Learning for a Change

TLDR

Education worldwide is increasingly urged to support education for sustainable development, yet the dominant ESD 1 approach—promoting specific behaviors—often fails to change behavior and, if relied on alone, hampers society’s ability to manage sustainable change. The authors investigate the need for two complementary ESD approaches, ESD 1 and ESD 2, building on prior work by Foster, Scott, and Gough. They characterize ESD 1 as short‑term behavior promotion and ESD 2 as capacity‑building for critical, reflective thinking about sustainable living. The study concludes that ESD 2 must complement ESD 1, fostering a yes‑and stance that continually interrogates what we communicate, how we act, and why we act.

Abstract

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.