Debating Education for Sustainable Development 20 Years after Rio

Abstract

In this dialogue between two friends and colleagues with different takes on education for sustainability, Canadian environmental education scholar Bob Jickling argues that education for any cause is not true education, which should strive to prepare minds to create new ideas, not follow a doctrine. Since we don’t have solutions to sustainability, we should prepare students to create them. Wageningen University professor and UNESCO’s global report coordinator for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, Arjen Wals, argues that education is only useful when we reflect on what kind of education and for what purpose. Otherwise, as David Orr pointed out, more education will only ‘equip people to become more effective vandals of the Earth’.