Author: HE ZONGHONG

Issue: 2021-2022

Abstract:

The development direction of education in the future is sustainable development education. Education for sustainable development in a broad sense aims to eliminate unsustainability in the current education system and to redesign the entire education system for a sustainable future. Limited by various realistic conditions, education for sustainable development in the broadest sense of the term is difficult to achieve in the short term. It is often defined in a narrow sense as the sum of educational and teaching activities for sustainable development implemented in schools and other educational institutions at various levels. As under a concept of sustainable development education, vocational school education for sustainable development refers to the purposeful educational and teaching activities of vocational schools to spread knowledge and theories of sustainable development, improve lives of students and production capacity of sustainable development, and promote the formation of sustainable development values.

The value theory study of education for sustainable development in vocational schools is helpful to dispel confusion and bring sustainable development education into vocational schools in practice. This research comprehensively uses systematic research methods such as literature research method, theoretical analysis method and historical analysis method to study the necessity and measures that can be taken for sustainable development education in China’s vocational schools from the aspects of the source of value, concept of value, value types, value content, and paths to realize value.

This research is mainly divided into four parts. For the first part, since education for sustainable development and education for sustainable development in vocational schools are imported concepts, research on the value theory of sustainable development education in vocational school requires a traceability study of the concept itself. Therefore, this part is mainly based on the relevant international documents of education for sustainable development, and divides the value theory of education for sustainable development in vocational schools into three stages: embryonic stage, rapid development stage, and new stage of development. In the second part, it mainly analyzes the concept of value of education for sustainable development in vocational schools, the concept definition paradigm and other theoretical issues through the logical deduction of the theory, so as to analyze the characteristics of the sustainable development education in vocational schools, that is, the uniqueness of the implementation of sustainable development education in vocational schools. In the second part, it mainly analyzes the theoretical problems such as the concept of value of education for sustainable 20

development in vocational schools and the paradigm of concept definition through theoretical deduction. And the characteristics of education for sustainable development in vocational schools are analyzed. The basic view of this part is that the value of sustainable development in vocational education refers to the relationship between the education activities for sustainable development carried out in vocational schools, the sustainable development needs of vocational school students and the sustainable development of the society. It means that the needs of the educated students in vocational schools and the need of the society and other subjects are satisfied through the educational activities for sustainable development in vocational school. Professionalism and practicality are the core characteristics of education for sustainable development in vocational schools. For the third part, with the help of the traditional classification of educational values of noumenon and instrumental values, this part analyses the specific value content of education for sustainable development in vocational schools, namely the noumenon value of promoting individual and social development, and the instrumental value of promoting economic, social, environmental and multicultural development. In the fourth part, combining relevant literature and articles published by vocational school teachers, the researcher proposes the paths to realize the value of education for sustainable development in vocational schools: the policy path, the curriculum construction path, the teacher training path and the campus construction path. Focusing on these four aspects, the researcher discusses specific strategies on how China should currently incorporate education for sustainable development in vocational schools.

Keywords: Vocational education; Education for sustainable development; Educational value