Key characteristics of Education for Sustainable Development
As places of learning, schools can demonstrate good practices to learners, staff, parents, governing body members, suppliers and other schools, and engage them in activities that create positive change in communities.
Key characteristics of Education for Sustainable Development:
- Integrates social, environmental and economic aspects.
- Holistic and interdisciplinary
- Promotes life long learning
- Based on local and culturally relevant needs keeping in mind global impact
- Accommodates the evolving nature of sustainable development
- Promotes the use of participatory learning and the development of thinking skills.
Children need new skills if they are to become part of the solution to challenges like climate change, and not be part of the problem. Listening, expressing points of view, weighing evidence, co-operating, thinking critically, tackling real problems, participating in decisions, making informed choices - these are skills cultivated by sustainable schools.
Sustainable development will not just be a subject in the classroom: it will be in its bricks and mortar and the way the school uses and even generates its own power. Our students won’t just be told about sustainable development, they will see and work within it: a living, learning place in which to explore what a sustainable lifestyle means.
Tony Blair, September 2004 (former British Prime Minister)