UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development began on January 1, 2005 and aims to promote education as a basis for a more sustainable society and to integrate sustainable development into education at all levels and all areas of life including communities, the workplace and society in general. More details can be found on UNESCO's website.
The Scottish Government has launched a web-based Action Plan - Learning for Change - setting out the actions to be taken forward in the second half of the Decade. This is supported by supporting sections on schools, universities and colleges, and Community Learning and Development. Information on recent sectoral activity can be found by clicking on these links.
To continue the strong collaboration and engagement with stakeholders which was a feature of the first half of the Decade, each of the three areas set up a steering group to oversee progress in delivering its actions, and a continuing programme of conferences involving all sectors of education in Scotland has been delivered, the latest of which, “Values in Sustainability Education”, was held on 13 December 2011.
The conference explored what was meant by values and how they influenced attitudes and behaviour with particular reference to education for sustainable development. Delegates were given the chance to discuss how values were relevant in their respective sectors of education, take part in case studies on projects aimed at achieving environmental behaviour change, and reflect on possible ways of continuing to deliver education for sustainable development once the UN Decade has concluded.