Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Priorities of Senior High School Students and Global Public: Recommendations for Implementing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) when facing major global development issues. It includes formal, informal, and nonformal education, with an emphasis on a shift from “teaching” to “learning.” Using a data tracking approach and a questionnaire, this study aims to provide theoretical and practical suggestions for implementing ESD in senior high schools. Taking a Chinese senior high school as an example, the students in the school surveyed are compared with the global public in different language regions with respect to attention priorities for SDGs; students’ performance between the attention priorities and learning situation related to SDGs and subjects integrated into SDGs between learned and nominated are also analyzed. Gender equality and good health and well-being are the SDGs that students and the public both care most about. And the majority of SDGs receive less concern of the students and the public. By comparing the average amount of news about the SDGs in seven languages, the amount of news in English is far greater than other languages. Besides, different linguistic news has similarities and differences in their attention priorities to the SDGs. The students in the school surveyed only show greater learning performance in one SDGs, climate action. Only politics and economics, geography, and biology are the subjects with outstanding learning performance and high nominations by the students. The languages used to promote SDGs represent different populations and geographical distribution. The high school students’ attention to SDGs is affected by different linguistic media with the global public views, but it also has its particularities. Regarding the deficiency in SDGs awareness and learning performance, the implementation of ESD displays a nonideal status. It is also revealed that ESD should be strengthened. Additionally, during the process of ESD implementation, it is crucial to take full advantage of the combination of formal, informal, and nonformal education, advancing media campaigns for all 17 SDGs as well as fully mobilizing all course subjects to integrate SDGs. To achieve the curriculum reorientation of ESD, all subjects are recommended to connect to SDGs through unique characteristics. Considering the priorities of the students and the public, this research appeals to strengthening ESD through formal, informal, and nonformal channels under the influence from the global development and different linguistic regions’ media promotion. The recommendations can be used as an initiative and a reference for ESD implementation.