Selby, D. (2006). The Firm and Shaky Ground of Education for Sustainable Development.

Selby, D. (2006).  The Firm and Shaky Ground of Education for Sustainable Development.  Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 30(2), pp. 351 - 365.  Retrieved on September 18, 2010 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03098260600717471

Narrative

"There was a large clearing in the forest, a large open area from which many footpaths led off in many directions.  The people were disputatious.  Some argued the merits of taking one footpath, some the merits of taking another, and yet others the merits of taking a third.  They milled around in a confused and contentious mood.  Then they discovered what looked like a broad, firm and easy path that all might take, where all kinds of folk could walk together shoulder to shoulder.  Many hurried towards it, relieved that their arguments could be brought to an end.  In a sigh of collective relief, few were disposed to enquire whether the path was really heading in the right direction and whether the undemanding way it seemed to offer might discourage the further seeking and exploration of alternative pathways.  Even fewer bothered to ask whether going down the path would really be good for the forest and its inhabitants" (pg. 2).

The Firm Ground

Selby states that the strategy and planning done for tomorrow (i.e. future generations) is based on projections of today.  Sustainable development achieved priority status at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992.  Under key principles one, three and four of Agenda 21: Programme of Action for Sustainable Development, humans are at the center of concern but ecological development must be allowed to ensure sustainable progress.  Both nonformal and formal learning integrate through culture to stabilise local environmental issues.  Reaffirmations were made at the World Summit in Johannesburg, 2004 where a proposal for a Decade for Sustainable Development (DESD) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at their 57th Session held three months later.  The DESD began in March, 2005 with key guiding values for ESD:

1. respect for the dignity and human rights of all people throughout the world and a commitment to social and economic justice for all;
2. respect for the human rights of future generations and a commitment to intergenerational responsibility;
3. respect and care for the greater community of life in all its diversity, which involves the protection and restoration of the Earth's ecosystems; and
4. respect for cultural diversity and commitment to build locally and globally a culture of tolerance, non-violence and peace.

Within the United Kingdom, DfES was launched in 2003 and by 2005 the HEFCE had developed and published a draft proposal to support a framework for strategy and action across curricula, teaching, learning, and estate management in higher education.

Selby asks how ESD became so popular, so quickly.  As a global development it has provided some structure though critics suggest it is wallpaper.  Selby proposes that within the given circumstance, the amorphous concept allows for innovation that leads to constructive action - a theme "vague and diffuse enough to enable everyone to invest in it with their own meanings" (pg. 4).  He uses metaphorical terminology, such as 'the North' and 'the South', to categorise the division between environmental lobbyists and ecological developers.  Since global decolonisation, development has been in the name of social justice, and in the political correctness of concessions.  Establishing a system for developmental discourse has imbued progress with Western values, further alienating the reality of global consumption from ideology.  Representatives of both Northern and Southern culture collaborated to jointly form a framework that encompassed developmental goals based on the hegemony of Northern culture.  A parallel forum, the Rio International NGO Forum, produced guiding principles based on holistic environmental management for the development of communities:

1. Principle 1: environmental education is not neutral but is value-based.  It is an act of social transformation;
2. Principle 9: environmental education must recover, reflect and use indigenous history and local cultures; and
3. Principle 16: education must develop an ethical awareness of all forms of life with which humans share this planet, respect all life cycles and impose limits on humans' exploitation of other forms of life.

Long standing suspicion of others' efforts at ESD are drawn from distrust that the end objective has not been analysed.  Integrating economic improvements with environmental protection and justice has resulted in a range of socially active interest groups from North and South willing to negotiate differences through collaboration.  Selby proposes that ESD supporters have the potential to form a confederation amongst educators to discuss development; human rights issues; human welfare; and, the environment.

With the advent of ESD, environmental education has moved from its original domain within the sciences.  As such, teachers have more opportunity to include various lenses (e.g. political, economic, and social) as a point of entry into ESD.  Selby firmly states that ESD is founded upon solid ground that has captured and sustained interest globally, bringing diverse focus-specific interest groups together.

Narrative

"So, many forsook the narrow paths and took to the broad path.  But is the path proving as firm as was hoped?  Is it realising its potential as a way forward?  Is it benefiting the forest and the trees?

Lingering in the forest clearing are folk who have concerns about the broad path.  Their concerns vary.  Some know what 'development' without the qualifier 'sustainable' has meant, and continues to mean, and worry if 'sustainable development' will really be very much different.  Some - environmentalists and ecologists in particular - worry that they have taken a broad path without the interpretation abilities and markers required to make sense of the path.  Others worry whether the song of sustainable development can really capture the song of the Earth; whether it has been worth losing the turns, complexities and irregularities of the many paths they used to tread.  Yet others worry whether the idea of 'sustainable literacy', much vaunted by ESD advocates, is a sufficient and appropriate educational response in the light of the global environmental crisis and global crisis in the human condition" (pg. 5).

