This document provides an introduction to education for sustainable development. It discusses key concepts such as the definition of sustainable development from the Brundtland report and perspectives that question the concept. The challenges of education for sustainability are explored, including the need to equip students with sustainability literacy and for education to address unsustainability. Critical questions are raised about whether current education contributes to or helps solve sustainability problems. The goal of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development is presented to integrate sustainable development values into all aspects of learning.

1. Introduction to Education for
Sustainable Development
Denise Summers
Autumn 2009
Adapted from presentation by
Dr Stephen Sterling, Centre for Sustainable Futures, UoP, 20.3.08

2. Questions to Consider
• What is sustainability?
• Why should we bother with
it?
• The challenge to education
• The implications of
‘sustainable education’
• ‘Sustainability literacy’ and
competencies
• A wonderful world?

3. What is sustainable development?
Development which meets:
• … the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.
taken from the influential Brundtland report ‘Our Common Future’ (World Commission
on Environment and Development, 1987, http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-
ov.htm#I.3)

4. However, …
• … sustainability and
development are
contradictory concepts and
‘sustainable development’ is
just economic growth
dressed up in the language
of deliberate obfuscation,
used knowingly or not by
those who care nothing for
the Earth in order to fool us
into thinking that they are
taking her concerns
seriously.
(Harding, 2006: 232)
• Selby (2007: 249) is also
concerned about the
concept of ESD and
argues that “the heating
is happening” and calls
for “education for
sustainable contraction”
in which we accept the
climate change threat,
move away from the
current denial or
“business as usual”
mindset (Selby, 2007:
265) and respond to the
need for transformation.

5. • “Everything we thought was good turns out to
be bad. It is an act of kindness to travel to your
cousin’s wedding. Now it is also an act of
cruelty. It is a good thing to light the streets at
night. Climate change tells us it kills more
people than it saves. … Climate change
demands a reversal of our moral compass,
• for which we are plainly unprepared.” (Monbiot,
2005: 23)

6. In pursuit of happiness …
• If I were caught in the
trappings of wealth and power,
I would be unable to live a
truly comfortable, creative,
and compassionate life. Much
of my time would be absorbed
in taking care of houses, cars,
household gadgets,
furnishings, paintings,
silverware and china,
computers, yachts and
umpteen other things. I would
need to work hard to earn
enough not to meet my needs
but to service these
possessions. (Kumar, 2006:
302)
• As Professor Daniel
Kahneman of the
University of Princeton
suggests, our “standard
of living has increased
dramatically and
happiness has increased
not at all and in some
cases has diminished
slightly" (Kahneman,
2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk).

7. Climate Change
Image: free.images.co.uk
Image: free.images.co.uk

8. The Future isn’t What it Used to Be
stresses
unsustainability
uncertainty dense
interdependence
globalisation complexity
ecosystem
degradation
inequity
insecurities
global warming peak oil
overconsumption
population
pressures

9. The Learning & Skills Council
Strategy
states that by 2010 all its providers
“… will embed SD skills in education and training
programmes so that all learners are able to acquire
these skills”
and remind us that:
“Sustainability is a journey. If we wait until we understand
everything, we will never start out …”

10. Aspects of Well-being
Basic Needs Food, shelter, secure livelihood
Good Health Physical and mental health and a
robust natural environment
Healthy Social
Relations
A supportive social network
Security Personal safety and security of one’s
possessions
Freedom The capacity to achieve one’s
development potential
World Watch Institute

11. http://eduwight.iow.gov.uk/parent/my_child/images/EveryChildMattersteenagerspiderchart.pdf

12. Our generation is the first to knowingly
degrade the environment at the
expense of children now and in the
future – a fact that challenges much of
our rhetoric about the importance of
children in society. The evidence …
suggests that it may not be possible to
deliver ECM at all unless the
environment becomes one of its leading
considerations. Sustainable
Development is not an optional extra
…; it is a necessary part of building a
society that cares for its children.
(Sustainable Development Commission,
2009, p7)
Five guiding principles of SD
1. Living within
environmental limits
2. Ensuring a strong, healthy
and just society
3. Achieving a sustainable
economy
4. Promoting good
governance
5. Using sound science
responsibly

13. The Earth Charter:
Four basic principles
1. Respect Earth and life in all its diversity.
2. Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion,
and love.
3. Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable,
and peaceful.
4. Secure Earth’s bounty and beauty for present and future
generations.
• Video link

14. A Sustainable Society
• … is one that can
persist over
generations, one that
is far-seeing enough,
flexible enough, and
wise enough not to
undermine either its
physical or social
systems of support.
Meadows et al, 2005

15. Decision-making at the Eden Project
(talk given at Hestercombe, July 2009)
The triple bottom line
A Environmentally sound
B Socially acceptable
C Economically viable
A
B C

