International environmental agreements are a primary mechanism of global environmental governance. Increasingly, international environmental agreements recognise the importance of public participation through education. Yet, despite the prominence of international environmental agreements on the international agenda, and the stated commitment to public participation through education, effective public involvement remains an elusive goal. The research informing this article suggests that the "problem" of public participation through education is not simply an issue of procedural exclusion from the policy process. Instead, it argues that procedural exclusion is one outcome of deeply held assumptions and beliefs about knowledge, education and the public that operate within the discourse of international environmental agreements. It is the identification of such assumptions, and a critical analysis of the discourse they support, that forms the focus of this article.