The Shaky Ground

Sustainable Development as Oxymoron

Despite numerous attempts to define sustainable development, the concept remains open to interpretation and perspective.  Dobson argues that sustainable development has been framed by economists who categorically state that sustainable development is about the conservation of development, and not the preservation of nature.  It is proposed that this view is not one that requires a material reduction of living standards, nor does it appear to abate economic progress.  The approach uses resource management to curtail intense use, or seeks new measures to increase natural capital.

While environmental and ecological activists bemoan diminishing resources, economists are actively supportive of implementing alternative greening measures.  Critics argue that ecological sustainability is not only about measurements, but about "beauty, awe, enchantment, reverence and sense of wonder" (pg. 6).  Selby refers to Jickling who states that there are some things that are to be considered in spite of measurements (e.g. not an exact science).  The difference between economists and ecologists is that economists have envisioned a positive and sustainable future which allows them to adapt and design for tomorrow, while ecologists and ESD teachers are debating who should lead.  Worster wrote in 1995 "I fear that in partnership it will be 'development' that makes most of the decisions, and 'sustainable' will come trotting along, smiling and genial, unable to assert any firm leadership, complaining only about the pace of travel" (pg. 7).  Selby states that rendering cultural, spiritual or personal development as reasons to challenge this discourse would be marginalised.

He instead suggests that we view sustainable development as sustainable growth to further clarify this discourse.  Selby discusses the concept as sustained growth within a limited time frame, with general consensus in identifying location.

The fears felt by some eco-theorists and environmental educators are value judgments based on the perceptions of a Western culture heavily dependent on materialism and obsession.  Rigby suggests that 'development' does not mean the automatic acceptance of these attributes and makes the distinction between weak and strong memes.

Alternative terminology is appearing - 'education for the development of responsible societies', 'education for sustainability' and 'education for sustainable futures' have been adopted in favour of sustainable development.  Whatever it's called, Sterling indicates that the focus should remain on whole systems thinking rather than in mechanistic, managerial or transmissive practice.

Sustainable Development as Denial of Intrinsic Value

Selby proposes that much of the controversy surrounding environmental ethics concerns the reasons for wanting to save nature.  Potentially, it may have more to do with identifying cures for human malaise rather than the intrinsic value nature presents.  He reminds us of Principle 1, and argues that worldview is primarily ego- and technocentric.  Selby proposes that the perpetuated view is of nature as a resource (i.e. a.k.a. natural capital or ecosystem services).

The concept of sustainable development therefore, can be interpreted as the ability and capacity of humanity to manage the future of the planet.  Even as educators accept Gaia, an autonomous self-regulating conscious entity, they are equally attracted to human endeavour.

Education for Sustainable Development as Lacking in Thematic and Epistemological Breadth

ESD has often been presented as a complete and holistic experience, when in reality the domain is still in formulation.  Most arguments stem from the fact that there are educators who don't believe that education should have a determined outcome, and who instead suggest a range of possibilities be made available for student evaluation and subsequent choice be the determining manifestation of action.  It is possible that there is a lack of concrete definitions due to potential "instant fossilisation" of key understandings (i.e. ideology trapped under microscopic inspection).  Selby indicates that it is a source of concern that so many government policies are initiated based on a report archived more than nineteen years ago, to address current issues.  The HEFCE support the document stating that a high level document such as the Bruntland had produced a concise and flexible model with multiple points of entry that would only warrant further discussion at some later date.

A training perspective suggests there is a predetermined and achievable goal to education, especially valid as economic and technical progress is in the process of transformation based on sustainable development.  Meanwhile, Selby ponders academia's choices - if sustainable development concerns the issues that challenge the very nature of human existence, then ESD may seem a reasonable and justifiable response.  Education has always been linked to desirable outcomes (e.g. linking HIV and venereal disease with unprotected sex).  Structuring a framework that is flexible enough to withstand challenges and individual determinism achieves the objective of academic goals and alleviates some of the pressure felt by educators who don't know where to begin.  A list of philosophies derived from public voice on sustainability offers popular challenges to students who lead ethically sustainable lives.  Included are:

• animal liberation philosophies, which claim that animals have rights, and offer a philosophical basis for the claim;
• bioregionalist philosophies, which call for humans to live simply and convivially within the place they have inhabited since birth or, if they have moved, reinhabited, i.e. through conscious processes have become native to;
• deep ecology, which calls upon us to think deeply about the human-nature relationship and to renounce the anthropocentrism of much of our thought and behaviours in favour of biospherical egalitarianism;
• ecofeminist philosophies, which, running counter to the thinking of many deep ecologists, identify the problem as patriarchy rather than anthropocentrism, and argue that oppression and exploitation of women, minorities, peripheral groups and nature are mutually reinforcing as well as intersecting in their dynamics;
• environmental justice theories, which identify environmental problems as social justice problems whenever class, race/ethnicity and gender are significant factors in determining who experiences the effects of, and who controls the causes of, environmental degradation; and
• social ecology theories, which argue that environmental degradation is the outcome of inequalities and injustices within human society and that, if the latter are properly addressed, environmental degradation will go into reverse.

