What have We Done and Where will We Go? - Brief Review and Outlook of Education for Sustainable Development in China

Since the beginning of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development(DESD)(2005-2014)in 2005,Education for Sustainable Development(ESD)has been started a new era of educational innovation progress in China.Up to now,China has created a new history of ESD for 21 years,and ESD,the abstract conception from international academia has been became a leading thought of teaching and learning innovation for more and more teachers in China,and in 2010,ESD was been written in the Outline of the National Program for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development(2010-2020)by Chinese Ministry of Education as a strategic direction of education development for the coming ten years.Exactly,ESD has really played a positive role in educational reforni and innovation.

Twenty Years of China's Education for Sustainable Development(ESD) Program: Review and Prospect

The basic characteristics of China ESD program is:The dual attribute of the definition of ESD;A new interpretation of the subject-oriented education theory from the perspective of sustainable development;ESD is an Important Content of strengthening morality education;the"whole?school"model has become the norm;an international cooperation and exchange platform has been actively built.

Contributing to Sustainable Development——The Mission and Value of Higher Education

Some notes on sustainable development and scientific outlook on development were given. It is addressed that the mission of higher education to contribute to sustainable development should be reinforced and further expanded. The present situation of China's higher education and the improvements required were analyzed. Two modes of thinking (reductionism and holism) and the relationship between the mode of thinking and the mode of development were discussed. The change in the mode of thinking is the key point for Chinese higher education, and more intensive reform of teaching affairs is necessary. A proposal of the revision of China's Higher Education Act and University Constitutions was put forward.

Sustainable Development Importance in Higher Education for Occupational Health and Safety Using Egypt Vision 2030 under COVID-19 Pandemic

Insertion of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into higher education is an important concern. This article aims to address the influences of SDGs in higher and engineering educational system in Egypt. The present study focuses on SDGs 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 11. SDG 3 is related to occupational health and SDG 4 is related to higher education development. However, SDGs 6, 7, 9, and 11 are related to both mechanical and environmental engineering, and occupational safety. The study approach involves case risk analysis, investigations, and review for design concepts of occupational health and safety before and after the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). A number of cross-sectional studies that constitute 125 multidisciplinary research plans (MDRPs) are grouped to monitor and evaluate two main factors which are an influence of involving SDGs into engineering education and selected curriculum of occupational health and safety. Then the results of these research-based studies, which performed over four academic years started from 2017 up to date 2021, are depicted and discussed. These results reveal the importance of interlink between engineering education and the intended SDGs. The latest 25 MDRPs demonstrate that Egypt response to alleviate the COVID-19 is rapidly pronounced specially on SDGs 3 and 4 simultaneously. However, those MDRPs show that neither record impacts nor delays on SDGs 6, 7, 9 and 11. The conclusions prioritize both the advanced educational mechanisms and verify the engineering curriculums to raise awareness of SDGs among both staff members and students in Egyptian universities. Finally, future work is recommended at the end of this article to focus on each specific goal to gain deep insight to state of the art for each SDG around globe using education development.

Education on Sustainable Development based on Local Agenda 21

The study is contextualized through evaluating the implementation of Local Agenda Action Plan (LAAP). The goal was to address environmental challenges facing a city under the framework of sustainable development and planning. The evaluation of this conceptual framework was tested at a selected municipality of Athens (Greece), that has used a LAAP. The research was based on a structured questionnaire survey of a sample of 300 respondents selected from municipal employees (100 persons) and citizens of the selected municipality (200 persons). Analysis and interpretation of data through descriptive and factor analysis statistics establish that both municipality employees and citizens are primarily concerned with issues of environmental management. They firmly believe that sustainability initiatives at municipality might best be implemented through a collaborative approach at the local community level, involving local citizens working in partnership with local government. Furthermore, the study established the importance of education, aware-ness and training as a response to environmental issues currently facing the municipality. The awareness and training activities should be developed and should involve the members of the community in the needed environmental manage-ment processes. In view of the Decade Education for Sustainable Development (UNESCO 2005-2015), this should en-able the Council to create opportunities for income generation, while simultaneously promoting citizens’ environmental responsible behaviors and improving service delivery by municipality employees.

