Education for Sustainable Development

Working in local schools, ISC is helping prepare the next generation of Chinese citizens to safeguard their environment. The Education for Sustainable Development program is led by a three-way partnership between educators in China, Japan, and the U.S. Together, they are sharing best practices and developing a series of activities that will encourage students to get involved hands-on in energy efficiency projects in their communities. In addition to demonstrating, both to themselves and to their older peers, that young people have a real contribution to make in improving their communities, this experience will also inform a new curriculum on sustainable development that will benefit children in all three countries.

One of the leading pedagogical universities in Guangdong, South China Normal University is working with its counterparts, ISC, Local Ecological Activities Foundation for Children (LEAF) of Japan, and Shelburne Farms of the United States, to draw on and adapt cutting edge practices in sustainable development education to the Chinese context. The partners are working with local schools in the same pilot communities where ISC is conducting community-based energy efficiency projects.

A series of local and international exchanges will connect teachers around the world to one another and expose them to new methods and educational opportunities. Participants will learn how to involve the public, community and business leaders, and government officials in hands-on learning experiences with young people.

Through subsequent teacher training and curriculum development based on these experiences, as well as practical projects and resource guides, the ESD project will build the capacity of universities and schools to advance sustainable development education. Students and young people, the primary beneficiaries, will learn first-hand about the environmental and development challenges they face in their communities, and what they can do to make a difference both now, and into the future.