Education and sustainability issues: An analysis of publics-in-the-making

Abstract

The dominant discourse on education for sustainable development (ESD) approaches education as an instrument to foster the values and principles of sustainable development, to promote corresponding behavioural changes and to qualify people for the role of active participants that contribute to the democratic realisation of sustainable development. This reflects what Biesta calls a 'socialisation conception of civic learning', assuming an instrumental relationship between education, citizenship and democracy. Yet, reducing civic learning to the socialisation of everyone into the same standard fails to acknowledge citizenship as an essentially contested concept and tends to exclude marginalised voices and alternative arguments and points of view. This is particularly problematic in the context of sustainability issues that are pre-eminently open to uncertainty and contestation and characterised by strongly intertwined, often irreconcilable values, interests and knowledge claims. In this chapter, we present a different perspective on ESD, one that enables to understand how educational processes can move beyond a socialisation perspective and at the same time face the ambiguous relation between democracy and sustainable development. This demands educational practices that approach sustainability issues as 'public issues', as matters of public concern. We present an analysis of two cases as an attempt to further understand how educational practices can address sustainability issues as public issues. We use an analytical framework inspired by Bruno Latour, actor-network theory and the policy arrangements approach.