Jickling, B. and Wals, A. E. J. (2008). Globalisation and environmental education: looking beyond sustainable development. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40(1), pp. 1 - 21. Retrieved on September 18, 2010 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220270701684667
Globalisation and neo-liberalism
Development in the corporate world has instigated changes that have had a ripple effect around the world. Government and corporate strategy are inextricably integrated meaning that a rise in ideologies which are embedded in commerce supports our networks of communication. It is these corporate-centred ideologies that heavily influence and significantly correlate to the reforms required in education. Jickling and Wals identify corporations that sponsor institutions of education by donating teaching aids designed to embed product awareness.
Gough inspires all by seeking means to sustain local culture in favour of mass homogeneity. The World Bank are known for introducing educational formats that produce knowledge workers who sustain local markets. It can be said that education and corporations are looking for a sustainable partnership.
Organisations are adapting to environmental demand by developing and sustaining social awareness of ESD. Entities that are governed by people, planet and profit (i.e. Triple-P bottom line). Organisations are developing customised programs for human resource in order to achieve this objective, and have created an external examining body to ensure standards are maintained or surpassed (e.g. ISO14001). Education for environmental support systems relies on subsidies to fund research and serves as an example for institutions that have value, a presence and benefit society.
Jickling and Wals investigate how ESD as captured by UNESCO indicates their rise in power to be successor of environmental education. Concerns lie in the integration of globalisation and neo-liberalism that transcends mainstream education.
Converting environmental education to education for sustainable development
Waks proposes that globalisation has steered a way forward for transformation in subject matter, pedagogy, technology, COP, and delivery. While there are difficulties and challenges, supporters keep faith that good change comes from the stimulation of tension and uncertainty. UNESCO programs (e.g. Education for All, MDG, ESD) are regarded as opportunities for sustainable change.
Much has happened since ESD was introduced in 1987 culminating in sustained effort to transform an educational system that educates for sustainable development. Jickling and Wals observe that critics have been waylaid by the lack of buzzwords in Resolution 57/254 that have been a source of comfort to many. As with many researchers, the authors note that a lack of discourse has led to incomplete definitive descriptions that reveal the broadness of concept. Without widespread acceptance of legitimate interpretations, rejection of proposals is to be expected. A lack of clarity in direction leads to confusion and hostile activity. Instead sustainable reform should be regarded as new packaging for environmental education at national level.
The dysfunction and potential source of resistance to the development of sustainable policy stems from the considerable amount of pressure on people who teach to restructure professional practice in order to contribute towards ESD.
Jickling and Wals have identified anomalies associated with UNESCO and IUCN and their agenda for sustainable development. In establishing their understanding of the problem, the authors present heuristic practice that evolved as part of their learning process.
Anomalies
Jickling and Wals understand diversity through policy that either follows, or is followed, by innovation. Policies on lifelong learning and aptitude are sourced from national level debate and are thought of as policy that leads innovation. Similarly, ESD is nationally driven thus the authors propose this as the reason for resistance to change. Workshops and seminars facilitate thought provoking exchanges that are discursively additive.
Leading questions were asked of participants of the ESDebate (e.g. should ESD be abolished?). More than half the respondents affirmed that ESD should be abandoned. Jickling and Wals' analysis of this reaction suggests there may be confusion about the purpose of ESD as it relates to environmental education. Critics view ESD as a form of bullying that educates and redirects behaviour towards a single objective. Their locus of reasoning lies in individuality and diversity that directs output towards self-reflection and determination to create an established individualistic path towards better living.
Furthermore, Jickling and Wals state that there is no global heuristic that will serve as a model for the planet, for ESD represents a multi-level and trans-dimensional concept that is interpreted and re-interpreted through national and international holism. "Democracy depends on differences, dissonance, conflict, and antagonism, so that deliberation is radically indeterminate" (pg. 6). Conflicts reveal mounting pressure in the exploration of ESD as individuals place different levels of significance upon the Triple P and 3E (i.e. efficiency, environment, equity). Tension is a prerequisite to learning.
