Facilitating democratic processes for sustainability: the possibilities and limitations of teaching guides for climate change education

Abstract

The UNESCO-led Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) stresses the importance of building teachers’ capacity for an ESD transforming how people think and act. From the perspective of the pluralistic tradition, this creates challenges related to this tradition’s notion that educators should facilitate open-ended democratic education processes. This study examines these challenges through a critical policy analysis drawing on the ‘what’s the problem represented to be? approach. It departs from democratic theories’ emphasis on cultivating both social unity and disunity as well as from their diverse problematizations of this tension. It shows how different problematizations create particular possibilities and limitations to solve the challenges. This is demonstrated through an analysis of teaching guides, linked to the GAP, on how democratic processes can be facilitated in climate change education. The study also provides a discussion of how the limitations can be approached and the guides improved.