meanings our participants made of the CPD also aligned with the identified SDGs.

13.3.2 Critical Environmental Agency Development and SDGs In our previous study (Huffling and Scott 2021), we found that our participants did engage in CEA development during the weeklong CPD in the Okefenokee Swamp. For this study, we used our previous coded excerpts of each CEA principle and performed a new round of coding based on the SDGs we identified (Table 13.4). In our previous analyses, we coded each time a participant’s response aligned with a CEA principle, which

SDGs SDG6 SDG14 SDG15 SDG17 SDG4 SDG6 SDG14 SDG15 SDG17 SDG6 SDG14 SDG15 SDG17 SDG6 SDG14 SDG15 SDG17 SDG4 SDG6 SDG14 SDG15 SDG17

gave us multiple coded excerpts for each individual participant. Thus, the co-occurrences in Table 13.4 are higher than the 19 participants as some CEA codes were discussed multiple times by participants. This analysis demonstrates that our participants’ meanings also aligned with the SDGs we retroactively identified. In working with teachers, this is an important finding as we could show teachers how what they are already planning and implementing exemplifies the SDGs instead of the SDGs being seen as an “extra” part of the curriculum. For the SDG4, the highest co-occurrence code was related to Principle d. Our participants indicated their desire to take action to help create more equitable learning environments that encourage life-long learning. As one participant shared: “With the water testing. I was like, ‘Oh, this is simple enough, and it’s something different that students can do.’ Because I feel like we’re so stuck in the classroom, and doing something different and doing real-life things for the kids, it’s just different for them. They don’t have the resources or the money nor, sometimes, have someone to actually take them. So having maybe me give them [these opportunities] can be very helpful.”

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Table 13.4  Co-occurrence of codes

Codes Principle a: Knowledge Principle b: Identity Principle c: Place Place d: Action Principle e: Vision

SDG4: Quality Education 7

SDG6: Clean Water and Sanitation 6

SDG14: Life below Water 4

SDG15: Life on Land 7

SDG17: Partnerships for Goals 11

3

7

7

24

8

6 15 12

20 14 5

15 6 4

24 16 7

10 10 18

Another participant highlighted how his inexperience was a possible hindrance to his students, and he was hoping to leverage his learning in the CPD to afford his students opportunities to “understand how everything is connected and how they can make observations themselves.” Participants also connected the actions they wanted to take in their teaching to providing agency for students and helping them understand global contributions they could make. Lucia discussed: “And I don’t want to force one particular thing on them. I want them to be able to pick what interests them, whether it’s insects, whether it’s birds, whether it’s water, whether it’s trees, everything out there,” while Cazzie shared, “I think it’s being able to impact our students and that they are citizens in society and they can contribute scientifically to data that is being utilized locally, globally.”

The SDG6 had the highest co-occurrence with Principle c. We attribute this to engaging participants in Adopt-a-Stream, which is driven by partnerships with community volunteers. We were encouraged to see that our participants identified this as a key aspect of the meanings they made of the CPD.  Most participants tended to highlight how students seemed unaware of how their actions impacted access to clean water for others. As one participant noted in her interview: “I don’t think people realize the impact of what they throw into the water, what they put into the water, and even on a local scale what it does. What it does on a community scale, what it does on the watershed scale, and then eventually, the watersheds eventually do flow into the ocean.”

Yet, one participant, Brandon, showed a shift to decolonization work by noting how his community, one of the most impoverished areas in the state, was impacted by the juxtaposition of socioeconomic status and environmental burdens, yet, he also imagined as reinhabited place where science could be used to improve the community. As Brandon said during his interview: “I remember us talking at one point about how impoverished communities are more affected by poor environmental and poor water conditions than other communities are. So if we can use science to help my community, then maybe it’ll improve everybody’s quality of life.”

Principle c was also linked most to the SDG14, which again confirms CPD’s emphasis on water quality and place as the participants frequently mentioned the macroinvertebrates that live within the stream and how they were not as aware of or familiar with these life forms prior to the CPD. As one participant noted: “The macroinvertebrates are kind of new to me. I was not comfortable with those before. But now I am. So as far as learning how to identify those, and knowing how to use those in monitoring our watershed, knowing how important they are as indicator species. That was new.”

A couple of participants highlighted bacteria that live within our local streams and how their presence is connected to water quality. As Sherrod stated: “I am curious to know exactly how healthy it [the stream at her school] is. I’ve been told that there are some issues, especially with fecal coliform. And then seeing the parking lot runoff. But really those are kind of qualitative. We’ve been told. But

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214 we don’t have the data to support it. So I think learning about the different [water quality] tests, and really implementing those, and looking at it as far as not just chemical, but the bacterial, knowing how to monitor those.”

This again shows a shift toward a critical consciousness of place as the participants were beginning to understand streams as a place inhabited by not only large life forms like fish but also smaller organisms and even microscopic life and that this life below was intimately intertwined with the health of their local watersheds. The SDG15 was co-coded most often with Principle b (identity) and Principle c. Given that humans are part of life on land, it makes sense that identity and place were both prominent with this goal. The participants especially discussed how they felt empathy toward the animals that occupied the watersheds we discussed. As one participant discussed his adventures during the week and how he began to display empathy toward the organisms he encountered: “We saw a couple [of turtles] on the side of the road. We would stop and check them out. Or we actually [accidently] ran over a snake at one point, and we got out and made sure we actually killed him, that way he wasn’t in pain because he was sitting there struggling to breathe and stuff. And then we were quiet walking past the baby alligators and the mom, to make sure we didn’t upset them and stuff. We were aware of our surroundings and what we were doing with the animals.”

Several participants discussed how the activities they engaged impacted the way they saw themselves, which were the indicators of the identity work. For instance, Clarissa shared how she was proud of going on an optional night frog hunt “because that’s something-- if you said 10 years ago that I’m going to go on a frog a walk, I would’ve said, ‘No, I’m not.’” Prior to the CPD, Clarissa told us that she identified more as a geologist and little experience with biology, and she was actually quite scared of frogs. Another participant, Lakisha, shared how the CPD pushed her to want to know more. In discussing her experience with birding during the CPD, Lakisha shared: “So what people said kind of verified what I already knew but then it also drove me to find out more about what I didn’t know, ask my own ques-

tions to deepen my knowledge about what I knew, ask questions to find out more so then I can be part of this conversation and just really always trying to be involved, be engaged, be motivated.”

These moments of identity and place connections enabled our participants to further their understanding of the lives sharing the very places and spaces our participants also occupied. For the SDG17, Principle e (vision) had the highest co-occurrence. As we reflected on this, we realized our participants often spoke of how they envisioned partnerships with their communities where students were actively using science as a tool to help the local community. As one participant noted: “Again, we’re doing these projects to help our community. So discussing it with students. Maybe they’ll pass it onto so-and-so. My end goal is to help people. And if I can use my science background and tie it in, that would be the best.”

Another participant said: “We’re contributing ourselves, and then we’re giving those future generations help to contribute as well in their own way. And getting that community involvement, again, that’ll help maybe just pique their interest which will help pique parents’ interest, which helps everybody in general.”

The participants shared how the resources and discussion during the CPD helped them realize what partnerships were available and how they could leverage these projects to further involve their students within their community. Miriam emphasized this when she shared: “That getting involved is not as hard as it is portrayed at times. Adopt-A-Stream is much more accessible than I thought it was. And I’ve heard about it in the past. I’ve never participated. All of these different citizen science projects are more accessible, and we can incorporate them. It doesn’t have to be this whole entire super-involved project. You can just do little things here and little things there, and eventually it’s going to contribute to a bigger picture.”

13.4 Implications As our case study demonstrates, CEA is a conceptual framework that could be used to integrate ESD into teacher education programs, both in

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terms of content and pedagogy. As science educators, we readily see connections between science content knowledge and students’ connection to and understanding of local ecosystems. However, using an ESD lens to examine our curriculum reminds us to weave in economic, social, and political content to situate students within the ESD conversation (Leicht et  al. 2018). This also provides opportunities to not only examine local issues but also engage students in the larger global conversation. This more interdisciplinary content knowledge would aid all five principles of CEA, especially Principle c (critical consciousness of place) and Principle e (future visions of justice). Understanding the economic, social, political, and scientific complexities of local sustainability issues could help people unpack their local place and examine how these aspects are intertwined and produce systemic barriers that need to be questioned while also enabling them to envision how they want their future communities and ecosystems to exist and where they personally fit into the future vision. This is why we choose to highlight and use community-­ based science (also known as citizen science) projects in the Our2Swamp program. Connecting participants to their school grounds through exploration and scientific data collection not only increases content and skills understanding, but it also makes learning collaborative and emphasizes how local places and spaces matter on a global scale. We need to partner with our colleagues in other disciplines in order to provide a thick and rich ESDcurriculum for our students. These partnerships could also model for teachers how to engage in interdisciplinary co-teaching opportunities. Pedagogical practice, another important component of ESD (Santone et  al. 2014),  could be transformed by CEA development as participants’ knowledge, values, skills, and dispositions are impacted (Evans et al. 2017) and questions of equity, access, ecosystem fragility, and systemic barriers are explored. As we engaged in reflection and discussions with our participants, the pedagogy we used during the CPD and the pedagogy our participants utilized in their classrooms were often dissected and placed within a broader context of how they could be used to engage students

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in more robust but community-based science. The identity work that is essential for CEA development is not limited to content identity development, but it also impacts and encourages identity shifts in place identity and possibly professional identity (which for our case was teacher identity). Critically reflecting on how to take the Our2Swamp program into their classrooms afforded participants opportunities to refine and re-envision the pedagogical practices they employed. In regard to our own pedagogical practice, we determined we should strive to make more explicit connections to critical consciousness of place. In our previous CPD, we relied more on implicit means for encouraging Principle c, which means we expected our participants to unpack the CPD content themselves in terms of the social, cultural, and historical aspects of their local places and spaces. Our participants were more than capable of doing this; however, we are left to wonder what the impact would have been had we provided a more formalized mechanism for this examination. Had we provided the space during the CPD to engage one another in the social, cultural, and historical contexts, how might our participants’ pedagogical practice have been further strengthened to empower students to see themselves as agents of change in their own communities? Though our case study focused on professional development for classroom teachers in historically marginalized communities of the global north, CEA could also be used to develop ESDcurriculum for preservice teachers. Our work has reinforced that the juxtaposition of content and pedagogical knowledge is an important consideration when using CEA, and this is even more important with preservice teacher education as students are new to both ESD and teaching; thus, explicitly drawing connections between the two will enable further CEA development for students. In addition, the context of our case study emphasizes the disparity between urban and rural areas in Georgia that, though not as severe, resemble the inequalities seen between cities in the global north and south. For example, 98% of the population in urban areas in Georgia have broadband access, while only 82% of the population in

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rural areas have broadband access (Federal Communications Commission 2021). In addition, while urban areas continue growing faster than ever, rural areas continue to lose teachers at an alarming rate. Roughly one-fifth of Georgia’s student population attends a rural school. However, each year school administrators lose qualified teachers to urban school districts in the neighboring parts of the state that could offer significantly higher starting salaries, better facilities, and up to date technology and equipment for classrooms.  Thus, CEA could provide opportunities for teacher educators in the global south to embrace Nagendra’s (2018) call to change the focus of ESD from the diminishing resources and world population growth conversations of the global north to “connections between communities, ecosystems and social justice” (p.  486). As the five principles intermingle together, CEA development could provide opportunities for teachers to make connections between their communities and their local ecosystems while considering the past but also envisioning a sustainable future. However, as Nagendra (2018) discusses the need for multiple parties to be involved in the conversation, we contend that the voices, experiences, and perspectives of teacher educators, teachers, and students from the global south need to be heard and valued. Though our case study participants, as well as ourselves, live and work in areas that have surface-level similarities with their colleagues in the global south, we still understand and implement ESD from a global north perspective. We acknowledge that our research is presented from the places and spaces we live and work, and though we could speculate how CEA could be used for curriculum design in the global south, further research is needed in order to understand how CEA could be beneficial for teacher education and ESD in the global south.

ships with students, families, and communities as they strive to prepare each student for a future full of choices. In order for students develop authentic interest in sustainability issues, and build skill sets to put action into play, students need to buy into their role in local communities as agents of change to further see themselves develop as public agents of change beyond their community. The ESD standards align well with professional development opportunities that guide teachers to be leaders in the classroom educating students about their environment. Rural schools experience challenges that add additional pressure to teachers and students. However, the value of students in rural communities developing their own passion to learn, explore, and protect local ecosystems is immeasurable. Following the principles of CEA, a planned, immersive experience to shift teacher perspective and build knowledge and skills could have lasting effects by strengthening the foundation to educate students in a new way. When these teachers return to their own communities and classrooms, they bring the lens of sustainability and awareness of place. Teachers design community science opportunities for their students to start learning and exploring in small ways that build the awareness of global impact and value of partnerships over time. When teachers envision themselves and their students in roles of change, the impact is far reaching. Grant Disclaimer  Research reported in this publication was supported by the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine under the Grant Agreement number 2000009821. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Gulf Research Program or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

References 13.5 Conclusion Promoting change for the environment and addressing sustainability issues for the future starts with classroom leaders: teachers. Teachers are the essential connections that forge relation-

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Nagendra, H. (2018). The global south is rich in sustainability issues. Nature, 557, 485-488. Nolet, V. (2009). Preparing sustainability-literate teachers. Teachers College Record, 111(2), 409-442. North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). (2011). Developing a framework for assessing environmental literacy. North American Association for Environmental Education. Santone, S., Saunders, S., & Seguin, C. (2014). Essential elements of sustainability in teacher education. Journal of Sustainability, 6. Tan, E., Calabrese Barton, A., Turner, E., & Gutiérrez, M. V. (2012). Empowering science and mathematics education in urban schools, Tan, Barton, Turner. The University of Chicago Press. UN (2015). Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/ publications/transforming-our-world-2030-agenda-­­ sustainable-development-17981 Vitousek, P.  M., Mooney, H.  A., Lubchenco, J., & Melillo, J.  M. (1997). Human domination of earth’s ecosystems. Science, 277(5325), 494–499. https://doi. org/10.1126/science.277.5325.494 Wang, C. C., & Burris, M. a. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior, 24(3), 369–387. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019819702400309 Warren, A.E., Archambault, L.M., & Foley, R.W. (2014). Sustainability education framework for teachers: Developing literacy through futures, values, systems, and strategic thinking. Journal of Sustainability Education, 6. Wilson, R. J., & Fox, R. (2021). Insect responses to global change offer signposts for biodiversity and conservation. Ecological Entomology, 46(4), 699-717.