Jickling and Wals track the events of the 2002 World Summit where little to nothing was said about ESD and the focus remained on how to prepare education for sustainable development, how to set benchmarks and standards, and how to build control mechanisms that assess progress. The Summit necessitated participants to start implementing, instead of using the time ineffectively talking. Critics propose failure in this approach as educators may only be capable of creating an illusion. Instead, educators should be seen as agents moving towards a globally driven economy. Jickling and Wals acknowledge the discomfort surrounding the ESD agenda. They draw attention to other transitions occurring as a result of global agendas.
Education and sustainable development: suitable alliances?
While some see ESD as an opportunity to infuse individuality through personal sense-making, with the potential to highlight areas under-represented in curriculum, others maintain an anxiety stemming from chronic analysis of ESD ideology. Sauve has interjected a soothing analysis of the patterns in environmental education and concludes that ESD is only one agenda out of the fifteen that environmental education is nurturing. Agenda 21 is a pragmatic approach to adapting to the "global political agenda" (pg. 7).
Multiple entry points in ESD allow self-reflection to discern ambiguity through individual perspective. Reflection points include the way in which education is perceived, and how it is portrayed; the definition of an educated society; and the role the individual expects to play.
Conceptions of education
The aims for ESD cannot be discursively debated until the concept of education has been explored. Tension emerged when scholars analysed 20th century theory and its dominant tendencies, and noted that new perspectives were developing towards the close of the century. Tension was caused by opposing views concerning the nature of education. Jickling and Wals suggest we think of education as "transmissive" (pg. 8), meaning that skills, knowledge and values are transmitted to students. Participants are steered towards a committed objective via a closed learning process that affords bi-directional communication between master and apprentice. From a transmissive perspective, education is a tool through which to deliver messages to open minds and examples can be found in government, industry, and special interest groups.
Some research analysts prefer to view education as more transactive and transformative with a distinct sympathy for social constructivism and cognitivism. Social networking shapes learning through translational learning and diversity of cultural perspectives. Education that leads to transformation is open and self-directed. Delivery of static knowledge is the platform used to integrate individual knowledge with group knowledge, making tacit knowledge explicit in the curriculum and in students. Therefore, environmental education defines the perception from which individuals view the world.
Jickling and Wals state that education concerns not only social reproduction but about transcending social norms and behaviours without resorting to dictating alternative lifestyles.
There exists debate whether social reproduction or transformation is part of education and is reflected in the educators professional attitude. By placing social reproduction in context, individuals maintain participation levels and arguably demonstrate a responsible and committed attitude born of obedience and deference. Whereas social transformation is an expression of education that facilitates and requires active participation in community decision-making processes, displaying democratic processes that lead to more than electing governments. The more varied and diverse an individuals' network is, the more stimulation there is to respond to.
Democracy should be regarded as the balance of an individual and her sense of belonging to the community, that instills the value of culture and autonomy. Therefore, Jickling and Wals propose that integration of ESD and deterministic or exclusive cognition cannot be reconciled with international policy statements. Instead the authors envisage that educated citizens live democratic practice within a nurturing society which is similar to many others, but represents a unique local flavour.
The heuristic Jickling and Wals propose is based on a two-axes structure that frames and reframes perspectives on ESD. While they acknowledge that a two-axis heuristic cannot capture a comprehensive view of the breadth and depth, it serves its purpose as an analytical tool.
Big Brother sustainable development
Quadrant 1 of the two-axes structure represents the authoritarian and hierarchical element of ESD, and which Jickling and Wals state is achieved by control to eliminate deviants. Consistent and unambiguous standards (e.g. ISO 14001, ISO2007, IFOAM, FSC) are adhered to implicitly to sustain direction.
