scholarly journals Environmental education and education for sustainable development: Conceptual solutions and dilemmas

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Violeta Orlović-Lovren

The focus on education for sustainable development in global policy and literature opens up a range of different views on its relationship with environmental education. While a number of authors make a clear distinction between the two concepts, others believe that education for sustainable development (ESD) has actually displaced environmental education (EE). Different perceptions of these two concepts have implications for their integration into education at all levels. This paper offers a comparative analysis of trends and directions in defining these concepts both in global policy documents and in the literature in this field, with the aim of offering another perspective on their relationship and on the possibility of implementation in practice. The overview of the similarities and differences in their coneptualization has prompted a reconsideration of the dilemmas regarding the need for the existence of both concepts and the possibility of integrating them into education, which should play a key role in the achievement of the ideal of sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Mauricio Acosta Castellanos ◽  
Araceli Queiruga-Dios

Purpose In education concerning environmental issues, there are two predominant currents in the world, environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD). ESD is the formal commitment and therefore promoted by the United Nations, to ensure that countries achieve sustainable development. In contrast, EE was the first educational trend with an environmental protection approach. The purpose of this systematic review that seeks to show whether the migration from EE to ESD is being effective and welcomed by researchers and especially by universities is presented. With the above, a global panorama can be provided, where the regions that choose each model can be identified. In the same sense, it was sought to determine which of the two currents is more accepted within engineering education. Design/methodology/approach The review followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyzes parameters for systematic reviews. In total, 198 papers indexed in Scopus, Science Direct, ERIC and Scielo were analyzed. With the results, the advancement of ESD and the state of the EE by regions in the world were identified. Findings It was possible to categorize the geographical regions that host either of the two EE or ESD currents. It is important to note that ESD has gained more strength from the decade of ESD proposed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. For its part, EE has greater historical roots in some regions of the planet. In turn, there is evidence of a limited number of publications on the design and revision of study plans in engineering. Originality/value Through this systematic literature review, the regions of the world that are clinging to EE and those that have taken the path of ESD could be distinguished. Moreover, specific cases in engineering where ESD has been involved were noted.


2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Gough ◽  
Noel Gough

AbstractThis article explores the changing ways ‘environment’ has been represented in the discourses of environmental education and education for sustainable development (ESD) in United Nations (and related) publications since the 1970s. It draws on the writings of Jean-Luc Nancy and discusses the increasingly dominant view of the environment as a ‘natural resource base for economic and social development’ (United Nations, 2002, p. 2) and how this instrumentalisation of nature is produced by discourses and ‘ecotechnologies’ that ‘identify and define the natural realm in our relationship with it’ (Boetzkes, 2010, p. 29). This denaturation of nature is reflected in the priorities for sustainable development discussed at Rio+20 and proposed successor UNESCO projects. The article argues for the need to reassert the intrinsic value of ‘environment’ in education discourses and discusses strategies for so doing. The article is intended as a wake-up call to the changing context of the ‘environment’ in ESD discourses. In particular, we need to respond to the recent UNESCO (2013a, 2013b) direction of global citizenship education as the successor to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005–2014 that continues to reinforce an instrumentalist view of the environment as part of contributing to ‘a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable world’ (UNESCO, 2013a, p. 3).


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-66
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Kapranov

Abstract This article introduces and discusses a study that aims at illuminating discursive representations of education for sustainable development (henceforth – ESD) by means of compiling and analysing a corpus of policy documents written by English medium instruction (EMI) secondary schools in Estonia and Norway, respectively. Informed by the constructivist approach (Foucault, 1981), discursive representations of ESD in the study were operationalised as discursive strategies that were employed in naming, referring to, and providing an evaluative perspective to ESD-related topics. In this study, the corpus of policy documents published by EMI secondary schools in Estonia and Norway was collected in order to analyse discursive representations of ESD by means of applying a qualitative content analysis. The results of the analysis indicated that the discursive representations of ESD were similarly construed in policy documents written and communicated by EMI secondary schools in Estonia and Norway. Those findings were further discussed in the article in conjunction with their didactic implications.


Author(s):  
София Горбунова ◽  
Sofia Gorbunova

<span>The article discusses the principles of education for sustainable development and examples of their implementation in the context of the ecological culture formation. The subject of the study is environmental education for sustainable development. The aim of this research is to formulate the principles of education for sustainable development and to show the ways of their practical implementation. The research uses the comparative approach with elements of hypothetical-deductive analysis. As a result of the study, a set of interrelated principles determining education for sustainable development was defined: continuity, inclusiveness, interdisciplinarity, integration, unity of theory and practice. The results of this study can be used in educational practice in the creation and implementation of curricula and courses, as methodological recommendations for the work of volunteer organizations and educational environmental activities. The results can be used in the sustainable development programs designed by the administrative authorities. Environmental education is an important tool for implementing the concept of sustainable development. Thus, the outlined educational principles should become the basis of educational practices and technologies aimed at the formation of ecological culture and the ecologization of consciousness.</span>


2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Gutiérrez Pérez ◽  
Mª Teresa Pozo Llorente

The main idea this article develops is the conceptual chaos, methodological tensions and epistemological conflicts that are being experienced in the field of environmental education as a result of the uncertainty generated by some institutions and international organisms. The authors’ perspective starts from the idea that too many expectations have been invested in the celebration of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The celebration will contribute to making the tensions and fractures grow between the different collectives and professional cultures that inhabit this educational field. While some will find their channels of expression waning and their work models delegitimated, others will increase their popularity and extend their hegemonic power over the dominant models of intervention and the securing of financial resources through the programs and grant competitions they enter. The reason for these tensions lies in the underlying focus promoted by the model of celebration that has been advocated by the institutions leading the process.


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