"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."
What is Sustainable Development?
Sustainable development is both a term and a way of organization for global development, that supports both people and the environment. Sustainable development ideally helps to bridge gaps of environmental, economical, and social concerns in a given country, culture, or society. The most important aspect of sustainable development is that it meets the present needs of a society, while paving a way for future generations to live a sustainable lifestyle. The problems with sustainable development are the implications that it has on the environment. The goal of sustainable development today is to have development that mutually benefits both people and the environment.
The United Nations and the Sustainable Development Agenda
The United Nations first introduced development as global goals in September 2000 in New York, where world leaders came together to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration - later known as the Millennium Development Goals. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) had a 15 year deadline to reduce extreme poverty.
The 8 goals were:
1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2) Achieve universal primary education
3) Promote gender equality and empower women
4) Reduce child mortality
5) Improve maternal health
6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7) Ensure environmental sustainability
8) Develop a global partnership for development
Although not 100% successful, The Millennium Development Goals Report of 2015 showcased some huge leaps for global development. Since 1990, the number of people living in extreme poverty dropped from 1.9 billion people to 836 million people in 2015. In 2000 the number of out-of-school children of primary school age was at 100 million, and fell to about 57 million by 2015. HIV infections fell by 40% between 2000 an 2003, and over 6.2 million malaria deaths we adverted between 2000 and 2015. The final report on the MDGs concludes that goal-setting has the ability to remove millions of people from poverty, empower women and girls, improve global health and personal well-being, and provide a multitude of opportunities for a better life.
In 2015, a new set of goals were put in place for the UN and member countries. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 Global Goals as a universal call to action to, "end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity". The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all UN Member States in 2015.
Here are the current Global Goals/SDGs:
1) No Poverty
2) Zero Hunger
13) Climate Action
14) Life Below Water
15) Life on Land
We are now three whole years into the new Global Goals. Each goal is interconnected, and, if successful, will feed off of the others. Under each goal are updates and progress from each full year. These goals are different than the MDGs from 2000-2015, because they focus on how each goal can contribute to sustainability and the environment.
Education for Sustainable Development
One of the most important aspects of any given society is knowledge and the way of educating its people. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as defined by the Global Education Monitoring Report 2016, means "a type of education that aims to enable learners to constructively and creatively address present and future global challenges and create more sustainable and resilient societies". In translation, this means that we need to be educating children and adults around the world in order to sustain their culture and society as well as personal lifestyle.
Sustainable Development Goal #4: Quality Education
Obtaining quality education is a foundation in creating a system of sustainable development. SDG 4, quality education, states that its goal is to, "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all". Each Global Goal has one main objective, with targets to try and hit along the way. Quality Education has 10 set targets to reach by 2030. In the United States, quality education might mean receiving a decent education from a public or private institution, focusing on writing, reading, mathematics, and STEM programs in order for students to gain the knowledge and skills needed to eventually go to university and then into the work force. Since 2015, the United Nations and member states have made incredible strides towards quality education for all.
On a global scale, quality education is much more than technical and standardized education. It means that we must fit the needs of the individual and the society in order for them to receive a quality education. We must encourage students to think critical about real world issues; nurture problem-solving and encourage independent thinking; teach empathy; think local and global; teach skills, knowledge, history, and culture of their people and society; use creative ways of learning; and encourage independence, and nurture unique skills and knowledge of the individual.
In her TED Talk, The global learning crisis – and what to do about it, Amel Karboul implies that the most important infrastructure development for any given nation or state is educated minds. She supports this claim by giving examples of education systems around the world and how they are either thriving or failing, stating that, “today, we are facing a global learning crisis. I call it learning crisis and not education crisis, because on top of the quarter of a billion children who are out of school today, even more, 330 million children, are in school but failing to learn”. The purpose of her lecture is to present a system in order to allow quality education to reach all communities in rural and urban cities around the world, by implementing a media center of qualified teachers, that teach remotely via live-stream video, and a system that encourages students to want to learn or possibly become teachers in the future. Hypothetically, this could be a great start to a local to global impact on education. However, this system could have detrimental implications to the rural communities that need a more local and community based education.