Part IV Perspectives

Hungarian Secondary School Teachers’ Views on Global Competence Development in English as a Foreign Language Classrooms

14

Rita Divéki

Abstract

In today’s world, education needs to empower students to become active global citizens who are prepared for the twenty-first century challenges and who can solve local and global problems, which makes them globally competent individuals. Global competence development seeks to meet these needs by building the required skills among them. A globally competent student can examine issues of global significance, understand other people’s perspectives, engage in appropriate and effective interactions with people from different cultural backgrounds, and act for collective well-­being and sustainable development. In this framework, the main aim of this study, involving ten Hungarian secondary school English language teachers, is to inquire into what they mean by global competence development, to what extent they think it is their task to develop students’ global competence and what they need to succeed in it. Findings emerging from this qualitative inquiry suggest that the participants are reasonably aware of R. Divéki (*) Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Language Pedagogy, Budapest, Hungary e-mail: [email protected]

what global competence entails. Moreover, they think it should be everyone’s task to nurture global citizens, but admittedly, they have an easier task as foreign language teachers as opposed to teachers of other subjects. Finally, they would need financial and methodological support to be able to develop students’ global competence more effectively.

14.1 Introduction In today’s globalized world, it has become evident that we need educational systems which prepare students for an unpredictable job market and empower them to solve local and global problems. Global citizenship education (GCE) and global competence development seek to meet these needs. According to OECD (2017), global competence is “the capacity to examine local, global and intercultural issues, to understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others, to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with people from different cultures, and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development” (p. 7). Developing students’ global competence gained momentum in 2018 when PISA started to assess it all over the world (OECD 2017).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_14

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Global education has received much attention in English language teaching in the past three decades (Cates 2002), as several authors have been promoting the inclusion of real-world issues in the language classroom to provide students with meaningful content while also developing their language skills (Cates 2002; Gimenez and Sheehan 2008; Sampedro and Hillyard 2004). As the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom is often referred to as an “open-content space” (UNESCO-MGIEP 2017), incorporating global content into the syllabus to nurture students’ global competence and, at the same time, to develop their overall language skills seems not only feasible but, given the demands of today’s world, imperative. As teachers are often seen as educational gatekeepers (Thornton 1991), who decide on the content and the quality of the learning experience, it is worth examining what they know about global competence development and whether it is their task to develop it in their students. In the Central-­European context, there is a dearth of research in the field of global education in English language teaching, so this study is supposed to fill part of the gap by examining the Hungarian teachers’ views on global competence development in their EFL lessons. Consequently, the main aim of this study, involving ten secondary school teachers from all around Hungary, is to gain insight into the Hungarian EFL teachers’ views on global competence development, their perceived role in developing their students’ global competence, and their needs in connection with global competence development in their lessons.

14.2 Literature Review 14.2.1 Global Citizenship Education and Global Competence Development The umbrella term “global education” has been used for almost three decades to identify educational paradigms with the aim of nurturing responsible citizens who are capable and willing

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to make the world a better place. In the 2010s, the term GCE came to the forefront, which, according to UNESCO (2014), denotes “how education can develop the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes learners need for securing a world which is more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable” (p.  9). Educational institutions all over the world have started to internationalize their curriculum (Longview Foundation 2008; UNESCO 2015), and the global component is explicitly present in the core curricula of several countries (UNESCO 2015). The diffusion of GCE was further supported by the Incheon Declaration on Education 2030 (UNESCO 2016), which stated that to have quality education in the twenty-first century, GCE should be placed at the heart of all educational endeavors. As a result, quality education appeared as the fourth goal of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which aims to: develop the skills, values, and attitudes that enable citizens to lead healthy and fulfilled lives, make informed decisions, and respond to local and global challenges through education for sustainable development and global citizenship education, as well as human rights education and training in order to achieve the UN’s 2030 Education Agenda (UNESCO 2018, p.1).

The significance of GCE was further emphasized, when in 2018 PISA started to assess students’ Global Competence, which is, by their definition: the capacity to examine local, global, and intercultural issues, to understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others, to engage in open, appropriate, and effective interactions with people from different cultures, and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development (OECD 2017, p.7).

Consequently, a globally competent student has knowledge about the world and other cultures, has the skills to understand the world and take action, has the attitudes of openness and respect for people from different backgrounds and global mindedness, and strives for values, such as human dignity and diversity (OECD 2017). Table 14.1 details the different building blocks of global competence.

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Table 14.1  Building blocks of global competence based on OECD (2017) Knowledge Knowledge of global issues Intercultural knowledge Knowledge about culture and intercultural relations Knowledge about socioeconomic development and interdependence Knowledge about environmental sustainability Knowledge about global institutions, conflicts, and human rights

14.2.2 Global Competence Development in English as a Foreign Language Classrooms

Skills Reasoning with information Communicating effectively and respectfully Perspective-­taking Conflict management and resolution Adaptability

Attitudes Openness toward people from different cultural backgrounds Respect Global mindedness

Third, to be able to face the challenges of the twenty-first century, students also need to be prepared to become active citizens (WEF 2020), who will be able to navigate in this increasingly complex and globalized world, characterized by Even though global education is a cross-­curricular pandemics, extremism, climate change, inequaliperspective, it seems logical to put more emphasis ties, and disinformation. Therefore, there is an on its incorporation into EFL classes. The reasons understandable demand in education to address are manifold. First, English has gained consider- these difficult, often controversial issues in a able importance in our increasingly interconnected sheltered environment, under the guidance of world, and as there is greater contact between peo- teachers, and to equip young people with the ple from various parts of the globe (Modern skills to react to them and take action about them. Language Association 2007), there is a need for a As stated by UNESCO MGIEP (2017), the lanlingua franca. Consequently, the importance of guage lesson is an “open-content space” (p. 158), teaching English now lies in preparing students for which allows teachers to bring in real-world intercultural dialogue (i.e., engaging in open, issues and develop the aforementioned skills. appropriate, and effective interactions with people Moreover, according to Kruger (2012), the curfrom different cultures) (Byram 2008; Gimenez rent language teaching paradigm, which favors and Sheehan 2008), which is an essential compo- post-communicative language teaching, task- and nent of global competence. content-based teaching, lends itself to the incorSecond, to prepare learners for an ever-­ poration of global education. In line with Kruger, changing and unpredictable job market, teachers Starkey (2005) believes that language classes can have to develop their students’ twenty-first cen- equip students with citizenship skills and claims tury skills (WEF 2015). As defined by P21 that “in many respects, communicative method(2019), twenty-first century skills include three ology is in itself democratic” (p. 32). In a comdifferent types of subskills: learning and innova- municative EFL class, the students are required tion; information, media, and technology skills; to work in pairs or groups and express their opinand life and career skills. The framework under- ions on different topics through structured dislines that teaching these skills should be inte- cussions or debates. While engaging in such grated into key subjects (e.g., language arts, activities, students can acquire social competenworld languages, mathematics, science, history) cies, such as cooperation and communication. together with twenty-first century interdisciplin- Starkey (2005) also encourages language teachary themes (e.g., global awareness, environmen- ers to promote controversy in their classroom tal literacy, health literacy). Hence, while students after creating the right atmosphere for these are working on their four basic language skills, meaningful discussions, so that students encounthese twenty-first century skills can be developed ter real-world issues and learn to appreciate difduring the same English lessons. ferent world views. In this way, learning English

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is not seen as an end but it “takes on real meaning and significance when it is part of learning for democracy” (p. 38). Fourth, many students seem to be interested in global issues; most of them want to know what is happening in the world, and they feel that they should learn about it in school (Oxfam 2018; Sampedro and Hillyard 2004). As it has been pointed out by some prominent authors from the field of content-based instruction (Lightbown 2013; Stroller 1997), if the students are interested in the material, they will become more engaged during classes and they are likely to become more motivated to learn the language. In Starkey’s (1988) view, one should choose content that “engages the minds and feelings of the learners” (p.  240). In accordance with this, Stempleski (1995) claims that learning about such issues “can be fun” (p. 38). However, students may not associate global issues with fun; if teachers take a positive approach and make the learners think about what could be done to tackle such issues, they can still “provide students with a particularly enjoyable and satisfying learning experience” (p. 38) in their EFL classes. In conclusion, the EFL classroom can be considered a suitable place for the development of students’ global competence.

14.2.3 Teachers’ Views on Global Education Becoming a global teacher presupposes understanding the aims of global education and believing in its importance. Empirical studies show that teacher agency has an important role to play in the implementation of GCE in schools and teachers’ “perceptions and stances profoundly impact GCE outcomes even if the school or national education policy explicitly mark GCE as a priority – but especially in contexts that lack such clarity” (Goren and Yemini 2017, p. 11). There are only a few studies available on teachers’ views on global education or global competence development and even fewer on EFL teachers’ views on them. The author of the present study has already compared the results

of such international studies in her previous publication (Divéki 2020), and they may be useful for the interpretation of the results of the present study. Even though the Slovenian (Skinner 2012), Canadian (Guo 2014), Israeli (Goren and Yemini 2017), and Turkish (Başarir 2017) studies were all based on qualitative data collected from a small sample of participants and carried out in very different contexts among teachers with different levels of teaching experience, it is possible to identify some recurring themes. In most cases, findings suggest that if teachers understand the main premises of global education, they tend to find it important. It seems that whether the global dimension is explicitly present in the main curriculum or not does not necessarily influence teachers’ perception of the importance of GCE (Goren and Yemini 2017). The perceived benefits of GCE include learning about global issues and being able to use learner-centered methodologies (Guo 2014; Skinner 2012). However, many participating teachers in these studies express their concerns about being prepared to deal with these issues in class, being knowledgeable about global issues, time constraints, support from educational stakeholders, and students’ interest in these issues (Başarir 2017; Guo 2014; Skinner 2012). Nevertheless, whether teachers incorporate the global perspective mostly comes down to teacher agency, as they effectively act as educational gatekeepers, as Thornton (1991) put it. Initial teacher education seems to play a great role in this decision-making, as pre-service teachers receiving training in dealing with global issues tend to have a better understanding of the global dimensions of their subject and feel more confident to incorporate GCE themes in their lessons (Guo 2014).

14.2.4 Characteristics of Globally Competent Teachers Teachers have a key role in implementing the global perspective in education, as they are the ones who make decisions daily about what and how they teach (Thornton 1991). As the aim of

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global education is to make the world a better and more just place, those global teachers who are endeavoring to integrate the global perspective in their lessons can be regarded as agents of change (Bourn 2015). To be authentic in this role, first, they also need to become global citizens (Andreotti 2012). In 1988, Pike and Selby drew up the profile of a global teacher. According to them, a global teacher: 1. Is “global centric” rather than ethnocentric or nation-centric 2. Is concerned about culture and perspective 3. Is future-oriented 4. Is a facilitator 5. Has a profound belief in human potential 6. Is concerned with the development of the whole person 7. Employs a range of teaching/learning styles in the classroom 8. Sees learning as a life-long process 9. Tries to be congruent 10. Is rights-respectful and seeks to shift the focus and locus of power and decision-­ making in the classroom 11. Seeks functional interdependence across the curriculum 12. Is a community teacher (pp. 272–274) UNESCO (2018, p. 5) promotes a similar set of competencies for global teachers: educators need to “[have] strong subject and pedagogic content knowledge, possess effective classroom management skills, readily adopt new technologies, and be inclusive and sensitive to the diverse needs of their students.” According to Cates (2004), EFL teachers “have a special role to play” in nurturing global citizens, and they need to follow the next ten steps to become global teachers: 1. Rethink the role of English (e.g., it should be seen as an international language for communication with people and as a subject matter for learning about the world’s people, countries, and problems) 2. Rethink your role as a teacher (i.e., try being a global educator instead of a simple language teacher)

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3. Rethink your classroom atmosphere (e.g., make it an environmentally friendly classroom and a dynamic space which promotes active learning) 4. Integrate global topics into your teaching (i.e., use a dual syllabus containing language learning goals and global education goals as well) 5. Experiment with global education activities (i.e., use different work modes and a wide range of activities, e.g., games, roleplays, and videos) 6. Make use of your international experience in class 7. Organize extracurricular activities 8. Explore global education and its related fields (e.g., peace education, human rights education, environmental education) 9. Join a Global Issues Special Interest Group (to get inspirations and resources for teaching) 10. Deepen your knowledge through professional development There seems to be an agreement among scholars that it is important to instill GCE in teacher education to educate pre-service teachers who will, in turn, educate globally competent students (Bauermeister and Diefenbacher 2015; Guo 2014; Longview Foundation 2008). Guo (2014) posits that “it is not only desirable but also critical that all teacher education programs infuse global perspectives and strategies and develop teachers’ professional competencies to educate for global citizenship as a way to achieve transformative learning in various educational settings” (p.  17). Thus, to become such a teacher, there should be specific emphasis put on developing the following knowledge, skills, and attitudes in initial teacher education: 1. Knowledge of the international dimensions of their subject matter and a range of global issues 2. Pedagogical skills to teach their students to analyze primary sources from around the world, appreciate multiple points of view, and recognize stereotyping

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3. Commitment to assisting students to become responsible citizens both of the world and their own communities (Guo 2014; Longview Foundation 2008) As abovementioned, becoming a globally competent teacher is not an easy undertaking, as it warrants a great deal of preparation and a new type of pedagogical thinking from teachers. Nevertheless, teachers are instrumental in incorporating the global perspectives into their lessons, as they are role models for their students and the decision-makers in pedagogical processes, so failing to educate globally competent teachers may hinder the large-scale implementation of GCE (UNESCO 2018).

