What does it mean to include the spiritual dimensions of world change into education for sustainable development?
In educational settings, especially those within secular institutions, the idea of including something as subjective as spirituality into a curriculum may seem inappropriate. Spirituality does not have a widely agreed upon definition that learning outcomes and assessments can be designed off of. Instead it means different things to different people; it has specific ties to religion for some, a more universal, mystical meaning for others, and no meaning at all for some, as well.
For the purposes of education for sustainable development (ESD), the foremost field responsible for equipping change agents with the skills they need to traverse and transform our complex, changing world, I use the term “spiritual” to refer to the way that people create meaning around world change, which has implications for the way they approach and sustain social action.
As change agents face wicked problems, such as the climate crisis, structural inequality and corruption, how do they personally make sense of the existence of these problems? What overarching narratives do they use to understand why these problems exist, their personal role in addressing them, and where we’re going as a world?
As Sienra and her colleagues (2017) outline, the ESD field “is expanding to include more holistic approaches aiming at deep transformation of the self and the meanings of human existence..” As change agents face world problems that have existential consequences, such as species loss, famine and inequality, they need learning opportunities that facilitate the exploration of abstract concepts like human existence, death and suffering, which are best suited for spiritual or philosophical lenses.
Spiritual or philosophical beliefs help people cope in times of crisis, uncertainty and change, which creates greater psychological resilience. Whether this is through belief in a higher power, holding a perspective of non-attachment or subscribing to another type of spiritually-informed narrative, beliefs help people contextualize experiences and find purpose in times of struggle.
Michel (2018) describes the type of deep learning that’s needed for sustainable development as education that “challenges students to ask philosophically deep questions to penetrate the core of their most fundamental beliefs.” UNESCO, the leading UN agency on ESD, speaks to the need to empower “learners to question and change the ways they see and think about the world in order to deepen their understanding of it (UNESCO, 2016).” All of this speaks to the need for learning processes that reflect on worldviews and unexamined assumptions in order to support change agents in having more clearly formed senses of self, culture and the world to base their work and lives on.
We Heal for All offers holistic education for sustainable development that privileges the emotional, psychological and spiritual side of world change so that change agents develop complementary skills to the technical, logic-driven and content-based ones. In this way the curriculum takes a whole-systems approach to equipping future leaders with the self-awareness competency they need to make effective, long term change.