Education for Sustainable Development and International Student Assessments: Governing Education in Times of Climate Change

Abstract

At the end of the UN's Decade of Education for Sustainable Development there are few, if any, indications of comprehensive educational reforms meeting the challenges of sustainable development. Rather, a central aim for current educational reforms appears to be improvement of student performance on national and international educational assessments, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA). Against this background, this article explores the relationship between the UN's measures to promote education for sustainable development (ESD) and the OECD's measures to assist the development of education policy through PISA. The article finds that there are asymmetries in the ways these two different measures shape education systems. Moreover, the article also finds tensions between the educational practices associated with ESD, and those associated with ambitions to improve scores on PISA and other tests.

The Role of Economics in Education for Sustainable Development; The Baltic States' Experience

“…Rather, a central aim for current educational reforms appears to be to improve student performance in national and international educational assessments, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessments. (Sinnes, A., 2016) Several authors have overviewed the main methods of quantitative analysis and applied them when evaluating the Baltic States' position in the EU. Commonly conceived sustainable development is concerned with social and economic equity and maintenance of ecological stability for future generations.…”

Earth at Rest

“…As stated by Sinnes and Eriksen (2015), little has been done with regard to transforming UN's measures into educational policy and practice. Despite of the importance of chemistry in ESD, both experienced chemistry teachers and student-teachers struggle to apply ESD ideas and green chemistry in their teaching (Jegstad and Sinnes 2015).…”

“…Recent studies report significant educational reforms during the last decades aiming to improve student performance on national and international educational assessments, among them the far most influential being OECDs Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA). In a comparative study of ESD and PISA, Sinnes and Eriksen (2015) show that although the UN acknowledged the importance of sustainability for education, Bother measures than those adopted under this programme have had greater success in influencing and shaping educational reforms^. The consequence of a policy that has as its main goal to score higher on international student assessments (like PISA) might even be counterproductive when it comes to implementing ESD (p. 9).…”

«Norge ligger på dette området langt fremme i forhold til de fleste land»: Utdanning for bærekraftig utvikling i Norge og Sverige

“…To tiår senere, i 2002, vedtok FNs generalforsamling tiåret for utdanning for baerekraftig utvikling (Decade for Education for Sustainable Development, DESD) som varte fra 2005 til 2014. Dette er det mest ambisiøse og omfattende initiativet for utdanning for baerekraftig utvikling så langt (Sinnes & Eriksen, 2015), der motivet var erkjennelsen av at «utdanning er en uunnvaerlig bestanddel for å oppnå baerekraftig utvikling» (UNESCO, 2008).…”

“…Tiåret er nå over, og oppsummert i en rekke rapporter og artikler (Huckle & Wals, 2015;Jucker & Matar, 2015). For Norges vedkommende er det vel trygt å si at tiåret ikke har satt de helt store spor (Andresen, Høgmo & Sandås, 2015;Laumann, 2007;Sinnes & Eriksen, 2015). Selv om det ble laget en slags strategi som senere ble revidert og noe utvidet (Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2012), ble denne aldri nedfelt i noen handlingsplan eller som laerings-og kompetansemål for skolene.…”