INTRODUCTION

According to Richmond (2009: 3) writing in the UNESCO mid-term review of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, “A paradigm shift in thinking, teaching and learning for a sustainable world” needs to be realized, and a holistic approach to teaching and learning is vital and urgent. Yet, within environmental and sustainability education, there is a tension which arguably impedes their effectiveness in helping achieve more resilient social-ecological systems and a more sustainable world, at a time when the need to realize transformative change is increasingly urgent. Further, after more than three decades working in the field, I feel that the paradigmatic base of “education for sustainable development” (ESD) is as yet insufficiently clear to spearhead the kind of shift envisaged by UNESCO. This paper attempts to develop and substantiate an integrative view which may help this process, which I label “sustainable education” (Sterling 2001).

I begin with a brief review of two key positions within the environmental education and sustainability education debate which, fundamentally, represent different views of the purpose of education. One puts primary emphasis on nurturing a quality within the learner, the other on attaining an external outcome. I will argue in this paper that this is more than a difference of emphasis, but rather a philosophical and problematic dichotomy.