“Evolution of Knowledge Sharing of Education …
367
challenges and address them in a solution-oriented manner with very concrete objectives. Here too, the relevance of ESD as part of the fourth objective “Qualitative
Education” of the SDGs is emphasised. Compared to the concept of ESD, the SDGs
are attributed several advantages by the expert community: For example, the SDGs
serve as a common frame of reference for individual efforts to promote sustainable
development (Ahel and Lingenau 2020). Additionally, the unique design (clear visualisation of the objectives in a striking tile form, catchy icons and different colouring)
is also highlighted as particularly helpful. These forms of presentation offer a lot of
orientation and at the same time create a feeling of difference and integration (MüllerChrist et al. 2017). Thanks to their unique role in society, universities are able to make
an extremely important contribution in the sense of SDGs, just as in the UNESCO
programmes on ESD. Through teaching and learning, students are given the skills
they need to develop solutions to achieve the SDGs. At the same time, young people
are encouraged, mobilized and networked to implement the developed solutions. And
at the research level, universities also support the integration of SDGs into society
by providing appropriate knowledge, methods, technologies and innovations and by
researching solutions for concrete developmental problems. Published in 2017, the
study on the integration of SDGs in the German education system conducted by
Müller-Christ et al. (2017) comes to similar conclusions: SDGs are rarely integrated
in universities. Innovative teaching methods and future-oriented content are often
neglected in favour of attracting third-party funding and publications.
In summary, it can be seen that the transformation of the higher education system
to ESD has not yet been achieved. Sustainability is often still seen as competition and
not as a complement to other socially relevant issues. The complexity of the topic
itself also makes integration in teaching, studies and organisational structures more
difficult. The consideration of ESD and SDGs requires new ways of teaching and
learning at universities and thus calls the system itself into question. Although the
studies show that the German higher education system does not yet meet the goal of
ESD, it is also clear that some progress has been made: More and more federal states
are anchoring ESD in their education plans, new interdisciplinary study programmes
are emerging and new, innovative teaching formats are being developed (Michelsen
and Wels 2017).
3 Characteristics of ESD for Teaching in Higher Education
Settings
The following section aims to outline the characteristics of ESD. Not only is ESD
a wide ranging field of research, its special thematic orientation also impacts the
way ESD has to be taught in higher education. The main characteristic of ESD is
its diversity. Stemming from numerous—partially very different—fields of research,
ESD has formed itself around the last turn of the millennium from, inter alia, ecological sciences, research concerning the global transition, socio-ecological studies
367
challenges and address them in a solution-oriented manner with very concrete objectives. Here too, the relevance of ESD as part of the fourth objective “Qualitative
Education” of the SDGs is emphasised. Compared to the concept of ESD, the SDGs
are attributed several advantages by the expert community: For example, the SDGs
serve as a common frame of reference for individual efforts to promote sustainable
development (Ahel and Lingenau 2020). Additionally, the unique design (clear visualisation of the objectives in a striking tile form, catchy icons and different colouring)
is also highlighted as particularly helpful. These forms of presentation offer a lot of
orientation and at the same time create a feeling of difference and integration (MüllerChrist et al. 2017). Thanks to their unique role in society, universities are able to make
an extremely important contribution in the sense of SDGs, just as in the UNESCO
programmes on ESD. Through teaching and learning, students are given the skills
they need to develop solutions to achieve the SDGs. At the same time, young people
are encouraged, mobilized and networked to implement the developed solutions. And
at the research level, universities also support the integration of SDGs into society
by providing appropriate knowledge, methods, technologies and innovations and by
researching solutions for concrete developmental problems. Published in 2017, the
study on the integration of SDGs in the German education system conducted by
Müller-Christ et al. (2017) comes to similar conclusions: SDGs are rarely integrated
in universities. Innovative teaching methods and future-oriented content are often
neglected in favour of attracting third-party funding and publications.
In summary, it can be seen that the transformation of the higher education system
to ESD has not yet been achieved. Sustainability is often still seen as competition and
not as a complement to other socially relevant issues. The complexity of the topic
itself also makes integration in teaching, studies and organisational structures more
difficult. The consideration of ESD and SDGs requires new ways of teaching and
learning at universities and thus calls the system itself into question. Although the
studies show that the German higher education system does not yet meet the goal of
ESD, it is also clear that some progress has been made: More and more federal states
are anchoring ESD in their education plans, new interdisciplinary study programmes
are emerging and new, innovative teaching formats are being developed (Michelsen
and Wels 2017).
3 Characteristics of ESD for Teaching in Higher Education
Settings
The following section aims to outline the characteristics of ESD. Not only is ESD
a wide ranging field of research, its special thematic orientation also impacts the
way ESD has to be taught in higher education. The main characteristic of ESD is
its diversity. Stemming from numerous—partially very different—fields of research,
ESD has formed itself around the last turn of the millennium from, inter alia, ecological sciences, research concerning the global transition, socio-ecological studies