Page 116 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

9 Communicating Education for Sustainable Development 99

for Europe (UNECE) Wals and Eernstman find for the European region that “there
is a continuing debate on the meaning of ESD; it is proving difficult to distil the
concept in a clear-cut definition, as its interpretation largely depends on the context
and the user, and is dynamic in space and time. The only steady characteristic of an
ESD process seems to be that it has no universal definition and/or operationalization”
(UNECE 2007: §48).
(iv) This situation poses a particular challenge regarding the aspects discussed
below. Generally it can be seen that in the educational policy field over the past decades
there has been a change in the kind of information used in educational planning and
management. In the wake of international comparative studies of educational perfor-
mance, there is now more uncertainty about the effectiveness of education. One
response has been the development of evidence-based forms of management (see for
example Scheerens and Hendriks 2004; also Biesta 2007). This trend has since reached
ESD and now competences are measured, quality criteria are developed and indicators
are formulated in order to investigate the progress of the implementation and success
of ESD (e.g. Tilbury 2009; Bormann 2007, 2008; Raaij 2007). A fundamental problem
of ESD may be that due to its complexity, lack of definition and clear operationali-
sation, there are a number of problems involved in undertaking measurement, indica-
torisation and evaluation. According to Wals (2009) these can best be dealt with by
communication, because then “locally determined indicators, appropriate languages
and multiple literacies (…) as well as far more equitable and dialogical forms of inter-
action” (ibid, 195) can be realised (see Bormann and Michelsen 2010).
After this brief overview of four reasons for communicating ESD, this chapter
will now concentrate on the fourth aspect. The focus will especially be on the cur-
rently dominant form of communicated knowledge of ESD, that is on methodologi-
cally controlled knowledge as used in various fields of action in decision-making
and management processes.

Towards the Communication of the Effectiveness of ESD

Educational policy institutions no longer uncritically assume that interventions lead
to their intended consequences. Instead as a part of education monitoring and
accountability (Anderson 2005) a variety of instruments should enable the provi-
sion of a rational and data-based description of the actual state of the effectiveness
or ineffectiveness in and of educational systems as well as whether it is necessary
to take any appropriate action.
As late as the 1980s educational policy management largely used input indicators
to improve the educational system. The international standard today however revolves
around output-oriented, evidence-based management. Educational monitoring
involves a number of different objects and levels and extends from operationalisation
and measurement of individual competences to criteria-supported observation of the
organisational structures of teaching and learning to indicator-based observation of
the performance of the whole system (Rode and Michelsen 2008).