AUTHOR=White Rehema M. , Kockel Ullrich , King Betsy , Leask Kirsten , Higgins Peter , Samuel Andrew 

TITLE=The future starts in the past: embedding learning for sustainability through culture and community in Scotland

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainability

VOLUME=Volume 4 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainability/articles/10.3389/frsus.2023.1128620

DOI=10.3389/frsus.2023.1128620

ISSN=2673-4524

ABSTRACT=If sustainability is about imagining and pursuing desired futures, our past history, heritage and culture will influence the kind of futures we seek and our chosen routes towards these. In Scotland, there is a strong connection between culture, land and identity, a sense of community, and perception of work ethic that derive from our biogeography and socio-political journey. Concepts and practices of education have been influenced by the ideas of key thinkers such as the Scot Sir Patrick Geddes, who introduced approaches to education and community through concepts such as "heart, hand and head", "think global, act local" and "place, work, folk". This background influenced us in establishing Scotland's United Nations University-recognised Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD); known locally as "Learning for Sustainability Scotland". Its initial development ten years ago and subsequent evolution have been built on engaging collaboratively across Scotland, and linking formal, non-formal and informal modes of learning for sustainability. In this paper, we explore how culture and context have influenced the emergence, governance and activities of RCE Scotland over the past decade. We developed an analytical framework of possible cultural and contextual influences on Scottish education. We used a Delphi approach to develop a novel and locally relevant definition of ESD when the RCE was established. Analysis of purposively selected RCE Scotland activities against our cultural framework illustrated how they had been influenced by culture or context. We propose that democratic intellect, local and global and nature-culture connections have informed our initiative. We conclude that connection to people, place and nature influences engagement and action on sustainability, and we suggest that additional sustainability competencies should include physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of nature connection.1 Crofter and laird are terms respectively for small scale farmer who has tenancy in a community land area and for a large scale landowner who was often the 'lord' and is informally known as the laird. These terms thus represent opposite ends of the social spectrum with regards to living and farming in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.