Policies and practices of schools in educational priority territories: What sustainability?

Abstract

The idea of sustainable development is not new but gained more and more visibility through the second part of the 20th Century, mainly due to the impact of both the economy and the welfare State crises. As the Brundtland report elaborated by the UN World Commission in 1987 recommends, this innovative concept should be a matter of all nations concern and commitment. Indeed, since the beginning of the XXI century, the concept of education for sustainable development (ESD) became a worldwide priority (ONU, 2002; Unesco, 2003; Bona, 2009) while reinforcing education as the key to development, as well as to the transformation of societies.