Abstract
This chapter draws on a traditional Indian story to enrich a logical argument for transformative education. In this Upanishadic story, the tripartite commands of thunder (Da, Da, Da) convey the importance of self-control, generosity, and compassion—which, it is argued, have great potential application to a world placed on a truly sustainable footing. Through the prism of Da Da Da, a critique of the role of education is mounted as, despite its remit of bringing a transformation in graduates for the highest and the common good, education itself seems in need of a transformation.
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- 1.
The three children of Prajapati are Sur (gods), Manav (men), Asur (demons). Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (5: 1–3), available from https://archive.org/details/PrincipalUpanishads.
- 2.
Radhakrishnan, 1953, pp. 289-290. The three principal virtues “This is the very thing the heavenly voice of thunder repeats da, da, da that is control yourself, give, be compassionate” (ibid., p. 290). The command of Da Da Da (Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata) as the threefold message of the thunder also appears in T. S. Eliot’s famous poem “The Waste Land”. Written in the aftermath of destruction created by World War I, the poem gives the eternal message of “Give, Sympathize, Control” to humankind.
- 3.
As Sulak Sivaraksa, the great Buddhist Thai monk and sustainability activist, writes about the power of mediation that can make us conscious of “the traits that dominate our consciousness: hatred and love, ignorance and wisdom, fear and courage” (emphasis in original, Sivaraksa 2009, p. 13).
- 4.
It is the duty of higher education to ensure that the values and ideals of a culture of peace prevail (UNESCO 1998a, Point 2).
- 5.
UNESCO: United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization to create, “a culture of peace and tolerance in which differences and diversities are viewed as a source of richness and not as a threat to one’s own values and being” (Power in UNESCO 1993, para 2). Available from http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/brochure/004.html.
- 6.
“[A] transformation of consciousness in the way one perceives and acts in the world” (Grundy as cited in Fraser and Bosanquet 2006, p. 281).
For Mezirow (1978, p. 100), it is “a process of perspective transformation —involving a structural change in the way we see ourselves and our relationships”.
According to Brookfield (2005, p. 80), “the idea of autonomous choice that lies at the heart of one of adult education’s most revered concepts, [is] that of adults as self-directed learners”. Education, as Power points is
Much more than a tool for the acquisition of specific skills, learning is in and of itself a treasure; moreover, the process of learning can and should be one of discovering and bringing forth the treasures of talent that lie within each human being. (Power 1997, p. 198)
- 7.
UNESCO 2014, p. 15.
- 8.
“[T]o educate students to become well informed and deeply motivated citizens, who can think critically, analyse problems of society, look for solutions to the problems of society, apply them and accept social responsibilities” (UNESCO/Summary, 1998a, article number 9).
- 9.
The “so-called dynamic qualities”, as Posch calls them (cited in Wals and Jickling 2002, p. 224).
- 10.
“[S]haring knowledge, international co-operation and new technologies” (UNESCO 1998a, p. 19).
- 11.
A UNESCO source book for teachers was created in 1998, Learning to Live Together in Peace and Harmony, based on international education and values education, with emphasis on peace, harmony, human rights, democracy, and sustainable development in the region (Targeted at teachers in the Asia Pacific region, but relevant to living anywhere in this global world).
The source book has three major emphases:
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the meaning of Learning to Live Together;
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the core and related values needed to live together successfully and peacefully;
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the development of learning experiences that will help teacher trainees and students actualise such values.
Learning to live together, a sourcebook for teacher education and tertiary level education (UNESCO 1998b, p. ii).
-
- 12.
UNESCO 1996a, From a culture of violence to a culture of peace.
Preface: It shows that a common system of values grouped around such key notions as justice, human rights, democracy, development, non-violence and peaceful resolution of conflicts, and behavioural patterns are the essence of a culture of peace. Whilst recognising that the construction of a culture of peace is a long-term process, this volume dwells on the ways, means and partners necessary for its implementation, notably education, the media, intercultural dialogue and cultural pluralism . The sustained efforts of the whole international community—states, governmental and non-governmental organisations as well as individuals and civil society—are indispensable for the achievement of a culture of peace (UNESCO 1996a, n.p.).
- 13.
“The term ‘culture’ may be used both in a wide and in a restricted sense. In the wider meaning, ‘culture’ concerns the sum of human activities, the totality of knowledge and practice, whereas in the restricted sense ‘culture’ is understood mainly as the result of creative activities and the highest intellectual achievements, such as music, literature, art or architecture. A culture of peace should be understood in the broader sense” (UNESCO 1996a, pp. 12–13).
