The escalating planetary crises of human-induced climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and declining biodiversity call for urgent actions to be taken at all levels of society and by the global community. The current political strategy for a sustainable future that emphasizes economic and technological progress is insufficient to…

This chapter presents an overview of transformative learning theory while illuminating its connections to education for sustainability.

Mainstream westernised educational policy and practice continue to be firmly rooted in ontological and epistemological traditions that reflect what Gregory Bateson referred to as the illusion of our separation from the living world. In response, there has been a flourishing of innovation at the levels of educational philosophy, curriculum, and…

Purpose: This paper aims to present an overview of the design and implementation of a curriculum review undertaken at Plymouth University, UK, to gauge the incidence and status of sustainability in degree programmes across the curriculum. The paper outlines the methodological approach taken, reviews findings and summarises the effects and…

This paper explores the impact of short immersive residentials at a radical institution for staff currently working in a mainstream one; in this instance, at Schumacher College for those at the nearby University of Plymouth (UK). Schumacher is an independent, alternative college offering residential courses in "transformative learning for…

This explorative paper works across discourses to suggest the possibility and potential of an integrative paradigm for sustainability education that reconciles instrumental and intrinsic educational traditions, informed and infused by resilience theory and social learning. It argues that such an integrative view is required in the context of the…

The importance of recognising the mismatch between a shared perception of separateness in Western thinking and the systemic and inevitably participative nature of the world is outlined. The article then traces the development of forms of "education for change" that seek to address sustainability issues that stem from dissociation, and notes that…