ABSTRACT
Sustainable development education (SDE) involves three basic issues. The first concerns the definition of sustainable development (SD). Its simplest and most well-known meaning was given in 1987 in Our Common Future (or the Brunt-land Report): ‘[Sustainable development is] development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED, 1987). The second issue concerns the definition of SDE. A broad but flexible definition is that ‘sustainable development education integrates the learning agenda with that of securing a sustainable future’ (Parkin and Howard, 2002). The third issue concerns the rationale for SDE. Probably the most widely known and accepted rationale is given in Chapter 36 of Agenda 21, the 40-chapter agreement reached at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, also known as the Earth Summit:
Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address environment and development issues. While basic education provides the underpinning of any environmental and development education, the latter needs to be incorporated as an essential part of learning. Both formal and non-formal education are indispensable to changing people's attitudes so that they have the capacity to assess and address their sustainable development concerns. It is also critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent with sustainable development and for effective public participation in decision-making. (cited in Blewitt, 2002, p3)
