University of Southampton

I’ve just returned from a very productive, exciting, and (hopefully) important Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) meeting in Bristol.  In my other role as Higher Education Academy (HEA) Academic Lead in ESD I am co-convening the production of a (potentially) landmark higher education document that will support individuals and institutions in implementing ESD in modules and across curricula.

Our expert panel of leading ESD and quality practitioners, who represent a range of universities and disciplines, is writing the ‘Education for Sustainable Development Guidance Document’.  However, it is not necessarily through any perceived combined academic weight that is making this an important document for the advancement of sustainable development in education and the student experience.  It is the publication by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and HEA that will make academics and HEIs previously uninterested in ESD potentially sit up and take notice, and that has been the greatest challenge in ESD for as long as anyone cares to remember.

As you might expect, the greatest challenge of this process has been the terminology and nuances of language.  We agonise over every word as we realise the importance of getting this right for the widest imaginable audience of academics.  Even now, over 25 years after Brundtland published her endlessly quoted definition of:

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

we still feel that we need to justify the inclusion of that definition and question whether it is appropriate for the task.  Further to that we have to settle on a definition of ESD.  It looks likely (but not finalised) that we will adopt the definition put forward by the United Nations World Summit (2005) of:

Education for sustainable development means enabling students to develop the knowledge and understanding, skills and attributes needed to work and live in a way that safeguards environmental, social and economic wellbeing, both in the present and for future generations.

I am unable to say much more about the likely content of the document as we still have a huge amount of collective work to do on this.  What I can say is that we are looking to release a version for consultation towards the end of October, with a consultation event on Tuesday 5^th November in Birmingham.

We are keen for both academics and students across all disciplines to contribute to the consultation process and help us produce a robust guidance document that will work for all readers and stand the test of time.  We are also keen for people to be part of our consultation event in Birmingham.  It’s free and booking details can be found through:  http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/05_nov_HEA_QAA_ESD

Meetings such as this are enormously enjoyable to self confessed ‘ESD Geeks’ such as myself.  We get to sit around in a room for a day with a load of like-minded academics and discuss the importance of sustainable development (SD), argue over the contested nature of SD, agonise over the nuances of how every single word can lead to different interpretations, and then reach some form of resolution (usually).  What this says about me as an individual, I dread to think!