Correlation between ideas of sustainable development and principles of Lithuanian education reform

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos darnaus vystymosi švietimo ir Lietuvos švietimo reformos pirmojo etapo idėjų sąsajos. Remiantis šio etapo švietimo konceptualių dokumentų analize bei juos pagrindusių mokslininkų straipsnių mintimis, prieinama prie išvados, kad reformos pamatinės idėjos adekvačios darnaus vystymosi švietimo idėjoms, o jų svarba itin išryškėja XXI a. pradžioje, kai Lietuvoje pradedama tiesiogiai įtvirtinti Europos Sąjungos ir Jungtinių Tautų strateginių dokumentų nuostatas.Article discusses correlations between basic ideas of education for sustainability, which have been widely cultivated in late XX and early XXI centuries, and those of Lithuanian education reform, which was introduced in 1988. The aim of investigation is to reveal correlations between the ideas of Lithuanian education reform of the first stage and essential concepts of the world's educational development of XXI century. The author raises a hypothesis that ideas of education for sustainability are not novel to Lithuanian education system. The investigation is conducted using methods of documental and scientific research analysis, as well as comparative analysis. Nowadays Lithuanian education researchers tend to focus on comparison of the ideas of education for sustainability of the world with those conveyed in the documents of Lithuanian education reform of the early XXI century. Those documents contain some clearly expressed parallels with global and European educational concepts. This article, however, concentrates on another period, the period of 1988-1997. That is the time, when the idea of balanced development was already spreading in the world, but the critical role of education for this development was not acknowledged yet. The author has chosen to investigate some essential principles of education for sustainability and Lithuanian education reform, which are hypothetically considered common. These are such principles as transformational function of education, holistic perception of reality, integrity, cultivation of critical and creative thinking as well as developing of virtue oriented attitudes. The analysis of conceptual documents of Lithuanian education reform and evaluation of methodological explanations of its models confirm the hypothesis which is raised in the article. The transformational function was assigned to education in the Conception of Lithuanian education in 1992. In this document education is considered to be the underlying element of society development as well as foundation on which all social reforms ought to be based. According to this document, the objective of education is to surpass society development. Society is transformed by educating a human being, capable of constructive cooperation in the process of society's transformation. The conditions for educating such a human being are created by developing humanitarian and democratic paradigm of education. The scheme No. 1 depicts relations between the goals, the location and the ways of education. Authors of the reform model have built their conceptual arguments on holistic perception of reality. The phenomena of real world are considered robe complex systems, which obey patterns of regularity. The world is integral unit, parts of which are closely interrelated. The principle of cultural integrity of a person is emphasized. Culture is not perceived as a most general domain comprising all functions of society, but rather as a dimension integrating a person, school, nation and the world. The integrity relations are summarized in the scheme No. 2. Education is also explained as a phenomenon, tied by holistic relations of culture as a whole. Those relations are shown in the scheme No. 3. Scheme No. 4 summarizes the integrity of a person which is being educated. This is how obvious correlations of the methodological level of the reform with basic ideas of education for sustainability are revealed. The principle of integrity has become one of the basic factors in preparing curriculum for the reformative school of Lithuania. In 1994 the themes that were also defined as themes of education for sustainability were included in the curriculum. Those were such themes as ecology, energetics, demography, deficit of food supplies, poverty, starvation, development of countries, criminality, drug addiction, AIDS, training in healthy way of living and others. The integration is implemented within learning disciplines, among other objects of learning and in appropriate social environment. In addition to methodological correlations the article also emphasizes relations of individual principles. For example, importance of humanitarian disciplines is considered to be a prerequisite for development of virtue oriented attitude to holistically conceived reality, whereas cultivation of critical and creative thinking is considered necessary to develop ability to change and to improve environment and society. The author wrote a few conclusions. The ideas of sustainable education development, increasingly spreading in the early XXI century, are not novel to Lithuanian education. Close correlations between the ideas of education for sustainability and fundamental principles of Lithuanian education reform can be found. It can be stated that methodological base of education reform and that of education for sustainability is related by holistic perception of reality. Holistic perception of the world reveals itself in both objects of investigation by focus on the principle of integrity, which unfolds in various levels and environments - personal and socioculturel, personal and social, personal and cultural, local (such as native community, nation, society) and global (European and worldly) ones. In the context of education for sustainability the principle of integrity concentrates more on importance of understanding the causal relations between ecology, economy and the social sphere. The principle of integrity is also implemented through curriculum, within particular disciplines, through objects of teaching and sociocultural environment, global themes etc