Developing a framework for embedding Education for Sustainability (EfS) within the built environment sector in Egypt

Education for Sustainability (EfS) is a growing movement that seeks to prepare researchers, educators and practitioners for a career that embraces sustainable values and principles. Historically, this approach has been integrated to varying degrees across the globe, with developed countries typically applying this approach more widely than developing countries. Building Capacity for Sustainable Development of the Built Environment (BC-SDBE) project, has been set up to improve EfS within the Architecture and Engineering disciplines within Egypt. The aim of the project is to develop a viable framework for embedding sustainability principles, theories and applications into education and training. Achieving sustainable development in Egypt requires proactive engagement of stakeholders from educators, practitioners, developers, and policy makers. The first stage of the research undertaken in this project has gathered data surrounding the opinions on the current curricula through a stakeholder survey, themed workshops and open-ended questionnaires. In the second stage of the research, results from a workshops held in Cairo surrounding the required skills for achieving holistic sustainability within the built environment sector are presented. This is followed by an open-ended questionnaire aimed at engaging academic groups involved in education in the built environment, which was undertaken during the second stakeholders’ workshop. The aim of this questionnaire is to reveal concepts and generate in-depth discussion surrounding curricula issues in Egypt and achieve consensus for the development of a proposed strategic framework which EfS at the heart of the education policy agenda in Egypt, progressively at all levels of education and professional training of graduates and practitioners in the built environment. This paper presents and discusses results from the second stage of the project methodology