14.2.5 Rationale The Hungarian government accepted the International Development Strategy in 2015  in compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals (Government of Hungary 2015), in which they committed to the inclusion of GCE at all levels of the Hungarian educational system (HAND 2016). There seems to be “no accredited formal global educational curriculum in any level yet” (CONCORD 2018), but it is reported that the “work is ongoing regarding the integration of GE into the national curriculum at primary and secondary level” (p.72). The tertiary level seems to be an exception: looking at the training and outcome requirements of EFL teacher education (EMMI 2013), there are few references to trainees being required to have the capacity to nurture global citizens; thus information about GCE or global competence development is hardly present in EFL teaching programs in Hungary. Although the school should be the place where students are prepared to become active democratic citizens, the Hungarian school culture seems to be dominated by the misconception that politics should be banned from schools (Hunyadi and Wessenauer 2016). Teachers often steer away from discussing current hot-button topics in the fear of being accused of pushing some political

agenda. As a direct result, students rarely have the opportunity to discuss complex, often controversial issues under the guidance of their teachers (Hunyadi & Wessenauer 2016). Making the Hungarian education system free of politics has some negative repercussions though: several studies indicate that the Hungarian students are apathetic and disillusioned with politics, which is manifested in their lack of interest and participation in public affairs (Integrity Lab 2016; Szabó and Kern 2011). The recent PISA study (OECD 2020) on students’ global competence reinforces the fact that there is still much to achieve in the incorporation of the global dimension: Hungary scored low in examining issues of global, local, and intercultural significance and significantly lower than the OECD average when it comes to students’ attitudes toward immigrants and to their agency regarding global issues (i.e., taking action for collective well-being and sustainable development). Adopting the global perspective could be a remedy to this situation. As it was argued in Sect. 14.2.2, a logical step would be to integrate global content into EFL lessons, because the EFL curriculum is not as fixed as that of other subjects and because communicative language teaching lends itself to the integration of authentic, meaningful, and motivating content. Nevertheless, first, it would be imperative to examine how the Hungarian EFL teachers view global competence development and how they see their role in fostering the abovementioned competences.

14.3 Method Based on the literature discussed in the previous section and the rationale, the study seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) What do Hungarian secondary school EFL teachers understand by global competence development? (2) How do Hungarian secondary school EFL teachers view their role in developing students’ global competence? (3) What would Hungarian secondary school EFL teachers need to effectively develop their students’ global competence?

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14.3.1 Setting

14.3.2 Participants

In Hungary, education is compulsory until the age of 16. Having finished primary school, students can choose from different secondary schools; they can continue their studies either in general secondary schools (gimnázium), vocational secondary schools (technikum), or vocational schools for special education (szakiskola). The education system is highly centralized; most schools are state-funded and maintained by either the Klebelsberg Institution Maintenance Centre or by different vocational training centers funded by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology; however, schools can also be founded by religious organizations, associations, and foundations (Eurydice 2021). Most students start learning their first foreign language around the age of 10, in 4th grade. By the end of their secondary school studies, by which time they have already had almost 1000 lessons in this language, they have to reach the B1 level, which is assessed in their school-­leaving examination. English is the most popular foreign language among students; however, as reported by Öveges and Csizér (2018), it is still taught using a rather traditional methodology, not concentrating too much on oral communication. The content of foreign language education is regulated by three documents at the same time – the National Core Curriculum, the Framework Curricula, and the Local Curricula. Only qualified teachers with a degree are allowed to teach in secondary education. In Hungary, students envisaging to become EFL teachers need to enroll in an undivided teacher education program offered by one of ten universities specializing in teacher education (Felvi 2021). The name of the degree they receive upon completing the 5- or 6-year-long training (depending on whether they choose the primary or secondary education track) is teacher of English language and culture. The last part of the program is a 1-year-long teaching practice, where trainees are required to teach both of their two subjects in a state school, under the guidance of a mentor teacher.

The participants of the study were chosen using maximum variation sampling. As the aim of the study was to explore the Hungarian EFL teachers’ views on global competence in their classroom, the author opted for selecting participants representing as many different educational contexts, age groups, and regions as possible. Apart from the exploration of the variety of responses, as Dörnyei (2008) suggests, the greatest benefit of this procedure is that it highlights the common features and, in this way, any pattern the researcher finds might be assumed to be “reasonably stable” in the given population (p. 128). To ensure this variety, the participants were, on the one hand, chosen from the author’s acquaintances and, on the other hand, from volunteers who replied to a call published in a Hungarian Facebook group for English teachers. They all received a pseudonym and a code, which will be used with the quotes and themes in the Results and Discussion section (together with the page number of the transcript where the quote appeared). The complete list of participants, including their pseudonym, code, gender, place of residence, school type, and teaching experience, can be seen in Table 14.2. As it can be seen from the above, out of the ten participants, there were four males and six females, of whom four were under the age of 35 and six were above 35. Concerning their place of residence and work, four of them were from the capital, Budapest, and six of them from the countryside, representing the eastern and western regions equally. Most of the participants (eight) taught in a grammar school, and two of these grammar school teachers taught in schools affiliated with a religious organization. Three participants taught in bilingual schools, two of them in a bilingual secondary grammar school and one in a bilingual secondary vocational school. What the participants had in common was that they all taught English to 11th and 12th grade students, which proved to be the most important selection criterion, as this cohort of students will be eligible to vote in the next national election.

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228 Table 14.2  Interviewees’ profiles Pseudonym (code) Ábel (BÁ) Ákos (SZÁ) Aliz (KA) Áron (LÁ) Édua (LÉ) Emma (VE) Izabella (TI) Klára (HK) Leó (NL) Tilda (ST)

Gender Male Male Female Male Female Female Female Female Male Female

Place of residence Kazincbarcika Budapest Kecskemét Budapest Pápa Miskolc Százhalombatta Budapest Balatonalmádi Budapest

School type Religious secondary grammar school Bilingual secondary vocational school Religious secondary grammar school Bilingual secondary grammar school Secondary grammar school Secondary grammar school Secondary grammar school Secondary vocational school Bilingual secondary grammar school Secondary grammar school

14.3.3 Data Collection To answer the research questions, semi-­structured interviews were conducted. The validation of the interview guide took place in the spring of 2019, in which four university tutors involved in teacher training were interviewed (Divéki 2020). The interviews took place in the summer of 2019, and they were conducted in the participants and the researcher’s shared native language, Hungarian. The interviews with those participants who lived in the countryside were conducted online, using Skype, and with those who lived in the capital, face to face. The interview guide was created to collect data for two different projects: the present one and one on teachers’ attitudes toward teaching global, local, and intercultural issues; thus, only half of the interview schedule focused on teachers’ views and perceived role in global competence development. During the interviews, the participants were asked to list what kind of knowledge, skills, and attitudes are needed to succeed in the twenty-­ first-­century labor market. Then, they were asked to reflect on what knowledge, skills, and attitudes are needed for one to become a global citizen. They were then asked to ponder the importance of global competence development, whether they think they are globally competent and whether they consider themselves as global citizens. They also had to draw up the profile of a global teacher, and they were asked to think about their role and

Teaching experience 28 years 16 years 25 years 3 years 31 years 5 years 22 years 15 years 1 year 5 years

whether they consider themselves to be educators or language teachers. Finally, they were asked what they would need to nurture global citizens in their classes more effectively.

14.3.4 Data Analysis After the participants’ consent had been sought, the interviews were recorded between 21 May and 27 August 2019 using the voice recording function of two mobile phones. The length of the interviews varied between 25 and 75 minutes, depending on how talkative the interviewees were. The recordings were transcribed during the autumn of 2019 and were coded and analyzed in the summer of 2020. After the preparation of the transcripts, the initial coding of the data began by reading the scripts carefully and then labeling and commenting on the texts. Using the constant comparative method, the data were broken down into meaningful chunks and coded into categories. Each new unit of meaning was then subjected to analysis, compared to the other meaningful chunks, and then grouped with other units of meaning. If there was no already existing similar unit, a new category was formed (Maykut and Morehouse 1994). The themes and the subthemes were then compiled into a list, together with some quotations from the participants. Finally, the list of themes and the quotations were translated into English.

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14.4 Results and Discussion 14.4.1 Teachers’ Understanding of Global Competence 14.4.1.1 Components of Global Competence As the expression twenty-first century skills can be considered a buzzword and the notion of global competence has not been around for long, the researcher deemed it more apposite to start inquiring about twenty-first century skills first and then get closer to global competence. Therefore, instead of asking participants directly about the components of global competence, first, they were asked to enumerate what knowledge, skills, and attitudes students should acquire to succeed in the twenty-first century. To link the two ideas and address the topic at hand, the researcher read out her definition of global competence. According to my definition, global competence comprises the knowledge, skills, and attitudes which enable students to succeed in the twenty-first-century labor market and empower them to live as democratic, active, conscious, and globally aware citizens. For the latter, the literature uses the term global citizen. Then, they were asked to list what knowledge, skills, and attitudes global citizens have. The emerging themes from the participants’ answers can be seen in Table 14.3. The knowledge component turned out to be the most difficult one to define for the partici-

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pants, many did not even answer the question first, or they elaborated only after being asked again. What emerged from their answers is that they thought a global citizen should be well-­ informed; however, being well-informed had different meanings for the interviewees. Many of them thought that a global citizen should be knowledgeable and well-informed about local and global political systems, and others thought they should be well-informed about the world and global problems. According to some of them, it is important to have some historical knowledge (mostly to see the connections between events), but there was also some emphasis put on the importance of geographical knowledge. Language knowledge, basic knowledge of literature and economics, and self-knowledge also figured among the answers given by the respondents. Regarding the skills, all the components they had previously mentioned among twenty-first century skills were listed by the participants; nevertheless, here, many of them underlined the importance of cooperation, communication, and critical thinking. They also reflected on the problem of fake news, and among the answers, they listed the necessity of source criticism, i.e., the ability to “distinguish between reliable and unreliable information, information that does not exactly reflect reality” (NL-6). As Ákos saw it, the problem lies in the fact that even though the students know that they are not going to get all their information from school, “there is chaos in their heads and they don’t read up on things,” so

Table 14.3  Components of global competence according to interviewees Knowledge Being well-­informed (about local institutions, political systems, global issues) (KA, LÁ, NL, ST, SZÁ, TI) Knowledge about the world and global problems (LÉ, SZÁ, TI) Historical knowledge (LÁ, ST, TI) Geographical knowledge, local knowledge (HK, LÁ, ST, VE) Language (mostly English) knowledge (KA, LÁ)

Skills Cooperation and social skills (HK, KA, LÉ, NL, SZÁ) Communication skills (BÁ, KA, NL, TI) Critical thinking (NL, SZÁ) Source criticism (NL, TI) Expressing one’s opinion (BÁ, NL, SZÁ) Problem-solving (LÉ, VE) Intercultural skills (LÁ, VE) Adaptivity (LÉ, ST, VE)

Attitudes Openness (BÁ, HK, LÉ, NL, ST, SZÁ, TI) Curiosity (NL, SZÁ) Tolerance (LÉ, ST, SZÁ, TI) Being well-­traveled (BÁ, SZÁ)

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it is the teacher who should “clear that mess up” (SZÁ-4). According to him, teachers’ most important job now is organizing information in their students’ heads and teaching them how to think in systems. The value of expressing one’s opinion came up in several interviews. As Leó put it, even though it is inevitable for students to be able to work with others, it is also important to be “able to show who they are” (NL-6). He went on by saying that: here in Hungary, this is quite a big issue, as in this educational system, we want to pour knowledge into students’ heads… and we forget to ask their opinion, what they think about certain issues. I think it is essential to put time and energy into the individual as well… to listen to them so that they feel they are a part of something. And we really need to show them how to be a part of something. (NL-6)

In connection with attitudes, the first answer that came to the respondents’ minds was openness, but many of them mentioned curiosity and tolerance as well. It can be concluded that the participating teachers have a reasonable understanding of the notion of global competence. Out of the ten participants, seven mentioned that a global citizen must be well-informed about different local and global issues, which is only surprising because the university tutors who participated in the pilot study did not mention this component of global competence (Divéki 2020). Cultural and intercultural knowledge hardly figured in their responses, so it might be worth raising awareness of these components in professional development workshops or initial teacher education. When the Hungarian EFL teacher trainees finish university, they become teachers of English language and culture, so it would be important to enable them to create links between the concept of global competence and what they already know about teaching culture, so that they could more effectively incorporate the global perspective in their teaching. Regarding the skills, according to OECD (2017), global citizens need to be able to reason with information, communicate effectively and respectfully, take different perspectives, manage conflicts, and adapt to new

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situations. Out of these skills, effective communication and argumentation were mentioned by several participants; the others were only mentioned by one. In the PISA classification, openness (toward different cultures), respect, and global mindedness are seen as the most important attitudes of a global citizen. The participants saw it similarly; however, they failed to mention global mindedness during the interviews, an attribute which means that one feels being a citizen of the word rather than only a citizen of their own country.