UNESCO’s definition of culture of peace,
a culture of peace includes, by definition, an ethical dimension and principles of solidarity, burden-sharing as well as respect for each other’s culture and moral values. This must be recognized as being essential. The normative bases should be complemented and enriched by moral or ethical principles. The question of global ethics is therefore intimately linked with the normative bases for a culture of peace. (UNESCO 1996a, p. 19)
In another declaration (UNESCO 1998b, 1999, A/53/370), this highest body of United Nations states that a culture of peace is a set of values, attitudes, traditions, modes of behaviour and ways of life that reflect and inspire: respect for life and for all human rights;
rejection of violence in all its forms and commitment to the prevention of violent conflict by tackling their root causes through dialogue and negotiation;
commitment to full participation in the process of equitably meeting the needs of present and future generations; promotion of the equal rights and opportunities of women and men;
recognition of the right of everyone to freedom of expression,
opinion and information; devotion to principles of freedom, justice, democracy,
tolerance, solidarity, cooperation, pluralism , cultural diversity, dialogue and understanding between nations, between ethnic, religious, cultural and other groups, and between individuals (United Nations draft declaration and programme of action on a culture of peace 1999, Article 1) from http://culture-of-peace.info/annexes/resA-53-370/pages6-8.html.
Also, these ideas are continuously reflected in the United Nations Human Development Programme.
Human Development Report (1990 to 2016). New York: UNDP. http://hdr.undp.org/en/global-reports.
As the theme of UNESCO’s (1997a) Environment and Society: Education and public awareness for sustainability, a Background Paper was prepared for the UNESCO International Conference, Thessaloniki, 7.
Repeated in 1998, Learning to live together in peace and harmony requires that quality of relationships at all levels is committed to peace, human rights, democracy and social justice in an ecologically sustainable environment (UNESCO 1998b, p. 4).
- 14.
“[T]he increase of uncertainties in all areas…; demographic growth, uncontrolled development of industrial growth and of technoscience; mortal dangers for all of humanity, including nuclear weapons and threats to the biosphere” (Morin and Kern cited in Whiteside 2004, p. 357).
- 15.
Shiva 2004.
- 16.
“[I]rreparable denials of social justice and shameless practices of exploitation” (McLaren and Rikowski 2001, n.p.).
“The term ‘Ecocide’ was coined by US biologist Arthur Galston … At the 1970 Conference on War and National Responsibility, he called the massive damage and destruction of the Vietnamese jungle an ‘Ecocide’. The word derives from the Greek oikos, meaning home, and the Latin caedere, which means to demolish or kill. Ecocide thus translates as ‘killing our home’”. Femke Wijdekop in an article in New Internationalist. May 2016. http://eradicatingecocide.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/NewInt_Femke_May16.pdf.
- 17.
The concept of ecocide reminds of the famous saying by an Indian chief “Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money” (Cree Indian Proverb). Available from http://www.unitedearth.com.au/tipiwisdom.html.
An indigenous activist, and leader, Rigoberta MENCHÚ TUM, who is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (recieved in 1992 for her work in the field of social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation in Guatemala) has expressed this idea very powerfully and eloquently:
The work of creation is unity in diversity, in which all lives coexist in harmonious balance. Every time a forest is destroyed, a life form suffers violence, a language is lost, a form of civilization is cut down, a genocide is committed. (UNESCO 2002b, p. 40)
- 18.
“Our species seems to be in a constant war against its own kind, of ‘we’ against ‘they’” (Marwaha 2006, p. 19). Here are some recent snippets of the various issues that media covers on a regular basis, and activists all over the world are trying to raise awareness about:
A burning problem: It happens every year: thousands of hectares of Indonesian rainforest are torched to clear land for palm oil, timber and other agribusiness operations. It’s a perfect storm of destruction. Nithin Coca reports from Sumatra. New Internationalist April 2016 https://newint.org/features/2016/04/01/indonesia-palm-oil.
Also see Global Citizen (24/06/2016). www.globalcitizen.org/en/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=iterable_AUS_Refugee_campaign_AU_actives.
10/09/2015—There is an ocean of plastic devastating our sea life. Plastic is clogging the world’s oceans and devastating the fish, seabirds and turtles mistaking it for food.
