ABSTRACT
Over recent years, ever since the Brundtland Commission Report in 1987, ‘sustainable development’ has been a key concept in debates on the environment. It has become pivotal in orientating our understanding of what the issues are and of what needs to be done. Not surprisingly, it has also become a strong motive in guiding thinking in the area of environmental education and, for example, is now established as an element of the National Curriculum 2000 for England and Wales. However, it is also apparent that ‘sustainable development’ is a highly problematic term, open to a variety of interpretations and arguably also subject to internal contradictions. These clearly need to be addressed if the concept is to serve a constructive function in our understanding of environmental policy and, equally, such clarification is necessary to examining the possibility of education for sustainable development.
