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Learning for a Change

Exploring the Relationship Between Education and Sustainable Development

Paul Vare is an ESD consultant, and Chair and founder member of the South West Learning for Sustainability Coalition. Email: Learning4L{at}aol.com

William Scott

William Scott is Professor of Education at the University of Bath where he directs the Centre for Research in Education and the Environment, and was a founding editor of Environmental Education Research. Email: w.a.h.scott{at}bath.ac.uk

Whether we view sustainable development as our greatest challenge or a subversive litany, every phase of education is now being urged to declare its support for education for sustainable development (ESD). In this paper, we explore the ideas behind ESD and, building on work by Foster and by Scott and Gough, we argue that it is necessary now to think of two complementary approaches: ESD 1 and ESD 2. We see ESD 1 as the promotion of informed, skilled behaviours and ways of thinking, useful in the short-term where the need is clearly identified and agreed, and ESD 2 as building capacity to think critically about what experts say and to test ideas, exploring the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in sustainable living. We note the prevalence of ESD 1 approaches, especially from policy makers; this is a concern because people rarely change their behaviour in response to a rational call to do so, and more importantly, too much successful ESD 1 in isolation would reduce our capacity to manage change ourselves and therefore make us less sustainable. We argue that ESD 2 is a necessary complement to ESD 1, making it meaningful in a learning sense. In this way we avoid an either-or debate in favour of a yes-and approach that constantly challenges us to understand what we are communicating, how we are going about it and, crucially, why we are doing it in the first place.

Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, Vol. 1, No. 2, 191-198 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/097340820700100209


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