Implementation and Challenges of Education for Sustainable Development in Philippine State University: An Explanatory Sequential Inquiry

Abstract

The education sector is one of the vital stakeholders in the functional transformation of our world through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as an education sector is one of its enablers by carrying out sustainable development through Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). But, only a few universities could implement ESD holistically and reported its implementation. Hence, using explanatory-sequential inquiry, this study explored the extent of ESD implementation and the challenges encountered in one state university in Central Philippines through its greening program. The results revealed that the university reached a great extent of ESD implementation. This means that the indicators of the five pillars of the greening program were often observed in the whole university and per campus, respectively. Despite this rating, the university still faces several implementation challenges. However, based on qualitative inquiry, ESD implementation is still promising. It just needs to continually improve by working on the different opportunities for improvements using the whole institution approach. Consequently, the greening program will be instrumental in realizing the vision of the school to become a GREEN institution by 2030 at the same time, contribute to the priority areas of ESD through reorienting education to address sustainability and creating public awareness and understanding of sustainability.