ABSTRACT
It is becoming increasingly clear that it is unrealistic to expect policy makers and politicians to solve the problems that face society in today’s troubled times. To some extent, then, ‘we’ are all in this together. One of the implications of this state of affairs is that, as the DEA report quoted above goes on to suggest, ‘Moving towards greater environmental sustainability requires people to rethink a variety of behaviours including around transport, energy use, purchasing and waste ’ (p. 4). This shift in behaviour applies equally well at school as it does at home. Given that scientifi c knowledge underpins understanding of issues such as transport, energy use, waste and climate change, now might be a good time to take a close look at what science departments might consider as their role in encouraging behaviour change directly or indirectly. This contribution to the special issue focuses specifi cally on education for sustainable development (ESD), a term that may well become more familiar to science departments in the next few years. We consider whether it is ESD or environmental education that school science departments may feel most comfortable focusing their efforts on promoting.