Education is used for implementing a set strategy, the standards for which correlate to ideologies that represent a segment of society. However, such arbitrary measures meet with resistance from environmental educators who interpret education altogether differently. "While education can also be thought of as a process that can enable social transformation (as would, for example, be described in varying degress in Quadrant IV space), critics find it anathema that education should serve such pre-determined ends" (pg. 12).
Indoctrination brings its own issues. Implanting ideology is counter-productive in education for personal development, as transformation is the result of holistically training minds to develop analytical skills and insight rather than narrowing focus to content. Jickling and Wals argue that some educators supported by global standards (e.g. UNESCO, IUCN) who rationally propose adopting ESD as "it conforms to the aspirations of many non-educators who set policy agendas and control funding opportunities" (pg. 13). As Agenda 21 has inter-government approval, educators have implented the agenda as support for their own cause to address ESD. From this perspective Jickling and Wals argue the Fundamental Programme Principles of the newly developing University of the Arctic may also be regarded as authoritarian, and thus deterministic. "While 'sustainable development' is a social construct that warrants study, it may not be so important that it should be elevated to the status of privileged doctrine" (pg. 13).
With a view to transformation, deterministic doctrines are inclined to generate resistance to ESD. Therefore allowing personal diversity as a means to sustain and maintain sense-making, identity, and developmental progress, creates naturally occurring overt personal behaviour supportive of ESD. Reflexion is stimulated by a multitude of perspectives. Transmission is more readily accepted as a result of preparation and clear, bi-directional understanding of objectives.
Dobson's research in 1996 revealed more than 300 definitions to the term sustainable development. Jickling and Wals state that after a decade of combining research there are more meanings with more divergence than was previously recognised by transdimensional organisations (e.g. global organisations, non-governmental organisations, national governments) suggesting that it may be neither desireable, nor possible to create one single understanding.
Furthermore, Jickling and Wals state that this perspective can only be realised if goverments and their affiliations provide environmental leadership. In addition, epistemic values that underlie the notion of governments projecting visionary direction generate skepticism that may be the result of prior incompetence and miscommunication.
While it may be easy to denounce transmissive and deterministic goals, much of the literature available is written by people who have themselves been educated in this manner and is viewed as the foundation of experience for those committed to transformation and reformation in pedagogy. Individuals who were challenged by the structure of a system.
Limited freedom - freedom bounded by sustainable development
Quadrants II and III create the space for new meaning and active citizenry. Freedom has a framework that encompasses the language of ESD that some may agree with, yet Jickling and Wals suggest it may be a false freedom.
Very often educators are persuaded to work from these quadrants for pragmatic reasons. Governmental support funds the educational objective, and the sustainable development agenda lacks coherent definition leading to questionable and/or unstable characteristics that may be ignored. It is the characteristics that go ignored that become the most problematic, Jickling and Wals argue, as a false consensus meant for global readership creates divergence and obfuscates contextual differences. When characteristics are revealed, orientation towards ESD may lead to transformative learning specifically through existentialism.
Discourse represents the reflexion and care that bonds segments of society who look for common terminology with which to debate environmental issues compassionately. Different or parallel views causes dissonance which stimulates learning. Jickling and Wals view the dispute as an exercise in observation. Emerging knowledge is not restricted to high socio-economic regions and the potential for anyone to present sound arguments is at hand. Failure to do so may result in Orwellian conditions.
To understand the paradox of sustainable development, it is necessary to know that range of thought must be diminished and this is accomplished by measuring the positive and negative of meanings and creating personal balance adjusted and reflected in overt behaviour (e.g. war=peace). Hence diversity can be viewed as a measure slightly off balance from personal standard. The significance of knowing diversity reveals the substance of personal good and wrong, therefore it may become impossible to counteract what is socially and temporally unacceptable.
The following examples serve to highlight the authors' concerns. In Northern Canada there is ongoing controversy between two groups in the community. One task force protects the ecological balance of natural wildlife, and the other developed to uphold the right to mine to address unemployment and related issues. While the cause for both groups lay in sustainable development for the community, public backing created two different and opposing representations of the meaning.
