Education for Sustainable Development: A case study of curricular documents from Cuba, France, and Romania

Abstract: In the global agenda for sustainable development, quality education is a defined priority. Therefore, it is significant to assess how topics of sustainable development are taught in mandatory school. The present thesis purposes to analyse the written curricula for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) of Cuba, France, and Romania – the three countries top-ranked by the United Nations in 2020 at effectively incorporating that form of education in their national curricula. The theoretical lens chosen looks at the Sustainable Development Goals as an instrument of global governance, in which international institutions establish voluntary objectives that national authorities can commit to, accounting for local and contextual adaptation. The expectation is that through goals that consider local diversity, global development can be pursued in a way that better accommodates critical development theories. An in-depth thematic qualitative text analysis is led through the curricular documents that each country reported for the international ranking and is presented through case summaries. Experts in ESD were consulted for a discussion on the contrast between cases. The results show that, in lower secondary school curricula, Cuba has deeply integrated the content and competencies associated with ESD, while France demonstrates a strong holistic approach dedicated to sustainable development, and Romania has at some level incorporated multiple concepts, although with a smaller concentration of terms from the chosen sustainable development framework.