Measuring Financial, Personnel and Material Resources for Education for Sustainable Development in the German School System: A Proposal for the German Educational Monitoring and Reporting

Abstract

In this article, we present our proposal for a set of resource indicators measuring financial, personnel and material resources for education for sustainable development (ESD) in the German primary and secondary education. As resource indicators are an understudied area in ESD indicator research, the present article fills in an important research gap. We constructed an indicator set using a systematic literature review and a three-step validation process. As a result, we propose a comprehensive set of financial, personnel and material resources indicator set for ESD implementation based on both quantitative and qualitative data tailored to the German National ESD Action Plan. A smaller set of resource indicators were also identified, which are all based on relatively easily accessible quantitative data sources. Furthermore, using Germany as an example, the article highlights and addresses the theoretical and methodological challenges of resource indicator development in highly decentralized education systems.