Similarly, ESKOM, South Africa's electricity supply board seek projections for the future that take account of supply an demand, however Price proposes that organisational focus is on energy production rather than on Earth. Ideology is contradicted and the premise of dominion is subjugated.
Research in developing terminology to cover current awareness of sustainable development has been almost exclusively undertaken by the private sector. Jickling and Wals wonder how influential the economic sector has been in guiding ecological perspective for a sustainable future; and why governments and leaders of industry support sustainable development despite confusion in meaning?
Chomsky, author of Manufacturing Consent, reveals the diversionary tactics (e.g. FIFA World Cup, Wimbledon, Tour de France) governments use to distract the public from issues. With critical public scrutiny averted, government generates breathing space required for analysis and problem solving. It is proposed that sustainable development is a similar diversion.
Research on structuring ESD by Smyth proposed the need for educators to come together to discuss the action that sustains the concept, without the need for labeling, unanimously agreed upon that best captures the commitment and imagination of a potential future for education. Smyth was interested in developing communication skills that represent the depth of maturity conveyed in respectful dissensus between warring factions (e.g. environmental educators vs. advocates of ESD).
Scott states that choice within ESD is free of government policy so that educators and educating bodies have the freedom to structure their work within the framework of their own conceptions, trials and successes. It is not an option to do nothing he states, and shows concern for schools who ignore ESD. His top four responsibilities undertaken by educators are:
Enabling thought and action: beyond sustainable development
Quadrant IV projects a future based on active citizenry and suggests possibilities that extend beyond sustainable development which should be seen as part of human evolutionary processes. Concepts that form part of current discourse are all stepping stones for guiding future direction.
Smyths' interest in language reveals the need to incorporate a sense of inclusivity when communicating, and for environmental learning to accept sustainability so that we can acknowledge it as a social construct and not as the objective or end-play for education.
Globalisation and neo-liberalism
Development in the corporate world has instigated changes that have had a ripple effect around the world. Government and corporate strategy are inextricably integrated meaning that a rise in ideologies which are embedded in commerce supports our networks of communication. It is these corporate-centred ideologies that heavily influence and significantly correlate to the reforms required in education. Jickling and Wals identify corporations that sponsor institutions of education by donating teaching aids designed to embed product awareness.
Gough inspires all by seeking means to sustain local culture in favour of mass homogeneity. The World Bank are known for introducing educational formats that produce knowledge workers who sustain local markets. It can be said that education and corporations are looking for a sustainable partnership.
Organisations are adapting to environmental demand by developing and sustaining social awareness of ESD. Entities that are governed by people, planet and profit (i.e. Triple-P bottom line). Organisations are developing customised programs for human resource in order to achieve this objective, and have created an external examining body to ensure standards are maintained or surpassed (e.g. ISO14001). Education for environmental support systems relies on subsidies to fund research and serves as an example for institutions that have value, a presence and benefit society.
Jickling and Wals investigate how ESD as captured by UNESCO indicates their rise in power to be successor of environmental education. Concerns lie in the integration of globalisation and neo-liberalism that transcends mainstream education.
Converting environmental education to education for sustainable development
Waks proposes that globalisation has steered a way forward for transformation in subject matter, pedagogy, technology, COP, and delivery. While there are difficulties and challenges, supporters keep faith that good change comes from the stimulation of tension and uncertainty. UNESCO programs (e.g. Education for All, MDG, ESD) are regarded as opportunities for sustainable change.
Much has happened since ESD was introduced in 1987 culminating in sustained effort to transform an educational system that educates for sustainable development. Jickling and Wals observe that critics have been waylaid by the lack of buzzwords in Resolution 57/254 that have been a source of comfort to many. As with many researchers, the authors note that a lack of discourse has led to incomplete definitive descriptions that reveal the broadness of concept. Without widespread acceptance of legitimate interpretations, rejection of proposals is to be expected. A lack of clarity in direction leads to confusion and hostile activity. Instead sustainable reform should be regarded as new packaging for environmental education at national level.
