Tom Berryman

Influence of the Globalized and Globalizing Sustainable Development Framework on National Policies Related to Environmental Education

This article presents and discusses some results of the authors’ analysis of international and national institutional documents related to environmental education from the 1970s to the present day. The aim of the study is to present a critical characterization of how environmental education is conceptualized and introduced through the ongoing worldwide educational reform movement. The results presented in this article highlight the influence of the globalized and globalizing international political program for sustainable development on national educational proposals. The shift from the previous institutional discourse related to environmental education towards a more explicit economicist view of the world is discussed. The purpose of this article is to stimulate discussion about some of the foundations upon which educational policies and other national initiatives related to environmental education rest, and to introduce elements that could enrich their conceptual and ethical dimensions.

Challenging a “Closing Circle”: Alternative Research Agendas for the ESD Decade

Abstract

Ruling Relationships in Sustainable Development and Education for Sustainable Development.

ABSTRACT It is from historical perspectives on more than 40 years of environment related education theories, practices, and policies that we revisit what might otherwise become a tired conversation about environmental education and sustainable development. Our contemporary critical analysis of Stefan Bengtssons research about policy making leads us to different interpretations of some key observations and assertions about sustainable development (SD) and education for sustainable development (ESD). To counter the persistent weight of the underpinning resourcist and economic view of the relationship between people and the environment, we examine other perspectives about economy, about people and society, and about the environment. These divergences insist upon diversity in education and in environmental education.