Skip to main content

Education for Sustainable Development Through Extra-Curricular or Non-curricular Contexts

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Quality Education

Synonyms

Cocurricular; Informal learning; Nonformal learning.

Definition

Extra-curricular and non-curricular education in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is distinct from formal curricular learning through the content delivered (which is outside of or beyond the formal curriculum and the context or place of learning). Although much extra-curricular and non-curricular learning frequently takes place on school sites and can be a part of the extended school day, it is often learning that incorporates practical activities, student choice, and interdisciplinarity that is not linked to assessment.

Introduction

Over the last 40 years, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has grown out of Environmental Education (EE) and Development Education (ED) in a complex and complicated evolution (Hart and Nolan 1999; Marcinkowski 2009; Kopnina 2012; Stevenson 2013) that is beyond the scope of this entry. To avoid ambiguity, ESD is used in this entry to mean learning that promotes...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ballard HL, Dixon CG, Harris EM (2017) Youth-focused citizen science: examining the role of environmental science learning and agency for conservation. Biol Conserv 208:65–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.05.024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonney R, Cooper CB, Dickinson J, Kelling S, Phillips T, Rosenberg KV, Shirk J (2009) Citizen science: a developing tool for expanding science knowledge and scientific literacy. Bioscience 59(11):977–984. https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2009.59.11.9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonney R, Phillips TB, Ballard HL, Enck JW (2016) Can citizen science enhance public understanding of science? Public Underst Sci 25(1):2–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547016656191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bray B, France B, Gilbert JK (2011) Identifying the essential elements of effective science communication: what do the experts say? Int J Sci Educ Part B 2(1):23–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Calabrese Barton AM (2012) Citizen (s’) science. A response to “the future of citizen science”. Democr Educ 20(2):1–4. Retrieved from https://democracyeducationjournal.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.co.uk/&httpsredir=1&article=1044&context=home

    Google Scholar 

  • Cincera J, Kovacikova S (2014) Being an EcoTeam member: movers and fighters. Appl Environ Educ Commun 13(4):227–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper C, Dickinson J, Phillips T, Bonney R (2007) Citizen science as a tool for conservation in residential ecosystems. Ecol Soc 12(2). https://doi.org/10.5751/es-02197-120211

  • Cotton D, Winter J (2010) It’s not just bits of paper and light bulbs’: a review of sustainability pedagogies and their potential for use in higher education. In: S. Sterling (ed) Sustainability education. Perspectives and practice across higher education. (pp. 54–69). London: Routledge

    Google Scholar 

  • Curtis V (2015) Motivation to participate in an online citizen science game: a study of Foldit. Sci Commun 37(6):723–746. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547015609322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deuchar R (2007) Citizenship, enterprise and learning: harmonising competing educational agendas. Stoke on Trent, Trentham

    Google Scholar 

  • DeWitt J, Archer L (2017) Participation in informal science learning experiences: the rich get richer? Int J Sci Educ Part B 7(4):356–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DfE (Department for Education) (2011) Teachers’ standards guidance for school leaders, school staff and governing bodies (DFE-00066-2011). Department for Education, London. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-standards. Accessed 28 May 2019

  • Dobson A (2007) Environmental citizenship: towards sustainable development. Sustain Dev 15:276–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Education Scotland (2019) Home page, https://education.gov.scot/. Accessed 28 May 2019

  • Emery K, Harlow D, Whitmer A, Gaines S (2017) Compelling evidence: an influence on middle school students’ accounts that may impact decision-making about socioscientific issues. Environ Educ Res 23(8):1115–1129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eshach H (2007) Bridging in-school and out-of-school learning: formal, non-formal, and informal education. J Sci Educ Technol 16(2):171–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Falk J, Osbourne J, Dierking L, Dawson E, Wenger M, Wong B (2012) Analyzing the UK science education community: the contribution of informal providers. Wellcome Trust, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman AF, Matjasko JL (2005) The role of school-based extracurricular activities in adolescent development: a comprehensive review and future directions. Rev Educ Res 75(2):159–210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fettis GC, Ramsden MJ (1995) Sustainability – what is it and how should it be taught? In: ENTRÉE ‘95 proceedings, pp 81–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrecht C, Bruckermann T, Harms U (2018) Students’ decision-making in education for sustainability-related extracurricular activities – a systematic review of empirical studies. Sustainability 10(11):3876

