Table Of ContentSchooling for Sustainable Development 5
John Chi-Kin Lee
Rob Efi rd Editors
Schooling for
Sustainable
Development
Across the
Pacifi c
Schooling for Sustainable Development
Across the Pacifi c
Schooling for Sustainable Development
Volume 5
Series Editors
John Chi-Kin Lee
Michael Williams
Philip Stimpson
This book series addresses issues associated with sustainability with a strong focus on
the need for educational policy and action. Current attention and initiatives assume that
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can be introduced successfully and gradually
into schools worldwide. This series explores the issues that arise from the substantial and
sustainable changes to be implemented in schools and education systems.
The series aims to counter the prevailing Western character of current research and enable
cross-cultural comparisons of educational policy, practice, and project development. As
a whole, it provides authoritative and comprehensive global coverage, with each volume
providing regional/continental coverage. The volumes present data and insights that
contribute to research, policy and practice in ESD-related curriculum development, school
organization and school-community partnerships. They are based on ESD-related project
experiences, empirical studies that focus on ESD implementation and teachers’ perceptions
as well as childhood studies that examine children’s geographies, cultural characteristics
and behaviours.
For further volumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/8635
John Chi-Kin Lee • Rob Efi rd
Editors
Schooling for Sustainable
Development Across
the Pacifi c
Editors
John Chi-Kin Lee Rob Efi rd
Asia-Pacifi c Institute of Curriculum Department of Anthropology, Sociology
and Teaching Studies (APICTS) and Social Work
Faculty of Education Seattle University
Southwest University Seattle , WA , USA
Chongqing, China
Department of Curriculum and Instruction,
Faculty of Education and Human
Development
Hong Kong Institute of Education
Hong Kong
ISBN 978-94-017-8865-6 ISBN 978-94-017-8866-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-8866-3
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014940381
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Series Editor s’ Introduction
E ducation for sustainable development (ESD) has rapidly become part of educational
discourses worldwide. Within its global attractiveness lie both its strength and its
weakness. Its strength lies in its capacity to alert educationists, broadly defi ned, to a
shared concern for the future of both the planet and local communities. Its weakness
lies in its lack of shared meaning and, stemming from this, the enormous diffi culties
encountered in trying to bring ESD into the mainstream activities of educational
institutions.
In designating the period 2005–2014 as the International Decade of Education
for Sustainable Development, the United Nations sought to bring to the fore the
need for politicians, policy-makers and practitioners to seek ways by which ESD
can become part of the fabric of formal and informal education. At the heart of the
numerous initiatives that have been stimulated by this designation is the assumption
that ESD should be introduced and can be introduced successfully into schools
worldwide. It is assumed that children, older students and adults can be educated
formally to act now in the interests of a sustainable future and to act internationally.
W hat is evident is that different nations have adopted different approaches to
ESD, sometimes interchanging the term with environmental education, another
term subject to a wide range of interpretations. These differences are evident in
educational practice in regions, districts and individual schools as well as in aca-
demic studies and commentaries. Obviously, this is not to say that there is some
common ground in policies and practice, it is simply to keep to the forefront the
recognition that, even when nations make pronouncements about aspects of ESD,
these should not be treated as authoritative statements about what is happening at
the school and classroom levels. Broad statements have a value in highlighting
issues and trends but they need to be treated with caution. The same caution needs
to be applied to pronouncements emanating from academic sources. Academics
have their own agendas and care must be taken when reading what appear to be
authoritative statements about developments in ESD occurring within their own
communities and nations.
v
vi Series Editors’ Introduction
O ur series addresses the array of issues arising from attempts made to convert
assumptions about, and defi nitions of, ESD into substantial and sustainable changes
principally in schools. Underpinning the series is a concern for identifying those
cultural forces that impact on national, regional and local adaptations to approaches
to ESD that have international currency. In this, the editors of the books in the
series, each based on experience in a single continent or extensive region, seek to
counter the strong Western (Australian, North American, European) character of
much research and writing in the broad fi eld of ESD. Research and scholarly studies
are commonly underpinned by values and assumptions derived from Western
culture, broadly defi ned. The design of the series as a set of broadly continent-scale
books seeks to bring together experts from various countries in each continent. The
books bring out contrasting experiences and insights with a range of explanations of
policies and practice.
Within the broad cultural contexts of the continents and regions included in the
series, authors provide evidence of policies, formal curriculum developments and
innovations and informal school-related activities. Some authors have paid close
attention to policy making at various levels, others have addressed whole school
organisational issues and others have provided detailed case studies of localities and
individual schools.
Children and young people live in distinct worlds of their own. They have very
distinctive cognitive and affective characteristics that vary from one culture to
another, at whatever scale that culture is defi ned. They are also often targets for
environmental campaigns that wish to promote particular behavioural changes.
ESD is often construed as an attempt to change habits, to encourage children and
young people to “think globally and act locally”. This series demonstrates how this
and other slogans are translated in education systems and schools world-wide.
