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2 SD indicators for education

Recognising the Governments commitment todevelop a sustainable development educationindicator, the SDC convened two workshops inlate February 2006 to explore possible optionswith leading academics, education practitioners,non-prots and government ofcials with aninterest in using the results. A record of theseworkshops was prepared by a consultant, JohnHuckle, and is available on the SDC website.

Prior to the workshops the SDC recommendeda change to the wording of the indicator from

the impact of formal learning on knowledge

and awareness of sustainable developmentto a broader measure of the extent towhich individuals have developed the skills,knowledge and values to be active citizens increating a sustainable society (abbreviatedform individual capability to contribute to asustainable society). Measuring the impactof formal learning was thought to be overlyconstraining and difcult to disentangle fromother inuences on behaviour like culture,family, peers, media and advertising, at least

without major fundamental research.

The SDC made the following proposal to the DfES and Defra on 23 June2006 concerning the indicator of education for sustainable developmentannounced in the UK SD Strategy.

In brief:

Participants explored a range of approachesto assessing individual capability to contributeto a sustainable society. They expresseda preference for approaches that value

learning over teaching, practical experienceover theory, and were not enthused byapproaches that seek to assess the relevantskills, knowledge and values throughtraditional written tests. Few, if any, of themore automated assessment methods polls, surveys, quizzes, tests were thoughtto provide insight into actual behaviours,and some risk being dominated by factorssuch as literacy level and family background.Such complications are not unique to thisindicator. The well-being indicator (alsoproposed in the UK SD Strategy) is similarlycomplex but is beneting from signicantresearch prior to its formulation, coordinatedby a cross-government working group (W3G,or Whitehall Well-being Working Group).Thus, while an indicator of individualcapability to contribute to a sustainablesociety could be developed for children,young people and/or adults, its precise formwould be difcult to determine without asimilar-scale research exercise.

Participants sought to shift the focus ofthe indicator from individual learnersto educational institutions. In a schoolscontext, there was much support for s3, the

self-evaluation tool developed by SDC/DfESfor sustainable schools, and one indicatorcould be the percentage of schools ratingthemselves good or outstanding. Ofsted maybe in a position to collect the necessarydata through focus surveys, or by inferencefrom school self-evaluation forms, or theremay be a mutually supportive link worthexploring with the incoming school prole.Similar instruments could be identied ordeveloped for FE colleges and universities.Institution-level indicators work on theassumption that if a place of learning, likea school, lives a sustainable developmentethos and enables its student to acquireappropriate knowledge and skills, this willestablish positive, sustainable behaviourslater in life. Unfortunately this assumptionis not tested and therefore an institution-level indicator is at best a partial surrogatefor more detailed individual analyses, andpossibly misleading.

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SD indicators for education

In summary, the feedback we receivedfrom the workshops suggested that theGovernment should develop an institution-level indicator based around self-evaluationof sustainable development performance.

The limitations of this approach in terms ofthe accuracy of the results, and the potentialfalse connection between institutional andindividual performance, suggest that a sampleof learners would also need to be studied tocomplement the institution-level analysis.In a schools context, for example, 100 secondaryschool s3 forms could be analysed alongsideinterviews with a similar number of KS4 pupilsto help test the accuracy of the self-evaluationdata. An indicator could then be formed as the

product of two sets of results. It would seekto measure the degree to which the school(or other place of learning) is successful atdeveloping learners capability to contribute toa sustainable society.

There are of course many other ways to createan ESD indicator. The two outlined below arequite simple to implement but less accurateand revealing in terms of their usability:

Assessment of the policy context forsustainable behaviour change: a paperexercise supported by selective focus groupsand interviews with practitioners to evaluatepolicy performance. The process wouldcontrast government policy intentions withreality, and identify potential enhancements.The SDC could conduct this exercise eitherby itself or through an independent partner.The resulting indicator would clarify whetherthe education system was on track to equipyoung people with sustainable developmentknowledge, skills and values.

A survey of learners conducted by anindependent polling organisation. A largesample of learners could be included inthe survey, which would seek to assesskey sustainability knowledge, skills andvalues, and enquire into actual behaviour.This approach has the advantage of

simplicity, but the known phenomenon ofthe values-action gap (the fact that peoplesay one thing in surveys and do another)means the results will always be subject toinaccuracy, and therefore contestable.

We do have a recommendation for DfES andDefra:

Begin a dialogue with Ofsted (or otherpartners) over the possibility of conductinga regular survey of sustainable schoolperformance either based directly upon thes3 self-evaluation tool, or by inference fromconventional school self-evaluation forms.

This work would build on Ofsteds FocusSurvey on sustainable development this year2006, and help to extend the value of s3.

In parallel, to help us understand the robustnessof this approach, we recommend that DfES andDefra:

Explore options for commissioning a regularsample of interviews with individual KS4

pupils, drawing on lessons learned throughthe current (DfES-funded) research beingundertaken by Chris Gayford of ReadingUniversity.

Commission a longer-term research study intothe formation of sustainable developmentcapabilities in young people and potentiallyadults. This will be necessary to untangle therange of factors inuencing sustainable (ornon-sustainable) behaviour formation, andto build on key research from other elds.

Explore with LSC, HEFCE and LifelongLearning UK the possibility of developingparallel indicators for FE, HE and places ofwork, respectively.

Clearly there will be cost implications forall of these options. We would be happy tohelp broker links to potential contractors if thatwould be helpful.