Justifying compulsory education for sustainability

Abstract

Though many acknowledge the need for climate action, and though many see the opportunities education offers to impact the development of citizens, only few are in favour of compulsory education for sustainability. This thesis argues in favour of the permissibility and even benefits of enforcing education for sustainability on all state funded schools. First the seriousness, urgency and complexity of the climate change problem is addressed. Individual’s current inertia when it comes to engaging in a sustainable life style calls for education to engage the affective system of their students, and to orient them towards more sustainable values. This means that the current mainstream approach of education about sustainability, where students are merely informed about (their influence on) climate change, should be replaced by education for sustainability, aiming at actively forming students to collectively embrace a sustainable life style. Second, it is argued that promoting sustainability, even when this conflicts with students’ aspirations, can be considered a responsibility of schools. But given education for sustainability’s transformative ambitions, and the vague or questionable nature of the concept of sustainability, many still oppose compulsory education for sustainability. To answer to these worries, third, the concept of sustainability is redefined and clarified, aiming to formulate an understanding that no one could reasonably reject. Here I argue that sustainability should be understood in a way both sufficiently open and inclusive not to promote questionable views, as well as adequately clear and purposeful in order to be able to guide educational practice. When founding education for sustainability of this conception, no specific (controversial) conception of sustainability is imposed on children, and children are still able to critically examine their take on sustainability—but it also offers a framework in which children could potentially be raised to adequately satisfy the demands of sustainability.