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The way to sustainability: education for sustainable development in China

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Abstract

This study explores what China’s central government has done in relation to education for sustainable development (ESD) and what Chinese higher education institutions (HEIs) have achieved in terms of ESD in response to SDG4. This is a qualitative case study focusing on China’s central government and Beijing Normal University (BNU). The main form of data analyzed was documents. In total, we collected 48 policy documents, six speech transcripts and work statements, and 167 news releases. The results show that ESD has not been implemented holistically in China. Educational sectors promoted ESD because sustainable development has been emphasized in the national political strategy. However, the specific meaning of sustainable development in the educational sector is unclear, and the implementation has not been systematic. Overall, more attention has been paid to the natural dimension of ESD than to the social dimension. At BNU, ESD activities are conducted through three mechanisms: a coercive mechanism, a professional mechanism, and a cultural mechanism. Health, culture, and environmental protection have received more attention than social equity.

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Data availability

Policy documents, public speeches, work statements, and news releases are obtained from the website of the China State Council (https://www.gov.cn/), the China Ministry of Education (http://www.moe.gov.cn/), and Beijing Normal University (https://www.bnu.edu.cn/).

Notes

  1. In China, almost every generation of the leading collective of the CPC develops their own theory (collectively labeled as the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics) to guide Party members and determine the direction of China’s development. After 1978, the second-generation leading collective developed Deng Xiaoping Theory; after 1989, the third-generation leading collective developed the Theory of Three Representations; after 2002, the fourth-generation leading collective developed the Scientific Outlook on Development; after 2012, the fifth-generation leading collective developed Xi Jinping’s Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. The national strategies in each period come from the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics decided by each generation of the leading collective of the CPC.

  2. The documents and news releases we found on the BNU website were dated from 2008 to 2020. Since there were no documents prior to 2003, there is no information about SDS.

  3. In China’s universities, the first semester generally runs from September until January of the following year, and the second semester runs from February until June.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Geoff Whyte, MBA, from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Group China (www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript.

Funding

This research is funded by Tohoku University-Tsinghua University Collaborative Research Fund 2020.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Ge Li & Zhiyong Zhu

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA

    Yuan Xi

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  1. Ge Li
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Contributions

Conceptualization, ZZ and GL; Methodology, ZZ, GL; Data collection, GL; Data analysis and interpretation: GL and ZZ; Writing—original draft preparation, GL and YX; Writing—review and editing, YX and ZZ; Supervision, ZZ. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhiyong Zhu.

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Li, G., Xi, Y. & Zhu, Z. The way to sustainability: education for sustainable development in China. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 23, 611–624 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09782-5

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