Education for Sustainable Development

Environmental Education and Sustainable Development feature strongly in Curriculum 2000:

Education influences and reflects the values of society and the kind of society we want to be. It is important, therefore, to recognise a broad set of common values and purposes that underpin the school curriculum and the work of schools. Foremost is a belief in education, at home and at school, as a route to the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, physical and mental development, and thus the well-being, of the individual. Education is also a route to the equality of opportunity for all, a healthy and just democracy, a productive economy, and sustainable development. Education should reflect the enduring values that contribute to these ends. These include valuing ourselves, our families and other relationships, the wider groups to which we belong, the diversity in our society, and the environment in which we live.' (DfEE/QCA, 1999: 10).

The school curriculum should pass on enduring values and help (learners) to be responsible and caring citizens capable of contributing to a just society. It should develop their awareness and understanding of, and respect for, the environments in which they live, and secure their commitment to sustainable development at a personal, local, national and global level.' (Aim 2 ibid:22)

This means that environmental education, sustainable development and learning are inextricably linked because education in its many forms is needed to help people learn what the environment embraces and what sustainable development can mean. NAEE believes that, for the school curriculum to set out to secure learners' personal commitment to sustainable development as envisaged by QCA, schools and teachers have to encourage and enable people to think about sustainable development itself. Only in this way can the curriculum bring a critical focus to bear on the "relationship between social development and economic opportunity on the one hand, and the requirements of the environment on the other." (UNESCO 1997). Concern for the environment, our futures and sustainable development is inescapably important to us, and the curriculum has a crucial role to play in helping us learn how to live together sustainably on the Earth.