Emerging evidence suggests that business schools in Africa are lagging behind in promoting sustainability education. Grand challenges that point to a limited focus on transformative sustainability education such as environmental pollution, conflicts, inequalities and unemployment still persist in African economies, with the profit motive remaining central to businesses’ operating philosophy. Informed by the clarion call for business schools to be key drivers of sustainability education, this study reviews the African master of business administration (MBA) curricula with the objective of assessing the status of sustainability management education. The content of the MBA curricula of 42 African business schools accredited with the Association of African Business Schools was analysed using a web-based research approach. The findings indicate that the concept of sustainability has not been sufficiently embedded into the African MBA curricula. The values and mission statements of the majority of business schools were found not to be aligned with the principles of sustainability education. It was also found that shareholder value oriented modules constitute the core curriculum of the majority of MBA programmes reviewed. An incremental elective approach was found to be the most dominant strategy used by African business schools to incorporate sustainability education in the MBA curricula. An integrative approach of embedding sustainability education focusing on re-orientation of the business schools’ values, mission, curriculum, systems, operations and governance is recommended. The increased use of experiential learning is also recommended as an effective teaching pedagogy for equipping MBA students with practical aspects of sustainability education.

Over the past decade concern for the environment and, as a consequence, interest in environmental education have undergone a revival in Britain. Interest generated in the late Sixties and early Seventies was followed by a quiescent period during which few significant developments occurred. The publication of the World Conservation Strategy and the UK Response in the early Eighties, coupled with the general realisation that environmental degradation was occurring on a global scale, has caused a substantial increase in environmental interest. Recent developments in the formulation of a National Curriculum in England and Wales have provided a real opportunity to incorporate environmental education into the programs of study for every pupil between the ages of 5 to 16.

The following paper concentrates on the formal education system but important developments are currently taking place in the youth sector. As the National Curriculum proceeds and becomes fully implemented it will further affect higher and further education and environmental education in industry.

In its broadest sense the “environment” component of environmental education spans such diverse areas as dietary habits, in vitro fertilisation, religious beliefs, occupational health, desertification, the changing nature of work, arms control and over-population. At its best contemporary environmental scholarship highlights the degree to which all these issues are intimately related.

At its worst and narrowest, the process of environmental educational consists of firstly identifying the basic features of an ecosetting for example, a rainforest, a reef or an urban waterway; and studying environmental change in that setting through identifying the goodies and baddies in relation to impacts upon that environment.

An experience I had recently teaching about North Stradbroke Island highlighted the dominance that the narrow view of environmental education has attained. In discussion prior to the study, students indicated that for them, the term “environment” was basically an alternative label for flora and fauna or the “green”/natural elements of the island. They could not comment very easily then about the place of humans in this picture of environment nor could they outline in any detail the range of social, economic or political factors affecting that island's environment. Such factors were incidental to that environment.Also students' ideas about “environmental conflict” and the island seemed to be centred on examples of actions taken by one or other of the conflicting groups, through protest meetings or demonstrations, classifying the main contenders Into two camps - those for and those against the bridge.

Three South American countries, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, have been selected in order to study the impact of the document “The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development”. In these countries, whose people react energetically against any attempt to break the environmental balance, the synergic power of education is recognized. Therefore, it can be observed that the content sustainable development has been incorporated in the new educational schemes since 1990s in all their levels. The analysis in the formal, non formal and informal education of these countries shows us that they have the environmental issue well contemplated. But, it is necessary to emphasize the interrelations of three essential components: environment, society and economy in order to develop solidary values for improving a sustainable present and future existence. In relation to the “The United Nations Decade”, it is noticed that although different measures have been adopted, conjoint work by the region's countries from a Latin American perspective is required.

An exciting and successful environmental education program has been implemented at Kosciusko National Park in south-eastern NSW. It is based on programs developed by the Institute of Earth Education, a non-profit volunteer organisation made up of an international network of individuals and member organisations. The major work of the Institute is to design and develop educational programs.

The two most popular programs offered at Kosciusko National Park are EarthkeepersTM and Earth CaretakersTM which are focused, sequential and cumulative nature education programs intended for upper primary children, that is, ten to twelve year olds. The aim of these programs is to help students enjoy, understand and live in harmony with the Earth. The activities integrate three components-understanding, feelings and processing—mirroring the interpretation philosophy of understanding, appreciation and protection. Evaluation has shown that the programs successfully enhance school curricula subjects and motivate students to change the way they and their families live.

I wrote ‘Narrative and Nature: Unsustainable Fictions in Environmental Education’ in 1991 as a revised version of a paper subtitled ‘Poststructural Inquiries in Environmental Education’ that I presented at the Sixth National Conference of the Australian Association for Environmental Education in September 1990. To the best of my knowledge, these papers were the first instances of advocacy for poststructuralist analyses of dicourses/practices in the Anglophone literature of environmental education. The key influences on my thinking at this time were US and Canadian ‘reconceptualist’ curriculum scholars, including Cleo Cherryholmes, Jacques Daignault, William Doll, Clermont Gauthier, Rebecca Martusewicz, William Pinar and William Reynolds. The significance and impact of my poststructuralist inquiries in environmental education were recognised by the award of the inaugural Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Environmental Education Research in 1997. Since then, my ‘post’ scholarship has expanded to include postcolonialism and posthumanism. Narrative continues to be an important theme in my work, especially through my development of an approach to narrative experimentation that I call ‘rhizosemiotic play’.