16/3/2016—The obscenity of a plastic ocean—A shocking new study says that by 2050 there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish.
23/4/2015—Monsanto causes cancer—The threat is clear—this poison is used on our food, our fields, our playgrounds, and our streets.
24/06/2016—There have never been “more displaced people around the world as there is right now. The figures are staggering, with 59.5 million people forced to leave home. Almost 20 million of them are refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.
31/05/2017—Yemen is descending into total collapse, its people facing war, famine and a deadly outbreak of cholera, as the world watches, the UN aid chief said on Tuesday.
- 19.
The Learning that is taking place is usually “a top-down pedagogical models, rather than building on young people’s capacities as reflexive inter-cultural practitioners and globally connected citizens in diverse social spaces” (Mansourie 2017, p. 14). Who are not only “learning to know”, “learning to do”, and “learning to be” —but also “learning to live together” UNESCO (1996b). The four pillars of education in Learning the treasure within. Available from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001095/109590eo.pdf.
- 20.
Berliner 2008, p. ix.
- 21.
“As a means for personal enlightenment and for cultural renewal, education is not only central to sustainable development, it is humanity’s best hope and most effective means in the quest to achieve sustainable development” (UNESCO 2002a, p. 8).
- 22.
“Higher education itself is confronted therefore with formidable challenges and must proceed to the most radical change and renewal it has ever been required to undertake, so that our society, which is currently undergoing a profound crisis of values, can transcend mere economic considerations and incorporate deeper dimensions of morality and spirituality” (UNESCO 1998a). Preamble para 3 World declaration on higher education for the twenty-first century: vision and action, www.unesco.org/education/educprog/wche/declaration_eng.htm.
- 23.
“Adult literacy rates, youth literacy rates have been on the increase over the past two decades” (UNESCO 2013, p. 18). www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/literacy-statistics-trends-1985-2015.pdf.
Similarly, “Access to higher education has known a spectacular expansion over the past fifteen years. Global enrolment in tertiary education has doubled since 2000 with today some 200 million students worldwide, half of whom are women” (UNESCO 2015, p. 46).
- 24.
And then, as a United Nations’ report on the knowledge society says: “In the information age, and at a time when the advent of knowledge societies is poised to become a reality, we are, paradoxically, seeing divides and exclusions emerge between North and South, and within each society” (UNESCO 2005b, p. 22).
- 25.
A trend of fundamentalism (Said 1998; Ali 2003); the rise of the fourth world in every society (Morrow and Torres 2000). United Nations statement by its Director General, Federico Mayor, delivered with great sorrow and disappointment says it all:
To our profound sorrow and chagrin, we have been forced to realize that peace is not a matter of circumstance or even of politics, but requires, in the words of the Constitution, ‘the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind’. In a world in which our destiny is increasingly a collective and planetary one, no task is more vital than promoting, through education and culture, an active sense of tolerance and mutual understanding. (Mayor in UNESCO 1993, Worldwide Action in Education brochure) Available from http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/brochure/002.html
- 26.
The unfathomable gap between the two is unbelievable as it has been reported that “just 62 wealthy individuals hold the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the global population” (Oxfam). Available from www.oxfamamerica.org/static/media/files/even-it-up-inequality-oxfam.pdf.
To top it all, “Hunger [which should have been the first issue to be eradicated in a world of plenty] remains an everyday challenge for almost 795 million people worldwide”, according to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Director-General José Graziano da Silva. Global Citizen www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/africa-climate-change-farming/.
- 27.
We are, according to UNESCO, (October 16, 2015) celebrating the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures (2013–2022). Taking the promotion of a culture of peace and intercultural dialogue forward in the United Nations system. http://en.unesco.org/news/taking-promotion-culture-peace-and-intercultural-dialogue-forward-united-nations-system.
- 28.
Ideological confrontation between East and West (UNESCO 2016). Continuing along with similar issues that had been highlighted in 1993, Mayor states that at the backdrop of “escalating world poverty and degradation of the earth’s environment”, the world witnessed with great disappointment and sadness “the resurgence of nationalism, the growth of fundamentalism and of religious and ethnic intolerance” which are the “the difficulties inherent in the apprenticeship of freedom and democracy” (Mayor in UNESCO 1993, para 4).
- 29.
Ban Ki-moon UN: 15-year push ends extreme poverty for a billion people. Ban Ki-moon hails achievements of millennium development goals but warns world still riven by inequality. www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jul/06/united-nations-extreme-poverty-millennium-development-goals.
