Best Practice and Challenges in Education for Sustainable Development and Global Education

This paper describes some of the developments to embed Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Education (GE) in programs at the University of Hertfordshire including the BA Education Studies, BEd and PGCE offered by the School of Education. These developments were initiated by the ‘professional lead ’ in ESD and GE. In particular, the paper will discuss the conceptual framework, which underpins both the development and audit of ESD/GE practice in the School of Education. Results from this audit and later impact assessment are presented. The key outcomes of this work, particularly the value of the conceptual framework, lessons for the future and a proposed agenda for further research and development are also discussed. A framework for developing education for sustainable development and global education The original conceptual development of a framework for ESD and GE was undertaken by the professional lead in this area in response to considerable variation in the use of terminology and overlapping constructs in these curriculum areas. For example, what are the differences between global dimension, global citizenship and global education and do they matter? In this paper, as in the research and development processes, the term ‘global education ’ is used as it most accurately describes this work. It focuses on educating about global issues and also embraces dimensions of global citizenship. Initial thinking was that it would be hard to educate about issues and citizenship, local or global, without embracing education for sustainable development. How could we be good citizens if we did not care for our habitat, our planet, and wor