Higher Education for Sustainable Development: Actioning the Global Goals in Policy, Curriculum and Practice 

Participant Stakeholders: United Nations University- Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability UNU-IAS, The University of Queensland

Project Lead: Dr. Isabel B. Franco; Prof. O. Saito (Japan); Dr. P. Vaughter (U.S.A) ; J. Whereat (Australia); Prof. N.Kanie (Japan)  & K, Takemoto (Japan)
​
Impact:  Higher education for sustainable development (HEfSD) is being significantly shaped by the global sustainability agenda. Many higher education institutions, responsible for equipping the next generation of sustainability leaders with knowledge and essential skills, proactively try to action the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in HEfSD policy, curriculum and practice through scattered and isolated initiatives. Yet, these attempts are not strategically supported by a governing approach to HEfSD or coordinated effectively to tackle social and environmental sustainability. These predicaments not only widen the gap between HEfSD policy, curriculum and practice but also exacerbate the complexities between human and environmental interactions compromising overall sustainability. However, these efforts represent a potential for actioning the Global Agenda for Sustainable Development. Based on a qualitative research strategy, theory building methodology and various methodological techniques (surveys, policy and literature review, group and individual interviews), the outcomes of this project found that the advancement of HEfSD in policy, curriculum and practice depends largely on a better understanding of existing gaps, target areas, commonalities and differences across regional HEfSD agendas. This will hopefully provide higher education institutions and their stakeholders across regions with some conceptual and practical tools to consider strategically how HEfSD can successfully be integrated into policy, curriculum and practice in alignment with SDGs and with the overall mandate of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Development. This project was led by our Founder Dr. Isabel B. Franco, from idea to execution.
Click on image to access full document

​Governing Education for Sustainable Development: Towards Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education 

Participant Stakeholders: United Nations University - Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, The University of Queensland

Sustainability Leaders: Dr. Isabel B. Franco; E. Derbyshire (Australia)

Impact: This project provided a contribution to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education (SDG 4) through analysing stakeholder partnerships and collaboration for the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The outcomes of the research argue that a better understanding of limiting and fostering factors preventing greater collaboration for ESD is required in order to meet the targets set by SDG 4 which advocates for Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education. This research project provides a multi-level governance analysis (global, national and institutional) on ESD and key stakeholders’ perceptions on limiting and fostering factors in collaborative governance for ESD. It also increases our understanding of whether ESD policy developed at the international level can be imagined at the national, institutional and local levels and highlights the factors involved in collaboration for ESD. This hopefully helps us understand how to develop rhetoric that can advance from policy to impact. Conclusions drawn from these analyses highlight key inconsistencies and gaps that resulted from incompatible perspectives and motivations for realizing ESD at all levels of governance. 
Click on image to access full document

​Community Capacity-building for Sustainable Development: Effectively Striving towards Achieving Local Community Sustainability Targets

Sustainability Leaders: Isabel B. Franco, Ph.D; J. Tracey (Australia)
 
Participant Stakeholders: United Nations University- Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability UNU-IAS and University of Western Australia
 
Impact: There is a general concern in the scholarly literature pertaining to global sustainability research and education agendas and their real-life effectiveness for local communities. Yet there are many unanswered questions in this area. The research derived from this project  increases our understanding of these questions and how they can be addressed. Based qualitative research, this chapter presents priority community capacity-building areas for education for sustainable development. It also shows that improving identified areas seems from this study to be the most effective way to enhance the ability of local communities to cope with pressing global sustainability challenges over time. This research project paid nuance attention to the nature and importance of community capacity-building for fostering SDG 4 quality education in the pursuit of sustainable development.
Click on image to access full document