14.4.1.2 Global Competence Development in the Participants’ Lessons To tap into the practical side of what the teachers mean by global competence development, the participants were asked what they do in their lessons to develop their students’ global competence. Most of them mentioned discussing diverse, often controversial local and global issues. They reported on different ways of introducing such issues to their students; some of them (BÁ, LÁ, NL) use thought-provoking videos or readings, other participants (LÉ, VE) use materials that are otherwise close to the students’ hearts (e.g., songs) to make them interested in the issues, and others (KA) ask them to read the news at home and then initiate a discussion about them. Some pointed out that it is not necessarily the teacher who brings up controversial issues in class, sometimes they just come up due to their topicality or the students’ interest in them. Áron, for instance, prefers dealing with topical issues that the students bring up in his classes: If the students are mature enough (language-wise and intellectually as well), I really like going with the flow of these magic moments… we have just had the elections for the European Parliament and if someone asked me “Mr. X, have you seen the results of the election?”, then, I think I would spend 15  minutes discussing this topic. If it’s in English and it has some positive educational purpose, I can let go of dealing with inversion for a lesson. (LÁ-4)

In connection with the discussions, some teachers emphasized that creating the optimal environment where students can genuinely state their

14  Hungarian Secondary School Teachers’ Views on Global Competence Development in English…

opinion about different matters is of paramount importance. As Leo put it, he attempts to do so by seating the students in an “alcoholics anonymous style,” i.e., in a circle to encourage them to “talk about their plans and whatever they are interested in” (NL-7). Tilda also emphasized the priority of stating one’s opinion and described the speed dating technique (i.e., the students stand up/sit down in pairs and get some time to discuss a question, and then they switch partners and discuss the topic for the same amount of time) she uses to make the students state their opinion on different issues with a partner. Sometimes, she even lets the students express their opinion in Hungarian in her EFL classes when she believes that the students are not proficient enough to do so in English. Emma complained about the fact that in the secondary school where she teaches, the younger students struggle with stating their opinion and it is difficult to get them to do so. She uses different techniques to get them to express their views and not to give her bookish answers only. She constantly asks them questions and makes them ask questions from each other. Many of them (HK, KA, LÁ, NL, SZÁ) quite frequently ask their students to make presentations on different topics, a task which is usually preceded by research. Ákos, for instance, often takes his groups to the computer lab and asks them to do a group research project in class. Leó uses student presentations to introduce certain topics, where after one student presents the topic, the others can state their opinion about the issue in structured debates. Other student-centered techniques mentioned were online debating, projects, and roleplays to develop students’ intercultural competence. Finally, many of them mentioned that they love being taught by the students about topics they are more knowledgeable about. For example, Édua loves asking her students to collect materials (e.g., songs), which they deal with in class later. As she puts it, it is important to “start from what they want” and make them involved in decision-making: I give them a hand, take it and let’s go into each other’s world. I believe this is an important attitude, it’s not that I’m omnipotent and I’m the

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keeper of all secrets… but they have some knowledge, and I have some, let’s add it up because their knowledge is not worth less than mine. I need to be able to ask questions from them. I often tell them this: Look, teach me, because I don’t know […] I think it makes me authentic and I don’t think it could work against me. (LÉ-7)

As can be seen, what all the abovementioned teachers have in common is that they try to use techniques drawing on students’ active participation to make them think about different topics and state their opinion about them. The techniques mentioned are in line with Cates’ (2004) suggestions for global teachers, as the participants put emphasis on creating an optimal classroom atmosphere and they use a wide range of activities to address global issues. However, the interviewees failed to mention any extracurricular and experiential activities for global competence development (e.g., service-learning) or activities relying on collaboration with international students (Kaçar and Fekete 2021), so it may be worth presenting these types of activities to teacher trainees and practicing teacher alike, creating opportunities for them to try them out (to learn about their benefits through experience), and encouraging them to incorporate them in their practice.

14.4.2 Teachers’ View of Their Role in Developing Students’ Global Competence 14.4.2.1 Whose Task Is It to Develop Students’ Global Competence? The interviewees unanimously agreed that developing students’ global competence is everyone’s task – the school, the parents, friends, and the students themselves should all contribute equally. Many of them admitted having an easier task as EFL teachers, as the English lesson does not have fixed content, and it depends on the teacher what topics they want to deal with in class. Ábel confirmed this by saying that in his history lessons, he could not deal with such topics as the amount of the material did not make it possible. Even

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though most of them admitted that they are in an easier position, they also believed that every teacher should pull their weight in this task. As Tilda put it: We are still passing on knowledge, and arts teachers and science teachers have to pass on completely different things. Everyone should pull their weight, but I do understand that Maths or Physics teachers cannot address these topics… but I think what happens is that language teachers and Hungarian literature and grammar teachers spend a lot of time [on these topics] […] and it’s a bit lonely. So mostly language teachers take care of it, while we still have the present perfect to cover (ST-8).

To what extent teachers feel it is their job to develop students’ global competence and bring in global, local, and intercultural issues to their classes may come down to how they see their role as teachers – whether they simply regard themselves as language teachers or language educators. All the interviewees claimed that they think educating children is their task too. This is how Áron saw the difference: I don’t think that I’m teaching a language, I’m teaching the kids. […] I feel less like a language teacher and being a sort of language teacher who just prepares students for language exams… that I don’t like, because I don’t think being a language teacher should be like this in today’s world. I think the main aim of education […] should be to produce intelligent, conscious, and mentally healthy school leavers… and whether they have a C8 language exam does not indicate whether they will become such people (LÁ-4).

In connection with the same question, Tilda felt that she was at a turning point: as she did not feel she had a well-developed personality yet, she did not feel she was completely ready to educate children. Nevertheless, she admitted that quite recently she had started to enjoy talking about deeper and educational topics more than simply explaining the grammar rules. In summary, the participating language teachers believe that developing students’ global competence is their task because they are aware that they have the means and the freedom to do it properly in their classes, just as it was suggested by UNESCO-MGIEP (2017). As described, they also accept the fact that nurturing healthy and conscious young people is part of their job, which

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is exactly the aim of global competence development too.

14.4.2.2 What Characteristics Does a Globally Competent Teacher Possess? The participants were asked to list the characteristics that make someone a globally competent teacher. First, many of the interviewees started to mention the characteristics of global citizens, i.e., they should be open and tolerant (KA, LÉ, NL, SZÁ, TI, VE), curious, and well-informed (KA, NL, VE). One of the features they highlighted was authenticity (LÁ, LÉ, SZÁ). According to Ákos, one of the signs of a teacher’s authenticity is to “show their human side and vulnerability” (SZÁ-7). Nevertheless, a teacher does not need to seem too open, and if they think that a topic is too controversial or uncomfortable for them, they should not include it in their lessons, because the students will immediately spot it. In Édua’s view, the teacher’s authenticity lies in the fact that they do not act differently from what they expect from the students; thus, for instance, when teaching about environmental matters, she should be the one setting an example for the students. Many participants mentioned the rapport between teachers and students. According to Tilda, Leó, and Izabella, a global teacher always considers the students’ interest, and if they feel the students need it, they are ready to improvise, “throw away the course book” (ST-8), and devote the whole class to an issue. Izabella also emphasized that there should be a partnership between teachers and students because this is a feature that affects the atmosphere of the class. Édua and Emma also remarked on the importance of creating a positive and democratic atmosphere. Apart from the positive and safe ambiance in a global teacher’s classroom, in Tilda’s views, unexpectedness should also be present, because this is “when students can thrive” and learn (ST-8). What she was referring to is that for students to learn, creating a safe space, where they can genuinely express their opinion, is not always enough; it may be more beneficial to create a brave space (Arao and Clemens 2013), where the teacher moves the students out of their comfort zones. Global teachers

14  Hungarian Secondary School Teachers’ Views on Global Competence Development in English…

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also like to and frequently bring local, global, and did not include here concerns being a community intercultural issues to their classes, even if they teacher, and this dimension was also missing are controversial (BÁ, HK, LÁ); or when the stu- from their answers to the previous research quesdents bring them up, they are likely to elaborate tion. Being a community teacher means creating on these topics and lead discussions on them a bridge between the classroom and outside the (HK, LÁ, ST, TI). Tilda regards global teachers classroom, the local community. It would be of as “cool teachers”; because they have the right utmost importance for teachers to embrace this skills and some self-knowledge, they know aspect of global education as well, to encourage exactly how to behave and they “have the guts to students to make use of whatever they learn in handle these situations” (ST-8). school and take action for the well-being of the Nevertheless, how can one become a globally community. Nonetheless, whether teachers are competent teacher? All the respondents claimed ready to take up the mantle of a global teacher that they considered themselves to be global citi- comes down to different factors, mostly to bravzens, and they listed very similar ways they ery, preparedness, and time and money, which develop themselves in this role. As being well-­ were also corroborated by Başarir’s (2017), informed was deemed very important by the par- Guo’s (2014), and Skinner’s (2012) studies. As a ticipants, they reported that they follow the news follow-up, the next section presents the results (BÁ, KA, LÁ, LÉ, NL, ST) on several new plat- and discusses the third research question about forms and they read a lot about different topics teachers’ needs for successfully developing their (KA, LÁ, ST, SZÁ, TI). Áron highlighted that students’ global competence. apart from reading, he also watches numerous videos (on YouTube) and listens to podcasts. Édua underlined the importance of self-­ 14.4.3 Teachers’ Needs to Develop development and self-reflection in becoming a Students’ Global Competence globally competent teacher, and she justified it by saying that she is consciously working on becom- Before answering the following question (What ing more open and tolerant. Others emphasized do you think, what would teachers need to effecthe relevance of interpersonal relationships. tively develop their students’ global compeÁron, for instance, loves debating with people. tence?), many participants expressed their doubts Ákos and Leó make every effort to build intercul- about making GCE mandatory and including it in tural relationships, so they travel abroad and try the National Core Curriculum with explicit outto make friends. Izabella, Aliz, and Klára attempt comes. They were uncertain about the global conto link this to professional development, and tent (i.e., what content should be taught) (VE) and what helps them in becoming globally competent help provided to the teachers (i.e., whether they teachers is belonging to global teacher communi- would organize professional development workties and participating in international projects. shops) (ST). Moreover, they expressed their fears Concerning the research question, based on about parents’ (NL), students’ (VE), but mostly the participants’ answers, they think that it would teachers’ attitudes and preparedness (HK, KA, be everyone’s task to develop students’ global LÁ, NL, VE). In Klára’s view, the biggest issue is competence; nevertheless, they see that they are that this dimension of education is completely in a favorable position, regarding the fact that missing from initial teacher education, and today’s they are quite free to bring in almost any topic practicing teachers have not heard too much about into a language class. The way they described GCE. She went on by saying that including global global teachers is in line with the literature, as education in teacher education is not sufficient they listed many attributes that figure on Selby either; it is essential to make trainees interested in and Pike’s list (1988), such as authenticity, shar- these issues, because “if the teacher receives the ing decision-making with the students, and creat- training and sees the value in it, only then will ing a positive classroom atmosphere. What they they implement it in class” (HK-6).

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When asked what they would need to effectively develop their students’ global competence, the participants compiled a long list. Time was highlighted by many participants (BÁ, KA, NL, SZÁ) as a decisive factor – they would need more time to prepare for these lessons (to read up on current issues) and time to recharge their batteries (many of them complained about being overworked and drained). They would also need their weekly working hours and administrative duties to be reduced so that they have more time for the abovementioned activities (BÁ, LÁ). The role of money was also emphasized in their answers, as they would need it to subscribe to magazines, participate in conferences and professional development workshops, and travel to develop their global citizen roles. Most of the participants (BÁ, HK, LÁ, LÉ, ST, TI, VE) asserted that they would need more professional development opportunities in global education because they would need to widen their pedagogical and methodological repertoire. Developing school resources and facilities would also be necessary: participants were complaining about unstable Wi-Fi, the lack of available computer laboratories (HK, VE), and the lack of printers, which prevent them from bringing various materials into class. When it came to answering the question, the interviewees touched upon the needs of the Hungarian teaching community. Many of them mentioned that a generation shift should happen soon, and teachers and educational policy leaders should rethink education. However, just as it has been indicated in the literature (Harris and Lázár 2011), the participants agreed that changing teachers’ beliefs is a hard and lengthy process. As Ákos put it, it would be of utmost importance for teachers “to have an inner drive to become well-­ read and well-informed, and not to think about this as a task” (SZÁ-8). To achieve this, it might be useful for teacher trainees to learn about global education in initial teacher education and to develop positive attitudes toward talking about global issues during their university years so that they become global citizens as early on in their careers as possible. Concerns about the implementation of the global perspective that participants expressed,

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such as the lack of time, money, and the fear of being well-prepared enough, also figure in the literature (Başarir 2017; Guo 2014; Skinner 2012), with few solutions offered to these problems. As it has been suggested, incorporating the global perspective into teacher education seems a viable option to make participants more interested in these matters, more equipped, and maybe even more likely to discuss global topics in their classes (Guo 2014; Divéki 2020). Apart from that, it would be worth reducing teachers’ working hours and providing them with more opportunities for learning about the world and thus for developing themselves in their global citizen roles.

14.5 Conclusion and Implications In the present study, the author attempted to gain insight into the Hungarian EFL teachers’ views on global competence development using an already validated interview guide (Divéki 2020). As the general results revealed, the participating teachers seem to be quite aware of the concept of global competence, and most of them managed to identify its key components. However, there are some aspects of global education that none of the participating teachers mentioned (e.g., cultural and intercultural knowledge, global awareness), so they need to be made more explicit in both pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher training programs. It is also important to note here that some of the participating teachers are actively involved in developing their students’ global competence through the use of different learner-centered activities requiring the active participation of their students (e.g., projects, presentations, debates), but it might be worth familiarizing them with activities aimed at enabling students to take action outside the classroom as well. As the second point, the participants agreed on the fact that developing students’ global competence should be a shared responsibility among schools, teachers, students, families, and friends. Even though they think it should be shared among all the stakeholders, they also acknowledged the

14  Hungarian Secondary School Teachers’ Views on Global Competence Development in English…

fact that their task is easier than some other teachers’, since the EFL lesson is an open-content space, with no fixed curriculum. Finally, it has become apparent that even though the participants feel that global competence development is their responsibility and though they feel that they are in a privileged position as language teachers, they would need a myriad of factors for successful implementation. What became evident is that their primary need is to become global citizens, or to develop themselves in this role first, to be authentic in developing their students’ global competence. However, for this, they would need time and money, so that they could read, prepare for these lessons, travel, get to know foreigners, and go to professional development workshops. The most important implication of this study is that global competence development should be markedly present in initial teacher education. The findings of the study suggest that even though the participants have a close understanding of global competence, some components need to be made more explicit, and university methodology lectures or seminars could provide perfect terrain to acquire more knowledge about this framework. Furthermore, even though the participants already use learner-centered activities to address issues of global significance, it would be worth putting more emphasis on instructing teacher trainees how to conduct experiential learning activities in their groups. First, however, it would be important to engage teacher trainees in such experiential activities (e.g., service learning, drama, web-collaboration projects) so that they develop their own global competence and realize the benefits of these activities through experience. Consequently, teacher education and continuous professional development programs should endeavor to nurture globally competent teacher trainees, who, in turn, will also have sufficient pedagogical content knowledge to implement GCE in their classes. Although it has brought novel results, the study presented here has some limitations. The credibility of the study could be increased by triangulation by conducting lesson observations and looking into teachers’ lesson plans and the

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materials they use and by involving other perspectives (e.g., the students’ points of view). Even though it is fair to say the participants were reasonably familiar with the notion of global competence, it might be worth following up on this study with a questionnaire study, to gain a wider perspective involving a considerable number of participants. Nevertheless, based on the findings of this study and the literature, it has become apparent that change regarding the content of lessons should come from teachers, as they are the gatekeepers. To help them, it would be necessary to invest more money into the Hungarian education system (mostly to raise teachers’ salaries and to finance their continuous development) and support them in their endeavors. Moreover, it would be useful to incorporate GCE and global competence more explicitly in teacher education, to enable teacher trainees during their university years to become global citizens and learn about the basics of this educational paradigm, so that they could efficiently nurture global citizens in the future. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Stroller, F. L. (1997). Project work: A means to promote language and content. English Teaching Forum, 35(4), 29-37. Szabó, A., & Kern, T. (2011). A magyar fiatalok politikai aktivitása [Hungarian youngsters’ political participation]. In B. Bauer, & A. Szabó (Eds.), Arctalan (?) nemzedék: Ifjúság 2000-2010 [Faceless (?) generation: Youth 2000–2010] (pp.  37-80). Budapest: Nemzeti Család és Szociálpolitikai Intézet. Thornton, S. (1991). Teacher as curricular-instructional gatekeeper in social studies. In J.  Shaver (Ed.), Handbook of research on social studies teaching and learning (pp. 237-240). New York: Macmillan. UNESCO. (2014). Global citizenship education: Preparing learners for the challenges of the 21st century. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ ark:/48223/pf0000227729_eng Accessed 27 May 2021. UNESCO. (2015). Global citizenship education: Topics and learning objectives. UNESCO. https://unesdoc. unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232993_eng Accessed 27 May 2021. UNESCO. (2016). Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000245656 UNESCO. (2018). Preparing teachers for global citizenship education: A template. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000265452 UNESCO-MGIEP. (2017). Textbooks for sustainable development a guide to embedding. UNESCO MGIEP. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000259932 Accessed 27 May 2021. WEF. (2015). New vision for education: Unlocking the potential of technology. WEF. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFUSA_NewVisionforEducation_ Report2015.pdf Accessed 27 May 2021. WEF. (2020). Schools of the future: Defining new models of education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. WEF. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ Schools_of_the_Future_Report_2019.pdf Accessed 27 May 2021.

