The Role of Higher Education in the Search for a More Sustainable Future Lüneburg , 2011

1. The Role of Higher Education in the Search for a More Sustainable Future Lüneburg, 2011 Charles Hopkins UNESCO Chair York University, Toronto

2. 3 Main Sections ESD progress to Date The Role of Higher Ed Moving Forward to 2014 and Beyond in a Systemic Approach

3. Many Paths Necessary to SD • Good legislation/governance • Economic incentives • Overcoming corruption • Environmental protection • Human rights/security • Infrastructure (roads to banking) • 40 issues identified in Agenda 21 • Education, Public Awareness and Training (Ch 36) are key

4. Education FOR Sustainable Development (ESD) • Definition ESD is the contribution of the world’s education, public awareness, and training systems to learning our way towards a more sustainable future

5. The Four Major Thrusts of ESD 1 Access to quality basic education 2 Reorienting existing education 3 Public awareness and understanding 4 Training programs for all sectors Agenda 21 -92, UNESCO-96, UNCSD -98, JPOI-2002

6. Clarity In sustainable development we speak of three dimensions: • environmental • social and • economic In ESD we speak of the four thrusts: • access and retention to quality education • reorienting current education • public awareness and understanding • training

7. Emergence of a new idea Activity/Implementation Time

8. ESD and Non-formal Ed • Much has been accomplished by: • NGO’s • Faith-based groups • The arts community • Media • Institutions- Zoos, Botanical Gardens etc. • Private and public sector training

9. Approaches to ESD in Formal Ed. 1 Create and add Sustainability Education Or Cluster existing adjectival educations to address “sustainability issues”

10. Adding ESD Environmental Education, Population Education, Development Education, Energy Education, HIV/AIDS Education, Permaculture Education, Citizenship Education, Democracy Education, Consumer Education, Media Education, Outdoor Education, Experiential Education, Workplace Education, Conservation Education, Anti-Racist Education, Religious Education, Equity Education, Gender Education, Holocaust Education, Entrepreneurship Education, Horticulture Education, Water Education, Global Education, Drug Education, Sex Education, International Studies, Family Studies, Human Rights Education, Women's Studies, Native Studies, Values Education, Natural History Education, Vocational Education, Economic Education, Anti-smoking Education, Conflict Resolution Education, Workplace education, Disaster Prevention Education, Computer Studies, Life-Skills Education, Recycling Education, Civics Education, Heritage Education, Community Studies, Multicultural Education, Anti-Violence Education, Systems Thinking Education, Futures Education, Biodiversity Education, Pioneer Studies, Nutrition Education, Resource Management Education, Self-Image Education, Peace Education, Leadership Education, Cooperative Education, Character Education, Sexual orientation Education…………….(100 plus)

11. 2 Embed ESD in Existing Disciplines This is the goal of most adjectival education But usually resisted by the system unless needed by the system to respond to a perceived current/urgent societal need.

13. 3 Whole System Reorientation The intent of Chapter 36 Very difficult to do without a crisis but possible and underway

14. A Question for All Societies: What should our students: • know, • be able to do, • and value enough to act upon, when they graduate?

15. The Purpose of Education Learning: to know to do to be to live together Perhaps we can alter this last purpose slightly to: Learning: to live together with “others” and “sustainably”? -Jacques Delors – Learning the Treasure Within: UNESCO

16. Reorienting Existing Formal EducationMeans Addressing: Not only • Buildings • Curriculum • Practices and actions But also • What we value • What we evaluate • Monitor and report upon • Modeling sustainability

17. Manitoba K-12 Mission Statement “To ensure that all Manitoba’s children and youth have access to an array of educational opportunities such that every learner experiences success through relevant engaging and high quality education that prepares them for lifelong learning and citizenship in a democratic, socially just and sustainable society.”

18. Manitoba Ed Goal “To ensure education in Manitoba supports students experiencing and learning about what it means to live in a sustainable manner.”

19. Initial ESD Interventions in Formal Education • Curriculum modification • Energy, Water, Waste Management • Food services • Social programs – racism, equity etc. • Site development

20. Youth Engagement (CEA)

21. 31 March – 2 April 2009, 900 participants from 150 countries, 48 ministers and vice-ministers Objectives: to highlight the contribution of ESD to quality education; to promote international exchange on ESD; to take stock of Decade activities; to develop strategies for the way ahead UNESCO World Conference ESD 2009

22. 3 Main Sections ESD progress to Date The Role of Higher Ed Moving Forward to 2014 and Beyond in a Systemic Approach

23. Bonn Declaration-ESD Recommends: Engage higher education • Teacher education institutions • Work with senior education leaders • Indigenous/traditional knowledge

24. Approaches to ESD in IHE • Student organizations • Individual professors • Department reform and inclusion • Institutes • Systemic reform including • Mission, practice, monitoring, rewards, etc.

