Education for Sustainable Development: Glocal Implications for Universities

The editorial overviews the key research aspects of embedding sustainable development into university systems worldwide. The JLE editors dwell upon the pivotal role of higher education in transferring knowledge, skills, and underlying values in promoting Sustainable Development Goal No.4 (Quality Education for Sustainable Development). The editorial analysis is underpinned by the most cited Scopus-indexed articles (Top-50 as of March 2021) on sustainable development in higher education. JLE potential authors will fi nd some recommendations on the subject fi eld gaps and key directions to be published in the journal upcoming issues.


Introduction
Sustainability entered the global agenda in the 1970s with the UN Commission on Environment and Development report headlined "Our Common Future" 1 . The latter defined sustainable development as the process meeting "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" 2 .
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted in 2000. The eight goals were to be attained by 2015. All the UN member states committed to support the MDGs. Goal Two had universal primary education, including enrolment and completion for boys and girls, as its key target. In 2015, the UN Resolution headlined "Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" (widely known as Agenda 2030) was passed. It set forth seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals were worded quite broadly to cover the global vital needs in economic, social, and environmental spheres. A special system of targets and indicators was developed to monitor the progress towards the SDGs.
Goal 4 -Quality Education -provides for "inclusive and equitable education" and "lifelong learning opportunities" for all 3 . Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) encompasses "economic, social and environmental dimensions of the formal and informal curricula" 4 . Though much of ESD is focused on primary and secondary education, the role of higher education is being reconsidered and highly appreciated. Since 2015, sustainable development and sustainability have been thoroughly discussed across economic, social, political, and environmental strata. The sustainability concepts were transformed into numerous practical models. At present, the prevailing view sticks to the three pillars of sustainable development, with education considered as raising awareness, generating transformation in mindsets. It 'aims to facilitate the development of skills to contribute to a more sustainable future" (Avila et al., 2018, p. 109). They all are addressed at both global and local levels, resulting in the glocality of the sustainable development as a phenomenon Education is relevant to the other SDGs, as it prepares young people to live and work in the environment heavily relied on sustainable development principles, including the key competencies relating to SD (Systems 1 Report of the World Commission on Environment and development: Our common future. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf 2 World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). (1991). Our common future (2nd ed.). Rio de Getú lio Vargas Foundation. P. 42. 3 4: Quality Education. http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-4-quality-education.html 4 Advance HE. Education for Sustainable Development. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/education-sustainable-development-0 Raitskaya, L., & Tikhonova, E. (2021). Education for Sustainable Development: Glocal Implications for Universities. Journal of Language and Education, 7(1), 4-13. https://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2021.11215 EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT thinking, Anticipatory, Normative, Strategic, Collaboration, Critical thinking, Self-Awareness, and Integrated problem-solving) 5 .
As the JLE scope in education is mainly limited to higher education, we aim to scrutinize the prevailing research trends in the field of higher education for sustainable development. To complete the task, a review of the most cited articles indexed with the Scopus database was carried out to single out the top 50 most cited publications between 2015 (the adoption of Agenda 2030) and 2020. Thus, the research question in the review can be confined to the following: What are the prevailing trends within the field of higher education for sustainable development?

Rationale for the Review Criteria
To estimate the hot topics and find out the prevailing trends in the field of higher education for sustainable development, we focused of the publications indexed with the Scopus database. The Scopus database was selected as it covers the most influential sources on Sustainable Development. The search within the base brought authoritative results (publications with citations in high-ranking journals).
As Agenda 2030 was adopted in 2015, the review period spans from 2015 to 2020. The following inclusion/ exclusion criteria were fixed to filter the publications (see Table 1). The 50 most highly cited articles on higher education for sustainable development were sifted. The complete list forms Appendix 1 (See Appendix A).

