The Role of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Towards Building an Inclusive Vision of Global Citizenship: A Case Study of Elementary International Students in the Philippines

The concept of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) targets to systematically contribute to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations for a fair and sustainable world through utilizing and inculcating relevant skills and values across a wide variety of local, national and global contexts. There are many studies to develop the application of ESD in the Global South to integrate it into the country’s education system, thus maximizing its gains from ESD, especially in the context of the modern and rapidly-changing world that we live in today. Yet, it’s never been discussed how ESD functions to give international students a sense of belonging to the countries that they reside in. To fully grasp the reflection of ESD into practice, I conducted a case study in an elementary international school between 2021-2024. Based on my participant observation of co-curricular activities such as student clubs as well as extracurricular activities like field trips, and unstructured interviews with teachers who directly teach ESD or implement ESD in their respective subjects, I examine how ESD gains turn into actionable practices and daily life habits in students' in-school and out-of-school activities. Using Dewey’s theory of learning doing so, I argue that ESD (1) strengthens the sense of belonging to the host country, (2) builds relationships with high levels of empathy, inclusivity, respect, and openness, and (3) helps students acquire a sense of responsibility and custodianship towards the environment on a local and a global level via the promotion of sustainable and responsible use of resources. I conclude with a discussion of the limitations of integration of ESD from the point of view of teachers and administrators.