Five trends of education and technology in a sustainable future

Quality education is one of the pillars in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.This overall goal can be connected to some general trends affecting education in the information age.We argue that education is key to the future quality of human life and the sustainability of the world.Generally,education is being transformed in both formal and informal learning contexts by new digital technologies.Overall,some of these major innovations and how they are changing education can be summarized into the following aspects:1)our educational aims and objectives;2)educational ecologies and contexts of learning;3)the processes of learning;4)the processes of teaching;and 5)educational governance and policy.Meanwhile,we note some of the potential risks and downsides of these technology trends.From the sustainable perspective,our review points to a great potential for educational reform,but it can only be achieved if we are willing to rethink and even abandon some of our traditional ways of doing things in education.

Education for Sustainable Development in Ethnic Autonomous Areas of China:A Comparison of Two Curriculum Initiatives and Their Educational Implications

This paper examines the educational implications of two curriculum initiatives in China that have produced curricular materials promoting education for sustainable development(ESD)in minority-populated ethnic autonomous areas in China.The two curriculum projects present distinctive discourses,conceptions,models,frameworks and scopes of ESD in the country.Nonetheless,there is a likelihood that the actual implementation of the curriculum initiatives,especially the enactment of the curriculum materials produced,might be thwarted due to structural and systemic educational constraints,an anthropocentric approach to sustainable development,poor teacher support and teacher training,omissions of the affective learning components in curricular contents,as well as loopholes and weaknesses in the development of the curriculum materials themselves.

Continual Education is the Motivation of Sustainable Development of a Telecom Enterprise

The continuous investment into manpower resource, is the radical power toassure the sustainable development of enterprises. The enterprises both at home and abroad attachhigh importance to the continuous education of their employees and consolidate training to inspiretheir employees. In order to face increasingly drastic global competition, the telecom enterprisesin our country should consolidate continuous education, make training plans to adapt to thelong-term development of the enterprises and establish the effective mechanism of encouragement ofcontinuous education.

Exploring Education for Sustainable Development in a Chinese Kindergarten:An Action Research

Purpose:This article was intended to share and reflect on experiences concerning the education for sustainable development(ESD)project at Hongqiao Kindergarten in Shanghai.The project aimed to explore how ESD could be implemented in a current curriculum and to provide useful examples of educational activities and experiences.Design/Approach/Methods:The action research included two cycles with four steps.The first cycle involved the integration of ESD into a traditional science curriculum.The second cycle involved the validation and optimization of the ESD objectives.The implementation strategies were reviewed and refined.Findings:First,a variety of strategies can be used to identify the theme and choose the content.Second,the objectives should be developed on children’s life experiences and interests.Third,the idea of ESD can be implemented in multiple ways.Fourth,a reasonable objective system involving ESD was constructed for children by ages.Fifth,there were many effective ways to integrate ESD activities into other domains of curriculum.The challenges and implications were also discussed.Originality/Value:The study had a positive effect on teachers’ability to practice ESD.This was a pioneer project in early childhood education in China,which provided valuable information for those aiming to implement ESD practices in Chinese kindergartens.

Geography in the Anthropocene:Transforming our world for sustainable development

The world is changing at an accelerating pace due to increased human exploitation of the earth’s resources and the consequent climate change and biodiversity loss crises.As a transdisciplinary discipline studying the coupled human and nature systems and their interactions,Geography has natural advantages to promote sustainable development.With the aim of stimulating sustainable development in the Anthropocene,the International Geography and Sustainability Workshop 2021 was held virtually during 23-24 November 2021.This editorial briefly reviews the development history of Geography,summarizes the presentations of keynote speakers,outlines the overall research framework,and discusses the future directions by which the discipline of Geography can be harnessed to advance sustainable development.The key outcomes are as follows:(1)The research paradigms of Geography are shifting from basic knowledge acquisition to understanding of coupling patterns and processes,and to the simulation and prediction of complex human-earth systems;(2)Landscape sustainability science and the metacoupling concept are emerging as new comprehensive research perspectives,and the framework of“Pattern—Process—Service—Sustainability”can be used as a basis to underpin Geography’s role in sustainability;(3)Geography can support sustainable development in many ways,such as in agricultural development,disaster and risk monitoring and early warning,global climate change mitigation,and in helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).Future research directions include:integrated geographical research on climate change and sustainable resource utilization;integrated geographical research on social and economic sustainable development;sustainable cascades of ecosystem structure,functions,services,and human well-being;metacoupling for sustainability;safe and justice space boundaries;the classification-coordination-collaboration approach;and geographical education for sustainable development.