The dysfunction and potential source of resistance to the development of sustainable policy stems from the considerable amount of pressure on people who teach to restructure professional practice in order to contribute towards ESD.
Jickling and Wals have identified anomalies associated with UNESCO and IUCN and their agenda for sustainable development. In establishing their understanding of the problem, the authors present heuristic practice that evolved as part of their learning process.
Anomalies
Jickling and Wals understand diversity through policy that either follows, or is followed, by innovation. Policies on lifelong learning and aptitude are sourced from national level debate and are thought of as policy that leads innovation. Similarly, ESD is nationally driven thus the authors propose this as the reason for resistance to change. Workshops and seminars facilitate thought provoking exchanges that are discursively additive.
Leading questions were asked of participants of the ESDebate (e.g. should ESD be abolished?). More than half the respondents affirmed that ESD should be abandoned. Jickling and Wals' analysis of this reaction suggests there may be confusion about the purpose of ESD as it relates to environmental education. Critics view ESD as a form of bullying that educates and redirects behaviour towards a single objective. Their locus of reasoning lies in individuality and diversity that directs output towards self-reflection and determination to create an established individualistic path towards better living.
Furthermore, Jickling and Wals state that there is no global heuristic that will serve as a model for the planet, for ESD represents a multi-level and trans-dimensional concept that is interpreted and re-interpreted through national and international holism. "Democracy depends on differences, dissonance, conflict, and antagonism, so that deliberation is radically indeterminate" (pg. 6). Conflicts reveal mounting pressure in the exploration of ESD as individuals place different levels of significance upon the Triple P and 3E (i.e. efficiency, environment, equity). Tension is a prerequisite to learning.
Jickling and Wals track the events of the 2002 World Summit where little to nothing was said about ESD and the focus remained on how to prepare education for sustainable development, how to set benchmarks and standards, and how to build control mechanisms that assess progress. The Summit necessitated participants to start implementing, instead of using the time ineffectively talking. Critics propose failure in this approach as educators may only be capable of creating an illusion. Instead, educators should be seen as agents moving towards a globally driven economy. Jickling and Wals acknowledge the discomfort surrounding the ESD agenda. They draw attention to other transitions occurring as a result of global agendas.
Education and sustainable development: suitable alliances?
While some see ESD as an opportunity to infuse individuality through personal sense-making, with the potential to highlight areas under-represented in curriculum, others maintain an anxiety stemming from chronic analysis of ESD ideology. Sauve has interjected a soothing analysis of the patterns in environmental education and concludes that ESD is only one agenda out of the fifteen that environmental education is nurturing. Agenda 21 is a pragmatic approach to adapting to the "global political agenda" (pg. 7).
Multiple entry points in ESD allow self-reflection to discern ambiguity through individual perspective. Reflection points include the way in which education is perceived, and how it is portrayed; the definition of an educated society; and the role the individual expects to play.
Conceptions of education
The aims for ESD cannot be discursively debated until the concept of education has been explored. Tension emerged when scholars analysed 20th century theory and its dominant tendencies, and noted that new perspectives were developing towards the close of the century. Tension was caused by opposing views concerning the nature of education. Jickling and Wals suggest we think of education as "transmissive" (pg. 8), meaning that skills, knowledge and values are transmitted to students. Participants are steered towards a committed objective via a closed learning process that affords bi-directional communication between master and apprentice. From a transmissive perspective, education is a tool through which to deliver messages to open minds and examples can be found in government, industry, and special interest groups.
Some research analysts prefer to view education as more transactive and transformative with a distinct sympathy for social constructivism and cognitivism. Social networking shapes learning through translational learning and diversity of cultural perspectives. Education that leads to transformation is open and self-directed. Delivery of static knowledge is the platform used to integrate individual knowledge with group knowledge, making tacit knowledge explicit in the curriculum and in students. Therefore, environmental education defines the perception from which individuals view the world.
