Education for Sustainable Development: Making Sure Students are Future-Ready

Faye Booth explores practical ways in which education settings can thread ESD through their existing practices and curriculum.

Our young learners are the future. As educators, we want to give them the best start in life to reach their potential as individuals. We also have the responsibility of preparing them to make a positive difference to the world around them: their physical environment; the economic climate; and the lives and rights of their fellow human beings. 

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) promotes the development of the knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes, values and actions that are essential to creating a sustainable world - a world in which the quality of life can be improved, globally, for generations to come. Yes, we need to educate children and young people about climate change, but ESD is so much more than that. 

But with time constraints, rigid curricula, data-driven expectations and often insufficient training and support for staff, many schools are still finding it challenging to fully embrace ESD. 

This post seeks to explore practical ways in which education settings can thread ESD through their existing practices and curriculum. The key is to seek opportunities in our everyday teaching and learning where the core concepts of ESD can be explored and nurtured. 

Let’s look at those core threads and – importantly – how we can build them into everyday education for our young learners, starting today. 

We can help young learners understand their place in their local community and the global community 

• Community - Invite visitors in from different communities to speak about the experiences and help children to connect with a range of different people. 
• Responsibility - Looking after plants or a class pet can teach a sense of responsibility to even the youngest children. Online safety and taking responsibility for our actions online, financial education, and taking part in decisions via a school council are also excellent ways to teach children about being responsible citizens, as well as providing students with essential life skills. 
• Environmental consciousness - Model reducing waste, reusing and recycling, share decisions relating to purchases of environmentally friendly products with children, and discuss topical events and campaigns regularly. Take children and young people outside so that they can properly connect with the natural world in a personal, meaningful way. 
• Social equality and human rights awareness - Simple analogies and real-life examples used in the classroom work with children of any age to help them understand injustice and unfairness. Stories range from The Sneetches (for use with Early Years) to Noughts and Crosses (to use with older students aged 13+). Use citizenship lessons to learn about human rights, protected characteristics, equality, diversity, inclusivity, representation, belonging, prejudice, and discrimination in all its relevant forms. 

Many schools have a focus on character education that underpins their whole school ethos. Values and attributes can be specifically taught through lessons and assemblies, embedded in teaching and learning styles, and actively highlighted, celebrated and rewarded. 

Best practice promotes essential core values such as: 

• empathy 
• kindness 
• respect  
• resilience 
• positivity 
• curiosity 
• determination 
• pride 

Developing a growth mindset is also key to preparing our students to be future-ready.

The core characteristics of a growth mindset are: 

• Having a passion for learning 
• Being prepared to be challenged 
• Having a positive outlook 
• Taking calculated risks 
• Learning from mistakes 
• Helping others 

These characteristics are essential to develop in young people if we want to equip them to be successful individuals who can affect positive change. Not only should we teach learners about the concept of a growth mindset and its benefits, but we should be promoting the concept through our whole school ethos, teaching styles and the types of activities we provide children and young people with. 

• Problem-solving opportunities can be provided across the curriculum, from science investigations to team games in physical education, from computer coding to product design. These opportunities should be at the forefront of educators’ minds when they plan for any age group so that children and young people can practise and develop problem-solving skills. 
• Provide learners with room to generate and improve on ideas. We may feel that there isn’t time to allow pupils to work on ideas and come back to ideas, but this essential skill will serve them well in the future and is more valuable than perhaps we realise. 
• Encourage learners to tap into all their senses – Being observant helps us to identify problems and potential solutions. 
• Actively seek to broaden learners’ horizons by often providing varied perspectives. Celebrate the notion of novel or unorthodox ideas and provide examples of how these are often successful. 
• Always value suggestions and ideas learners have, modelling open-mindedness and respect for others’ ideas, even when they are not feasible or effective. Children and young people need to develop the confidence to pursue and share their creative ideas, which won’t happen if they are afraid of failure, rejection or humiliation. 
• Creative thinking and critical thinking games can be played in transition moments between lessons, or at the start or end of the school day. Storytelling games are excellent for developing creative thinking, too, and will support even the most reluctant writers with developing their ideas verbally. 
• Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) activities naturally prompt creative and critical thinking. 
• Encourage learners to be forever curious. Children should be actively encouraged to ask questions; a confident questioner can become a critical thinker and innovator. We can model asking questions and being curious, as well as showing ways to go about researching and digging a little deeper into topics that spark our curiosity. 

The creative, critical thinkers of tomorrow will affect positive change.

Being part of a class, every day, naturally ensures teamwork, right? Not necessarily. Educators need to actively facilitate and model effective collaborative working, and the many (often quite complex) skills involved. 

• Sharing ideas – Teach, model and allow students to practise turn-taking, fairness, listening with respect. 
• Sharing skills – It's nothing new: we all know that children learn from other children. Providing opportunities for collaborative working means that learners can be inspired by their peers and emulate successful attributes.  
• Leadership skills – Let students experience leading others and develop the necessary skills, such as delegating, compromise and accountability. 
• Awareness of teamwork and the distinct roles – Help learners explore various aspects of working within a team on a range of projects. They can also develop an understanding of how and when team members support one another, vs realising when working on something alone will be more productive. 
• Acknowledging own and others’ skills and strengths - Knowing what we can bring to a team or a project as an individual is a crucial life skill. Beyond that, we need to be able to recognise and utilise others’ skills and strengths in the most effective way. Allowing learners to work in teams on a range of projects will help them to identify their own and others’ strengths. 

There will be endless opportunities for collaborative working in class but also in clubs and at school events. 

To be future-ready, today’s learners will need to develop their communication skills through a range of means and for various purposes. Ultimately, communication, in all its forms, is the channel through which they will affect positive change.

This will include: 

• debate 
• discussion 
• negotiation 
• active listening skills 
• presentation skills 
• articulating ideas 
• persuasive language 
• assertiveness 
• giving and receiving feedback 
• online communication 
• recording ideas through writing or drawing 

We must allow plenty of time for communication skills to be developed in education. Worthwhile communication needs to be built into every lesson, where all contributions are valued equally. 

So many activities we do in school can help connect children to the world around them as well as connect with one another on various levels 

Of course, Education for Sustainable Development doesn’t stop in the classroom. Some food for thought... 

How does your whole school ethos reflect Education for Sustainable Development?  

Are ESD concepts present in your mission statement?  

Does your setting’s website explain the principles and how these are upheld in practice?  

Is ESD woven through your policies and shared with all stakeholders?  

Do the extra-curricular activities and events also adhere to the principles of sustainability education? 

How are you working in partnership with families, to grow their knowledge and understanding of ESD and providing opportunities for them to support children and young people outside of the school setting? 

We can do this. We can shape tomorrow’s thinkers, problem-solvers, leaders, game changers and heroes. We owe it to them and we owe it to the world.