Portland State Educational Leadership & Policy | LECL Partnerships and Resources

Publications and Resources

Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit

The Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit is an easy to use manual to begin the process of creating education programs for a more sustainable future. The ESD Toolkit helps schools and communities develop a process for creating locally relevant and culturally appropriate education. The ESD Toolkit contains descriptions of sustainability and education for sustainable development as well as a number of activities for creating community sustainability goals, reorienting curriculum to address sustainability, and managing change.

Guidelines and Recommendations for Reorienting Teachers Education to Address Sustainability

These guidelines and recommendations were written by an International Network of 30 teacher-education institutions from around the world and published by UNESCO. There are 67 recommendations for levels from the national ministerial level to the local level. The recommendations are illustrated with short descriptions of activities related to reorienting programs, practices, and policies to address sustainability.

English version
Spanish version
French version
Arabic version
Russian version

Good Practices in Teacher Education

This publication by UNESCO is a collection of eight case studies from teacher education institutions around the world. The eight describe: curriculum revision, research, international and national in service teacher education, creating a new academic department, networking internationally, building a sustainable campus, and starting an academic journal.

Contributing to a More Sustainable Future:
Quality Education, Life Skills, and Education for Sustainable Development

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) provides and opportunity to progress towards implementing universal quality education that fosters the knowledge, skills, perspectives, and values that lead to a more sustainable future. UNESCO had identified 10 key aspects of quality education, five at the level of the learner and five at the level of the school system. Quality education calls for using a life-skills approach. Learning a variety of skills will prepare individuals for a more successful life at home, in their communities, and in the workforce.

Framework for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development International Implementation Scheme

In December 2002, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted resolution 57/254 to put in place a United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), spanning from 2005 to 2014. UNESCO was requested to lead the Decade and develop a draft International Implementation Scheme (IIS) for the Decade. This document fulfils the request for an IIS and is the result of extensive consultations with the United Nation agencies, national governments, civil society organizations, and NGO's experts and specialists.

Workshop Presentations

What is Sustainable Development?

This PowerPoint presentation contains 29 slides that describe sustainable development and the major challenges associated with it. Sustainable development, a constantly evolving concept, balances environmental, social, and economic concerns in locally relevant and culturally appropriate ways.

What is Education for Sustainable Development?

This PowerPoint presentation contains 43 slides that describe education for sustainable development (ESD) and the benefits of education to society. ESD has four major thrusts: (1) improving access and retention in quality basic education, (2) reorienting teacher education to address sustainability, (3) improving public understanding and awareness, and (4) providing training to all sectors of the economy. ESD involves lifelong learning and engages formal, nonformal, and informal sectors of the education community.

The Role of Education in Creating a More Sustainable Future

This hour-long talk by Charles "Chuck" Hopkins, UNESCO Chair, streams off the World Wide Web. This talk encompasses many issues of education and sustainability. Hopkins draws on examples from around the world as he describes the grand challenges for education in addressing sustainability issues with environmental, social, and economic roots. He poses thoughtful questions for the audience, such as what are the purposes of education?

PreK - 12 Teacher, Student, and School Resources

WISE Owl

This award winning Web site helps 4^th - 8^th grade students and teachers to begin to interact with their school as an ecosystem and design their learning and surroundings accordingly. Eco the WISE owl, acts as a guide to the Web site guiding students to assess, calculate, design, plan and implement 32 sustainability projects in five dimensions of their school: plant and garden, energy, native habitat, pollution prevention, and built systems.