ABSTRACT
Our understanding and engagement with education and learning for the environment and sustainability has changed substantially since the 1972 Stockholm Conference. This evolution is tracked throughout this book and mapped at the start of this chapter. What is clear is that the profile and presence of learning and education for the environment has been elevated in both policy discourses and communities of practice, albeit slowly. It has become an established ambition in intergovernmental agendas on environment as well as national education policies. Although conceptually, pedagogically, and politically there have been advances, the last five decades has seen a ‘stop and start’ experience for many educators and learners. There have been many distractions; for example greenwashing has diverted much of the core intentions of this agenda, diluting transformative edges. At another level, extending the reach of learning for environment and sustainability has necessarily meant including others with diverse interests and experiences many of whom have limited professional training in education. This has often meant that progress has been diverted as newcomers to the field of learning for environment and sustainability revisit outdated agendas and promote conceptions that have proven to be ineffective in transforming the way we live, work, or engage with planetary concerns. Instead, policymakers, educators, and environmental stakeholders must move forward, continuing to learn from experience and carve new solid pathways for mainstreaming learning opportunities and embedding environmental sustainability into life-long learning. This final chapter focuses on new visions of education underpinned by intergenerational and gender equity; resistance pedagogy; and post-human and hopeful futures. It recognises the increasing influence of new technologies and specifically of Artificial Intelligence and considers the twists and turns that may accompany learning journeys supported by such innovations.