"We sort of think that we educate our kids, we send our kids to school, we have a form of enculturating kids into our society, which is education; and peoples that don't mimic those same patterns of education somehow don't educate their kids. Well of course, that is absurd." -Wade Davis, National Geographic Explorer
The Importance of Indigenous Knowledge in a Modern World
The repercussions of white colonization and institutionalized education have reached native peoples on all ends of the globe. As America moved west, thousands of Native American children were forcibly taken from their families and sent to government-run boarding schools. The goal was to destroy their way of life, to civilize them. It happened in India with the British, as well as Cuba and the Philippines when war came in contact with the local people. This only started the negative cycle of educating indigenous peoples and chipping away at their culture, language, and way of life.
In giving students around the world quality education, it is important to note that quality education does not mean "westernized" education. It means we must reverse the damage that has been done, and educate to the needs of each society and culture in order for it to sustain itself through the cycle of education and development. The discussion of western influence can be explored not only in education, but also in health, tourism, volunteer programs, and other areas of development.
Nearly 20% of the planet is home to about 370 million indigenous people. They are the people who inhabited the earth first, or are the original people. They have historical and cultural bonds with lands and territories in and around where they live. A big part of the indigenous lifestyle and knowledge is deeply rooted in natural resources, land, and the environment. In the article, Indigenous knowledge and implications for the sustainable development agenda, author Giorgia Magni states that, "Indigenous, traditional or local knowledge means the knowledge and know-how that are unique to a given society or culture. Cultural traditions, values, beliefs, rules and taboos and world-views of local people are embedded in this knowledge. It is indeed the backbone of their social, economic, scientific and technological identity." Indigenous knowledge is a complex and dynamic system with valid logical and scientific methods. Just because it is different, does not mean it is not as important and effective as westernized education.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, formal education systems have resulted in an unquantifiable amount of indigenous knowledge loss. Formal education systems under western or national social norms promote homogenization rather than plurality. Indigenous knowledge transmission is passed down by people and land, while institutionalized education often takes the humanity out of the knowledge, such as things like compassion and empathy. Although this is the case for many indigenous peoples around the world, there have been attempts to include or restore indigenous knowledge and practices through formal schooling in many regions of the world, such as Alaska and Latin America.
"Intelligence flows through relationships between living entities." -Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Land, People, and the Environment as Pedagogy
In looking at how we should educate indigenous people or peoples of developing countries, it is important to teach land as pedagogy. In her paper, Land as pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious transformation, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson uses Nishnaabeg (indigenous people of the US and Canada) stories that advocate for a reclamation of land as pedagogy, “both as a process and context for Nishnaabeg intelligence”. The author supports this advocacy through a display of stories and personal narratives from the Nishnaabeg people. The purpose of this paper is to educate people so that they can understand that intelligence does not only come from a standardized curriculum in a post-colonial educational system, but that intelligence is passed on through relationships with living people as well as relationships with nature.
One of the Nishnaabeg stories highlights a modern struggle of being a Native in a ever growing consumerism driven education:
"My experience of education, from kindergarten to graduate school, was one of coping with someone else’s agenda, curriculum, and pedagogy, someone who was neither interested in my well being as a kwezens, nor interested in my connection to my homeland, my language or history, nor my Nishnaabeg intelligence. No one ever asked me what I was interested in nor did they ask for my consent to participate in their system. My experience of education was one of continually being measured against a set of principles that required surrender to an assimilative colonial agenda in order to fulfill those principles. I distinctly remember being in grade 3, at a class trip to the sugar bush, and the teacher showing us two methods of making maple syrup – the pioneer method which involved a black pot over an open fire and clean sap, and the “Indian method” – which involved a hollowed out log in an unlit fire, with large rocks in the log to heat the sap up – sap which had bark, insects, dirt and scum over it. The teacher asked us which method we would use – being the only native kid in the class, I was the only one that chose the “Indian method”".
When thinking about creating an education system that fits all cultures globally, it is frankly impossible. Within any system of indigenous knowledge, there is no standard curriculum to teach the land and the lifestyle, because as one of the Nishnaabeg stories states, it is impossible to generate a curriculum for "that which is giving to us lovingly from the spirits". The land which is lived upon by all indigenous peoples, is both their context and practice of knowledge. They are driven by their own curiosity and desire to learn. They trust their people and the knowledge becomes a collective task among the community. "Like governance, leadership and every other aspect of reciprocated life, education comes from the roots up".
