A Case Study Of School Curriculum Development Under Education For Sustainable Development

In the past decades, sustainable development theory has been put forward and formed. Looking back their path of development,reconsidering their past existence and concepts,human races took trails to seek for a new way of development, which kept the increasing pace of economy, development of society and meanwhile the virtuous circle of ecosystem. In this process,the theory gradually emerged.Reform and opening up 30 years, our economy has made sustained and rapid growth. But in this process, environmental problems and social problems of human society become increasingly prominent. At present, the environment and development problems have become one of the world’s most concerned problems. International organizations such as UNESCO realize the significance of Education for Sustainable Development(ESD), Time spanning from 2005 to 2014 has been settled as‘An Decade of Education for Sustainable Development’. UNESCO proposed the goal that they would apply the values to the sustainable development in every field of education, provide incentives for behaviour changes to realize a fair and sustainable society. UNESCO also advocated fostering the values and principles and lifestyle of sustainable development. In these circumstances, education for sustainable development has been an important issue of elementary education reform.ESD is a complex and difficult task. Although high attention has been paid to ESD,unclear policies,weak infrastructure and sufficiency in resources and capabilities all contribute to difficulties in achieving it. While it is worth paying attention to implement ESD in the concrete instruction.Stepping into new millennium, the comprehensively implementing of the curriculum reforms offer a new chance for ESD. Under the background of new curriculum reform and the idea of sustainable development.,this thesis explores how to implement ESD in school curriculum, guide the schooling and achieve the goal of ESD.Speciffically,this study explores implementation status of ESD in school, investigates the school officials’ understanding of ESD and analyzes how to implement ESD in school.This thesis selects a case of green School. The study explains the condition and specific approach of curriculum development under the concept of ESD, analyzes the change of the school officials’ ideas and abilities in the process of implementing ESD.Through field study,interviewing the school administrators and the teachers in relevant subjects as well as analyzing curriculum program,the paper thoroughly investigates how to incorporate ESD idea into school curriculum, describes the general situation of the case school and the elements of ESD. The case school regards ESD as the school’s philosophy and vision, embodies ESD in curriculum development and management. The school also integrates ESD into the instruction of related disciplines, such as biology, develops the school-based courses which embodies the idea of ESD and guides the school clubs carrying out subject study. Based on the research findings, the paper puts forward concrete proposals of implementing ESD in school.The study’s conclusions include four points. Firstly, the implementation of ESD in school is viable and effective. Secondly, integrating ESD into subject teaching is main approach of implementing ESD. Thirdly, constructing school-basic curriculum is also the main approach of implementing ESD. Finally, Curricularization of the club activities help the implement of ESD.Recommendations include: continuing integrating the idea of ESD into the schooling; renewing the concept of school administrators and teachers;enhancing their specialized abilities; increasing input in education to improve school conditions; constructing multilevel and special school-based curriculum.