- 30.
We live in a world where there is enough reason for cynicism and despair. We watch as two of the leading democracies, two leading nations of the free world, get involved in a war that the United Nations did not sanction; we look on with horror as reports surface of terrible abuses against the dignity of human beings held captive by invading forces in their own country. We see how the powerful countries —all of them democracies—manipulate multilateral bodies to the great disadvantage and suffering of the poorer developing nations.
President Nelson Mandela’s (2004) speech to mark the 10 years of democracy in South Africa. Available from http://db.nelsonmandela.org/speeches/pub_view.asp?pg=item&ItemID=NMS709&txtstr=common%20good.
- 31.
Chan (2016, p. 2) puts the conundrum of education realised across the academic discourse for posing “persistent dilemmas about the public purpose and function of higher education in the 21st century”. Chan posits that “On one hand, one would argue that the purpose of higher education tends is to acquire new knowledge and to prepare one for the workforce. On the other hand, one would also argue that institutions of higher education should be aiming for more ideal contributions to the commonwealth society” (2016, p. 2).
- 32.
United Nations Goal 16, “Promote just, peaceful and inclusive society”. Available from www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/peace-justice/.
UNESCO (1996a). From a culture of violence to a culture of peace. Peace and Conflict Issues Series UNESCO: France.
“Given today’s international environment, marked as it is by insecurity, conflict, socio-economic turbulence and militarisation, the vision of a culture of peace presents a challenge, calling for redress and innovation in human affairs” (Thee 1997, p. 18).
- 33.
“[T]he crisis of global ecology is first and foremost a crisis of values, ideas, perspectives, and knowledge, which makes it a crisis of education, not one in education” (Orr 2004, p. 126, emphasis in original text).
Especially “at current levels of unsustainable practice and over consumption [, and not only in the developed Western world, perhaps], should we then conclude that education is part of the problem” (Shallcross and Robinson 2007, p. 137). The questions regarding the education of today’s generations still remain troubling:
Are people’s literacy skills, for example, whether in industrial or developing countries, adequate to enable them to participate fully in the political, economic, social and cultural life of their society? And what of ‘tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups’? Memory of the abuse of education for the purposes of political propaganda and stirring up racial and national hatreds in the period before the Second World War was still fresh when the Declaration was drawn up. How much better is the situation today? Are schools doing all that they can to counter problems of social exclusion and discrimination? (UNESCO 2000, p. 18).
- 34.
What sets this education, as Poshe (as cited in Wals and Jickling 2002, p. 224) states, “apart from training and conditioning and makes the prescription of particular lifestyles or (codes of) behavior problematic as it stifles creativity, homogenizes thinking, narrows choices and limits autonomous thinking and degrees of self-determination”.
- 35.
Orr (2004, p. 126, emphasis in original text) argues that “the debate should be informed by the recognition that environmental education is not the same kind of education that enabled us to industrialise the earth . On the contrary, the kind of education we need begins with the recognition that the crisis of global ecology is first and foremost a crisis of values, ideas, perspectives, and knowledge, which makes it a crisis of education, not one in education”.
Orr (1991, p. 52) remembers what Eric Wiesel had said at the Global forum in Moscow: “designers and perpetrators of the Holocaust were the heirs of Kant and Goethe. In most respects, the Germans were the best educated people on Earth, but their education did not serve as an adequate barrier to barbarity. What was wrong with their education?” In Wiesel’s words: “It emphasized theories instead of values, concepts rather than human beings, abstraction rather than consciousness, answers instead of questions, ideology and efficiency rather than conscience.”
- 36.
“It is a deliberate process of acquiring knowledge, developing competencies to apply this knowledge in relevant situations” (UNESCO 2015, p. 79) and education institutions usually do enjoy “the unique freedom to develop new ideas, comment on society, and engage in bold experiments, as well as to contribute to the creation of new knowledge” (Tony Cortese as cited in Wals and Jickling 2002, p. 224).
- 37.
The meaning of the word Education: the action or process of educating or of being educated; also, a stage of such a process. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/educational.
- 38.
“Education has become powerful in modern societies because of the several social functions that it performs. It provides a sophisticated set of social technologies for transforming human personality and capability, and helping people to transform themselves” (Marginson 2016, p. 15).
- 39.