25. Initial IHE Reorienting • Greening the campus (savings) • Reputation management • Recruiting strategy • Fund raising

26. Emerging IHE Reorienting • Greening the “mind” • Research opportunities • Moving to social sciences • Embedded in practice as well as policy “Climate change is as much about change as it is climate”

27. SD, ESD and Complexity "The only problems that have simple solutions are simple problems. The only managers that have simple problems have simple minds. Problems that arise in organizations are almost always the products of interactions of parts (of a system), never the action of a single part. Complex problems do not have simple solutions.” Professor Russell L Ackoff, management thinker, organizational theorist and Professor Emeritus at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

28. Complexity and Changing Behaviour There is no simple relationship between attitudes, engagement and behaviour change. A very wide range of contextual factors influence attitudes and constrain behaviour; habit and routine are also important. If engagement is undertaken for the purpose of changing attitudes and/or encouraging behaviour change, then these wider factors will also need to be addressed.

29. WELL-BEING, FOR ALL, FOREVER. These simple concepts provide a starting definition for the complexity of sustainable development and help frame the global search for solutions to the social, economic, and environmental issues that threaten the planet.

30. Key Drivers of Subjective Well-being • RESOURCES AND • CAPABILITIES • Income & wealth • - Knowledge & skills • - Psychological • resources • - Physicalhealth • - Social capital • - Information • - Time • - Political power • ENVIRONMENT • Natural environment • Infrastructure • Technologies • Product markets • Organizations • Culture (values & norms) • Institutions • laws & regulations • Public policies • Media & marketing SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING & HAPPINESS • MEANINGFULNESS • Exceeding self-interest • Serving others • Higher purpose • EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES AND ROLES • - Worker • Consumer • Family member • Relative • Friend • Hobbyist • Citizen • MENTAL COHERENCE • Comprehensibility of life • - Manageability of life • MASLOWIAN NEEDS • Self-actualization • Self- and social esteem • Love and belonging • Security • Physiological needs • (thirst, hunger,…) FEEDBACK

33. Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre:Métis Holistic Lifelong Learning Model

34. HE Restructuring Step 1 • Restructure the curriculum, beginning with graduate programs and proceeding as quickly as possible to undergraduate programs. The division-of-labor model of separate departments is obsolete and must be replaced with a curriculum structured like a web or complex adaptive network. Responsible teaching and scholarship must become cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural.

35. HE Sustainability Funding • Sustainability advocates in the ranks of higher education are circulating a letter among college presidents, asking for their support for a plan to set aside 1 percent of the proceeds from carbon-emissions allowances - or up to $1 billion - for  such education, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education.

36. 3 Main Sections ESD progress to Date The Role of Higher Ed Moving Forward to 2014 and Beyond in a Systemic Approach

37. Presenting ESD • Awareness • Understandable • A “must-have/do”, popular choice but ethical • Seen as “Do-able” • Exemplars from prestigious sources • Cost saving or affordable or prestigious • An opportunity verses a problem • Digestible and manageable Tony Piggott – CEO J.W. Thompson

38. Premises of the “Strengths” Model: a starting point for reorienting ESD • No single discipline/leader/teacher/employee can do it all • Every discipline/leader/teacher/employee can contribute something • Some individuals or sectors can take lead roles in directing/managing the reorientation • Inter-institutional leadership and coordination of these “strengths/initiatives” are key elements as we “learn” our way forward • “Train the trainers” becomes “learn with the learners”

39. Ongoing Government Support

40. IHE and ESD Variables • Variables 1- How HE is perceived: Societal good or for the benefit of the individual? 2- Sources of funding 3- Emphasis (teaching, research, service)

41. The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 – 2014)

42. The Objectives for the DESD • 􀂃 facilitate networking, linkages, exchange and interaction among stakeholders in ESD; • 􀂃 foster an increased quality of teaching and learning in ESD; • 􀂃 help countries make progress towards and attain the millennium development goals through ESD efforts; • 􀂃 provide countries with new opportunities to incorporate ESD into education reform efforts.

43. Addressing the “HOW” • The global M&E framework involves: • M&E Expert Group (MEEG) • UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) • UNESCO’s Bureau of Strategic Planning (BSP) • Global Monitoring Report (GMR) for EFA • Programme Team leaders (UNESCO’s Plan) • DESD Reference Group • DESD Secretariat

44. Tracking the Reorienting Process Handprints • Natural sciences • Teaching about SD • Environmental studies • Individuals at IHE • Climate change research • Water • Eco-school • Green Economics • Natural and social sciences • Teaching for SD • Overarching principle at IHE • Transdisciplinary approach • Focus on informed action • Assessment and reporting • Values /Ethics embedded (EC) Exploratory & assessment Action & embedded Today Tomorrow Greening & cost saving Useful to all of society • Exemplary models • Embedded throughout • Community partnership • Greening all school design • Corporate Citizenship • Full Cost Accounting • Tracking and reporting • Recycling • Energy savings • Water/waste reduction • Green purchasing • Cafeteria composting • Water bottle bans • Food source and handling • Green buildings • Transportation Footprints (Enviromental, social, economic)

45. DESD 2014 and Beyond • Celebrations Japan and around the world • Formal meeting plus related satellite events • Building the next phase – global work program • Widening partnerships-Private/public sectors • Creating synergy with EFA, MDGs, Rio+20 • Synergy with UN Agencies, INGOs and NGOs • Higher education • Institutions

46. Radical Hope www.handsforchange.org