This study interrogates how one of the least-studied regional intergovernmental organisations, the African Union (AU), operationalises or recontextualises the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the process of developing its post-2015 education and development strategies. Employing critical discourse analysis and drawing on…

This article critically examines how monitoring strategies currently track progress on country commitments to adult learning and education (ALE). These commitments are laid out in three main international initiatives and policy tools: (1) the Belém Framework for Action (BFA); (2) the 2015 Recommendation on Adult Learning and Education (RALE); and…

Purpose: This viewpoint paper addresses the use of sustainability frameworks in embedding education for sustainability into the curriculum of higher education institutions (HEIs). The purpose of this paper is to explore the paradox that sustainability frameworks must facilitate transformation of existing structures whilst also being well-enough…

UNESCO's relatively high prestige across East Asia has spurred intensifying efforts by governments to use its imprimatur to legitimate official narratives of the past and visions of the future. This article focuses on China's use of UNESCO as an arena for competitive national 'branding' in the education field, especially relating to STEM and AI.…

Although global access to schooling has increased over the last several decades, Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), which champions inclusive, equitable, quality education, is far from being achieved. Experts predict that if the global community continues to operate education systems in the same way, by 2030, only one in six countries will…

With the world growing in complexity and interconnectedness, the demand for leaders equipped to solve compound problems will only increase. Higher education is called upon to develop leadership in students and needs to engage relevant tools and techniques to prepare students for the tasks ahead. Democratic engagement--from voter education and…

This report presents a preliminary literature review and frameworks analysis used for the preparation of the initial phases of the design process of the European Sustainability Competence Framework (GreenComp). Specifically, it includes a literature review conducted between October 2020 and February 2021, and an initial set of competences, to be…

The UN Sustainability Goals recognise the important efforts of organisations to meet global commitments to the terms of the Paris Agreement. This paper argues that the UN Sustainability Goals are deeply embedded in neoliberal goals for sustainable development. The result is that the goals require commitment to contradictory ends: achieving climate…

Sazani Associates, a not-for-profit based in Wales (UK) and Zanzibar, supports the development of core competencies and behaviors that enable educators and learners to engage in the world and to contribute to a more just and sustainable society. By adapting the Northern construct of global learning, combined with the just pedagogies of global…

How far has sustainable development that has dominated the agendas of politicians, academics, and world organizations for the past four decades gone? Do politicians, academics, and organizations have to look elsewhere for solutions? This article attempts to answer the second question: There may be solutions other than politics and the academy to…

Purpose: This paper will identify and further explore the ideals versus realities of learning poverty and the consequential effects on our moral obligations and responsibilities. The wealthy nations are now under further pressure to recognise and realise their moral obligations to enabling social justice in the context of access, and distribution,…

Through their collaborative practices of quantification and standardisation in large-scale comparative literacy and numeracy surveys, international organisations (IOs) are both constituting new realities and being reconstituted themselves. This article aims to substantiate how the dominance of global measurement regimes has had profound…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the need to accelerate the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the actions needed to reach them. In particular, it outlines a variety of actions which higher education institutions may undertake, to take an active part in the process. Design/methodology/approach: This…

Universities in Aotearoa New Zealand are increasingly espousing a democratic ideology that has much in common with some social justice elements of the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals. This trend, however, also relates to the more international 'universal' characterisation proposed by Trow in 1973 in the context of university…

An adequate response to the environmental and sustainability issues we now face cannot be limited to single perspectives, disciplines, or ways of knowing, and instead requires an interdisciplinary approach. Despite the connections between the fields of citizenship-, character- and sustainability education, they have thus far run parallel to each…