In this volume, S chooling for Sustainable Development Across the Pacifi c, the
editors John Chi-kin Lee and Robert Efi rd brought together an array of chapters
highlighting the recent developments and issues related to schooling for sustainable
development in selected places bordering the North Atlantic. In the opening chapter
they provide the backcloth against which the following chapters are set. Society,
economy and the natural environment are usually seen as the foundations underpin-
ning the concept of sustainability and they demonstrate the enormous variety in all
three in North America and East Asia. They explore the implications for schooling
for sustainability for schools and higher education institutions in sharply contrasting
political, economic and social cultures. The book provides the basis for trans-
continental and international comparisons and contrasts when read alongside the
other books published so far in the series that focus on Chinese communities,
Australasia, North America and South America.
John Chi-Kin Lee
Michael Williams
Philip Stimpson
Contents
Part I Broad Themes and Issues
1 Introduction: Schooling and Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD) Across the Pacifi c .................................................. 3
John Chi-Kin Lee and Rob Efi rd
2 It’s Not That Simple Anymore: Engaging the Politics
of Culture and Identity Within Environmental
Education/Education for Sustainable
Development (EE/ESD) .......................................................................... 37
Paul Hart and Catherine Hart
3 Researching Teachers’ Thinking About
Education for Sustainable Development ............................................... 59
John Fien and Rupert Maclean
4 Excellence in Environmental Education for Elementary
and Secondary Schools in the United States ......................................... 79
Bora Simmons
Part II Case Studies/Country Experiences
5 Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Chinese
Schools: Rural-Urban Difference and Regional
Variation in East and West China ......................................................... 101
Yushan Duan , John Chi-Kin Lee , and Xiaoxu Lu
6 ESD Projects in Japanese Schools
and in Non- Formal Education in Japan ............................................... 125
Osamu Abe
vii
viii Contents
7 The Development of Environmental Education Policy
and Programs in Korea: Promoting Sustainable
Development in School Environmental Education .............................. 141
Hye-Eun Chu and Yeon-A Son
8 The Environment, Sustainability and Universities
in Indonesia: An Examination of the Nexus ......................................... 159
Ko Nomura and Eko Agus Suyono
9 “Green Universities” in China: Concepts and Actions ........................ 175
Yu Huang and John Chi-Kin Lee
10 The Sustainable Development of Indigenous Peoples’
Education in Taiwan ............................................................................... 193
Shih-Tsen (Nike) Liu , Yu-Ling Hsu , and Wen-Hui Lin
11 ESD Projects, Initiatives and Research
in Hong Kong and Mainland China ...................................................... 203
Eric Po-Keung Tsang and John Chi-Kin Lee
12 Education for Sustainable Development in Macao
Secondary Schools: Issues and Challenges ........................................... 223
William Hing-Tong Ma and John Chi-Kin Lee
13 Programmatic Implementation of Environmental
Education in an Elementary Educator Preparation
Program: A Case Study .......................................................................... 243
Christine Moseley , Blanche Desjean-Perrotta , and Courtney Crim
14 Making the Transition to Sustainability:
Marshaling the Contributions of the Many .......................................... 261
Gregory Smith
15 Closing the Green Gap: Policy and Practice
in Chinese Environmental Education .................................................... 279
Rob Efi rd
Index ................................................................................................................. 293
Contributors
Osamu Abe i s a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the
Education for Sustainable Development Research Centre at Rikkyo University,
Tokyo. His specialty is environmental education and Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD). He currently serves as Chair of the Japanese Society of
Environmental Education.
Hye-Eun Chu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences and
Science Education, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University of Singapore. Before she joined NIE, she worked on the Korean students’
Environmental Literacy Project in Korea.
Courtney Crim is an Assistant Professor at Trinity University in San Antonio,
Texas. Dr. Crim’s research focuses on pre-service and in-service teacher prepa-
ration, particularly in the areas of differential instruction and environmental edu-
cation. Dr. Crim is actively involved in the North American Association of
Environmental Education as a member and is current co-chair of the Pre-service
Advisory Board.
Blanche Desjean-Perrotta is Associate Dean for Teacher Education and Professor
in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at the University of
Texas at San Antonio. Dr. Desjean-Perrotta’s research focuses on early childhood
and elementary teacher preparation, particularly in the areas of science and environ-
mental education. Dr. Desjean-Perrotta is actively involved in the North American
Association of Environmental Education as a member and former co-chair of the
Pre-service Teacher Advisory Council.
Yushan Duan i s Professor, Ph.D. supervisor and Associate Dean of the School of
Geography Science, East China Normal University, as well as the Head of the
Institute of Shanghai Geography Education and Teaching Research, East China
Normal University. He is Vice Chairman of National Geographic Education
Association and Chief Editor of Geography Teaching, a member of the Education
and Science Committee of the China GIS Association as well as a core member of
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