EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Education for Sustainability

Education for Sustainability

Introduction

As part of a survey service developed to assess bullying in schools, anonymous questionnaires were given to over 6,000 pupils in 17 junior/middle and seven secondary schools in the Sheffield LEA. The results are analysed in terms of frequencies of being bullied, and bullying others; year differences; gender differences; types of bullying; where bullying occurs; whether teachers and parents are informed; and attitudes to bullying. Rates of reported bullying are disturbingly high; they vary with year, gender and school location, partly as a result of opportunities for bullying. With the addition of data from six other schools, it was found that school size, class size and ethnic mix were not linked with bullying.

Education is valued around the world as a means of promoting individual advancement and well-being, and for its potential to encourage economic growth and employment, empower women and minority groups, and reduce infant and child mortality rates. Universal access to education has been an international policy goal since the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and since the 1960s it has also been increasingly linked to environmental management and international development efforts. This has been especially true since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (also known as the Earth Summit) was held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. One of the important documents to come out of the conference was Agenda 21, a key set of plans and international agreements aimed at achieving global sustainable development in the 21st century. Education has a central role in the plans outlined by Agenda 21:

Education, including formal education, public awareness and training should be recognized as a process by which human beings and societies can reach their fullest potential. Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address environment and development issues. While basic education provides the underpinning for any environmental and development education, the latter needs to be incorporated as an essential part of learning. While many people agree with the spirit of the ideas outlined in Agenda 21, there is active debate about how best to implement them in practice. Educators, policymakers and activists around the world question what the content and aims of such educational programs should be, as well as what their benefits and costs might be for individual nations and communities. Governments, international organizations, and conservation and community groups promote environmental learning under a number of different labels, and employ a variety of different topics of study and teaching methods. These programs may be formal or informal, may be found in many different settings, and may address a number of different audiences.

Formally organized programs usually take place in schools, classrooms, museums, or protected nature areas (including national parks and privatelyowned conservation areas), while less formal community development and popular education projects or public awareness campaigns occur in other ways, such as through public meetings or the use of mass ...