This article examines the educational and teacher-related policies in the Sahel region countries over the past decade and highlights main issues that hinder their ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The discrepancy between the current situation and the desired pace of change can be attributed to the lack of prioritization…

This article provides an overview of the evolving agenda surrounding the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4), dedicated to education. The authors examine the transformation of its guiding principles via the introduction of new priorities, benchmarks and modes of governance. Drawing on theoretical and methodological insights from political…

The international human rights framework and United Nations' Agenda 2030 with its Sustainable Development Goals are two closely linked frameworks. Agenda 2030 has galvanized much interest and action within the education sector around Education for Sustainable Development. The human rights framework, with its calls for Human Rights Education,…

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Higher Education Conference in Barcelona was an occasion for the authors of this article to reflect on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in general and SDG 4: education, specifically, pondering over its role and impact on student development in the Global South and…

Purpose: Despite a growing awareness of the gap between professional expectations and competence, there has been no comprehensive appraisal of sustainable food systems (SFS) education within dietetics and nutrition programs to date. Dietitians and nutritionists play important roles in promoting sustainability yet many perceive themselves to be…

There is an urgent need for global citizens to develop sustainable development competencies (SDCs) if our world is to survive threats to its development and sustainability. These competencies can be developed through education for sustainable development (ESD). However, implementing ESD is challenged by teachers' and students' prioritisation of…

Japan is facing a problem of depopulation of rural and island communities. This research focuses on the island of Nakanoshima (Ama-cho), which has dramatically declined in population in the past 70 years. In 2007, the High School faced the threat of closure due to declining numbers, and were it to close would have further hastened the decline of…

University-based curriculum development often involves adding new content. This 'just add' approach has also been applied to integrating the UN SDGs into curricula, reducing them to a checklist rather than embracing their holistic and transformative aims. This is particularly concerning for SDG 4 and SDG 4.7, which require deep, cross-cutting…

Notable within the rhetoric of recent global reform trends is the (re)positioning of teachers from peripheral to critical stakeholders in educational change processes. Responding to this imperative, programmes of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) are now frequently tasked with promoting teacher agency as a core dimension of teaching. Yet, much…

Target 4.7 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals can provide an opportunity for a more transformative approach to education. To consider this requires a new approach to learning that moves beyond subjects and disciplines to recognise intersectionality as being central to providing a radical rethinking of the purpose of education.…

We integrate work from human development, psychology, education, and neuroscience to argue for five interrelated developmental principles that together provide the conceptual basis for a fundamental shift in thinking in education about the nature of learning, and hence the work of teaching, and the purpose and design of schools and youth-facing…

The year 2020 brought not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also a wave of racial injustice, which impacted many in the U.S. and beyond. Combined, these phenomena have been characterized as dual pandemics, which introduced new demands that forced faculty to redesign aspects of their doctoral programs to ensure sustainability during the pandemic and…

Purpose: Recognising that there is increasing urgency to equip graduates to become future leaders in delivering the sustainable development goals (SDGs), this study presents a critical analysis of a whole-institution approach to embedding education for sustainable development (ESD) in curricula. This study aims to explore the wider reach of…

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…

Internationalisation of higher education has diverging implications for climate change, on the one hand entailing greenhouse gas emissions through mobility, but also contributing to climate action through international collaboration. These apparent contradictions and resulting trade-offs present significant challenges to universities. This paper…