It is proposed that by placing these philosophies under sustainable development, nature's value increases.  Systematic degradation leads to a moral paradox, infusing the situation with delusional attributes that has negative impact on sense-making for students.  "We stunt the potential of the broader fields of environmental ethics and philosophy by an over-concentration on sustainable development and sustainability that, by definition, do not in and of themselves lead us to consider what we may need or want to know about beauty, culture, the spiritual and life purposes" (pg. 11).

It does not take much to understand the emphasis on sustainable literacy as:

• an holistic understanding of the need for transformation, individually and collectively;
• having comprehensive knowledge and skills to activate situation monitoring to engage in behaviour commensurate with sustainable development;
• the wisdom to recognise and reward decisions and actions that favour appropriate measures for sustainable development.

Selby indicates that the issues raised in these definitions relates to the need to have closure in understanding the objective goals of ESD.  The term 'literacy' is arbitrary and obscure, as historically it has meant the ability to read and write.  Is it widely accepted to acknowledge literacy as a multimedia, semiotic experience?  Is 'text' a metaphor for the environment/culture/society?  Selby notes that the definitions listed previously refrain from active engagement with environment/culture/society, observing tongue-in-cheek that neither is there instruction on identifying and reading the meaning of trees, biophysical phenomena or ecosystems.

Selby links 'literate' with 'literal' and wonders about the emotional attachment the term 'sustainable literacy' engenders, and how it may differ from the attachment we have to the words 'awe', or 'wonder', or 'beauty' that are typically associated with nature.  Selby takes comfort in Jane Austen, declaring "definitions and conceptions are too much about sense and not enough about sensibility" (pg. 12).  When we adjust our perspective of environmental sensibility to fit our aspirations for sustainability, additive dimensions increase holistic understanding of epistemology.  Initially, these dimensions feel counter-cultural as they were long abandoned by modern practice.

Education for Sustainable Development as Falling Short of its Promised Scope

Selby feels that within ESD, several aspects relating to learning have been under represented.  Furthermore, discourse on peace and social justice is inflammatory to current advocates of ESD.  The voices of indigenous peoples extol the virtues of sustainable living, but are unheard in Northern discourse.  The South, proponents of non-accumulative sustainable living, are similarly disregarded.  Selby proposes the examination and validation of alternative methods of knowing.

Discourse on:

1. probable futures - futures that are likely to pass;
2. possible futures - visions of the future that are inclusive of countercultural infringement; and
3. preferred futures - based on given ontological belief

has not drawn from existing models of future representation that enable students to reflect on their own version of a possible and sustainable future.

Sustainable Development as inheriting an Outdated 'Orderliness' Conception of Ecosystem

Early scientists developed a structure for understanding the comprehensive meaning of ecosystems that make sense of a 300 year old mechanistic worldview.  From this perspective and holistic understanding of the nature nurture debate, humanity can realise its own potential to guide an integrated pedagogy of economics and social progress in balance with the harmony of nature.

Equilibrium and disequilibrium, caused by fluctuations in weather conditions (e.g. tsunami), is nature's gentle reminder and regulation of the balance.  Selby proposes that investigation into 'education for ephemerality', 'education for elusiveness' and 'education for ineffability' is warranted.  Ethics that promote the intangible quality and pureness of feeling that is associated with belonging and tenderness.  Transformation is the enactment of integrated processes and goals to relinquish control in the face of transience and maintain focus.  To captivate the hearts and minds of poets in the aftermath of the industrial revolution, sustainable development requires the unification of spirituality and the sciences.  Holistic knowledge comes from utter acceptance of the absolute, the lived experience.  It is the very transience of nature that inspires awe and appreciation for beauty.

Narrative

So some stayed in the clearing bemused and troubled.  Were their worries big enough and deep enough to avoid the broad path?  Should they look for an alternative path that would be more congruent with what they valued?  Or, should they be pragmatic, join the throng on the wide path, and seek every opportunity to make gains even against the give and camber of the path?

Some wrestled and wrestled in their minds with what to do.  But the application of reason was not enough.  Others smelt flowers, watched the busy-ness of insects, the silk of a butterfly's wing (the flap of which could touch off a weather cataclysm thousands of miles away) and touched the smooth bark of beech and the rough bark of oaks.  Feeling the flow of life through themselves and what they witnessed, they declared that the key was to embrace a fundamental change in our attitude to nature based not on what we can extract from her but on what we can learn from her.  Her lessons of cycles, flows, networks, partnerships, diversity and, yes, unpredictability, uncertainty and turbulence can and should infuse both the curriculum and process of our learning and teaching, as well as the way our learning institutions work.  As long as we are sure that our way is deeply informed by the dynamics and processes of nature, we can walk the firm and shaky ground of any path.


Choose Not To Fall