16. ‘Daunting agenda…exciting possibilities’
• Power civilisation by sunlight
• Grow food and fibre sustainably
• Dis-invent the concept of waste
• Preserve biodiversity
• Restore ruined ecologies
• Reduce materials, water and land use per head
• Rethink the political basis of modern societies
• Develop economies that can be sustained within nature’s
limits
• Distribute wealth fairly within and between generations
David Orr’s Nine Challenges

18. Thinking critically about ESD
• Do the ESD diamond 9 exercise in small
groups.
• Share responses.

19. Is Education Part of the Solution …?

20. … or Part of the Problem?
Sustainability is about the terms and conditions
of human survival, and yet we still educate at all
levels as if no such crisis existed.
The destruction of the planet is not the work of ignorant
people. Rather it is largely the result of work by people
with BAs, BScs, MAs, MScs and PhDs.
David Orr

21. Is Education a Good Thing?
• … the volume of education has increased
and continues to increase, yet so do
pollution, exhaustion of resources, and the
dangers of ecological catastrophe. If still
more education is to save us, it would
have to be education of a different kind:
an education that takes us into the depth
of things. (Schumacher, 1997)

22. Goal of UN Decade of Education for
Sustainable Development 2005-14
… to integrate the values inherent in
sustainable development into all aspects of
learning in order to encourage changes in
behaviour that allow for a more sustainable and
just society for all. This involves learning the
values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a
sustainable future and for positive societal
transformation.
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=29008&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

23. The Government Talks of the Crisis
in Education and it:
• … prefers to stress ICT, literacy and numeracy
on the grounds, perhaps, that as the good ship
Humanity finally steams into the icebergs, we
will at least be able to send grammatical SOS
messages, read the instructions on the lifebelts,
and count the survivors. Of course, if all the
prognoses about global warming are correct,
there won’t be any icebergs and we shall need a
new set of metaphors. (Scott, 2002, p5)

24. but David Orr suggests it is a Crisis
of Education …
• The fact that we see social and environmental
decay as disconnected events or fail to see them
at all is evidence of a considerable failure that
we have yet to acknowledge as an educational
failure.
• It is a failure to educate people to think broadly,
to perceive systems and patterns, and to live as
whole persons.

25. A ‘Sustainability Literate’ Person…
would be expected to:
• understand the need for change to a sustainable way of
doing things, individually and collectively
• have sufficient knowledge and skills to decide and act in
a way that favours sustainable development
• be able to recognise and reward other people’s decisions
and actions that favour sustainable development
- Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability www.heps.org.uk
Forum for the Future

26. Key Questions …??
• In what ways does our practice advance
the kind of learning, teaching, thinking
and research that contribute to
unsustainability?
• How do we balance practicability with
urgency?
• What kinds of learning would best equip
your students for their likely future(s)?

27. • Comfortable dealing with ambiguity
• Willing to take a risk to make a difference
• More interested in solving problems than taking
credit
• Both effective advocates and listeners
• Eager to imagine and implement daring
multifaceted solutions – together
- Lawrence Bacow, President of Tufts University, Rappaport A and Creighton S H
(2007) Degrees that matter. Massachusetts: MIT Press
Students as ‘Active, Engaged, and Effective
Citizens’ are…

28. References
• Harding S (2006) Animate Earth. Dartington: Green Books Ltd.
• Kahneman D (2007) The Science of Happiness
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/ happiness_formula/4783836.stm (date
accessed 22.2.08)
• Kumar S (2006) No Destination – an Autobiography. Dartington: Green Books Ltd.
• Monbiot G (2005) ‘A restraint of liberty’, The Guardian, 24 May, p23.
• Scott W (2002) Sustainability and learning: what role for the curriculum? Inaugural
Lecture, University of Bath, April 25.
• Selby D (2007) ‘As the heating happens: Education for Sustainable Development or
Education for Sustainable Contraction?’ International Journal of Innovation and
Sustainable Development, Vol 2, Nos 3/4, pp 249-267
• Sterling S (1996) ‘Education for Change’ in Huckle J and Sterling S (Eds) (1996)
Education for Sustainability. London: Earthscan.
• Sustainable Development Commission (2009) Every Child’s Future Matters. www.sd-
commission.org.uk (date accessed 7.12.09)

29. New ‘Sustainability Online Resource and Toolkit
for Education’ from the Environmental
Association for Universities and Colleges
Mainly aimed at FE
http://www.eauc.org.uk/sorted/home
Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit
Developed by the University of Tennessee,
www.esdtoolkit.org
Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future (A
UNESCO site) This is a multimedia, interactive
professional development program with materials,
exercises, and links
http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/