Education for sustainable development: Connecting the dots for sustainability

Authors

  • Sushita Gokool-Ramdoo Transinvest Construction Limited, Colas Group
  • Anwar Bhai Rumjaun Mauritius Institute of Education

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v4i1.170

Keywords:

Education, Sustainable Development, Accreditation, Quality Assurance, Benchmarking, Lifelong Learning, Qualifications and Credit Transfer Systems

Abstract

Critical pedagogy, practitioner experience and a regulatory perspective are employed to scrutinize the notion of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as it occurs in the literature. They promote understanding of the challenges impeding the completion of unfinished ESD businesses. In response to practitioner-expressed needs, this paper innovatively proposes a Sustainable Development-compliant National Qualifications and Credit Framework (SD-NQCF) as the instrument to finally connect isolated ESD ‘dots’ and scaffold their sustainability.

Informed by a systems approach, this framework encourages repositioning educational activities within the UN Agenda 21 to ensure the suffusion of SD principles. ESD becomes the backbone of NQCFs, while critical pedagogy provides the adequate instrument to foster 21st Century sustainability competencies that are embedded into curricula as learning outcomes. The SD-compliant framework resolves tensions between formal, non-formal and informal education. It provides connecting bridges and pathways to sustainably suffusing socio-economic fabrics with SD principles that will shift paradigms.

Author Biographies

Sushita Gokool-Ramdoo, Transinvest Construction Limited, Colas Group

A Fulbrighter and Commonwealth Scholar, Sushita Gokool-Ramdoo left the Open University of Mauritius to lead on the distance education regulatory and policy development functions at the Tertiary Education Commission, Mauritius.   A former Coordinator for the ADEA Working Group on Distance Education, and Advisor to a Mauritian Minister on ESD, she acts as consultant for intergovernmental organizations. She is currently Distance Education Manager at Transinvest Construction Ltd. She is a recipient of the 2013 Woman Leader Award for Distance Education in Africa.

Anwar Bhai Rumjaun, Mauritius Institute of Education

Anwar B. Rumjaun is an Associate Professor in the Science Education Department at the Mauritius Institute of Education. He is currently the Head of the School of Science and Maths and is also the Programme Coordinator for B.Ed run jointly with the University of Mauritius. His research interests are in ESD and Science/Biology Education. 

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Published

2017-03-24

How to Cite

Gokool-Ramdoo, S., & Rumjaun, A. B. (2017). Education for sustainable development: Connecting the dots for sustainability. Journal of Learning for Development, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v4i1.170

Issue

Section

Commentary
Received 2016-10-10
Accepted 2017-02-22
Published 2017-03-24