EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABILITY FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT:
HOW TO APPLY IN THE THAI CONTEXT
Asst.P rof.Dr. Ku lar b
P u risarn
Deputy Dean in Academic Affairs and Quality
Assurance, Faculty of Education and Liberal
Arts
Abstract
This documentary study article aims to present: 1) The
introduction of the background information and the
importance of how the educators apply the knowledge,
skills, and experience of Education and Sustainability for
Sustainable Development (ESSD) in the Thai context,
community, schools, colleges, universities, and government
agencies. 2) The analysis and the synthesis on the
relationship between the ESSD and the Thai education
context, the competences needed for contributing to
sustainable development, the ESD Formal, Non-formal and
Informal Education; focus on higher ESD.
3) The concept of Thai teacher education; learning
skills, competencies, and characteristics. 4) How to
move forward in the future, and 5) The conclusion: ESD
for implementation challenges and needs, and the ESD
strategies for application in the Thai context.
Keywords: Education and Sustainability, Sustainable
Development, Thai context
Introduction
Education is the instrument and power to drive
sustainability with development processes of any
organization or any part of society, and in every
educational system with lifelong learning. In the world
today, many people in community, government schools,
colleges, and universities are using the educational
process system to apply sustainability into their lives,
learning from their experiences. All educators should have
the opportunity to share their efforts and learning
experiences with others too.
The initiatives by UNDP and UNESCO aim to improve
the quality of life, enhance human rights, set a
commitment to education, and increase participation in
developing education. There are 8 goals which are related
to ESD: Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal
2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 3: Promote
gender equality and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child
mortality Goal 5: Improve maternal health Goal 6: Combat
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure
environmental sustainability Goal and 8: Develop a Global
Partnership for Development.
So the education is the most important tool to
achieve sustainability for people around the world to move
society toward sustainability. The educators should
develop high educational quality for sustainability
programmes. Now, education for sustainability has
experienced difficulty moving forward to success (Hopkins,
C., J. Damlamian, and G. Lopez Ospina. 1996.)
2. The Relation of the ESD with the Thai education context
This paper emphasizes the ESD in the Thai
education context; in formal, non-formal, and informal
education. Especially to let the young people participate
in addressing global challenges, the attitudes and values
of young people. Currently, the general formal education
is the major reform of the educational systems to better
incorporate sustainability and contribute to sustainable
development, but it has not been successful yet.
Finally, Learning for Sustainable Development (LSD) is
currently emerging from the increasing international concern with
issues of Sustainable Development (Anderberg et al. 2008). Global
learning is as developing learning on the uncertainty of knowledge,
in the process with everyday problems, and lines of conflict. There
are several challenges of LSD GLSD in Higher Education at the
university/institutional levels, the curriculum level, and the
individual level. There is a need for outcome based education in the
universities. The education and students should take greater
responsibility for How knowledge, values, and abilities and develop
to meet the goals of LSD completely. (Adombebt, M., & Michelsen.
G. 2007).
Table 1: Adapted from Elements of Gestaltungskompetenz
It is an abbreviation whose meaning is explained in the notes. Life skills
with VA in VASK Vicharn, Panich. (2023). In conclusion, the goals of education
in order of importance are to develop
The goal of education is in line with the times, focusing on building
competencies for the future. There must be future skills or future
competencies and covering all aspects of VASK: values (V-Values),
attitudes (A-Attitude), skills (S-Skills), and knowledge (K-Knowledge),
respectively.
Regardless of the era, the primary goal of education must always be
to improve learning outcomes. The country will develop sustainability.
The education system must deliver high-level learning outcomes that are
relevant to the needs of the times in order to produce high-quality, and
public-minded citizens.
Application
From the concept, meaning and principles of education for
sustainable development, it can be seen that it is consistent with the
educational policies of King Rama X of Thailand in many respects. In
particular, the desired characteristics of learners, such as (1)
Integrated problem-solving skills are consistent with having a solid
foundation in life and being a disciplined citizen. (2) The ability to be
self-aware is consistent with having a positive and correct attitude. (3)
The ability to work with others is consistent with having a job, a career,
being a good worker, loving the job, being a hard worker, until
successful and (4) Systemic, predictive, normative and critical thinking
abilities are consistent with knowing how to distinguish between right
and wrong, doing what is right and good, and rejecting what is wrong
and bad, etc. (Klaa Thongkaou. 2024)
The advisement for moving to future:
1. All ministries should recognize and respond to the nations
2. The government and educational community must involve traditional
disciplines, such as environmental education, peace education, human rights
education, and population education;
3. Administrators should allocate resources to develop strategic plans; the
educational community must develop ESD leadership.
4. The policies and school districts must assign responsibilities to all levels.
5. Innovation must be encouraged, and innovative practices must be
disseminated;
6. Programme designers must establish research and evaluation techniques
as part of the action plan;
7. Teacher training must incorporate pedagogy and content appropriate to
ESD.
8. Educational institutions must model sustainability practices.
The EDS strategy
for implementation
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Asst.Prof.Dr.Kularb
urisarn
Deputy Dean in Academic Affairs and Quality
Assurance, Faculty of Education and Liberal Arts
