A WELCOME

One of the benefits of getting older is gaining an overview of things. You obtain a clearer standpoint from which to view trends, patterns, and changes. All too quickly, you also find yourself journeyed from a young advocate, passionate about the environment and education and keen to learn, to one of the old guard, still committed but possibly a bit wiser about the possibilities of and barriers to change. Welcome to this selection of my writing – a project I had in mind long before it finally came to fruition, and one which reflects my learning journey to date.

This Introduction outlines the purpose of the Reader and provides a context for what follows – including some background on the philosophical orientation that informs my writing. I’ve been working in environmental and sustainability education for some five decades, first inspired as a young man by the wave of environmentalism of the early 1970s. The calls for change towards a more sustainable and equitable society – ever present throughout those fifty years – have become much more insistent and urgent of late as clear evidence of critical global issues mounts and existential questions about achieving a viable future for humanity have become unavoidable.

In response, this book aims to contribute a timely and original perspective on the key issue of how learning and education can make a decisive difference to securing the future in an increasingly uncertain and threatened world. It is based on a core of previously published papers and articles which are here booked-ended by six new chapters (including this prefacing chapter), and it is offered as an introduction to my work and field of inquiry over a long period. Full details of the previously published chapters are listed under “Credits” on pp. 233–4.