From Education for Sustainable Development to Education for Environmental Sustainability: Reconnecting the Disconnected SDGs

Abstract

Education and environmental sustainability are issues of great importance. Both are intertwined and cannot be meaningfully discussed in isolation. Nevertheless, it is education that serves the cause towards environmental sustainability. This would suggest that education in itself is incomplete if it fails to firmly integrate environmental sustainability within its agenda. A closer look at the SDGs suggests that the notion of environmental sustainability is not expressly integrated within Goal 4 on education (“Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”). While numerous points elaborate the individual targets, SDG Goal 4 makes no single explicit reference to any concern related to environmental sustainability. This raises a number of important questions. If environmental sustainability is not even embedded within the goal, can education be expected to deliver environmental sustainability outcomes? Do the SDGs, in aiming for “sustainable development”, predominantly refer to economic development, merely sustained over time and space? Are policy makers and development professionals in danger of inadvertently divorcing the inalienable union that education has with environmental sustainability? Is the sustainable development agenda risking diluting the fundamental basis—environmental sustainability—upon which it was originally articulated (Brundtland Report in Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our common future 1987)? These are enquiries the research addresses. This paper is informed by an analysis of expert literature, including a systematic keyword search, and field research conducted in Bangladesh.