By Lindunda Muyunda
Education for sustainability is a relatively new term in global discourse on the role that education can play in bringing about values and attitudes, and behaviours that can lead to sustainable harvest of the ecological fruits that nature has endowed to our planet.
Sustainable development and education for sustainable development (ESD) or education for sustainability (EFS) are informed by four major themes that arose globally after the second world war (WWII) – peace, freedom, development and environment.
Although the world had entered a relatively peaceful period after 1945, there were just too numerous trouble spots around the world, in the name of the cold war that pitted supporters of each of the major opposing super powers against each other, with the Berlin Wall as a symbolic representations of the Cold War. So peace became an elusive comfort zone, always in sight but never achieved.
With the end of the colonialism, beginning just after 1945, arose new independent states, mostly in Africa and Asia. The concept of freedom had arrived. And with it, the principles of good governance and, human, children and women, minority and indigenous people’s rights.
Independence also brought with it the need to improve the wellbeing of the “new free citizens of the world”. Rhetoric about economic development to improve people’s welfare echoed and reechoed around the corridors of power, and with it the concepts of equality and equity.
Lastly, as climate change took its toll in the droughts of the mid 1970s and 1980s, the fourth dimension of environment was brought to the attention of the world.
Our consumption levels and development activities were depleting ecological resources at a much fast rate than nature could replenish them. Beginning as local or regional phenomena, environmental concerns soon gained international currency, warranting global action to maintain the ecological status quo, and to ensure we continue harvesting ecological products right into the future.
In the next article, we shall discuss the rise of the terms related to sustainability and education for sustainable development.
Muyunda Lindunda
IT Teacher
Konkola Primary Trust School
The above topic raises concerns which could be takacled seriously in Africa but more so in the context of our what would be good for Zambia.Do the educationists at the -Lusaka HQ have an aopportunity to give technical advice on which path could be integrated immediately?The standards officers in education should be part of this important phenomenon.We cannot give a blind eye to this issue.If you want to call it ignorance what would be your point of view?
i dont know what you are trying to do here. dont make much sense to me. its all out of context. blind plagiarism is ignorance at its best.
ou are right. This portion was intended to give a conceptual framework. In the next article, I will discuss the concept of sustainability and the remit of education for sustainability. My intention is to build on to situating education for sustainability in our curriculum(or at least in areas where aspects of EfS can be fused), and to discuss key sustainability issues in our country context. And through the “gaps” of what I shall discuss, we will be able to build debate on what is education for sustainability and what is sustainability in oue Zambian context. In my view, no two opinions of education for sustainability agree in totality, but what most practitioners agree on are the pillars of sustainability and sustainable development – social, political, economic and environmental with culture weaving these issues together. By discussing issues pertaining to sustainability on interactive online media, we will raise debate and mainstream awareness of current sustainable models of practices, so we all begin to think “sustainability”.
Muyunda Lindunda, perhaps it would help if you interrogated our education system within the rationale for education for sustainability. What is the status of our education system, what are the gaps, and how can we improve it. Else you are just presenting a conceptual framework without providing evidence of its need in our country. Thank you and looking forward to your response.
You are right. This portion was intended to give a conceptual framework. In the next article, I will discuss the concept of sustainability and the remit of education for sustainability. My intention is to build on to situating education for sustainability in our curriculum(or at least in areas where aspects of EfS can be fused), and to discuss key sustainability issues in our country context. And through the “gaps” of what I shall discuss, we will be able to build debate on what is education for sustainability and what is sustainability in oue Zambian context. In my view, no two opinions of education for sustainability agree in totality, but what most practitioners agree on are the pillars of sustainability and sustainable development – social, political, economic and environmental with culture weaving these issues together. By discussing issues pertaining to sustainability on interactive online media, we will raise debate and mainstream awareness of current sustainable models of practices, so we all begin to think “sustainability”.
Readers interested in finding out more about the issues that have informed the present concerns for sustainable development, see “What is Sustainable Development?” by Kates et al @ https://groups.nceas.ucsb.edu/sustainability-science/2010%20weekly-sessions/session-2-09.20.2010-sustainability-science-and-sustainable-development/readings/Kates_and_Parris_and_Leiserowitz_Envt_2005.pdf/view.