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giddings B, Hopwood B, O’Brien G (2002) Environment, economy and society: fitting them together into sustainable development. Sustain Dev 10:187–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glackin M, Dillon J (2018) Environment, sustainable development and education. In: Maguire M, Gibbons S, Glackin M, Pepper D, Skilling K (eds) Becoming a teacher. Issues in secondary education, 5th edn. Open University Press, pp 328–344

    Google Scholar 

  • Glackin M, King H (2018) Understanding environmental education in secondary school in England: report 1: perspectives from policy. King’s College London

    Google Scholar 

  • Glackin M, King H, Cook R, Greer K (2018) Understanding environmental education in secondary school in England: report 2: the practitioners’ perspective. King’s College London

    Google Scholar 

  • Gura T (2013) Citizen science: amateur experts. Nature 496(7444):259–261. https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7444-259a

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ha-Brookshire J, Norum P (2011) Cotton and sustainability: impacting student learning through sustainable cotton summit. Int J Sustain High Educ 12(4):369–380

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hart P, Nolan K (1999) A critical analysis of research in environmental education. Stud Sci Educ 34:1–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes J (2001) The forth pillar of sustainability: culture’s essential role in public planning. Common Ground Publishing, Melbourne

    Google Scholar 

  • Huckle J, Wals AE (2015) The UN decade of education for sustainable development: business as usual in the end. Environ Educ Res 21(3):491–505

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jickling B, Wals AEJ (2008) Globalization and environmental education: looking beyond sustainable development. J Curric Stud 40(1):1–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kopnina H (2012) Education for sustainable development (ESD): the turn away from ‘environment’ in environmental education? Environ Educ Res 18(5):699–717

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leal-Filho W (2000) Dealing with misconceptions on the concept of sustainability. Int J Sustain High Educ 1:9–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levine Rose S, Calabrese Barton A (2012) Should great lakes city build a new power plant? How youth navigate socio-scientific issues. J Res Sci Teach 49(5):541–567

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lipscombe BP, Burek CV, Potter JA, Ribchester C, Degg MR (2008) An overview of extra-curricular education for sustainable development (ESD) interventions in UK universities. Int J Sustain High Educ 9(3):222–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahoney JL, Cairns RB (1997) Do extracurricular activities protect against early school dropout? Dev Psychol 33(2):241–253

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mannion G (2005) Borderland voices and practices: the ambiguity of children’s participation in school grounds greening. Can J Environ Educ 10(1):241–255

    Google Scholar 

  • Mannion G (2019) Re-assembling environmental and sustainability education: orientations from new materialism. Environ Educ Res:1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2018.1536926

  • Marcinkowski TJ (2009) Contemporary challenges and opportunities in environmental education: where are we headed and what deserves our attention? J Environ Educ 41(1):34–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin AR, Chen JC (2016) Barriers to sustainability in mature-age adult learners: working toward identity change. Environ Educ Res 22(6):849–867

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKenzie M, Bieler A, McNeil R (2015) Education policy mobility: reimagining sustainability in neoliberal times. Environ Educ Res 21(3):319–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKeown R, Hopkins C (2016) Moving beyond EE and ESD disciplinary debate in formal education. J Educ Sustain Dev 1:17–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Foundation for Educational Research (2006) Active citizenship and young people: opportunities, experiences and challenges in and beyond school: research report No 732. Available online: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED502417.pdf. Accessed 24 Apr 2019

