European Foundation for Education and Sustainable Development

European ESD-Net

About the European ESD-Net

By Chris Maas Geesteranus & Professor John C. Smyth (d. 2005)

Click here for the obituary for Professor Smyth

 

1. International developments in education and sustainability

This text is about networking internationally and regionally, at the level of advocacy, policy making and support for education consistent with outcomes of the World Summit in Johannesburg, 2002. During the past thirty years what we variously refer to as Environmental Education, Education for Sustainable Development, or Education for Sustainability has grown and developed significantly.

The large professional organisations in the field are mostly national. The contribution of IUCN which virtually created environmental education, reformed it with WCS and widened it with its follow-up, Caring for the Earth. It has done much over the years to broaden the base of the education from which it started, but, rightly or wrongly, it is still seen by people outside it - and by some people inside it as well - to prioritise one aspect of the environment and one major supporting lobby, to the neglect of others. Sustainable development is what governments have signed up to and education with that label now has to be seen to cover the whole spectrum from the deep greens to the technological cornucopians - development education, health education, peace education and more.

Europe is beginning to show that it has its own views about the place of education, fully able to stand up to the well publicised ideas of others.

2. A rationale for strengthening education and sustainability in Europe

The growth of education programmes – formal, non-formal and informal – in accordance with the above-mentioned principles of sustainable development has been impressive. There exists now a body of educators and programmes around Europe - and elsewhere - capable of addressing these issues. But, apart from the international-political scene, why does mainstream education still pay so little attention to Agenda 21 and its implications?

Environmental educators in Europe are not well enough organised to have a great impact on global (or even EU) policies. Most of the supranational organisations are working professionally as highly qualified ‘craftsmen in environmental education’ - which indeed deserve full respect for what they achieve on that professional level. But few of these bodies are desiring or attempting to cooperate in governmental policy-making - nationally, let alone on a European scale. We as environmental educators in Europe have not yet sufficient power to present our case, to those politically responsible, as being an important contribution to sustainable societies. Until we organise ourselves much more strongly on the level of professional representation – and thus make ourselves heard with a clear, united voice.

3. A European Foundation for Education and Sustainable Development

Such a model is interesting for Europe, because uniting existing organisations will open up the door to a joint educational follow-up of the WSSD in Johannesburg, on a European scale. Such a follow-up will consist of a view on world affairs from a ‘European’ perspective. It may lead to a number of functions. They are:

Platform: exchange of views, expertise, through professional meetings and other channels

Expertise: knowledgeable in issues of education and sustainability

Market-place: where supply and demand in the field of education meet

Translation: educational research in one situation will be adapted to others

Agenda-setting: keeping governments in Europe (including the European Union) alert to the need for education in relation to sustainability issues.

In fact the organisation will have a strong commitment to enhancing the quality of the educational work through increased professionalism (1-4), which forms the basis for an ‘external’ strategy (5), the lobbying circuit. It is, however, not the idea that this foundation will try to become a sort of umbrella-organisation with a far-reaching authority towards individual governments or supranational bodies. Therefore, the core function of the foundation can be described as ‘facilitating, supportive, stimulating’.

4. Some organisational principles

The organisational model of the foundation is simple and loose: a small board with some colleagues directly ‘around’ it, in the form of an advisory council. And we wish to have partners, all over Europe. Thus, we have chosen for a decentralized approach. It will give those, committed to this operation, a feeling of being a participant instead of a ‘consumer’.

5. The constitution

The English version of the formal constitution is available here.