SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION: Re-visioning Learning and Change

by Stephen Sterling

Published by Green Books on behalf of The Schumacher Society.

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"I've read no clearer or more concise description of the need for authentic education than that given here … The stakes have never been higher."
- David Orr, Professor, Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College, Ohio, USA.

"Helps us address the most important educational need of our age: how to reorient our education systems so that they guide us towards a sustainable future. A reading list must for everyone involved in education - from Ministers right up through the system to teachers and parents."
-John Fien, Director, Griffith University Ecocentre, Australia

"Innovative, provocative, and essential reading, for all those concerned about the state of the world and the purposes of education. Read it, be disturbed and challenged. Question your basic premises about education. Renew the vision. Take committed action."
-Professor David Hicks, Bath Spa University College, UK

How will we move towards sustainability? - learning through crisis, or by design? In this new Schumacher Briefing, Stephen Sterling points out that:

• Progress towards a more sustainable future critically depends on learning, yet most education and learning take no account of sustainability.
• The reorientation of education towards sustainable development since the Agenda 21 in 1992 has been very slow.
• Education is largely behind other fields in developing new thinking and practice in response to the challenge of sustainability.

Whilst 'environmental education', and more recently 'education for sustainable development' are important trends, they are not sufficient to reorient and transform education as a whole - and yet time is short to realise such change. The Briefing critiques the prevailing managerial and mechanistic paradigm in education, and argues that an ecological view of educational theory, practice and policy is necessary to assist the sustainability transition.

The Briefing then shows how 'sustainable education' - a systemic change of educational culture towards the realization of human potential and the interdependence of social, economic and ecological wellbeing - can lead to transformative learning.

The Briefing finishes with discussion of change strategies, emphasising the need for vision and design at all levels of educational systems, and includes action suggestions for both policymakers and practitioners. A detailed listing of key organisations and websites is also included.

Stephen Sterling - Biographical details

Stephen Sterling is an independent consultant, working in the academic and NGO fields. He was involved in developing the MSc in Environmental and Development Education at South Bank University (SBU), London, where he is an academic tutor. He has an extensive publications record, including Goof Earth-Keeping: Education, Training and Awareness for a Sustainable Future (UNEP UK 1992), Education for Sustainability (Earthscan 1996), and Education for Sustainable Development in the Schools Sector (Sustainable Development Education Panel, 1988). He has been a long term consultant with WWF-UK on their professional development programme. He is a member of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, of the UNED-UK Education Task Group, and the Oxfam Advisory Group on Global Citizenship, and is an external examiner for Bath Spa University College. He is currently completing a doctoral thesis on systems thinking, education and sustainability.