Has there been a reorientation towards Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)?

It is suggested by Hopkins (2012) that Agenda 21, Chapter 36 called for a reorientation of education systems towards sustainable development. This would require a change in world views.  Instead of a focus on economic development, a focus on development across all sectors, environmental, social and economy. However, since Agenda 21’s release in 2002, has anything changed? In reading Hopkins’ (2012) Reflections on 20+ Years of ESD, Capra’s (2007) Sustainable Living, Ecological Literacy, and the Breath of Life and Evans, Whitehouse and Hickey’s (2012) Pre-service Teachers’ Conceptions of Education for Sustainability, it would appear that nothing has changed.

In his article, Hopkins (2012) summarises the history of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and then goes on to critically assess the current global treatment of ESD. Although Hopkins (2012) applauds some of the achievements of ESD, he mostly appears to be stating its downfalls. According to Hopkins (2012) while there was a strong sentiment in having ESD become the driver of education systems, getting the global community to feel the same way was blocked by traditional world views and current systems. Instead ESD was and is being viewed as just another subject and largely placed in the domain of Environmental Education (Hopkins 2012). This is suggested by Hopkins (2012) to be the largest downfall of the ESD movement; that it is largely viewed as being an environmentally focused area.  

Although Hopkins (2012) states that ESD has not reached its intended outcome of reorientating current education systems, he does not put the blame of its downfall solely on the global community. Instead he suggests that assumptions and misinterpretations of the driving forces behind ESD are largely to blame (Hopkins 2012). In my interpretation Hopkins (2012) appears to be suggesting that the international bodies and communities such as the various United Nations’ agencies pushing for ESD were too overconfident in their ability and ESD’s ability to change current world views. This overconfidence has led to ESD being largely viewed as just another subject to add to curriculums (Hopkins 2012). 

This sentiment of Hopkins (2012) is supported by Evans, Whitehouse and Hickey (2012).  ESD within schools appears to be treated as just another subject to add to the curriculum, this is evident in the statement ‘teachers….report structural barriers such as overcrowded curricula and a lack of resources such as money and time’ (Evans, Whitehouse & Hickey 2012 p.3). 

In conjunction with the over confidence of the driving forces behind ESD and the world view of schooling systems, another barrier to the reorientation of education to ESD could be the misconceptions of what ESD truly means. Capra (2007) speaks about the different principles of ESD like systems thinking and states ‘Pedagogy orientated toward connecting actions with full appreciation of nature’s processes..is therefore more than just a matter of teaching about biology and chemistry’ (p.17). This statement by Capra (2007) reveals that ESD is not just teaching students about sustainability but instead is a pedagogical process. Through comparing this statement with the suggestion made by Evans, Whitehouse and Hickey (2012) that ESD adds to an already overcrowded curriculum shows that there is a misconception of ESD and could be another reason as to why there has been no reorientation towards ESD.

In reading and reflecting on these articles I realise that the answer to Has there been a reorientation towards ESD? is a definite no. Unfortunately ESD has a long way to go and many barriers to get through before it becomes embedded into pedagogical practice. For me as a future Environmental Educator I need to be aware of these barriers and not let them become an impediment to my goal for a reorientation towards ESD.

Capra F 2007 Sustainable living, ecological literacy and the breath of life Canadian Journal of Environmental Education 12:9-18.

Evans N, Whitehouse H & Hickey R 2012 Pre-service teachers’ conceptions of Education for Sustainability Australian Journal of Teacher Education 37(7):1-12.

Hopkins C 2012 Reflections on 20+ years of ESD Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 6(1):21-35