The United Nations has declared a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development from 2005 to 2015. The American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Board of Directors recently passed a resolution to support education for sustainable development in its member institutions and affiliated councils. However, there are significant questions in…

This contribution analyses the development of educational efforts to engage with ideas about the position of humans within the environment. It seeks answers to the question: in which ways and intensity can educational work in schools match different stages of general societal discussions on environmental problems? It is often said that school and…

This article outlines a critical position in relation to education for sustainable development referring to a socio-ecological approach to environmental education. This approach was developed in a cooperative research process with pre-academic secondary schools over several years in Switzerland. For 13 years our research group has been the one in…

This essay argues for sustainability--a course of action and a mindset that meets the needs of the present while being conscious of, and not compromising the needs of, the future--as a robust focus teaching first-year composition. The essay describes a course designed to respond to calls by composition scholars to reimagine pedagogical designs for…

This paper begins with a letter of thanks from future generations for the wisdom our generation has shown in initiating a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. It describes the overall goals of the Decade and focuses on the Action Plan being developed by UNESCO to guide its contributions as the international lead agency for the Decade.…

This article charts the history of environmental education over four decades--from the 1960s to 2006--as a rocky road of determined chocolate with the possibilities of rocks (nuts) and easy passage (marshmallow). There were distractions such as suggestions of changing names and new directions (add fruit?) along the way but the road has continued…

Three South American countries, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, have been selected in order to study the impact of the document "The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development". In these countries, whose people react energetically against any attempt to break the environmental balance, the synergic power of education is…

Discourse in the "Australian Journal of Environmental Education" of the last ten years has not addressed a pedagogy that draws on and reflects the natural history of the continent. Australia is an ecological and species diverse country that has experienced substantial environmental change as a consequence of European settlement.…

Purpose: The main focus of this paper is to discuss appropriate forms of higher education for building up students' competence for working on complex real-world problems. Design/methodology/approach: Within this paper the Harvard approach is accurately compared with the ETH approach by discussing theoretical and practical implications as well.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between sustainability education and outdoor education and to encourage outdoor recreation educators to evaluate their programs with regard to sustainability and sustainable living. Design/methodology/approach: This paper starts by presenting several factors that currently hinder the…

Purpose--To provide an overview of how environmental management systems (EMSs) are becoming sporadically employed within higher educational institutions. Design/methodology/approach--An overview of international developments in sustainable education and within UK universities. Focuses specifically on the University of Glamorgan, Wales.…

Purpose--In 1997, the University of British Columbia (UBC) adopted a sustainable development policy stating that the campus should adhere to sustainable practices in all of its actions and mandates and that all students who attend UBC will be educated about sustainability. The purpose of the paper is to consider how far UBC has moved in the last…

Geography is defined as "a transition point between natural temporality and human temporality" (Maragliano, 1998). Presented like this, geography seems, at least at first sight, to assume an inexorable function as a linking discipline between nature and society. Unfortunately this pivotal role is not realised, given that geography is…

This article explores issues related to the choice of goals and approaches for advancing sustainability in higher education through research. The paper argues that diverse nature of the questions, issues and problems facing advocates of sustainability in higher education requires a willingness to adopt an eclectic approach to the choice of…

In the beginning of the 21st century, the advancement of science and technology, and communications in particular, made possible for one to know how human activities affect ecosystems and the biosphere. Knowing the increasingly larger scale and volume of the planet occupied by the human species, it would be absolutely reckless on one's part not to…