ABSTRACT
The central premise of this chapter is to offer a conceptual framework for making sense of the sustainability agenda in an educational environment from multiple perspectives. The focus is on the complex interface between the global ecological crisis and economic growth. Ethical considerations are argued to be necessary in examining the contradictions and risks associated with polarized definitions of problems and with globally entertained solutions. The proposed framework encourages the questioning of epistemic assumptions on the basis of which certain knowledge and truth claims tend to dominate contemporary debate. Its pragmatic use rests on an experiment with a participatory pedagogic approach that respects and acknowledges students’ and lecturers’ differences in values, and cultural and disciplinary backgrounds. In the spirit of the UN PRME, it is assumed that through their collective experience of participative pedagogy and 46awareness of the ‘4Es’ – Ethics, Economy, Ecology and Epistemology – facilitated by the framework, the participants can co-create a responsible community of learners and knowers, ready to influence the way society is developing.