Promoting and Sustaining Global Citizenship Through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Cultural Liberation Pedagogy

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Kevin Cataldo

Abstract

Our society depends heavily on an educated citizenry, and our society’s most indispensable social institutions are our schools where our educators could transform global visions for a better world into a reality. Our children and youth worldwide could be given the chance of becoming conscious global citizens in today’s ever-changing and interconnected world by means of certain pedagogies. Using the theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy coined by Ladson-Billings three decades ago, this chapter provides teachers, teacher educators, school leaders, curriculum writers, and educational policymakers with real-life, culturally relevant, and reflective pedagogical questions that they could use in their settings to promote global citizenship. Built on this existing framework, the chapter also proposes a new stance for educators: Cultural Liberation Pedagogy which is presented as a complimentary approach to sustain global citizenship in educational settings. Seeing teaching as a way of empowerment and liberation, Cultural Liberation Pedagogy has four key intersecting pillars: lived experiences, cultural identity, academic growth, and dynamic minds, all of K. Cataldo (*) Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA e-mail: [email protected]

which contribute to the education of future global citizens and leaders.

15.1 Introduction Global citizenship and sustainable development have been on the educational agenda of nations and states for a long time. These wide concepts became an axis for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCE) which entered educational policies as adjectival educations a few decades ago. However, only recently have they gained unprecedented popularity internationally with developments including the Global Education Charter of North-South Centre of the Council of Europe (CoE 1997), the Maastricht Global Education Declaration in the Europe-wide Global Education Congress (2002), the UN Decade of ESD (UNESCO 2005–2014), followed by the Global Action Programme on ESD 2015–2019 (UNESCO 2014) and a recent framework, ESD for 2030 (UNESCO 2020), or the declaration of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNESCO 2015). All these initiatives have established a basis for local implementations and modifications in diverse national contexts. For Poland, as for the majority of the EU countries, ESD and GCE became official educational components in the first decade of this century.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0_15

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In 2014, at the 69th Session General Debate of the UN General Assembly, Mr. Baron Waqa, President of the Republic of Nauru (at the time), stated the following: “We live in an interconnected world, and the actions of one country or region impact the lives of people half a world away. Conflict, poverty, and disease can send refugees across borders and oceans and sometimes all the way to our shores. We can no longer escape each other” (Waqa 2014, p. 2). President Waqa’s statement remains powerful and is even more relevant today, as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is currently showing humanity that diseases remain a threat, regardless of where one lives in the world. However, diseases are not the only threat to humanity—war, poverty, and racism are. A more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, and sustainable world is yet to exist (Vaccari and Gardinier 2019). For that reason, all classrooms worldwide, regardless of the educational level, need Global Citizenship Education (GCE), which intensifies the interconnectedness among people and societies across the world. According to UNESCO (2021), GCE aims to empower all learners to recognize that they are all global citizens and have a duty to change our world for the better—through education. To envision and build a more peaceful, tolerant, and inclusive world, citizens worldwide need to acknowledge the importance of education and its role in one’s community. It is through education, schools, and curriculum that we can guide learners to critically analyze and make sense of the social, political, and economic inequities that affect their daily lives. Recognizing the power of education and its importance in transforming our world into a more just planet encourages learners to realize that they are all global citizens and have a purpose in our ever-changing and unjust world. With this in mind, today, more than ever before, teachers worldwide need to promote and sustain GCE in their classrooms if they wish to see their students recognize themselves as more than just citizens in their community or society but realize that they, as future global citizens and leaders, have a more significant role and place globally. One way of promoting and sustaining global citi-

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zenship in classrooms is Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP), which creates a space for academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness.

15.1.1 What Is Culturally Relevant Pedagogy? The concept of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) emerged in the 1980s, and it was theoretically coined during the 1990s (Vavrus 2008). Nearly three decades ago, Ladson-Billings (1995a) introduced her landmark article, “But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case For Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” to the world of education. In the United States, specifically in urban schools, CRP consists of three fundamental tenets: academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. CRP aims to make learning meaningful for students from culturally, racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse backgrounds (Ladson-Billings 1995a, b, 2001, 2009). Ladson-Billings defines CRP as a teaching style where a students’ culture, identities, and lived experiences are present in their learning experiences inside the classroom. Despite the social, political, and economic inequities being prevalent in the world, students must get the opportunity to develop their academic skills (e.g., literacy, mathematical, technological, social, and political skills). Our society depends heavily on an educated citizenry. To transform our world into a more equitable place to live, we need citizens to possess pivotal knowledge and skills to create innovative solutions to crucial global issues (e.g., global warming, lack of access to educational resources). Thus, we can no longer wait for social, political, and economic inequities to no longer exist in our world to teach and guide our children and youth to become global citizens. In other words, we cannot wait nor remain hopeful that our respective governments and politicians will one day realize that they are responsible for allowing vital societal issues to stay intact. Teachers can help their students achieve various academic milestones by personalizing their

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instruction, which caters to each student’s academic development. When supporting individual student development, especially academic growth, culturally relevant educators must demonstrate cultural competence toward their students, mainly because they possess diverse values, beliefs, and ways of thinking and viewing the world (Ladson-Billings 1995a). Teachers support the development of their students by successfully and respectfully navigating the diverse cultures and lived experiences that students bring with them to school.

15.1.1.1 Three Tenets of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy There are three tenets of CRP to be present in the classroom in order to promote, achieve, and sustain GCE in classrooms. Tenet #1: Academic Success—To achieve academic success in the classroom, teachers must (1) set explicit learning and achievement goals for all students; (2) dedicate most class time to various forms of rigorous teaching and learning experiences; (3) utilize multiple types of assessments to assess student learning and not merely focus on standardized assessments; (4) teach students how to track their progress (learning growth); and (5) be reflective and knowledgeable regarding their subject matter and pedagogical content (Ladson-Billings 2009). Tenet #2: Cultural Competence—For cultural competence to be present in the classroom, teachers must (1) acknowledge and understand the role of culture in student learning, specifically its influence; (2) be committed to learning about their students’ cultures and the communities they belong to; and (3) understand that authentic learning occurs when we use culture as a basis for learning (Ladson-­ Billings 2009). It is pivotal for students to get the chance to embrace their own culture while simultaneously acquiring competence in another culture that is different from theirs. Tenet #3: Sociopolitical Consciousness—To promote the development of one’s sociopolitical consciousness, teachers must (1) must be

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aware of the past and current social and political realities and how they affect student learning both inside and outside of the classroom and (2) plan, design, and implement lessons that provide students with learning experiences that allow them to critically analyze the social and political realities that affect their lives and their lived experiences (Ladson-­ Billings 2009).

15.2 SDGs, Global Citizenship, and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Considering the strong connection between sustainable development and global citizenship, CRP would be an effective means to achieve the SDGs within the educational arena and to promote GCE in all classrooms, regardless of educational level.

15.2.1 How Is Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Related to SDGs? In 2015, all member states of the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, “a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future” (Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2021, p. 1). The 2030 Agenda consist of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). It calls for developed and developing member states to unite in a global partnership and recognize that poverty and inequitable access to healthcare and education plague our planet. The Agenda also invite us to acknowledge how climate change affects our oceans and forests, which are essential to life on earth. The UN called for a global partnership in 2015; however, simply uniting countries is not enough. All conscious global citizens including but not limited to elected officials, school leaders, teachers, community members, and activists must contribute and do their part. Thus, as an educator and a conscious global citizen who believes that, theory, when used in practice, can

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change our world for the better, precisely how classroom teachers approach and use their curriculum. I invite all global conscious educators to join me in using Ladson-Billings’ theory of CRP to promote, achieve, and sustain the SDGs 4, 5, 10, 16, and 17  in our classrooms. This can be achieved by focusing on tenet #1 (academic success) and tenet #3 (sociopolitical consciousness) of CRP. Using tenets #1 and #3, teachers can cultivate within our students the importance of using our lived experiences and knowledge to make our world a more socially, economically, politically, and racially just and equitable planet.

15.2.1.1 Aligning SDGs 4, 5, 10, 16, and 17 with Tenets #1 and #3 of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy SDG4 (Quality Education): In the United States and worldwide, not all students have access to an inclusive and equitable education that promotes lifelong learning and opportunities for all (Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2021). Understanding this is key for primary and secondary teachers mainly because teachers must critically analyze their curriculum and pedagogical approaches for students to experience academic success and enhance their sociopolitical consciousness (Ladson-Billings 1995a, b). Therefore, at the classroom level, teachers can promote and achieve the SDG4 by ensuring that all students are given a fair chance at achieving academic success and developing and challenging their sociopolitical consciousness. This can be accomplished by planning purposeful and intentional learning experiences for your students. SDG5 (Gender Equality): Discrimination against women and girls, especially in schools and the workplace, is still prevalent (Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2021). Students can engage in conversations regarding social injustices and discrimination that women and girls face daily in a culturally relevant classroom, especially in the workforce. Thus, culturally relevant teachers can successfully align the SDG5 with tenets #1 and #3 by providing

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students with the chance to learn and talk about gender discrimination in the classroom through specific class assignments, independent and collaborative projects, and class discussions. In addition, while addressing gender equality, I find it pivotal for teachers and students to also engage in critical conversations about the role of race in learning and the world. Racism is embedded in all facets of the wider society and worldwide. We need to address racism and how it has and continues to affect the lives of billions of global citizens. Ignoring racism, as if it is nonexistent, will continue to prevent our world from being a just planet. The fact that “No Racism” is not listed as an SDG begs the following questions: Does the UN not see race? Is it a colorblind non-governmental organization? Putting an end to gender inequality is vital, but how different would our world be if gender inequality and racism did not exist? SDG10 (Reduced Inequality): Social, political, and economic inequalities within and among countries prevent global citizens from succeeding in their academic and professional lives (Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2021). Teachers can promote and achieve the SDG10 in their classrooms by (1) acknowledging the lived experiences and cultures of their students and how both tend to be heavily influenced by social, political, and economic inequalities of their communities and the wider society; (2) allowing students to use their knowledge and lived experiences to brainstorm solutions for inequalities that affect their lives critically; and (3) inviting students to challenge their sociopolitical consciousness. Teachers must allow students to engage in inquiry-based research projects that allow them to learn more about how various communities around them and nations tend to face similar inequalities that they encounter in their daily lives. SDG16 (Peace and Justice Strong Institutions): Earlier in this chapter, I mentioned how our world revolves around public and educational policies, which is true. However, it is vital to acknowledge that societal institutions such as

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primary and secondary schools play a significant role in allowing policies to maintain and perpetuate the social, economic, and political inequities that affect the lives of billions of children and youth and their families (Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2021). Therefore, using tenets #1 and #3 of CRP, primary and secondary schools can disrupt the current status quo. In other words, classroom teachers and school leaders must not accept or maintain the social, political, and economic inequalities that hinder student learning. I want to clarify that schools alone cannot resolve societal issues (Berliner 2013). Nevertheless, suppose school communities across a city, state, and nation unite and rally against inequities. In that case, schools can become institutions with conscious global citizens that can make their communities and, most importantly, our world a more just and sustainable planet. SDG17 (Partnerships to Achieve the Goal): In a world plagued by social, political, and economic injustices, developing partnerships that can change our world for the better can seem challenging and often impossible. However, if member states, both developed and developing, are willing to work collectively, they can strengthen and revive various global partnerships that can result in a more equitable and sustainable world (Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2021). Considering this, CRP is a theory that focuses heavily on collectivism over individualism (Ladson-Billings 2009). The reality is that we live in a competitive world. To achieve success and greatness in life, one must focus on oneself and compete for power and success. Hence, we must ask the following question: Are schools educating students to become individual learners and self-centered and competitive individuals? The teachers need to teach our students the power of collaborative learning and knowledge construction; this is vital in academic settings and the workforce. Establishing a community of learners promotes academic success and authentic learning. All members feel welcomed and see themselves as knowl-

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edge creators; only when this happens can we truly achieve the SDG17.

