The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are viewed in the context of Johan Rockström's work on planetary boundaries at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. This work sets a double challenge to educational policy and practice: to embrace and help achieve the Goals, but also to work towards a deeper change in consciousness which can reconcile people…

The escalating planetary crises of human-induced climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and declining biodiversity call for urgent actions to be taken at all levels of society and by the global community. The current political strategy for a sustainable future that emphasizes economic and technological progress is insufficient to…

This article is based upon a longer concept paper commissioned by UNESCO in preparation for the World Conference on ESD, and entitled "Winning the Future We Want--the pivotal role of education and learning". Neither this article nor the original paper necessarily represents UNESCO'S views. The brief for this paper was to make a…

Mainstream westernised educational policy and practice continue to be firmly rooted in ontological and epistemological traditions that reflect what Gregory Bateson referred to as the illusion of our separation from the living world. In response, there has been a flourishing of innovation at the levels of educational philosophy, curriculum, and…

Purpose: This paper aims to present an overview of the design and implementation of a curriculum review undertaken at Plymouth University, UK, to gauge the incidence and status of sustainability in degree programmes across the curriculum. The paper outlines the methodological approach taken, reviews findings and summarises the effects and…

This chapter presents an overview of transformative learning theory while illuminating its connections to education for sustainability.

This explorative paper works across discourses to suggest the possibility and potential of an integrative paradigm for sustainability education that reconciles instrumental and intrinsic educational traditions, informed and infused by resilience theory and social learning. It argues that such an integrative view is required in the context of the…

The importance of recognising the mismatch between a shared perception of separateness in Western thinking and the systemic and inevitably participative nature of the world is outlined. The article then traces the development of forms of "education for change" that seek to address sustainability issues that stem from dissociation, and notes that…

This paper explores the impact of short immersive residentials at a radical institution for staff currently working in a mainstream one; in this instance, at Schumacher College for those at the nearby University of Plymouth (UK). Schumacher is an independent, alternative college offering residential courses in "transformative learning for…

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate students' energy literacy at a UK university, and recommends ways in which it can be enhanced using a behaviour change model. Developing students' energy literacy is a key part of the "greening" agenda, yet little is known about how students develop their ideas about energy use and energy saving at…

This paper provides a commentary on education for sustainable development (ESD) within higher education (HE) in England, set against the wider international and European background. The recent history of attempts to clarify ESD and its implications for higher education institutions is outlined, and some of the tensions between a developing agenda…

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) is a UK-wide organisation that works with higher education institutions and 24 discipline-based Subject Centres to improve the student learning experience. This paper outlines the work of one of its initiatives, the HEA ESD Project. While a small part of the Academy's overall work, the Project is attracting…

Recent work in science and technological studies has provided a clearer understanding of the way in which science functions in society and the interconnectedness among different strands of science, policy, economy and environment. It is well acknowledged that a different way of thinking is required in order to address problems facing the global…