Fifteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

This paper has a twofold purpose: (i) exploring contributions of locally developed sustainable learning models to global Environmentally Sustainable Design (ESD) framework, and (ii) linking local contributions to national and international contexts. ESD critics advise to consider diverse sustainable learning practices from developing countries to shape ESD theories and practices in inclusive and participatory terms. Accordingly, this study explored innovative perspectives from the Global South and contributes to addressing gaps within ESD policies and approaches. The exploration was carried out through the ethnographic study of social, transformative, and sustainable learning in a school and community, in a Jamaican rural village. Two theoretical approaches were employed. Transformative learning and social learning theories guided the investigation. Findings from this research brought to light: – implications of (i) how local knowledge and community values interact with dominant Western approaches to ESD and (ii) how these two perspectives challenge each other, thus, informing academic and policy ESD discourses of the yet unexplored lessons that this experience reveals; – raising awareness among policy makers of gaps between local and international ESD policies and practices, which are relevant to ESD policy planning in Jamaica and globally, as they constructively challenge ESD paradigms and institutional arrangements; – potential of broadening education and learning beyond the school unit to include the surrounding community, with a view to strengthening the connections between policy and practice. This helped bridge methodological gaps in ESD literature – largely focused on traditional case-studies and confined to exploring education and learning within school environments.