Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), in which UNESCO has taken the initiative since 2004, is now undertaken in the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD, with the purpose of spreading it worldwide. The overarching goal of the GAP is “to generate and scale up action in all levels and areas of education and learning to accelerate progress towards sustainable development” (UNESCO, 2013). One of priority action areas of the GAP is to increase the capacities of educators and trainers to deliver more effectively ESD so that teacher education institutions are expected to distribute pre-service and in-service training on ESD.

Subsequently, the International Network of Teacher Education Institutions Associated with the UNESCO Chair on Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability, whose eighth international conference was hosted by the Okayama Regional Centre of Expertise on ESD in November 2014, seeks to spread ESD internationally, based on various national and regional results of ESD. Moreover, international cooperation in education pursues the implementation of ESD in developing counties, especially to promote teacher training on ESD. These requests have highlighted the future direction of international collaboration for the advancement of teacher education on ESD.

This research project as part of the JSPS Core-to-Core Program titled “Formation of International Center of Excellence to Promote Teacher Education on ESD” aims to collaboratively develop teacher training programs on ESD based on lesson study and to propose Asian standards, in coordination with core institutions on teacher education in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia) and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Laos, and Myanmar). Based on the development of the programs, it pursues to establish core institutions on ESD, to construct academic networks between these institutions, and to train future generations of researchers on ESD.

We deeply appreciate your participation to share with us this unique experience. We wish that this experience will both encourage international cooperation and stimulate researchers to conduct research on ESD in Asian countries.

Hiroki Fujii, Ph.D.
Professor, Graduate School of Education, Okayama University
Director, Okayama University Education for Sustainable Development
　Promotion Center
Coordinator of the JSPS Core-to-Core Program “Formation of International
　Center of Excellence to Promote Teacher Education on ESD”