ABSTRACT

This chapter provides an in-depth examination of “sustainable development” focusing on its historical discourse, components, competing theories and practices. It begins by exploring historical antecedent events that led to the emergence of perspectives surrounding the development-environment question. The components of sustainable development and its concomitant themes are next examined to highlight its multi-faceted and complex nature, encompassing a full spectrum of socio-economic-environmental issues. Lastly, three paradigms of sustainable development – free-market environmentalism, policy-reformist sustainable development and critical structural approach – and the corresponding debates and polemics are critically examined. Hence, by providing an essential background to sustainable development as a concept and developmental trajectory, subsequent reviews about sustainable development’s implications on pedagogical imperatives can be better understood. The United Nations declared a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) in December 2012, aiming to promote a more sustainable world through different forms of education, training and public awareness activities. It is therefore essential to address the conceptual foundations of sustainable development amongst higher education institutions