15.2.2 Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Becoming a Global Citizen When we accept that we are global citizens, we officially begin to empower ourselves and acknowledge that we live in an interconnected world, that is, we recognize that we live in a world plagued by critical issues that threaten our world’s peace and sustainability (e.g., human rights violations, poverty). I define a global citizen as someone aware that they share a world with billions of people—and their place in it. Using CRP, teachers can provide their students with meaningful and rigorous learning experiences. Learning opportunities expose them to diverse and pivotal values, perspectives, critical thinking skills, and knowledge that allow them to become responsible global citizens in their communities, societies, and our world. The moment we are born, we become unconscious global citizens. By unconscious, I mean that our minds do not automatically make us aware that we are global citizens. As we grow up, mature, and develop our identities, we become conscious global citizens of our ever-changing world. When we acknowledge that we live in an interconnected world and understand what it means to be a citizen on earth, we become global citizens. According to Reysen and Katzarska-­ Miller (2013), global citizenship is defined as the “awareness, caring, and embracing of cultural diversity while promoting social justice and sustainability, coupled with a sense of responsibility to act” (p.  858). When we develop awareness regarding significant social and political issues that affect the whole world (e.g., poverty and lack of access to education), we begin to acknowledge and appreciate the world’s interconnectedness. We consciously begin to process that we are bound together by similar and identical social, political, and economic realities of our time regardless of our location. For example, when a student in the United States learns that racism is

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a global issue, their minds begin to transform, and they start to realize that they live in an interconnected world. In addition, when I think of an interconnected world, I envision a world with schools where educators use CRP to unite with students and establish what Ladson-Billings (2009) calls a “community of learners.” A community of learners is a classroom of culturally, ethnically, racially, and linguistically diverse students and their teachers. In a community of learners, “knowledge is continuously recreated, recycled, and shared by teachers and students. It is not static or unchanging” (Ladson-Billings 2009, p. 89). A part of becoming an active global citizen is acknowledging that our cultures, values, perspectives, and lived experiences influence our knowledge, making knowledge recyclable, dynamic, and, most importantly, worthy of being shared with the world. When knowledge is recreated, recycled, and shared across our borders, oceans, and shores, we can officially begin challenging the social, political, and economic inequities that plague the world. When we question and challenge inequities that affect our lives, we begin to make our world a more equitable and just planet for all of humanity. Earlier, I mentioned that we become conscious global citizens when we realize that we live in an interconnected world—this is our first real step in transforming our world for the better. Considering this, I want to make the following clear: “The concept of global citizenship does not exist at the legal or constitutional level; it is more a state of mind or awareness of the global context and entails recognizing that individuals have rights and responsibilities at multiple levels; an intellectual stage and a sense of connectedness and belonging that extends to all of humanity” (Cantón and Garcia 2018, p. 22). In other words, no law requires us to become global citizens; however, it is a state of mind that we must seek within ourselves. From birth, we are unconscious global citizens; however, as we grow up and evolve, especially when we first enter school, we have the chance to become conscious global citizens. For that reason, as an educator and a global citizen, I, unlike Cantón and Garcia (2018),

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believe that not only do colleges and universities “have a serious responsibility in preparing students to be agents of change” (p. 22) but so do primary and secondary school teachers. Through CRP, precisely its three tenets—academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness—teachers can guide their students in becoming conscious global citizens. According to Ladson-Billings (2001), teachers and students conceptualize academic success differently. Thus, from the lens of GCE, academic success is defined as acquiring and valuing the abundant knowledge and unknown knowledge that spreads across our borders, oceans, and shores and into our primary and secondary classrooms, from this viewpoint and once we acknowledge this conceptualization of academic success in the classroom. These students walk into our classrooms as unconscious global citizens and become conscious citizens. However, simply walking into our classrooms does not allow our students to become conscious global citizens— you and their classmates do. How so? Let us think about it: by establishing a welcoming and culturally relevant learning community, the sharing of knowledge and the creation of new knowledge can occur. In fact, before putting CRP and its three tenets into practice, we must recognize that culture influences knowledge and how we learn about and understand our world. Nieto (2000) defines culture as “the ever-­ changing values, traditions, social and political relationships, and worldview created, shared, and transformed by a group of people bound together by a combination of factors that can include a common history, geographic location, language, social class, and religion” (p. 139). Here, Nieto is describing our dynamic world—one with conscious and unconscious global citizens united with one common mission—to make the world more equitable and just. Therefore, when designing lessons that promote and sustain GCE, educators can use the following reflective questions based on the three tenets of CRP: Academic Success: Do my lessons (learning outcomes) allow my students to acquire, explore, and value the known and unknown knowledge

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created, shared, and transformed globally? When we ask ourselves this question, we provide our students with the chance to become “concerned about human rights, respectful of different cultures, effective in dealing with cross-cultural contexts, and capable of adapting to other settings” (Cantón and Garcia 2018, p. 22). Cultural Competence: Do my lessons (learning outcomes) provide my students with the chance to embrace their own culture and enhance their intercultural sensitivity and competence? When we ask ourselves this question, we prepare our students “to face the challenges of this evolving world, raising their awareness of the importance of effectively navigating across cultural difference to generate a positive impact in this interconnected society” (Cantón and Garcia 2018, p. 22). Sociopolitical Consciousness: Do my lessons (learning outcomes) provide my students with the chance to explore and critically analyze the social, political, and economic realities that affect their lives and those of other global citizens? When we ask ourselves this question, we allow our students to either affirm or learn that we live in a world where human rights violations and inequities threaten world peace and sustainability.

15.3 Pedagogical Agents to Promote and Sustain Global Citizenship Education Although there are a variety of pedagogical spaces in which GCE could be promoted and sustained by critical agents, I, in this chapter, discuss teachers, teacher educators, school leaders, curriculum writers, and policymakers as important agents of change.

15.3.1 Teachers One of the most powerful tools of teachers is lesson planning which could also seem to be a daunting task for them. I believe that lesson

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planning becomes intimidating for teachers, especially when they recognize that culture and knowledge are not static. In other words, we cannot simply reuse a previously written lesson plan and ignore the culture and knowledge in front of us—i.e., our new students. Nonetheless, it is vital to state that promoting, achieving, and sustaining GCE can be accomplished across all grade levels (in primary and secondary grades) and content areas (reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies). How? Consider the following reflective pedagogical questions for lesson planning: 1. Ask yourself: What is the end goal of my lesson or unit of study? Knowing what you want your students to learn from your lesson or unit of study is pivotal. This academic goal is what you want them to achieve and successfully use both inside and outside the classroom. This question allows you to promote, achieve, and sustain GCE in your classroom. Notably, the goal of GCE with CRP as a guide is to provide students with meaningful learning experiences. In doing so, students get the chance to explore diverse values, perspectives, critical thinking skills, and knowledge that enable them to become responsible global citizens in their communities and societies and the world. I use the term “diverse” to emphasize how becoming a global citizen requires acknowledging that our world thrives because of its various and unique societies. Our diverse societies come together and connect through our borders, oceans, and shores worldwide, across all continents. 2. After deciding what the end goal of your lesson or unit of study is, ask yourself: How will the end goal of my lesson or unit of study allow my students to explore their culture and community along with other cultures and communities simultaneously? Acknowledging the role of culture in student learning is crucial mainly because it allows teachers to promote, achieve, and sustain GCE in their classrooms. Through the educator’s understanding of culture and its role in student learning, students can experience authentic

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learning across all content areas. When culture is present and acknowledged in the classroom, specifically in the curriculum, students acquire the necessary critical thinking skills and knowledge to feel empowered and connected with the current world. Culture is a way of life, and when they learn about diverse ways of life, they acknowledge their interconnectedness with our world—both consciously and subconsciously. Thus, they become empowered and create innovative approaches and solutions that address critical world issues such as human rights violations and social, political, and economic inequities, threatening our world peace and sustainability. 3. After recognizing the importance of culture, specifically, its role in student learning (your lesson), ask yourself: How will the end goal of my lesson or unit of study allow myself and students to reflect, explore, and critically analyze local, national, and global social, political, and economic realities? Teachers and students need to acknowledge that our world is a dynamic planet that revolves around social, political, and economic realities. When teachers and students collectively apply knowledge from a specific content area (e.g., literature and scientific theories) to what has happened and is currently happening in our world, they genuinely sustain GCE. For example, both teachers and students see the importance of creating, sharing, and trans­ forming new knowledge in various content areas to transform societal and global visions for a better world into a reality. Earlier I mentioned how lesson planning could be a daunting task, especially when teachers know that culture and knowledge are dynamic. It is fundamental for teachers looking to guide their students in becoming conscious global citizens across all academic content areas to understand that using CRP to promote, achieve, and sustain GCE requires them to acknowledge that they are both teachers and students and, most importantly, lifelong learners. If we approach our lesson plans and our overall teaching practices with the following mindset: “My job is simply to teach,” we

fail to recognize and accept that our world is a dynamic planet with new knowledge constantly emerging together with old knowledge on our borders, oceans, and shores. We cannot authentically teach without recognizing that we are lifelong learners, and we must approach both old knowledge and new knowledge from various perspectives. However, to do so, we must abandon the notion that we are “educated teachers.” Labeling ourselves as “educated individuals” or “experts” in our subject-matter and pedagogical content knowledge does not allow our minds to evolve but rather remain static, hence preventing us from truly learning with and from our students who come to school with their knowledge, culture, and lived experiences that guide how they view our world. Furthermore, teachers must engage in deep pre- and post-lesson planning self-reflections to shift away from the “my job is simply to teach” mindset and successfully promote, achieve, and sustain GCE. When teachers reflect on their practice, they become more effective teachers that better serve their conscious global citizens (their students). Thus, I encourage teachers to ponder on the following reflective questions: Pre-lesson Questions: 1. In what ways can I remind myself and my students that we are constantly evolving as lifelong learners and conscious global citizens? 2. In what ways can I help motivate my students and myself when we find ourselves struggling to see ourselves as knowledge creators? 3. In what ways can I help my students and myself keep track and assess our learning together? 4. In what ways can my students and I make sense of crucial social, political, and economic inequities that affect our daily lives?

Post-lesson Questions: 1. Did my students achieve academic success during today’s lesson? (knowledge that will

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empower them to tackle world injustices that threaten world peace and sustainability). 2. Did my students enhance their global and sociopolitical consciousness? 3. Are my students and I on track to achieving and sustaining GCE in our classroom? 4. How did my students and I feel after today’s lesson?

15.3.2 Teacher Educators Even (2012) defines teacher educators as “those who educate prospective teachers and practicing teachers, that is, those who initiate, guide, and support teacher learning across the lifespan” (p.  7). By focusing solely on defining teacher educators as individuals that educate and train future and practicing teachers, Even overlooks that today, more than ever, as a world, we can only truly embrace our diversity and promote, achieve, and sustain GCE by educating and training well-prepared teachers to meet the learning requirements of ethnically, racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse student populations. In other words, to help teachers promote, achieve, and sustain GCE in their classrooms worldwide, nations must design teacher education programs (TEPs) with culturally responsive teaching, social justice, and GCE at the roots. In short, ­curricular and pedagogical changes must occur in TEPs, and colleges and universities with TEPs must undergo reforms. If change is not made, current and future teachers will find themselves struggling to promote, achieve, and sustain GCE in their classrooms. Thus, students will neither get the chance to become authentic, conscious global citizens nor create innovative solutions to social, economic, and political issues that threaten world peace and sustainability. During conversations and debates around curricular and pedagogical reforms in teacher preparation programs, the following question emerges: What bodies of knowledge (e.g., humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and professional education courses) are most pivotal to include in a program? (Morey et al. 1997). Morey et al. (1997) argue that a teacher education pro-

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gram can include courses from each academic unit of study. Providing prospective teachers with knowledge across all content areas is vital because students can challenge their thinking and enhance their sociopolitical consciousness across various content areas. Therefore, both educational practitioners and researchers worldwide, as teacher educators, can help pre-service and in-­ service teachers by providing different culturally relevant pedagogical approaches, practices, and knowledge responsive to diverse students and promoting the need for GCE. Moreover, in the United States, TEPs are designed and run by full-time and part-time college and university faculty members who typically hold doctoral degrees in education and have many years of teaching experience in K-12 settings (Morey et al. 1997). These faculty members are prominent individuals in their programs and bring knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, and leadership styles to their teacher education programs. Thus, preparing teachers to become culturally relevant teachers in an ever-changing world can be a daunting and demanding task (Gay 2018; Villegas and Lucas 2002). However, such reforms would neither be so intimidating nor seem impossible to achieve if TEPs acknowledge the following: • Our world is constantly changing. • Knowledge is continuously created and is not static. • We are all global citizens and do not belong to one body of water. Furthermore, it is vital to recognize that in today’s world, we must ensure that teachers become successful culturally relevant teachers and become conscious global teachers. In other words, as a society, we need to support “future teachers in developing a set of fundamental orientations, including awareness that it is appropriate if their worldviews are dramatically different from the worldviews of children who are racially, culturally, socially, and linguistically different from themselves” (Villegas and Lucas 2002, p. 177), that is, prospective teachers cannot leave

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their TEP if they are not prepared to navigate a classroom with diverse unconscious global citizens effectively.

15.3.3 School Leaders As an educator myself, often, I find myself genuinely believing that teachers alone must aim to be the best culturally relevant and globally conscious educators. However, in reality, school leaders must lead by example and model to exemplify to their teachers what CRP and GCE must look like in a school. In other words, today, if classrooms worldwide are to promote, achieve, and sustain GCE truly, school leaders must work collaboratively with their teachers. In this chapter, I define school leaders as individuals responsible for leading a school community and ensuring that they and their teachers work in collaboration and partake in various professional development opportunities. In addition, in this section, I invite school leaders to reflect on the following questions: 1. Do I provide my teachers and myself with the opportunity to critically reflect and express how social, economic, and political realities and inequities of our times affect our school community? 2. Do I provide my teachers and myself with the opportunity to challenge and develop our sociopolitical consciousness? 3. Do I provide my teachers and myself with the opportunity to engage in meaningful and ongoing professional development that allows us to enhance our knowledge regarding best leadership and teaching practices for CRP and GCE? 4. Do I consider myself to be a conscious global citizen? If so, how does it influence my leadership practices? Today, more than ever, school leaders must view themselves as conscious global citizens. Thus, when prominent and global political leaders fail their citizens and schools are our society’s most

indispensable institutions (Noguera 2003), school leaders must rise to the occasion and serve the students and school community. Eventually, schools will forever be safety nets for children and youth worldwide. Thus, school leaders must constantly reflect on their leadership practices, mainly because their primary role is to support their teachers. These individuals are responsible for guiding and teaching their students how to use their knowledge to navigate our ever-­ changing world. As we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, school leaders must ask themselves the following question: What will CRP and GCE look like in my school building post the COVID-19 pandemic?