Procedure
The initial search with "education for sustainable development" in the field covering titles, abstracts and keywords in the Scopus database, accessed March 1, 2021 and evaluated on the basis of the keyword inclusion criteria brought 24,177 documents. 10,223 indexed publications belonged to Social Sciences, partly overlapped by 1,234 in Economics, Econometrics and Finance, and 6,197 in Environmental Science. The search results were refined through the inclusion criteria. Then we singled out the first 50 most highly cited articles, with the article headlined "Connecting competences and pedagogical approaches for sustainable development in higher education: A literature review and framework proposal"  topping the search. The highest citation among the reviewed publications was recorded as high as 127 as of March 15, 2021. The lowest citation in the list reached 18. It was "Neoliberalism, pluralism and environmental education: The call for radical re-orientation" .  Two universities were affiliation leaders, with four articles each (See Figure 1). They are Karlstads universitet and Högskolan i Gävle. Both are located in Sweden. As for the aggregate number of the articles in the top list, the highest scores belong to the UK (15 articles) and Sweden (11 articles) by a large margin (See Figure 2).

Results and Discussion
The thematic clusters within the field of higher education for sustainable development boiled down to eight: general issues of ESD; country-specific experiences; higher professional education; skills and competencies; attitudes and perceptions; assessment; curriculum; neoliberal aspects and ESD (See Table 2). The breakdown of the articles does not exclude their overlapping when their topic is complex.

General Issues of ESD
Though Agenda 2030 was adopted over five years ago, there are still many research articles on the ESD foundations, on the ways the SD principles are incorporated into higher education systems. Researchers study the SD perspectives for higher education , sustainable educational policy ; coherence between theory and praxis of ESD ; professional development initiatives for educators to efficiently embed SD into higher education .

Country-Specific Experiences
As all UN member states are committed to Agenda 2030, each has its own experience in ESD. Top-50 encompasses several country-specific publications. They focus on the ESD implementation progress in Portugal ; gender-related aspects of students' sustainability consciousness in Sweden ; the national higher education sustainability policies in Canada , a quantitative SD scale at an Italian university , etc.

Higher Professional Education
SD is relevant to most of spheres of human activities. But some professions are at the forefront, having more relevance and responsibility. Thus, teacher education (Álvarez-García, , engineering education , science  and environmental education  can promote SD not only within their segment of education, but via their graduates widely spread the SD values across their professional communities.

Skills and Competencies
The research on skills and competencies have been in focus since SDG No.4 is in place. In 2017, special skills were set forth as vital in attaining the SDGs (UNESCO). As a result, much attention is paid to studies on the pedagogical design and delivery of sustainability-oriented competencies , critical thinking , and systems thinking . Though many publications on competencies come out annually, the considered papers focus on the competencies that must transform the mindsets of the younger generations to efficiently address the sustainability challenges.

Attitudes and Perceptions
Some of the articles in this cluster enter into the other clusters, too. The publications highlight students', teachers', and educators' perceptions of sustainable development, attitudes to pedagogical approaches to fostering skills and competencies, hope and anticipation in ESD .

Assessment
Assessment arose as separate sub-field in response to the pressing need to monitor SD implementation, including attaining targets within Goal 4. Indicators are being worked out to gauge the progress. The articles in this cluster encompass studies of sustainability assessment tools (Fischer, Jenssen & Tappeser, 2015); assessment of the impacts of higher education institutions on sustainable development ; assessment of sustainability literacy , etc.

Curriculum
Embedding SD into university curricula implies an all-round system of the SD implementation. The studies concentrate on curriculum change , the project method in integrating SD into higher education curricula (Fuertes-Camacho, Graell-Martín, Fuentes-Loss & Balaguer-Fàbregas, 2019); SD curricula in degree programmes . Curricula change algorithm is not universal, as in some countries there are institutional hurdles. Curricula cannot easily be changed.

Neoliberal Aspects and ES
The neoliberal values are in contrast with the SD principles. Higher education in many countries is inclined to neoliberal philosophy. Students may absorb controversial sets of values. Thus, their commitment to SD may be considerable distorted .

Conclusion
The review analysis displays the eight key research trends in the subject area of ESD: general issues of ESD; country-specific experiences; higher professional education; skills and competencies; attitudes and perceptions; assessment; curriculum; neoliberal aspects and ESD, with a greater focus on all aspects of practical models of ESD across countries and sciences. The reviewed publications prove that all trends emerge and evolve glocally.
With its commitment to tertiary education, the JLE is going to bring out more articles and reviews in the light of the SDGs and ESD. Research on pedagogical approaches to efficient fostering skills and competencies for sustainability is certain to be prioritised. Studies of glocal models of imbedding sustainability in university curriculum and academic systems at large will also be highly appreciated.