This process takes place in institutions, schools, colleges, universities. For example, “the specialised information created, legitimised, communicated and evaluated by the universities” (Tange and Kastberg 2011, p. 3).
- 40.
The cultural capital that Bourdieu, and Dewy, and Bernstein talk about to be creating social disparities.
- 41.
UNESCO 2015, p. 79.
- 42.
Education “as social practice” (Bourdieu 1996).
“So that not one but two species of capital now give access to positions of power, define the structure of social space, and govern the life chances and trajectories of groups and individuals: economic capital and cultural capital” (Wacquant 1996, pp. ix–xii).
- 43.
Scapp 2016.
- 44.
Giroux 2002.
- 45.
Rapoport (2012, p. 180) mentions different types for education in the form of: international education, global education, multicultural education, peace education, human rights education being the other frameworks. But “economic education” is the only education to have “secured a position in school curricula”.
- 46.
Weber imagined that an increasing rationalisation of society would lead to man being trapped in an iron cage of rationality and bureaucracy.
Marx believed that capitalism resulted in the alienation of workers from their own labour and from one another, preventing them from achieving self-realisation (species being).
Finally, Durkheim believed that industrialisation would lead to decreasing social solidarity.
Capitalism, Modernization, and Industrialization. Sociologists Weber , Marx and Durkheim envisioned different impacts the Industrial Revolution would have on both the individual and society.
Source: Boundless (2015, 21 July).“Capitalism, Modernization, and Industrialization.” Boundless Sociology. Retrieved from www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/social-change-21/sources-of-social-change-139/capitalism-modernization-and-industrialization-763-9546/.
- 47.
“[I]t is difficult to find a widespread educational practice that is radically different from the dominant secular educational paradigm of the west … the world’s chief educational practices are western, as initially conceptualized in ancient Greece, adapted by ancient Romans, limited by the European Middle Ages, expanded by the Renaissance, and rationalized by the Industrial and Scientific Revolutions” (Grigorenko 2007, p. 65).
- 48.
In a top down model, education is first and foremost to serve the economic goals in the “scientifically based dominant paradigm”, which is exactly opposite to the century old humanism and progressive education (Shaker and Heilman 2008, p. xvi preface). Education needs to look beyond “religious hegemony and millennial materialism”, both have failed in our diverse society (ibid., p. xix).
- 49.
Buddhism warns of three poisons, greed, hatred, and ignorance, which according to Sivaraksa, can be uprooted by developing “the opposite mental attitude” (2005, p. 4). “These three poisons are at the root of our suffering. Through the practice of meditation and contemplation, the poisons can be rooted out completely and transformed into generosity, loving-kindness, and wisdom” (Mattio Pistonio 2009) (www.kyotojournal.org/the-journal/heart-work/the-engaged-buddhism-of-Sivaraksa-sivaraksa/).
- 50.
Samdhong Rinpoche, the Tibetan religious leader in his Foreword to Sivaraksa (2009, p. viii) explains how “these problems are being created by human beings through the exploitation of negative emotions such as greed and hatred”, which he says have become stronger because, “Industrialization has enabled humanity to produce more commodities than people really need, which has necessitated the creation of markets and the exploitation of greed through indoctrination and brainwashing”.
- 51.
“Simply improving the current model of education is to continue to follow the educational model that has been destroying the planet since the nineteenth century” (Gadotti 2010, p. 210).
- 52.
Sterling and Huckle 1996, p. xi.
- 53.
Sterling 2011, p. 6.
- 54.
To value and work for “humanity, justice and liberty and peace” in the world (Mayor in UNESCO 1993, para 6). Worldwide action in Education brochure. Available from http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/brochure/002.html.
- 55.
UNESCO 2015 Rethinking education towards a common good. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002325/232555e.pdf.
- 56.
Evidence-based education, managerial regimes of accountability, and the hegemony of a language of learning (Biesta 2010).
- 57.
For example, “enrollments, funding, the test scores of our students, the publication record of our faculty, and our rankings in popularity poll” (Astin 2004, p. 37).
- 58.
Alternatives will be “A critique of the modernist predilection for ‘grand’, ‘master’, and meta narratives … which have come down to us as a part of the culture of the Enlightenment” (Peters and Lankshear 1996, p. 2).
- 59.
Grigorenko 2007.
- 60.
Elliott and Grigorenko (2008, p. 2) present the argument that ethnocentric ideologies are promoted by Western education which is not a value-free education, as it is presented. It is imbibed by “those liberal democratic perspectives deemed important for the operation of free market economies”.
