Changing shape
The formation of a UK-wide ESD co-ordinating group in late 2009, half-way through the Decade, is a new development for the National Commission, as is the re-constitution of a broad-based ESD Forum. Prior to these developments, the ESD work of the National Commission had been carried through an invitational ESD working group. It was agreed in the summer of 2009 to shift to this new structure in order to carry out what now needs to be done in the rest of the decade.
Co-ordinating group purposes and membership
The National Commission has agreed that the main function of the Co-ordinating Group is to have a strategic oversight of the Commission’s ESD work programme in order to:
i. identify and report progress made during the Decade across the UK
ii. broaden awareness of the significance of ESD outside core practitioners, policy-makers and programmes
iii. track the development and emerging understanding of the practice of ESD
iv. act catalytically in support of further development of the idea that education (viewed broadly) is key to sustainable development, and
v. work holistically, identifying gaps and opportunities.
The Co-ordinating Group has a deliberately small membership that nonetheless aims for a broad representation of sectors, networks, interests, and jurisdictions, which is suitable for the work it has to do. It will play a more proactive role than the former working group, and will call on contributions from specialists where appropriate.
The current membership of the Co-ordinating Group is:
| Douglas Bourn |
London Institute of Education |
| Ann Finlayson |
Sustainable Development Commission / SE-Ed |
| Janice Lawson |
Department for Children, Schools and Families |
| Helen Mansbridge |
Greener Scotland / Scotland Executive |
| William Scott * |
University of Bath |
|
Alba de Souza
(Sam Mejias)
|
UK National Commission for UNESCO |
| Stephen Sterling |
University of Plymouth / Higher Education Academy |
| Ros Wade |
London South Bank University / London Regional Centre of Expertise |
| Jane Ward |
National Institute of Adult Continuing Education |
| Tina Hawkins |
Welsh Executive |
* Chair of co Co-ordinating Group and Forum
Forum purposes and membership
The main function of the more broadly-based ESD Forum, that has developed from that of the former ESD working group, is to act as an informed critical forum for the sharing and discussion of ESD developments and issues across the UK, and as a sounding board for the Co-ordinating Group. The Forum will have an expanded membership, its meetings will be slightly less frequent than before, but longer, and will be divided into a business meeting, and a seminar format with invited contributions.
The Forum’s membership is currently being expanded, and membership of both groups will be reviewed annually with the National Commission.
How we think about ESD
At its first meeting, the Co-ordinating Group agreed to continue to use UNESCO’s key characteristics as its working understanding of ESD as these set out an inclusive and meaningful categorisation:
“ESD is fundamentally about values, with respect at the centre: respect for others, including those of present and future generations, for difference and diversity, for the environment, for the resources of the planet we inhabit. It mirrors the concern for education of high quality, in that it is:
- interdisciplinary and holistic;
- values-driven;
- fostering of critical thinking and problem solving;
- multi-method;
- participatory;
- applicable to daily life, whether personal or professional;
- locally relevant in terms of context.
“ESD will be shaped by a range of perspectives from all fields of human development and include all the acute challenges the world faces. It takes place within a perspective of lifelong learning, engaging all possible learning spaces, formal, non-formal and informal, from early childhood to adult life. These characteristics make clear the challenge of ESD to promote values for sustainable development across the spectrum of learning opportunities, while also becoming integrated across perspectives and subjects.”
This was the same understanding that informed the report produced by the Working Group in 2008: ESD in the UK in 2008: a survey of action, published by the UK National Commission.
Our initial tasks
The Co-ordinating Group is now updating the 2008 Report by researching current policy and practice (and progress) in order to help us think through our goals for the second half of the Decade. In this, we are giving a priority to a survey of the research and evaluation studies that already exist. As a framework within which to do this, we are using the five ESD themes in the UK that the report identified:
i. the strategies for, and forms of, ESD (conceptions of, and approaches to, ESD across sectors)
ii. leadership and policy on ESD in the UK (government and stakeholder policy and practice on ESD
iii. the existence of networks and partnership initiatives for ESD
iv. the prevalence of learning opportunities for ESD and SD
v. the existence of ESD research and practice.
The report noted that, whilst these are not exhaustive themes, they could be used
“to establish a baseline of activity in the UK that can be measured against in future reports. This overview of ESD-related projects and initiatives in the UK will highlight areas of strength and weakness of ESD activity, identify the major drivers and barriers to achieving continued and sustained progress throughout the DESD, and suggest meaningful, UK- specific indicators for deeper and more sustained ESD evaluations in the future.”
(ESD in the UK in 2008: a survey of action; UKNC, 2008, pp. 16–17)
A draft update is being prepared for the Co-ordinating Group’s next meeting in early January, 2010, when we shall work on the design of a broader review to gather the data we think are most useful.
