Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (SDEM 505)

This course unit is an introduction to a life-cycle approach to development, and the role of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in building global citizens with holistic views and transformative education to respond appropriately to ever changing global challenges. It stresses the nature of policies and practice in this regard from early to adult education as well as formal and adaptive capacity building education and formation necessary for the public, private and non-governmental leadership effectiveness. The UN approach to ESD in cooperation with other entities will be examined, with case studies of some “state of the art” concepts, particularly UNESCO's ESD initiatives, to buttress the teachings.

ESD is about building core competencies required for sustainability. It underscores the approaches to promoting transformative education for adaptive living that conforms to respecting the environment, human dignity and multidisciplinary education that respects the sources of life’s support and learning to live together and in harmony with nature.  This Module digs deeper into the components and action framework from the international to local level and equips the student with the knowledge and capacity to identify the rights courses of action and be able to evaluate the present action framework and propose future possible actions towards effective ESD in all its components: Development Education (DE); Environmental Education (EE); and the likes of civic education, which are vital to gaining efficiency.

All the modules are broken down to sub-topics and fit into lecture hours with interactive sessions and relevant case studies for maximum impact.