- 61.
UWS sustainability home page. Available from www.uws.edu.au/bringing_sustainability_to_life/sustainability.
- 62.
“[T]he neo-liberal vulgate an economic and political orthodoxy so universally imposed and unanimously accepted” (Bourdieu 2003, p. 2).
- 63.
Morrow and Torres 2000, p. 28.
- 64.
- 65.
Hegel (cited in Chow 2002, p. 175).
- 66.
“atom bamon ke jor pe ainthi hai ye duniya, baarood ke ik dher pe baithi hai ye duniya” (Pradeep a poet and song writer wrote a patriotic song in a 1954, Indian film, Jagriti, which means awakening).
Translation: “Inflated by its self-importance due to the atom weapons it has amassed, the modern world is actually sitting on a pile of explosives”…
- 67.
“A personal sense of ethical obligation is strongly related to behavioural intention in ethical and sustainable consumption” (The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002. A ten-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production (SCP). Available from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/milesstones/wssd.
- 68.
“[A] just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the twenty first century. It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater community of life, and future generations. It is a vision of hope and a call to action” (Earth Charter Commission 2000, p. 4). Available from www.earthcharter.org.
- 69.
Education “is about empowering people to contribute to a better future through mindset changes, critical reflection and building new skills” (Reynolds cited in Buchanan and Griffin 2010, p. 9).
- 70.
Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development 1987.
- 71.
UNESCO 2015.
- 72.
According to UNESCO (1996a)
A culture of peace is intimately linked with a culture of human rights and democracy. Peace cannot be preserved if the basic rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups are violated and when discrimination and exclusion generate conflict. Therefore the protection of human rights and the promotion of a culture of democracy which imply, inter alia, the formation of well-informed, democratically-minded and responsible citizens become important elements for the construction of internal and international peace. (UNESCO 1996a, p. 16)
- 73.
SATVA programme in India, “has focused upon the role of student participation and engagement in value education for equipping them with skills to build resilience, reduce vulnerability and enhance adaptability towards SHD” (Sundaresan and Bavle 2016, p. 174).
- 74.
UNESCO 1998a, p. 2.
- 75.
The Earth Charter created by the Earth Charter Commission as a people’s charter declares:
We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations. (Earth Charter Commission 2000, p. 1)
- 76.
Tilbury and Wortman 2004; also, Wiek et al. (cited in Richard et al. 2016, p. 136) have proposed five key competencies encompassing the main educational objectives related to Sustainable Development (SD).
Systems-thinking competence: The ability to analyse real, complex problems in a comprehensive manner and in context (requires an interdisciplinary approach);
Anticipatory competence: The ability to evaluate the potential consequences of human intervention or non-intervention;
Normative competence: The ability to explicitly include the normative factors that help guide decision-making (values, rules, consequences, goals, etc.);
Strategic competence: The ability to come up with inclusive and applicable solutions to complex problems;
Interpersonal competence: The ability to create opportunities for dialogue, debate and discussion (with a view to collaborative problem solving).
- 77.
Preamble. The Earth Charter. Available from www.earthcharter.org.
- 78.
Pedagogues who literally take the pupil to school (from pedagog in Greek, a slave taking children to school) can be involved in the transmission rather than a critical engagement with students to develop their knowledge as well as perspectives for their future living in a global society.
According to Freire (1993, p. 31), “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, confronting, hopeful inquiry men pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other”.
- 79.
“Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat” (Freire 1993, p. 72).
- 80.
Freire 1993, p. 71.
- 81.
Kincheloe 2008, p. 7.
- 82.
Freire calls it a “banking” model of education. For example, in an “uncritical knowledge context”, which is said to inhibit students’ abilities to think critically, educators are presumably also “reduced to rule-following information deliverers who have no need for scholarly abilities”.
- 83.
Freire 1993, p. 31.
- 84.
Gandhi had been confident about education for Indian villages where, unfortunately, education was mainly for “boys” that “in addition to education in the ordinary sense the village boys of the future will acquire at the school such attributes of mental alertness, manual dexterity, health and cleanliness as will make the villages in future more healthy, attractive and enlightened places than they have been in the past” (Gandhi 1999, vol 1, p. 22).
- 85.
Semali and Kincheloe 1999, p. 5.
- 86.
Sosa 2015, p. 4.
