Abstrakt
The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development focuses on education for sustainable development (ESD), as specified in the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4. Education is regarded as the main driver of societal development considering environmental limits because learners gain relevant knowledge, develop skills and improve competencies through education on sustainable development.
Insights into SDG 4 achievements at the global level are provided through 12 indicators, however, only 12 universally applicable indicators cannot comprehensively depict such a complex issue. Therefore, other indicators are being introduced at sub-global (national, regional, urban and school) levels to better understand the current state and progress in education for sustainable development.
One of the sustainability assessment tools used in the Czech Republic on a municipal level is the "Methodology of the sustainable cities assessment: A sustainability audit for LA21 applicants in the Czech Republic". This methodological guide steers the Urban Sustainability Audit, which defines 10 sustainability themes and sub-themes together with related guiding questions and indicators for selfassessment.
Education is one of the themes divided in 4 sub-themes covering ESD (i) in schools, (ii) non-formal education, (iii) the "learning cities/ communities" (lifelong learning for and from the municipality) and (iv) related leisure time learning activities. Based on 17, mostly qualitative indicators, the Audit provides the comprehensive information on ESD at a municipal level, specifically for the municipalities that perceive sustainable development as a fundamental principle of their development.
Currently, 29 completed Audits by different municipalities in the CR are available for consultation, information sharing and benchmarking, among other purposes. In this study, we analyzed data from the Audits on ESD implementation in primary and lower secondary education using a document analysis approach.
We identified which activities were undertaken in schools and how municipalities supported them, together with teaching materials used in those schools and whether the municipality actively provided them. In this analysis, we also assessed whether schools have been actively engaged with networks of key opinion leaders and stakeholders in sustainable development, and whether schools collected and analyzed data on ESD.
For these purposes, we used descriptive statistics and qualitative description and a synthesis summarizing our findings from the sample of Audits.