Integrating Sustainable Development into National Education Priorities

Given the scale and intensity of global challenges facing future generations, policymakers have a responsibility to transform national education systems in order to better prepare children for such a future. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) ensures that learners of all ages are equipped with the values, knowledge, attitudes, and skills to shape communities that can not only withstand future challenges and shocks, but also thrive in the global economy. The purpose of this guide is to provide policymakers, practitioners, and researchers working in the field of education with a detailed, practical, and evidence-based methodology for integrating ESD into national educational strategies and curricula. The step-by-step guidance was developed in close consultation with several leading academics and practitioners in the field of education, and empirically tested in a series of pilot studies in Ghana, Turkey, and Morocco. The guide provides readers with a toolkit that includes designing an ESD Curriculum Framework, policy and curriculum analysis, innovative lesson design, detailed evaluation, and a roadmap for efficiently and rapidly scaling up ESD across the national education system.