- 87.
“Learning to live together in peace and harmony is a dynamic, holistic and lifelong process through which mutual respect, understanding, caring and sharing, compassion, social responsibility, solidarity, acceptance and tolerance of diversity among individuals and groups (ethnic, social, cultural, religious, national and regional) are internalized and practised together to solve problems and to work towards a just and free, peaceful and democratic society” (UNESCO 1998b p. 4).
- 88.
Rapoport 2012, p. 180.
- 89.
“[E]thics has replaced notion of solidarity, social responsibility, and compassion for the other” Giroux (April 8, 2014). www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/22958-neoliberalism-and-the-machinery-of-disposability.
- 90.
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines a “liberal arts” institution as a “college or university aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum”.
Critical thinking is one of the three fundamental principles in liberal arts education. The three principles are: “critical thinking, moral and civil character, and using knowledge to improve the world” (Chopp 2013, p. 13).
As the great Chinese philosopher Confucius has written:
The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things. (The Great Learning—Ancient Texts, n.d.) (Markham and Lohr 2009, p. 120)
- 91.
“With our focus on our ‘outer’ development in fields such as science , medicine, technology, and commerce, we have increasingly come to neglect our ‘inner’ development the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self-understanding” (Astin 2004, p. 34).
- 92.
Sterling and Huckle 1996, p. xxiii.
- 93.
Chopp et al. 2013, p. 5.
- 94.
“The effectiveness of awareness raising and education for sustainable development must ultimately be measured by the degree to which they change the attitudes and behaviours of people, both in their individual roles, including those of producers and consumers, and in carrying out their collective responsibilities and duties as citizens” (UNESCO 1997b, IV. Shifting to sustainable lifestyles: changing consumption and production patterns. pp. 29–30).
- 95.
- 96.
Chopp 2013, p. 13.
- 97.
“[V]alues and ethics of justice and caring, educators using this model of wisdom can do much to encourage sustainability” (Lander 2016, p. 52).
- 98.
“Balancing respect for plurality with universal values and concern for common humanity” (UNESCO 2015, p. 83).
- 99.
“[E]thical responsibility to meet the future workforce needs of society and to participate fully in the new global economy [ and] the discipline-specific competencies and higher-level learning outcomes that are needed to live responsibly in an increasingly diverse democracy and in an interconnected global community” (Chan 2016, pp. 2–3).
- 100.
Andrzejewski and Alessio (1999, para 1) ask, “Are teachers prepared to help their students develop the global consciousness needed to support human rights and ecological sustainability?”
- 101.
“This process begins with the development of inner peace in the minds and hearts of individuals engaged in the search for truth , knowledge and understanding of each other’ s cultures, and the appreciation of shared common values to achieve a better future. Learning to live together in peace and harmony requires that quality of relationships at all levels is committed to peace, human rights, democracy and social justice in an ecologically sustainable environment ” (UNESCO 1998b, p. 4).
- 102.
“[T]he instructor is considered to be the main dynamizing agent of the process. It also considers a series of methodological elements which favour the inclusion of principles of sustainability in classes. The combination of these two aspects at different levels of complexity, and their interaction with the agents that make up the class—the students and the content—can be a way to orient the inclusion of sustainability in the university context” (García-González et al. 2016, p. 4).
- 103.
Jones and Killick 2007, p. 111.
- 104.
Sosa 2015, p. 4.
- 105.
- 106.
- 107.
A statement on liberal education by the President, Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), says it all:
It is an education that fosters a well-grounded intellectual resilience, a disposition toward lifelong learning, and an acceptance of responsibility for the ethical consequences of our ideas and actions. Liberal education requires that we understand the foundations of knowledge and inquiry about nature, culture and society; that we master core skills of perception, analysis, and expression; that we cultivate a respect for truth ; that we recognize the importance of historical and cultural context; and that we explore connections among formal learning, citizenship, and service to our communities. (Schneider 1998, para 1) Available from www.aacu.org/about/statements/liberal-learning
- 108.
Medrick (2013, para 6). Available from www.jsedimensions.org/wordpress/content/a-pedagogy-for-sustainability-education_2013_06/.
- 109.
Handa 2017.
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Handa, N. (2018). Da Da Da: The Educational Imperative of Self-Control, Generosity and Compassion. In: Education for Sustainability through Internationalisation. Palgrave Studies in Global Citizenship Education and Democracy. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50297-1_4
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