  • Olsson D, Gericke N, Chang Rundgren SN (2016) The effect of implementation of education for sustainable development in Swedish compulsory schools – assessing pupils’ sustainability consciousness. Environ Educ Res 22(2):176–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pittman KJ, Irby M, Yohalem N, Wilson-Ahlstrom A (2004) Blurring the lines for learning: the role of out-of-school programs as complements to formal learning. New Dir Youth Dev 2004(101):19–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramjan C (2018) Did you understand the question? An analysis of Scottish secondary school pupils’ comprehension of a Sustainable Development survey. Unpublished MSc thesis, University of Stirling, Stirling

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiss MJ, Billingsley B, Evans EM, Kissel RA, Lawrence M, Mujtaba T, …Veall D (2016) The contribution of natural history museums to science education. UCL Institute of Education, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Robbins M, Francis LJ, Elliott E (2003) Attitudes toward education for global citizenship among trainee teachers. Res Educ 69(1):93–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowe D (2007) Education for a sustainable future. Science 317(5836):323–324

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Russell JL, Knutson K, Crowley K (2013) Informal learning organizations as part of an educational ecology: lessons from collaboration across the formal-informal divide. J Educ Chang 14(3):259–281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sadler TD, Barab SA, Scott B (2007) What do students gain by engaging in socioscientific inquiry? Res Sci Educ 37(4):371–391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sætre PJ (2016) Education for sustainable development in Norwegian geography curricula. Nordidactica J Humanit Soc Sci Educ 1:63–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegel MA (2006) High school students’ decision making about sustainability. Environ Educ Res 23:115–1129

    Google Scholar 

  • Sleeter CE, Flores Carmona J (2017) Un-standarizing curriculum: multicultural teaching in the standards-based classroom, 2nd edn. Teachers College Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterling S (1996) Education in change. In: Huckle J, Sterling S (eds) Education for sustainability. Earthscan, London, pp 18–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson R (2013) Researching tensions and pretensions in environmental/sustainability education policies: form critical to civically engaged policy scholarship. In: Stevenson RB, Brody M, Dillon J, Wals AEJ (eds) International handbook on research in environmental education. Routledge, New York, pp 147–155

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Summers D, Cutting R (2016) Education for sustainable development in further education. London: Palgrave Macmillan

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) (2006) Education for sustainable development. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000152453. Accessed 31 May 2019

  • United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2014) UNESCO roadmap for implementing the global action programme on education for sustainable development. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, France. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000230514. Accessed 31 May 2019

    Google Scholar 

  • Veugelers W (2007) Creating critical-democratic citizenship education: empowering humanity and democracy in Dutch education. Compare: J Comp Int Educ 37(1):105–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wals A (2009) Review of contexts and structures for education for sustainable development. UNESCO, Paris. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001849/184944e.pdf. Accessed 23 Apr 2019

    Google Scholar 

  • Wals A (2011) Learning our way to sustainability. J Educ Sustain Dev 5(2):177–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walshe N (2013) Exploring and developing student understandings of sustainable development. Curric J 24(2):224–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiggins A, Crowston K (2011, January) From conservation to crowdsourcing: a typology of citizen science. Paper presentation at the annual conference of System Sciences (HICSS), Honolulu, pp 1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilderman CC (2007, June) Models of community science: design lessons from the field. In: Conference presented at the Citizen Science Toolkit Conference, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahUKEwjruPnAkfbdAhUSneAKHRiQDEIQFjAAegQICBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fthrivingearthexchange.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F01%2FModels-of-Community-Science-Lessons-from-the-Field.pdf&usg=AOvVaw37xBym-YkKAfG4jfh9bR06

  • Winter J, Cotton D (2012) Making the hidden curriculum visible: sustainability literacy in higher education. Environ Educ Res 18(6):783–796

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elizabeth A. C. Rushton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Crown

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Rushton, E.A.C., Batchelder, M. (2019). Education for Sustainable Development Through Extra-Curricular or Non-curricular Contexts. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Quality Education. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69902-8_19-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69902-8_19-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69902-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69902-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics