Education and Sustainable Development in the Global South

Dear Colleagues,

“Education is the most important weapon to change the world”. Nelson Mandela’s words sound true, but do not include all kinds of education. Education can also be a suppressive tool used by governments to keep ideological and political control, and many children who have been in school in the global South for many years are still illiterate. Such education is not sustainable.

In this special issue of Sustainability, we welcome research papers that critically explore questions related to the nexus between issues of sustainability and development in education.

Indisputably, education in many countries in the global South is in crisis even though literacy figures in most parts of the Global South are better than half a century ago. The Education for All (EFA) scheme has failed to meet its targets: only one-third of the countries have achieved the EFA goals (UNESCO, 2015).

In Africa, only 62 % of adults have attained basic literacy. This means that 153 million Africans are illiterate, and two thirds of them are women (UNESCO, 2017). In terms of functional literacy, the figures are probably much worse. In South Africa only 1 in 29 ( i.e. 3.5%) of Black children graduating from secondary school were functionally literate in 2008, meaning that this minority student group  had competence to  enter the realms of trainability, skills acquisition, higher education (The  Centre For Constitutional Rights,  2008). Even if the figures might be slightly better to-day there is cause for serious concern. The situation in many countries in other parts of the global South is also alarming. For example, 52% of the 774 million illiterate people who are 15 years and older are based in West and South Asia (UNESCO, 2013). Many Latin American countries also suffer from poor education systems, not the least among indigenous people. The question is if the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will fare better than the MDGs or the EFA?

The causes of this relatively dismal situation are multiple and to some extent well-known. In this Special Issue, however, we seek contributions that go beyond traditional explanations and explore new avenues related to education and sustainable development in the Global South. Thematic areas for this Special Issue may include, but are not limited to:

• postcolonial education in the global South and sustainable development
• epistemological issues coupled to education for sustainable development
• indigenous knowledges, education and sustainable development
• socio-economic sustainable development and functional literacy for all
• access to education and sustainable learning outcomes
• climate change education for sustainable development
• literacy and sustainable state formation
• education for sustainable development and conflict resolution

Prof. Dr. Anders Breidlid
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Epistemologies
• indigenous knowledges
• literacy and sustainable development
• access and learning outcomes
• climate change and sustainable education
• postcolonialism and sustainable education