Group Description

The Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2030, SDGs) will not be achieved without great commitment from generations now in school and those to come. The global indicator for education target 4.7 (SDG Target 4.7) specifically calls on countries to review and reconsider existing curricular and assessment policies, syllabi, textbooks, teacher preparation programs, teachers’ guides, and supplementary educational materials in light of the SDGs. The need for rethinking content and pedagogy in light of Target 4.7 is particularly acute in settings where conflict is endemic or where insufficient resources limit the range and relevance of teaching and learning materials. In many such contexts, textbooks are particularly important as “the first and sometimes the only books that a young person may read [and] in most classrooms they determine what and how teachers teach” (UNESCO 2016).

Translating the themes of Target 4.7 into value-based, attitudinal and behaviour changes requires that children and adolescents are able to apply a range of social and emotional skills—including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. The challenge is that such SEL skills are rarely integrated into existing textbooks and teacher preparation programs. Social and emotional learning (SEL) should ideally begin in early childhood and then be applied to personal life and responsible local, national and global citizenship as individuals mature. Broad progress in sustainable development is unlikely, if not impossible, without greater personal resilience, respect for diversity, social cohesion and peace. As discussed below, such aims present a particular challenge in over-crowded and under-resourced classroom settings.

In early 2017 a dozen international academics and practitioners joined forces to promote the integration of SDG Target 4.7 themes and related social and emotional skills in textbooks and other education materials, particularly in countries facing resource shortages, prolonged violence or post-conflict reconstruction. Following well-attended workshops at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conferences in 2017 and 2018, as well as at UKFIET 2017, the UCL Institute of Education (2017) and George Washington University (2018), they established Networking to Integrate SDG Target 4.7 and Social and emotional learning in Educational Materials (NISSEM) in March 2018.