15.3.4 Curriculum Writers In the United States, specifically in traditional public schools, Eurocentric ideologies and cultures are rooted in the primary and secondary school curriculum (Lyiscott 2019). Beginning in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, reforms for a more multicultural school curriculum began (Vavrus 2008). However, it was not until the 1980s that Banks (1981) began arguing that public schools in the United States are not responsive to the racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse student populations. Today, nearly five decades later, scholars (Aronson and Laughter 2016; Emdin 2016; Gay 2018; Knight-Manuel and Marciano 2018; Paris 2012) continue to argue that public schools in the United States are still failing its students, particularly those who reside in marginalized communities. Gay (2018) emphasizes “too many students of color have not been achieving in school as well as they should (and can) for far too long” (p. 1). In making this comment, Gay urges curriculum writers to undergo significant reforms and design a curriculum responsive to our increasingly and ever-changing student demographics. While scholars (Gay 2018; Ladson-Billings 1995a, b, 2001, 2009) argue for a more culturally responsive and relevant curriculum, I, however, urge curriculum writers, not only in the United States

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but all over the globe, to reflect on the following questions when designing curriculum for diverse students: 1. How can our curriculum embrace, validate, and be responsive to various cultures? 2. How can our curriculum promote, achieve, and sustain GCE? 3. How can our curriculum provide students with the opportunity to acknowledge that they are all global citizens of an interconnected world? 4. How can our curriculum allow teachers to guide their students in becoming conscious global citizens?

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teachers, school leaders, and curriculum writers in guiding and educating children and youth to become global conscious citizens? Moreover, as an educator, and, most importantly, as a conscious global citizen, one must acknowledge that the world does not merely revolve around different bodies of water but various public and educational policies, that is, without policies, our world will not be able to function correctly. However, we must be conscious that our world is plagued with social, economic, and political injustices, especially in public schools, which affect school children and youth, and other community members (Ewing 2018; Carter and Welner 2013). Thus, in the United States and around the world, to indeed promote GCE for a more just and sustainable world, educational policymakers must critically reflect on the following questions:

The questions mentioned above invite us to recognize that curriculum writers also have a vital role in promoting, achieving, and sustaining GCE in classrooms. In other words, teachers cannot successfully educate and guide racially, ethni- 1 . How are our current educational policies, specally, culturally, and linguistically diverse stucifically in primary and secondary schools, dents in becoming conscious global citizens if promoting, reproducing, and perpetuating Eurocentric ideologies and cultures are deep-­ social, economic, and political injustices? rooted in the curriculum (Lyiscott 2019). 2. How can we propose and design policies that help teachers and school leaders genuinely guide students in becoming conscious global 15.3.5 Educational Policymakers citizens? 3. Because we live in an interconnected world, According to Cross (2014) “Education is a field can our world thrive if educational policymakin which we have failed to educate the profession ers worldwide collectively collaborate to proabout the value of research and data, how to gain pose and design policies that no longer hinder access to it, and its value” (p. 186). Cross’s argustudent learning and their lives? ment highlights that in education, we, specifi- 4. Because culture is at the center of teaching cally in the United States, tend to ignore valuable and learning, how can we design culturally and authentic data and research that can truly relevant policies/responsive to the global citiguide us in transforming our public education zens we serve in our classrooms? system. For instance, Ladson-Billings (2009) shares how CRP, if taken seriously, can genuinely improve learning experiences for students who 15.4 A New Stance: Cultural are historically marginalized by the wider society Liberation Pedagogy and its public education system. Considering this and thinking about CRP and GCE, all policymak- In academia, researchers and scholars are called ers must ask the following question: In today’s upon to contribute to the past and current literadynamic and interconnected world, am I, as an ture in their respective fields of study (Ladson-­ educational policymaker, proposing, designing, Billings 2014). While reviewing key and relevant and encouraging the implementation of educa- studies in teacher education, specifically culturtional policies that support teacher educators, ally relevant pedagogy, I found myself re-­

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conceptualizing Ladson-Billings’ (1995a, b) original theory, that is, today I find myself offering a new term, meaning, and stance to the current scholarship, called cultural liberation pedagogy (CLP). CLP is a pedagogy that focuses on the following four key intersecting pillars. Each of these four pillars is derived from the scholarship of my predecessors (Gay 2018; Ladson-Billings 1995a, b, 2001; Nieto 2000, 2010): 1. 2. 3. 4.

Lived experiences Cultural identity Academic growth Dynamic minds

Furthermore, when having critical conversations regarding different forms of pedagogies, it is pivotal to remember that teaching is about empowerment and liberation, that is, we need to acknowledge that students already have a voice. We do not give them a voice; they come into our classrooms with unique voices, cultures, and lived experiences. As teachers, school leaders, public servants, and parents, our primary duty is to ensure that our children and youth are given the opportunity to make their voices, cultures, and lived experiences heard and serve as a vehicle that guides their current and future educational and professional endeavors. CLP acknowledges that despite the various forms of oppression that exist in our society (e.g., ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized) the human mind is a powerful, dynamic, and free organ, that is, our minds and ways of thinking are constantly evolving because of our conscious and subconscious day-to-day lived experiences and perceptions that influence and shape our beliefs, ideas, thinking, and our overall understanding of the world. CLP recognizes that our minds seek freedom, i.e., the liberty to evolve fluidly and freely, along with one’s lived experiences and cultural identity, just like culture and our society. Hence, CLP seeks to acknowledge that our being heavily depends on evolving freely and dynamically without restraints. CLP rests on four intersecting pillars; all pillars meet and cross each other fluidly:

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Pillar #1: Lived experiences—Recognize and value that all students have lived experiences that are constantly evolving and influencing their cultural identity and their overall understanding of the world, along with their place in society. Pillar #2: Cultural identity—Recognize and value that all students have their own cultural identity (who they are). Schools (society’s most indispensable institutions) are constantly influencing and developing a student’s cultural identity. Pillar #3 Academic growth—Recognize that students experience intellectual growth every day inside and outside of their classroom. However, to do so, their personal abilities and cultural capital that they bring with them to school must be valued and acknowledged in all aspects of the curriculum. When doing so, students can then construct new knowledge and thus experience academic growth. Pillar #4: Dynamic minds—Recognize that students are human beings, that is, they are dynamic individuals with constantly evolving minds, just like society and culture.

15.4.1 Cultural Liberation Pedagogy and Global Citizenship Education Earlier in this chapter, I argued how educationalists can use Ladson-Billings’ theory of CRP to promote, achieve, and sustain GCE in primary and secondary schools. In this section, I invite readers to join me and explore and consider how CLP can be used to promote, achieve, and sustain GCE. Primary and secondary school teachers can use CLP in a manner that acknowledges that education should be used as a tool that allows our minds to evolve freely and dynamically without negative societal restraints. I define societal restraints as negative social, political, and economic inequities that hinder student learning and overall cognitive and metacognitive development. Lived Experiences: We begin to encounter lived experiences the moment we are born. Ladson-­

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Billings (1995a) argues the need to acknowledge a student’s lived experiences in all aspects of learning. However, I contend that CLP invites us to recognize that lived experiences are more than just interacting and perceiving the world around us in our daily classroom and other learning experiences. It is about pondering on the following questions: At the moment, how have my most recent lived experiences helped me evolve and understand where I fit in our interconnected and ever-changing world? How do they help me acknowledge that I am an evolving conscious global citizen? Cultural Identity: Scholars (see Ladson-Billings 1995a; Nieto 2000) have argued how important it is for schools to recognize and use a student’s culture in all aspects of the curriculum. Nevertheless, we must move away from simply acknowledging the role of culture in student learning, that is, Ladson-Billings (1995a) and Nieto (2000) overlook the fact that schools are capable of allowing one’s home and community cultural identity to thrive in the classroom. However, only schools, which are our society’s most indispensable institutions, are competent, especially in primary and secondary education where classrooms teach students the importance of recognizing that all of humanity is united by landmasses and various bodies of water. Through our continents and oceans, we can develop our cultural identities (our way of being), specifically through sharing and creation of knowledge. Academic Growth: Gay (2018) and Ladson-­ Billings (1995a) argue that culturally, ethnically, racially, and linguistically diverse students can achieve academic success and are worthy of rigorous learning experiences. By focusing solely on providing diverse student populations with the opportunity to achieve academic success, Gay (2018) and Ladson-­ Billings (1995a) overlook that culturally relevant and responsive teachers must genuinely teach students that to experience academic success, they must first understand that they are lifelong learners. Every day, as learners,

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we experience academic growth, especially as we complete various academic tasks and other learning experiences. In doing so, each day, we are closer to achieving critical academic goals and milestones, thus experiencing academic success. Therefore, to promote, achieve, and sustain GCE, teachers and students must remind themselves that to change the world for the better, they must hold themselves accountable for experiencing and keeping track of their academic growth consistently. Dynamic Minds: Nieto (2000) reminds us of how important it is for teachers to keep in mind that one’s culture never remains static in society. While Nieto is correct, she overlooks and does not explicitly explain how the human mind, a free and evolving organ, is central to creating new knowledge. The creation of new knowledge influences one’s current culture or way of engaging and perceiving society and its role. Thus, to promote, achieve, and sustain GCE, teachers must constantly remind themselves that the teachers and their students possess dynamic minds.

15.5 Conclusion Schools and societies can provide their children and youth with the chance to become conscious global citizens and leaders in today’s ever-­ changing and interconnected world using specific pedagogies—CRP and CLP. When discussing ways to improve schooling for diverse student populations, specifically in teacher education and its role in producing effective and innovative educators, it is pivotal for teacher educators, researchers, and practitioners to acknowledge that the human mind is dynamic and how pre-service and in-service teachers perceive teaching and how its various pedagogies change from year-to-year and decade-to-decade. Thus, with society and its culture being dynamic and fluid (Ladson-Billings 2014; Nieto 2010), I propose a new method for researchers and scholars to analyze our society, its functions, and institutions through the lens of CLP. In other words, as teachers, school leaders, education policymakers, teacher educators, cur-

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riculum writers, and researchers, we need to ask ourselves the following questions: 1. In our respective roles in education and as conscious global citizens and leaders, how can we come together and use CLP to sustain global citizenship in educational settings? 2. How can teacher educators worldwide use CLP as a guide to create TEPs that sustain global citizenship in classrooms? 3. How can education policymakers and school leaders use CLP as a lens to promote and create policies that sustain global citizenship in schools and allow teachers and students to see teaching as a way of empowerment and liberation? 4. How can teachers and curriculum writers use CLP to create culturally relevant and liberating curriculum that sustain global citizenship and allow children and youth to become conscious global citizens and leaders? As we look to the future and continue to explore CLP and its four intersecting pillars, it is fundamental that we keep in mind and understand that the role of culture in student learning is pivotal. One’s culture serves as their lens through which one sees and makes sense of the world around them; it is constantly evolving, rather than remaining static (Nieto 2000). It is also pivotal that we recognize the various social, economic, and political inequities that are active and thriving in the world and classrooms. Teachers must provide students with the chance to develop their sociopolitical consciousness. We cannot allow our students to leave our classrooms without learning how important it is to question why inequities exist and who is most affected. If students leave a classroom without challenging the social, political, and economic inequities and realities of their time, the current status quo will remain intact. Hence, teachers need to provide their students with the opportunity to critique (e.g., through written assignments and class discussions) cultural norms, values, and social institutions that are known for producing, reproducing, and perpetuating social, political, and economic inequities—i.e., the current status quo (Blackburn

2008; Berliner 2013; Carter and Welner 2013; Kozol 1991; Ladson-Billings 1995a, 2009). Finally, as the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, educationalists should begin pondering the following question: What will GCE look like in a school post-COVID-19? The pandemic is not over; however, all educationalists and practitioners must take it as a once-­ in-­a-lifetime opportunity to reflect on GCE and its need in our world today to make teaching and learning more liberating and empowering for our children and youth. Like Ladson-Billings (2021), I fear that “we will fail to take advantage of the opportunities the pandemic has afforded us. I fear we will drift back into old habits and old ways of schooling and not give our students the chance to explore new ways of teaching and learning” (p. 353). With this in mind, today, more than ever before, school children and youth worldwide must get the chance to become conscious global citizens in today’s everchanging and interconnected world.

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Nieto, S. (2010). The light in their eyes. (10th anniversary edition). Teachers College Press. Noguera, P. (2003). City schools and the American dream: Reclaiming the promise of public education. Teachers College Press. Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97. Reysen, S., & Katzarska-Miller, I. (2013). A model of global citizenship: Antecedents and outcomes. International Journal of Psychology, 48(5), 858–870. UNESCO. (2005–2014). UN decade of education for sustainable development. https://en.unesco.org/themes/ education-­s ustainable-­d evelopment/what-­i s-­e sd/ un-­decade-­of-­esd UNESCO. (2014). UNESCO roadmap for implementing the global action programme on education for sustainable development. https://sustainabledevelopment. un.org/index.php?page=view&type=400&nr=1674& menu=1515 UNESCO. (2015). UNESCO and sustainable development goals. https://en.unesco.org/ sustainabledevelopmentgoals UNESCO. (2020). ESD for 2030: What’s next for education for sustainable development? https:// en.unesco.org/news/esd-­2030-­whats-­next-­education-­ sustainable-­development UNESCO. (2021). Global citizenship education: What is global citizenship education? https://en.unesco.org/ themes/GCE/definition Vaccari, V., & Gardinier, M.  P. (2019). Toward one world or many? A comparative analysis of OECD and UNESCO global education policy documents. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 11(1), 68–86. Vavrus, M. (2008). Culturally responsive teaching. In T. L. Good 21st century education: A reference handbook (Vol. 2, pp. II-49–II-57). SAGE Publications, Inc. Villegas, A.  M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Educating culturally responsive teachers: A coherent approach. State University of New York Press. Waqa, B. (2014, September 25). 65th Session General Debate. [Speech]. UN.