Jickling and Wals state that education concerns not only social reproduction but about transcending social norms and behaviours without resorting to dictating alternative lifestyles.
There exists debate whether social reproduction or transformation is part of education and is reflected in the educators professional attitude. By placing social reproduction in context, individuals maintain participation levels and arguably demonstrate a responsible and committed attitude born of obedience and deference. Whereas social transformation is an expression of education that facilitates and requires active participation in community decision-making processes, displaying democratic processes that lead to more than electing governments. The more varied and diverse an individuals' network is, the more stimulation there is to respond to.
Democracy should be regarded as the balance of an individual and her sense of belonging to the community, that instills the value of culture and autonomy. Therefore, Jickling and Wals propose that integration of ESD and deterministic or exclusive cognition cannot be reconciled with international policy statements. Instead the authors envisage that educated citizens live democratic practice within a nurturing society which is similar to many others, but represents a unique local flavour.
The heuristic Jickling and Wals propose is based on a two-axes structure that frames and reframes perspectives on ESD. While they acknowledge that a two-axis heuristic cannot capture a comprehensive view of the breadth and depth, it serves its purpose as an analytical tool.
Big Brother sustainable development
Quadrant 1 of the two-axes structure represents the authoritarian and hierarchical element of ESD, and which Jickling and Wals state is achieved by control to eliminate deviants. Consistent and unambiguous standards (e.g. ISO 14001, ISO2007, IFOAM, FSC) are adhered to implicitly to sustain direction.
Education is used for implementing a set strategy, the standards for which correlate to ideologies that represent a segment of society. However, such arbitrary measures meet with resistance from environmental educators who interpret education altogether differently. "While education can also be thought of as a process that can enable social transformation (as would, for example, be described in varying degress in Quadrant IV space), critics find it anathema that education should serve such pre-determined ends" (pg. 12).
Indoctrination brings its own issues. Implanting ideology is counter-productive in education for personal development, as transformation is the result of holistically training minds to develop analytical skills and insight rather than narrowing focus to content. Jickling and Wals argue that some educators supported by global standards (e.g. UNESCO, IUCN) who rationally propose adopting ESD as "it conforms to the aspirations of many non-educators who set policy agendas and control funding opportunities" (pg. 13). As Agenda 21 has inter-government approval, educators have implented the agenda as support for their own cause to address ESD. From this perspective Jickling and Wals argue the Fundamental Programme Principles of the newly developing University of the Arctic may also be regarded as authoritarian, and thus deterministic. "While 'sustainable development' is a social construct that warrants study, it may not be so important that it should be elevated to the status of privileged doctrine" (pg. 13).
With a view to transformation, deterministic doctrines are inclined to generate resistance to ESD. Therefore allowing personal diversity as a means to sustain and maintain sense-making, identity, and developmental progress, creates naturally occurring overt personal behaviour supportive of ESD. Reflexion is stimulated by a multitude of perspectives. Transmission is more readily accepted as a result of preparation and clear, bi-directional understanding of objectives.
Dobson's research in 1996 revealed more than 300 definitions to the term sustainable development. Jickling and Wals state that after a decade of combining research there are more meanings with more divergence than was previously recognised by transdimensional organisations (e.g. global organisations, non-governmental organisations, national governments) suggesting that it may be neither desireable, nor possible to create one single understanding.
Furthermore, Jickling and Wals state that this perspective can only be realised if goverments and their affiliations provide environmental leadership. In addition, epistemic values that underlie the notion of governments projecting visionary direction generate skepticism that may be the result of prior incompetence and miscommunication.
While it may be easy to denounce transmissive and deterministic goals, much of the literature available is written by people who have themselves been educated in this manner and is viewed as the foundation of experience for those committed to transformation and reformation in pedagogy. Individuals who were challenged by the structure of a system.