Environmental Education for student teachers requires careful design and operation to achieve desired ends. Initiatives taken in the Newcastle region have culminated in a teacher training program utilising local field studies centres with a variety of teaching experiences in mind. This article describes these experiences and notes the condition effecting the viability and vitality of such an approach to teacher training in environmental education.

This study sheds light on how a rich legacy of intergenerational, contextual knowing (indigenous environmental knowledge) was successively overlooked and marginalised, or was appropriated and re-orientated in developing scientific institutions, in eastern southern Africa. The Nguni case evidence reviewed, uncovers a somewhat blind appropriation and reorientation of environmental knowledge in the colonial administration and within emerging scientific institutions. It examines how processes such as this served to marginalise indigenous “ways of knowing,” and consequently, “African knowledge systems” in the region. Evidence of colonial oppression is nothing new, but a closer look at some of the institutional processes involved is used to inform the design of the “IK & Today,” materials being developed with educators and communities by researchers working on The National Research Foundation (NRF) programme of the Rhodes University Environmental Educatiuon Unit.

The Australian Journal of Environmental Education (AJEE), first published in 1984, is a rich source for investigating the history of environmental education in Australia, as it has sampled research and writings in the field since the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) was established in 1980.

This paper attempts to illustrate the influence of an emerging New Public Health on the relationship between health education and environmental education. This New Public Health places health on the political agenda. In so doing it involves a critical examination of the underlying and pervasive ideology of individualism which is so embedded within conventional health education. Health education tends to focus on individual behavioural factors for health and ignores the wider environmental, social, economic and political factors. However, a new consciousness within health education serves to critique the existing relationship between individualism and health and is essentially concerned with examining the broader influences on health.

The paper concludes optimistically by suggesting that this new consciousness encapsulating the notion of an Emancipatory Health Education in schools has the potential for encouraging emancipatory social change involving a recognition of the social and environmental constraints on health. Because of this there needs to be a rethink and a re-conceptualisation of the relationship between school health education and environmental education.

This paper examines the notion of wilding pedagogy and its potential for comprehensive transformation through educational policy. This paper argues that given current unsustainable human practices, significant changes can be achieved by aligning education and policy. This paper begins by defining wilding pedagogies and providing an overview of Botswana’s background and prospects. It contends that Botswana has the potential to enhance the quality of education by promoting active and transformative learning experiences. Furthermore, this policy can lead to improved academic performance by acknowledging cultural linkages, honouring land, returning to a holistic approach aligned with the principles of the wild in education.

Anthropogenic climate change is a significant driver of disasters, such as tropical storms, floods, drought and loss of biodiversity, amplifying their frequency and severity worldwide. The annual incidence of extreme weather-related events increases with growing human exposure to risks. The Sendai Framework and its associated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognise the interlinkages between disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and sustainable development. However, despite the best intentions of disaster planners, the current efforts are suboptimal in promoting implementation. Education is a critical goal to achieve sustainable development. Environmental Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) seeks to equip students with the knowledge, skills, values and agency necessary to address the complex challenges of climate change and global warming. One example of such an educational programme is the “Speak to Me in Numbers” programme. This interdisciplinary ESD programme educates 9th graders in SDG-related scientific content through scientific data analysis. It strives to inspire students to develop their agency and become responsible future citizens by taking local climate action to bring about sustainable development in their communities. Empowered young people who become agents that bring about global changes are crucial in the context of the climate crisis. However, such efforts should be undertaken cautiously to avoid doing more harm than good by evoking climate anxiety. These implications are discussed.

This is not an academic paper. I write in the first person. And I write out of my own experience - not as a researcher but as a practitioner. So perhaps this is more like a letter, from one imperfect practitioner to others.

I live in a region of Australia where the main industry is coal mining. I and a partner run a small environmental education centre at the end of the farmland and the beginning of the forest in a peaceful and beautiful valley. I am privileged to work with around a thousand young people each year - mostly 9-12-year-olds. They and the living world of the forest where I live, are my teachers. The greatest joy of my work is that it is an endless process of learning and sharing: such is the vocation of an environmental educator. Children come to Wangat Lodge for three or four days. They come in groups of around thirty to forty - small enough for me to learn all of their names. We spend most of our time outdoors. I talk too much; I know they gain most when they are discovering things for themselves. We sing. We walk. We mime. We dance. We act. We write bad poetry. I could not wish for more fulfilling work.

Activities in environmental education in the United States during the 1980s are summarized, in terms of audiences involved – formal (school), college/university, and non-formal. Discussion focusses on specific programs and materials, in summary fashion. Trends are noted, and speculative projections into the 1990s are offered.