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With the concept of sustainable development gaining credence
and acceptability, the environmental community traditionally
focussed on natural resource conservation felt the need to
change tack and become more inclusive in their outlook by
integrating economic and social perspectives in their agendas.
As the concept of sustainable development was formulated,
it became apparent that education is the key to sustainability.
Accordingly, the EE canvas was broadened to incorporate values
espoused by the proponents of sustainable development. To
this end, themes such as gender equality, health, livelihoods,
rural development, urbanization, consumption patterns, cultural
diversity, peace and human security were included. This effort
resulted in the gradual evolution of EE to ESD.
Unlike most educational initiatives, people outside the education
community initiated the ESD movement. In fact, the major push
for ESD came from international political and economic forums
such as the United Nations Organization for Economic Cooperation
in Development.
The importance of ESD was highlighted in December 2002 when
the United Nations declared 2005 — 2014 as the Decade
of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) and appointed
the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
as the lead for implementing the plans for the decade. Today,
many educational organisations around the world are exploring
ways to reorient their curricula and programmes to address
sustainability as an essential component of education. ESD
is becoming a key pedagogical and learning tool for promoting
sustainable development in formal, non-
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formal and professional
development circles, including the private sector, media,
clergy and civil society.
From EE to ESD
Though EE and ESD are successive
stages of the same evolutionary process there are subtle
differences of scope between the two (See Figure 1.1).
In brief, despite including sustainable development perspectives
over time, EE focuses only on individual behavioural change.
ESD, on the other hand, advocates change in socio-economic
structures and lifestyles in addition to emphasizing values
individuals learn throughout their lives. A detailed analysis
of both approaches reveals that in practice EE does not
deal adequately with the socio-economic and cultural dimensions
of environmental problems. Owing to this gap, educationists
have turned their attention to ESD
EE
(Positivist) |
ESD
(Constructivist) |
| Based on deficiency model: people need knowledge,
skills |
Values what people and communities know, do and
value |
| Top-down approach |
Bottom-up approach |
| Content-oriented |
Process-oriented |
| Instrumental values |
Intrinsic values |
| Teaching |
Learning |
| Control |
Empowerment |
| Adapted from ‘ESD Debate:
International debate on ESD’, |
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