From Mutual Creation to Mutual Benefit:China’s National Teacher Training Program between Higher Teacher Education and K-12 Teachers

Sustainable Development Goal(SDG 4)lays solid theoretical foundation for the development of higher teacher education in improving the quality of teaching faculty nationwide.Sustainable teacher training paves a way for teacher professional development in the long run.China’s“National Teacher Training Program”serves a connection between higher teacher education and K-12 teachers in multiple perspectives when exploring K-12 teachers’improvement of the essence by upgrading the initiative of the program with the assistance of educational technology and modern educational philosophy from mutual creation to mutual benefit.Direction orientation strategic design based on demand for teaching faculty,curriculum setting in modules,and characteristics creation have been carried out to upgrade the training of teacher colleges and National Teacher Training Program in the future for achieving a win-win situation between higher teacher education and K-12 education.

Sustainability Capacity Building Based on Educational Method: A Case Study on China and Sweden Joint Program

Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development (EE&ESD) have been widely accepted as an effective educational method to contribute to capacity development and processes of change in developing countries. This paper takes SIDA supported EE&ESD in formal educationadvanced international training program, China as an example. By analyzing and reflecting its orientation, implementation, outcomes and evaluation, experiences and lessons learned are expected to help improve the sorts of international cooperation capacity building programs both from international and also Chinese perspectives.

Development of an educational cartoon to prevent worm infections in Chinese schoolchildren

Background:With more than two billion people infected worldwide,soil-transmitted helminths(STH)are the most widespread infections.To date,STH control efforts rely predominantly on recurrent mass drug administration(MDA),which does not prevent reinfection.Additional public health measures including novel health educational tools are required for more sustained integrated control of STH.We describe the development of an educational cartoon video(The Magic Glasses)targeting STH infections in Chinese schoolchildren and its pilot testing in China.We applied an extensive community-based mixed methods approach involving input from the target group of 9–10 year old schoolchildren and key informants,such as teachers,doctors and parents,in order to identify potential STH infection risks in the study area and to formulate key messages for the cartoon.The development of the educational cartoon included three major steps:formative research,production,and pilot testing and revision.Results:We found that most adults and approximately 50%of the schoolchildren were aware of roundworm(Ascaris)infection,but knowledge of transmission,prevention and treatment of STH was poor.Observations in the study area showed that unhygienic food practices,such as eating raw and unwashed fruit or playing in vegetable gardens previously fertilised with human faeces,posed major STH infection risks.Conclusions:It was crucial to assess the intellectual,emotional,social and cultural background of the target population prior to video production in order to integrate the key messages of the cartoon into everyday situations.Overall,our strategy for the development of the cartoon and its incorporation into a health education package proved successful,and we provide a summary of recommendations for the development of future educational videos based on our experiences in China.

以整体搬迁为契机,推动化学实验教学中心高质量发展——以中山大学化学国家级实验教学示范中心为例

为配合学校“三校区五校园”办学格局的整体部署,中山大学化学国家级实验教学示范中心积极推进整体搬迁,在学校和化学学院的大力支持下,完成了新的空间布局和实验室优化升级,全面提升了综合实力。中心搬迁调整历时2年,硬件条件得到了飞跃式提升,并结合学校新形势、新布局,与时俱进,构建简洁高效科学的管理系统,推动实验教学中心持续发展,开创了中心“高质量办学”新发展格局。