Education for a Sustainable Future: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies
Abstract
The global “education for sustainable development” (ESD) campaign is premised on the idea that a sustainable future may be attained if people are adequately educated. But this premise ignores a widespread modern perception: that the future, particularly in relation to environmental challenges, is unshapable and predetermined. ESD implicitly assumes people think the future can be actively changed, but does not question the hegemonic cultural story of futility and determinism. This study advocates for a critical engagement of ESD with existing educational frameworks and societal future-making processes. Without such involvement, ESD risks reinforcing the unsustainable status quo it aspires to transcend. The central argument is that education must be thought of as more than training: understood, first and foremost, as subjectification – the process by which individuals become autonomous subjects capable of critical reflection and democratic participation - education can lead to open and alternative futures. This article addresses implications of this thinking (and the related idea of an open future) for education in the context of sustainability. The express intention is to raise interdisciplinary awareness that education is essentially more than instrumental qualification.