SDG 4.7 Across Curriculum & Education Spaces

In Module 1, we begin our course by grounding ourselves with core ideas of what Education for Sustainable Development means and why it’s important infuse in all aspects of our education systems and how we teach.

The Essential Questions for this Module include:

1. Why is Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) important to teach and infuse into education spaces?

2. What is the historical evolution of ESD?

3. What competencies and skills are part of ESD?

4. What are the roles of various education institutions and stakeholders in making ESD a priority within and across all subjects and learning spaces?

In Module 2, we explore how educators can apply ESD and SDG 4.7 into lesson planning, pedagogy, and overall frame of mind.

The Essential Questions for this module are:

1. What is the purpose of education?

2. What are some of the frames of mind that educators can start from when thinking about how to begin integrating ESD into their teaching practice?

3. How do principles of social emotional learning support effective ESD teaching and learning?

4. How are the curricular alignments to the state and national standards made?

5. What are some useful approaches, structures, and key considerations that you can use in your lesson planning?

6. We’ll also talk about common challenges that teachers may face when beginning to integrate ESD, and how we can overcome them.

In Module 3, we build on the lesson planning considerations from Module 2 by delving into specific examples of learning experiences and applications across subject areas that help bring ESD and SDG 4.7 solutions-thinking to life for learners and promote their sense of empowerment and agency.

The Essential Questions for this module are:

1. How can planners look across subject curriculum scope and sequence to plan lessons that can be integrated into different topics, enabling a holistic problem-solving lens to key ESD and SDG 4.7 topics?

2. How can ESD be designed in ways that are action-oriented and promote learners’ agency?

3. How can educators bring in professionals and activists from the community to engage learners in real-life sustainable development and civic engagement lessons from the field?

4. Examples - how can sustainability issues like land use and plastic pollution be addressed through lessons in various subjects?

In Module 4, we explore ways that ESD and SDG 4.7 integration can be done in ways that involve and contribute to solutions in the wider community around the school, enabling learning that can cross spaces to be more relevant, contextualized and connected to learners’ lives.

The Essential Questions for this module are:

1. Why is it important to connect ESD and SDG 4.7 learning to learners’ lived experiences and communities?

2. Beyond traditional textbooks and content, what are ways that educators can engage different community stakeholders in the learning experience?

3. How can schools serve as community hubs to facilitate action and problem-solving beyond the classroom?

4. What are some helpful frameworks and themes that can support an action-oriented mindset in learners?

Module 5 grounds some of what might be more familiar ideas about measuring student learning and progress in the global Sustainable Development Goal indicator framework to help educators and other stakeholders develop ideas and tools for measuring and documenting progress toward achieving SDG 4.7 and Education for Sustainable Development.

The Essential Questions for this module are:

1. What are the indicators that the United Nations uses to measure SDG 4.7? What are some of the limitations? What are some country case studies?

2. How do you measure local/sub-national impact of sustainable development progress?

3. What does the indicator development process look like?

4. What ESD competencies and skill areas should be measured?