Limited freedom - freedom bounded by sustainable development
Quadrants II and III create the space for new meaning and active citizenry. Freedom has a framework that encompasses the language of ESD that some may agree with, yet Jickling and Wals suggest it may be a false freedom.
Very often educators are persuaded to work from these quadrants for pragmatic reasons. Governmental support funds the educational objective, and the sustainable development agenda lacks coherent definition leading to questionable and/or unstable characteristics that may be ignored. It is the characteristics that go ignored that become the most problematic, Jickling and Wals argue, as a false consensus meant for global readership creates divergence and obfuscates contextual differences. When characteristics are revealed, orientation towards ESD may lead to transformative learning specifically through existentialism.
Discourse represents the reflexion and care that bonds segments of society who look for common terminology with which to debate environmental issues compassionately. Different or parallel views causes dissonance which stimulates learning. Jickling and Wals view the dispute as an exercise in observation. Emerging knowledge is not restricted to high socio-economic regions and the potential for anyone to present sound arguments is at hand. Failure to do so may result in Orwellian conditions.
To understand the paradox of sustainable development, it is necessary to know that range of thought must be diminished and this is accomplished by measuring the positive and negative of meanings and creating personal balance adjusted and reflected in overt behaviour (e.g. war=peace). Hence diversity can be viewed as a measure slightly off balance from personal standard. The significance of knowing diversity reveals the substance of personal good and wrong, therefore it may become impossible to counteract what is socially and temporally unacceptable.
The following examples serve to highlight the authors' concerns. In Northern Canada there is ongoing controversy between two groups in the community. One task force protects the ecological balance of natural wildlife, and the other developed to uphold the right to mine to address unemployment and related issues. While the cause for both groups lay in sustainable development for the community, public backing created two different and opposing representations of the meaning.
Similarly, ESKOM, South Africa's electricity supply board seek projections for the future that take account of supply an demand, however Price proposes that organisational focus is on energy production rather than on Earth. Ideology is contradicted and the premise of dominion is subjugated.
Research in developing terminology to cover current awareness of sustainable development has been almost exclusively undertaken by the private sector. Jickling and Wals wonder how influential the economic sector has been in guiding ecological perspective for a sustainable future; and why governments and leaders of industry support sustainable development despite confusion in meaning?
Chomsky, author of Manufacturing Consent, reveals the diversionary tactics (e.g. FIFA World Cup, Wimbledon, Tour de France) governments use to distract the public from issues. With critical public scrutiny averted, government generates breathing space required for analysis and problem solving. It is proposed that sustainable development is a similar diversion.
Research on structuring ESD by Smyth proposed the need for educators to come together to discuss the action that sustains the concept, without the need for labeling, unanimously agreed upon that best captures the commitment and imagination of a potential future for education. Smyth was interested in developing communication skills that represent the depth of maturity conveyed in respectful dissensus between warring factions (e.g. environmental educators vs. advocates of ESD).
Scott states that choice within ESD is free of government policy so that educators and educating bodies have the freedom to structure their work within the framework of their own conceptions, trials and successes. It is not an option to do nothing he states, and shows concern for schools who ignore ESD. His top four responsibilities undertaken by educators are:
- To facilitate learner development in order to make sustainable development have personal meaning;
- To understand that diversity at microcosmic dysfunction is also felt at macro level;
- To sustain interest and demonstrate effective learning principles through bi-directional communication; and
- To encourage learners to maintain situation awareness, individually and socially, and to keep options open.
Enabling thought and action: beyond sustainable development
Quadrant IV projects a future based on active citizenry and suggests possibilities that extend beyond sustainable development which should be seen as part of human evolutionary processes. Concepts that form part of current discourse are all stepping stones for guiding future direction.
Smyths' interest in language reveals the need to incorporate a sense of inclusivity when communicating, and for environmental learning to accept sustainability so that we can acknowledge it as a social construct and not as the objective or end-play for education.
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