Education for Sustainable Development: Preliminary Results

Abstract

The decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which
 has been declared by United Nations, is ending in 2014. That is while the preliminary results should be summarized, and this area’s prospects should be defined. In this paper the essence of ESD, in which several trends (adaptation, formalization, modernization, reformation and transformation) are emphasized from viewpoint of their content has been considered. The ESD’s main psychopedagogical and socio-ecological characteristics have been generalized. It has been demonstrated that there is no the ESD’s universal model. The results of Russian initiatives’ monitoring in the ESD area on all levels of education (from pre-school till postgraduate) have been presented. According to poll of experts the assessment of degree of implementation related to Strategy of the United Nations’ European Economic Commission for ESD has been given. The pedagogical potential of ESD has been revealed as well as diffi culties related to ESD establishing in the Russian Federation.