Index

A Accountability, 40, 42, 44, 45, 48, 49 Action research, 131, 132 Adult education, 18 Africa, 40, 104 Anticipatory, 8, 13, 15, 17 Arab Society, 59–61 Asia Society, 108, 160 Assessment, 17, 18, 40, 45–48, 72, 87, 97, 106, 107, 181, 206, 208, 211, 241 Austria, 176, 180–186, 188 AustrIndia-4QOL, 176, 177, 179, 180, 182, 184–186 B Biology, 83–99, 214 C Case study, 49, 70, 162, 168, 170, 206, 207, 210, 214–216 Chiapas, 21–34 China, 104, 129–141, 164, 166 Chinese education, 131, 134, 137, 138, 140, 141 Citizen networks, 192, 196 Citizenship education, 55, 72–79, 108, 171, 193 Civic engagement, 54, 60, 119 Climate action, 21–34, 96, 199 Climate change, 3, 4, 22–34, 54, 74, 75, 84, 85, 88, 96, 98, 112, 122, 160, 167, 169, 177, 182, 183, 187, 188, 199, 201, 202, 223, 241 Climate Change Education (CCE), 22–23, 26–34 Climate crisis, 23, 27, 33, 75 Collaboration, 7, 8, 13, 15–17, 43, 98, 118, 148, 151, 152, 161, 163, 171, 176–181, 185, 197, 200, 231, 248 Colombia, 146, 148 Content-based instruction, 224 Continuous professional development (CDP), 68, 107, 205–216, 235 COVID-19, 3, 18, 21, 26, 69, 104, 137, 138, 146, 192, 197, 202, 240, 248, 252 Critical discourse analysis (CDA), 73 Critical Environmental Agency (CEA), 205–216

Critical thinking, 6–8, 13, 15–17, 22–24, 51, 52, 58, 59, 61, 108, 109, 116, 117, 148, 151, 152, 177, 197, 198, 201, 229, 243, 245, 246 Cultural identity, 23, 28, 76, 250, 251 Cultural liberation pedagogy (CLP), 239–252 Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), 239–252 Culturally responsive teaching, 247 Culture, 6, 17, 18, 23, 24, 31, 44, 51, 52, 54, 56, 59, 61–63, 68, 75–79, 87, 96, 105, 108, 109, 116, 117, 121–123, 126, 149, 150, 152, 154, 199, 201, 221–223, 225–227, 230, 240–242, 244–246, 248–252 Curricular integration, 57 Curricular practice, 129–141 Curriculum, 7, 18, 19, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 32–34, 41, 43, 46, 55–58, 61, 62, 68, 69, 72–80, 83–99, 104–117, 129–141, 146, 149, 151, 161, 163, 164, 166, 168, 170, 171, 193, 202, 205, 207, 210–212, 215, 216, 222, 224–227, 233, 235, 240, 242, 246, 248–252 Curriculum analysis, 68, 72–74, 78, 83–99, 104, 107–108, 116 Curriculum writers, 245, 248–249, 251–252 D Developing countries, xxii, 6, 17, 40, 49, 70, 87, 106 Discourse analysis, xxiv, 196 Document analysis, xxiii, 4, 9, 11, 42 E Early childhood education (ECE), 42, 45, 130, 131, 133, 140, 141, 146, 195 Early learning, 146–148, 152, 154 Early years, 57, 62, 145–156 Early years program, xxvi, 145–156 Eastern bloc, xxiv, 69 Eastern Europe, 69 Economy-ecology tension, 182–184 Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), 3–19, 21–23, 40, 43, 44, 47, 48, 67–74, 79, 80, 83–99, 129–141, 175–179, 185, 186, 195, 205–216, 222, 239

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98962-0

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Index

256 Education systems, 4, 7–11, 17, 18, 22–28, 31, 32, 34, 39–49, 52, 60, 61, 69, 72, 84–87, 97, 106–108, 154, 162, 163, 226, 227, 235, 249 Educational framework, 4, 56, 165 Educational management, 40, 46–48 Educational policy, 4, 8–10, 15–17, 67, 72, 73, 80, 234, 239, 242, 249 Educational vision, 10, 17 Egypt, 56, 60–62 Egypt’s 2030 Vision, 51–63 Egyptian education, 51–63 Emerging economies, 69–70 Empowerment, 151, 152, 192, 199, 250, 252 Enacted curriculum, 108, 116 English, 58, 109, 110, 112–116, 119–122, 222, 223, 225, 227–231 English as a Foreign Language (EFL), 221–235 English language teachers, xxvii, 222, 225, 226 Environment, 4, 6, 9, 22, 23, 26–28, 30–32, 34, 40, 42, 54, 56, 60–62, 71, 72, 74, 75, 77–79, 84–86, 88, 89, 91–96, 98, 109, 113, 115–117, 119, 120, 122, 129–135, 137–139, 149, 150, 152, 153, 163, 166, 167, 169, 171, 175, 176, 179, 181–183, 186–188, 193, 194, 199–202, 207, 208, 210, 212, 216, 223, 230 Environmental agency, 205–216 Environmental education (EE), 22, 25–27, 31–34, 60, 71, 84, 85, 89, 98, 112, 130–132, 134, 140, 191–203, 205–207, 212, 225 Environmental educators, 196, 197, 202 Environmental knowledge (EK), 83–99, 193 Environmental literacy, 89, 206, 207, 223 Environmental protection, 6, 60, 70, 79, 84–86, 88, 91, 92, 95, 105, 132–134, 192, 193 Evaluative study, xxvi, 196 F Financial literacy education, 138, 139, 141 G Gender inequality, 29, 181, 182, 184, 188, 242 Geography, 73–79, 85, 86, 88, 95, 98, 109, 155 Global awareness, 54, 104, 164, 168, 223, 234 Global citizenship, 4–7, 9, 11, 12, 14–17, 44, 51–63, 67–80, 103–118, 120, 149, 151, 160, 161, 165, 170, 177, 191–203, 225, 239–252 Global Citizenship Education (GCE), 5–7, 9, 11, 40, 43, 48, 52, 54–60, 62, 63, 67–74, 79, 80, 104–109, 112–117, 119–122, 159–171, 192, 193, 221–226, 233, 235, 239–241, 244–252 Global competence, 54, 159–171, 221–224, 226–235 Global East, 69–70 Global education, 22, 24, 52, 56, 58, 67, 68, 70–72, 105, 161, 162, 170, 192, 193, 222–225, 233, 234, 239 Global North, 70, 76, 178, 179, 206, 215, 216 Global South, 70, 72, 74, 178, 179, 216 Global thinking, 51

Globalization, 8, 52–54, 57, 58, 77, 98, 105, 113, 159, 160, 192, 193 Globally competent teachers, 224–226, 232–233, 235 Global vs. national identity, 53 Gulf of Mexico, 29, 206, 208–211 H High schools, 8, 84, 86–89, 92, 95, 96, 98, 107, 146, 148, 206, 210 High school teachers, 148, 206 History, 27, 33, 34, 59, 61, 69, 72–74, 76, 78, 79, 88, 90, 91, 94, 95, 109–111, 113, 115, 116, 152, 160, 170, 205, 231, 244 Holistic program, 145–156 Hungarian education, 226, 235 Hungary, 222, 226, 227, 230 I Inclusion, 5, 40, 110, 111, 117, 149, 151, 193, 201, 206, 222, 226 India, 111, 112, 146, 148, 176, 179–185, 188 Informal learning, 4, 9, 185, 186 In-service teacher, 18, 71, 234, 247, 251 Integrated problem-solving, 8, 13, 16, 177 Intended curriculum, 116 Intercultural collaborations, 177–179 Intercultural dialogue, 223 Intercultural experience, 175–188 International curriculum, 105, 106 Interviews, 30, 31, 105, 168, 180–183, 188, 210, 213, 228, 230, 234 K Kenya, 39–49 Kenyan education, 41 Key competencies, 7–8, 10, 11, 13, 15–18, 109, 177, 178 Kindergarten, 56, 57, 129–141, 148, 167 L Learning areas, 106, 150, 151 Liberation, 193, 201, 250, 252 Local curriculum, 135, 141, 227 Local education, 4, 15, 16, 28, 29, 97, 99 Localization, 141 Local policy, 34 M Madrassahs/madaris, 106 Mapping exercise, 210 Mexican education, 27, 31, 162–163 Mexico, 22, 26–28, 30–34, 146, 148, 159–171, 191–203 Middle schools, 8, 89, 107, 160, 206 Monitoring and evaluation, 11, 39–49 Montessori education, 151 Multiple intelligence theory, 151

Index N Narratives, 74, 76, 114, 116, 148–152 National citizenship, 12, 16, 57, 59 National curriculum, 4, 9, 22, 23, 26, 67–80, 87, 103–117, 131, 148, 226 National education, 8–10, 14–16, 22, 26, 27, 42–44, 47, 48, 69, 73, 84, 89, 107, 160, 163, 224 National identity, 16, 59, 76, 80, 105–106, 111, 113, 114, 116, 178 Nationalization, 12, 17, 84, 105, 111–113, 178, 202 Non-formal education, 191–203 Non-formal learning, xxv, xxvi Normative, 8, 13, 15, 59, 62, 108 North Macedonia, 146, 148 O One World, 159–171 P Pakistan, 103–117, 120–122 Pakistani education, 106 Poland, 68–73, 75–79, 239 Policy, 3–19, 22, 23, 25, 31, 32, 34, 39, 41–49, 53, 59–62, 70–73, 85, 86, 96, 106, 107, 117, 130, 141, 155, 163, 194, 195, 201, 202, 224, 243, 249, 252 Policy analysis, 9, 16, 25 Policy makers, 17, 18 Polish education, 72 Political areas, 32–34, 70–72 Positive language, 149, 150 Pre-school education, 163, 164, 166, 171 Pre-schools, 159–171, 195 Private schools, 105–108, 164, 165 Professional development, 24, 30, 60, 84, 97, 117, 162–164, 166, 206–208, 215, 216, 225, 230, 233–235, 248 Program evaluation, 46, 154, 155, 168 Q Quality education, 4, 40, 42–44, 48, 49, 68, 129, 177, 199, 206, 210, 211, 213, 222, 242 Quality of life, 5, 70, 85, 133, 167, 175, 176, 180, 181, 183–187, 199, 202, 213 R Reconstruction, 67–80 Reflection, 22, 30, 42, 107, 116, 117, 132, 178, 198, 202, 207, 215 Religious curriculum, 105 Response, 28, 30, 52, 54, 55, 70, 71, 84, 85, 111, 146, 168, 180, 182, 183, 196, 198, 212, 227, 230 Rural schools, 208, 210, 216 Rural teachers, 206, 208

257 S School leaders, 241, 243, 245, 248–252 Science teachers, 206, 208, 232 SDG4, 4, 6, 19, 40–45, 47–49, 68, 129, 177, 206, 210, 212, 213, 242 SDGs, 4, 6, 8, 17–19, 39, 40, 42–44, 49, 68, 71–73, 80, 83–86, 89–92, 94–99, 111, 130, 155, 156, 161, 163–171, 176, 177, 185, 192, 194–202, 206, 210–214, 241–245 Secondary education, 33, 41, 42, 44, 57, 106, 227, 251 Secondary school teachers, 222, 244, 250 Secondary schools, 41, 73, 77, 86, 88, 93, 98, 112, 115, 141, 162, 226, 227, 231, 243, 248–250 Self-awareness, 8, 13, 15–17, 52, 60, 151, 153 Service learning, 161, 162, 164, 167, 231 Social development theory, 151, 152 Social-emotional learning, 138 Social empowerment, 191–203 Social responsibility, 7, 14, 54, 193 Social studies, 89, 108–110, 112–116, 120–126, 245 South Africa, 146, 148 South Asia, 105 South-North Cooperation, 70, 163 Strategic, 8–10, 12–15, 17, 42–45, 47, 48, 71, 72, 86, 134, 153, 195, 207 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 40 Surveys, 105, 130, 168, 169, 180, 186, 196 Sustainability, 4, 8, 9, 22–24, 26–28, 30–32, 45, 48–49, 52, 68, 70, 74, 77–79, 83, 84, 86, 88, 130, 139, 164, 167, 169, 176, 178–180, 183–186, 192–195, 197, 200–202, 207, 208, 211, 215, 216, 223, 243, 245–247 Sustainability concepts, 68 Sustainable development, 4–6, 8–12, 14–18, 30, 31, 39–49, 56, 63, 67–80, 83–88, 91–93, 95–99, 111, 129–134, 136–141, 175–177, 179, 185–187, 194–196, 202, 206, 221, 222, 226, 239, 241 Systems thinking, 8, 13, 15, 17, 85 T Teacher agency, 224 Teacher development, 18 Teacher education, 18, 48, 68, 72, 107, 206–208, 215, 216, 224–227, 230, 233–235, 249, 251 Teacher education programs (TEPs), 214, 225, 227, 247, 248, 252 Teacher educators, 18, 117, 211, 216, 245, 247–249, 251, 252 Textbooks, 31, 33, 68, 73, 84, 87, 89, 97, 99, 105–109, 115–117 Think Equal, 145–156 Trinidad and Tobago, 146, 148 Turkey, 3–19 Turkey’s 2023 Vision, 9, 10, 14–17 Turkish education, 8–11, 17, 18 2030 agenda, 4–7, 18, 39, 44, 68, 70, 71, 84, 99, 129, 171, 195, 199, 239, 241

Index

258 21st century, 3, 16, 17, 160, 206 21st century challenges, 222, 223 21st century skills (21CS), 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14–17 U Ubuntu, 150 The UK, xxvi, 146, 148 United Nations (UN), 4–6, 17, 39, 49, 51, 54, 68, 70, 71, 75, 85, 86, 111, 113, 120, 129, 130, 149, 171, 175–177, 185, 192, 202, 206, 222, 239–242 United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 4, 31, 33 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 4, 5, 8, 11, 16–18, 21, 22, 39–41, 43, 44, 47, 48, 52, 68, 83, 87, 89, 104, 108, 109, 111, 112, 114, 115, 119–122, 129, 192, 193, 195, 202, 207, 222, 223, 225, 226

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), 4, 202 United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), 105 Urban schools, 105, 216, 240 Urban teachers, 131, 216, 240 Urdu, 109, 110, 114, 116 The USA, 154, 166, 170, 240, 242, 243, 247–249 V Vietnam, 83–99 Vietnamese education, 85 Y Yucatán, 21–34