【Programme】
Moderator: Osamu Abe (ESDRC, Rikkyo University)
1. Presentations
Prof. Shinnosuke Tama (Iwate University)
Prof. Makoto Suemoto (Kobe University)
Prof. Hirofumi Abe (Okayama University)
Prof. Hiroshi Kito (Sophia University)
2. Panel Discussion
Panelists: the 4 presenters
【Report】
1. Presentations
(1) “General Education Revisited: Iwate University’s ‘Learning Milky Way’ Project”
Prof. Shinnosuke Tama (Iwate University)
Iwate University plans and provides ESD in a top-down manner. Policies are examined and determined at the board meeting, and all the faculty members engaged in general education are expected to be conscious of ESD in organising each module. The undergraduate degree programme is to guarantee the bachelor-level capacity of communication, writing, and information gathering and analysis. The most significant role of universities is to contribute to realise democratic, harmonious, and sustainable society through the education by fostering the next generation. Since the Central Education Council has not presented the clear vision of the bachelor-level capacity, universities are required to draw the concrete vision by themselves, through making a common image of sustainable society we pursue.
(2) “Curriculum Reform at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies by Introducing ESD”
Prof. Hirofumi Abe (Okayama University)
Okayama University has engaged in ESD especially at the graduate level. In 2005, the graduate school of environmental studies was established. The university has engaged in re-orienting its curriculum towards ESD through the various programmes adopted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Okayama University was designated as UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairi) in 2007 and launched the ESD promoting committee. In 2007, the university became a member of the Okayama ESD Promoting Council, in which major sectors in the city collaborate closely (it was designated as RCEii) Okayama). Okayama University has promoted the reformation and internationalisation of the graduate school education by taking advantage of the position of UNITWIN/UNESCO Chair, but has difficulty in raising funds because of its status as a local university. The current achievement owes to a good deal of time and efforts provided by external supporters.
i）UNITWIN/UNESCO Chair:
UNITWIN is the abbreviation for the UNIVERSITY TWINNING and networking scheme. The Programme was established in 1992 following the relevant decision of the General Conference of UNESCO taken at its 26th session. Today 628 UNESCO Chairs and 60 UNITWIN Networks are established within the Programme, involving over 750 institutions in 125 countries, among them 10 Chairs are focused on ESD.
ii) RCE: Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD by United Nations University
(3)“Environmental Literacy Education at Sophia University: Human Resource Development for Sustainable Society”
Prof. Hiroshi Kito (Sophia University)
Sophia University has engaged in ESD in a bottom-up manner based on the idea of “Environmental Literacy”, which is the new concept introduced in the general education. Environmental literacy means not only to acquire the knowledge of the global issues but also to become a citizen with the ability to tackle global environmental issues. So we incorporate the environmental education in the general education curriculum, reflecting the philosophy of Christianity, which is university’s mission, to foster the future generation. Our challenge is how we can organise the experience-based courses through internships and volunteering activities in the communities and so on. Over 100 courses have been titled with the word “environment” so far; the university is planning to strengthen the relationship between undergraduate and graduate courses by reframing them under the concept of environmental literacy. The challenges are listed below.
- building systematic global environmental literacy
- introducing experience-based courses
- realising eco-campus
- strengthening the relationship with community
(4) “The Development and Promotion of Action Research Based ESD”
Prof. Makoto Suemoto (Kobe University)
Kobe University’s ESD curriculum has adopted action-research method. The three departments – department of education, literature department and department of economics – have cooperated and established a ESD sub-course. This course aims at fostering the “practitioners”. The global environmental issues are so serious that the universities are required to educate the student with the practical ability to solve the problems in the society. The sub-course offers the programme called “Tour de ESD”. In this programme, students experience the internship with the organisations in the community including NGO, NPO, local government, companies and so on. The field work programme is available at such places at the satellite centre of the university, which provides the child-support programme, and the community café. Students can also participate in the projects such as the ‘White Stork Project’ on wildlife protection and other projects by local environmental organisations.
2. Panel Discussion
Moderator: Osamu Abe (ESDRC, Rikkyo University)
1）Can ‘sustainability’ become a universal value?
The concept of sustainable development or sustainability is the value and philosophy that is cultivated in the democratic society based on the efforts of United Nations. It contains the values related to the environment, peace, human rights, gender and so on. We, the universities implementing ESD, share this value of sustainability in common, although the tolerance to the diversity of the values is essential to the academic activities and community.
The concept of sustainable development or sustainability is not popular among the Japanese society, especially in the educational field.
2）Challenges for Networking
In the case study of Okayama prefecture, people in the local community take the lead in implementing ESD as the coordinator between the organisations of various fields. The coordinator or the catalyst is important to promote the network. The university is expected to organise, take stock of and provide the data of the human resources and research products within the university, and take the initiative to contribute to networks.
Although we think the sustainability is the common value, not all the faculty members accept ESD, for ESD requires them to reorient the traditional educational system and change the pedagogical method. So we have to be prepared to overcome these difficulties believing that ESD is efficient and powerful tool to make the cooperative network.
3）Issues related to providing human resources to the society
It is unclear whether companies offer jobs to the graduates of ESD courses. Job market has to be developed for them.
ESD is the platform to enhance the relations between various activities and stakeholders. Universities are expected to further advance the educational reorientation for sustainability. |
