Non-formal Education for Sustainable Society: A Case Study of “Hobby School” in Estonia

Abstract

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development from 2005 to 2014 was an official global movement to reflect our sustainability. There were many remarkable activities across countries because education had a significant role for sustainable environments in natural, cultural, economic, and social aspects. School education is often called formal education, and more flexible practices are non-formal education (NFE). School is authorized by the governments, and NFE includes more autonomous and volunteer learnings. A small country such as Estonia concentrates on knowledge economy to survive in the globalized world today, but its identity is implicitly more important to sustain. The Estonian education system is successful, and meantime, it has many NFE, especially education focusing on nature. This article picks up a long-lasting NFE case and tries to illustrate how NFE keeps their worship to nature as the central portion of the Estonian national identity.