Challenges and progress in monitoring SDG target 4.7

SDG Target 4.7 introduces education for global citizenship and sustainable development, explicitly linking education to other goals and capturing the transformative aspirations of the new global agenda. More than any other... [ view full abstract ]

SDG Target 4.7 introduces education for global citizenship and sustainable development, explicitly linking education to other goals and capturing the transformative aspirations of the new global agenda. More than any other education target, it touches on the social, humanistic and moral purposes of education.

Identifying indicators to monitor knowledge and skills that are needed to promote sustainable development – and that have meaning across a wide spectrum of socioeconomic levels, political systems and cultural contexts – remains arduous. The Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators proposed a broad global indicator to capture the wide scope of target 4.7, in other words how countries mainstream global citizenship and sustainable development in their education. This measure embraces inputs and processes but sidesteps the target’s aspirational intent of ensuring that all learners, young and old, acquire knowledge and skills aligned with the transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Some of these aspects are captured in the supplementary thematic indicators proposed by the Technical Cooperation Group. In summary, the following indicators need to be monitored:

• (Global) Extent to which (i) global citizenship education and (ii) education for sustainable development, including gender equality and human rights, are mainstreamed at all levels in (a) national education policies, (b) curricula, (c) teacher education and (d) student assessment

• Percentage of students by age group (or education level) showing adequate understanding of issues relating to global citizenship and sustainability

• Percentage of 15-year-old students showing proficiency in knowledge of environmental science and geoscience

• Percentage of schools that provide life skills-based HIV and sexuality education

• Extent to which the framework on the World Programme on Human Rights Education is implemented nationally (as per UNGA Resolution 59/113)

This symposium focuses on the global and thematic indicators and examines the available tools at our disposal for operationalizing these indicators as well as initiatives to collect data more closely aligned with the concepts in target 4.7. It will consist of five presentations:

• The first presentation (Bryony Hoskins and Lanora Callahan, Roehampton) will discuss efforts to capture the global indicator through responses to the monitoring survey of the 1974 UNESCO International Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

• The second presentation (Yoko Mochizuki (TBC), UNESCO Bangkok) will recognize the limitations of efforts based on administrative self-reporting and will reflect on recent efforts in Asia to refine our understanding of curricular content related to sustainable development.

• The third presentation (Ralph Carstens, IEA) will address the efforts of the IEA to iteratively develop its International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS) and ensure that it captures young peoples’ preparedness to undertake their roles as citizens who are faced and concerned with changing contexts of democracy, issues of global relevance as well as sustainable futures.

• The fourth presentation (Mario Piacentini, OECD) will present the attempts of its Programme for the International Student Assessment to address scientific literacy and potential expansions in knowledge related to global citizenship and sustainable development.

• The fifth presentation (Christophe Cornu, UNESCO) will review the different tools that aim to capture the spread of comprehensive sexuality education across schools and the efforts made to improve the validity and relevance of related surveys.

Keith Lewin (Sussex) and Silvia Montoya (UIS) will be discussants.