Exploring the pedagogical connection between citizen participation and sustainability: a qualitative content analysis based on main international and european policies

The contribution aims to present a pedagogical reflection on the connection between the themes of participation and sustainability related to citizenship, based on a qualitative content analysis of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on key competences for lifelong learning. Both constructs see the proliferation of various definitions and conceptions as widely debated and current topics in the literature. As far as sustainability is concerned, in order to orient oneself within the complex landscape related to it, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is assumed as a frame of reference. In particular, the document approved by the United Nations defines sustainability in three dimensions - economic, social and environmental - identifying them as the supporting and interdependent axes of sustainable development. With regard to participation, bearing in mind that more than sixty models of participation have been elaborated since 1969, the Recommendation of the Council on Open Government is taken as a frame of reference. In this instance, participation includes all the ways in which citizens can be involved in the policy cycle and in service design and delivery, distinguishing among three pillars of participation - information, consultation, engagement - that differ with respect to the level of their involvement. A qualitative content analysis was conducted in order to explore how participation and sustainability issues are understood at the European and international level from a lifelong and lifewide learning perspective. On the one hand, the Recommendations of the European Parliament define the sustainable development of society as a common or public interest, to achieve which it is indispensable to engage fully and critically in civic and social life as responsible citizens. On the other hand, the 2030 Agenda - conceived as an Agenda of the people, by the people, and for the people - invites citizens to be and become critical agents of change towards a more sustainable world through the achievement of the listed 17 Goals. In conclusion, from the analysis of the two institutional documents, several insights and suggestions emerge that may inform educational strategies and practices in order to make education for sustainable development clearly and closely related to active citizen participation practices.