The Global Learning in Agriculture Community: A Digital Community of Practice to Support Education for Sustainable Development

Educators are essential actors in preparing the next generation to address the world’s most pressing issues and facilitating the transition to a more sustainable society. Learners need to be empowered to envision, take responsibility for, and take action towards a sustainable future. Educator professional development for sustainability education must address these complex learner and societal needs. This chapter has three primary objectives including: (1) Discuss the strategic positionality of educators as change agents of sustainability; (2) Explore how a digital community of practice as a digital technology is being leveraged to promote the Education for Sustainable Development and (3) Uncover challenges and successes of building an accessible digital community of practice through the lived experiences of two social scientists. The chapter utilizes a duoethnography method (Sawyer and Norris, Duoethnography, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2012; Adams et al., Handbook of Autoethnography, Routledge, 2022), in which the co-founders of the Global Teach Ag Network share about a promising strategy in educator professional development focused on collaboration through impactful communities of practice while discussing the challenges and successes of building an accessible digital global community of practice designed to support Education for Sustainable Development. Since 2014 the Global Learning in Agriculture Community (GLAG) has provided space for thousands of hours of professional development events and multiple points of contact between participating community members in over forty-five countries. For some members, this is the only access they have to educator-oriented professional development while for others, this is just one opportunity of many. GLAG has organically grown and developed over the years with resources dedicated by multisectoral organizational partners of the Global Teach Ag Network.