Social ecology and the school-to-work transition: global prospects for sustainable development

ABSTRACTEducational policy goals for 22 jurisdictions provide data to test and refine a social ecological model of education by analysing them for the mode of work expected to follow upper secondary school, classified according to the World Bank’s Development Indicators as either employment, entrepreneurship, or workers’ cooperatives. A global statistical analysis of rates of wage-labour, as a proxy for employment, versus educational achievement augments the policy analysis. The results are interpreted in terms of two contrasting conceptions of sustainable development, Brundtland’s versus Daly’s, based on their views of economic growth, suggesting the results support Brundtland’s sustainable development, but detract from Daly’s. The results support the social ecological model, particularly its emphasis on active citizenship education.KEYWORDS: Social ecologyschool-to-work transitionsustainable developmenteducational policyeconomic growthcitizenship education AcknowledgementsThis research is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.