Sustainable Development has been famously defined in the Brundtland  report (Our Common Future, 1987) as,

„development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs“.

And given the inter-disciplinary nature of the concept, it is important that it is embedded into every sector and in all aspects of life. This is especially true for education and training, both within formal class-room education and learning through personal experience. Therefore it is essential to have strong leadership within the discipline to ensure sustainable development is well implemented into education via the whole school approach to learning.

A group of participants from various nations (including Mexico, South Africa, India, Germany, Austria, and Poland ) are about to engage in six months of leadership training in Education for Sustainable Development. The training has been developed in order to complement the United Nations ‚Decade of Education for sustainable development 2005-2014‘, which seeks to implement change in the current education system regarding Sustainable Development. Therefore, through the programme, these participants are expected to become leaders in their field.

The training course is funded by the GIZ, the  German Technical Cooperation, and has been organized by a consortium which consists of denkmodell GmbH, Wienecke Hillebrecht & Partner and Kolleg für Management und Gestaltung Nachhaltiger Entwicklung gGmbH (KMGNE). The consortium have been working together to develop a curriculum for the programme and  also to ensure that the participants will benefit from the expert advise of key-note speakers, collaborate during seminars and take part in weekly field trips in order to witness ESD working in action. The curriculum will also take into account each individual’s background and culture and it is thought the participants will be able to learn from each others experiences of ESD in their home country.

Above you can find the names and photographs of the core tutors involved in ESD Leadership Training.

About me:

Name: Jonathan Kingham

Profession: Degree in Land Use and Environmental Management (BSc)

During my studies at Queen’s university Belfast I developed a keen interest in issues around Sustainable Development. I am therefore both excited and intrigued at the prospect of witnessing this programme in action. Whilst attending the course I will be providing daily blog updates regarding the leadership training, along with information and resources. These updates will include;

• Audio Clips of guest speakers/seminars etc
• Photographs from the events
• Related Video Clips
• Useful links
• Daily Summaries of the training
• experiences shared during the course
• Information on field trips
• General updates

Education for Sustainable development leadership training will commence on Monday 19th September 2011 and will take place the Stratum Lounge, Boxhagener Str. 16, 10245 Berlin. Soon you will also be able to follow us / the ESD course and participants on Twitter and Facebook.  I look forward to having many interesting and diverse readers.