CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
IN INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING
John Huckle
Pupils should acquire basic knowledge and understanding of particular aspects of
society with which citizenship is concerned. One of five aspects listed is
environmental and sustainable development.
Education for Citizenship and the teaching of democracy in schools, QCA, 1998,
para. 6.8.4
Our education service has an essential role to play in sustainable development, not
only in operating in an environmentally sustainable way, but also by teaching about
it. This ties in with another of our roles; to teach people to think about and appreciate
their role as world citizens.
Charles Clarke, Secretary of State for Education, The Teacher, Jan/Feb 2004, p. 20
In 2003 the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) published an action plan for
education for sustainable development (ESD). In promoting this plan the Secretary of
State emphasised the links between ESD and education for global citizenship. This
article explores these links in the context of the ITT citizenship education curriculum
and begins by setting the action plan in the context of recent history and the
reconfiguration of political power.
Unsustainable development in a changing world order
The years after 1945 saw an increase in the extent and intensity of environmental
problems and their spread across national borders. Resource intensive economic
growth was associated with waste, pollution, and the loss of wildlife habitats and
biodiversity. Industrialisation spread to much of the world and human population and
consumption increased. There were advances in environmental science and risk
assessment, and new environmental movements organised transnationally to
campaign on joint concerns. New international institutions, regimes and conventions
were established to tackle environmental problems but they generally lacked the
political power, domestic support, and international authority to do more than
ameliorate the worst symptoms (Held et al, 2000, Huckle & Martin, 2001).
In the same period continuing poverty or underdevelopment was a related problem in
many parts of the world, prompting similar political responses. While the
consumption of the rich impacted upon the environment, many of the poor had to
degrade their environment simply to stay alive. Prevailing patterns of development
and underdevelopment threatened the ecological foundations of human societies and
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were therefore unsustainable in the longer term. In 2001 the Secretary General of the
UN described sustainable development as the biggest challenge of the new century.
In the closing decades of the 20C commentators increasingly linked
underdevelopment and environmental degradation to the workings of the global
system: networks of economic, political and cultural power that shape flows of
energy, materials and information across national borders. While interregional and
global competition shaped the fortunes of states, peoples and environments, in
changing global divisions of labour, trans-border problems increasingly challenged
the powers of national governments. An expansion of governance at regional and
global levels sought to tackle such problems and there was more debate about
globalisation, the world order it was creating, and the interests it served. Much of the
debate focussed on effective regulation of the global system, associated models of
global democracy and citizenship, and the ways in which these might ensure more
sustainable forms of development (Held & McGrew, 2002).
Not all environment and development issues are global in the sense that their causes
and/or effects spread across national borders. Many local manifestations of such
issues (for example of global warming, access to fresh water, deforestation, HIV Aids,
refugees, women’s rights) are however shaped by structures and processes beyond the
control of nation states. The political community of fate can no longer be
meaningfully located solely within the boundaries of a single state. National fortunes
are intermeshed, and forms of political organisation now involve a complex
deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation of political authority. The roles and
functions of nation states continue to be rearticulated, reconstituted, and re-embedded
within regional and global networks and systems of power. The power of states does
not necessarily decline, but their sovereignty and legitimacy is challenged for they
must now exercise that power within the expanding jurisdiction of institutions of
regional and international governance, and cannot deliver fundamental goods and
services to their citizens without international co-operation. Thus European and
international agreements on sustainable development were influential in prompting
the DfES to draw up an action plan for ESD.
The shift from government to global governance, from the modern state to a multilayered system of power and authority, brings an expanded capacity and scope for
political activity and the exercise of political authority. Globalisation is not beyond
regulation and control yet apart from a global elite, and supporters of some social
movements, there is little evidence of a widespread pluralisation of political identities.
Held and McGrew remark that:
the central paradox is that governance is becoming increasingly a multilevel,
intricately institutionalised and spatially diverse activity, while representation, loyalty
and identity remain stubbornly rooted in traditional ethnic, regional and national
communities. P. 121
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There is however a sense of global identification amongst many young people
growing up in an increasingly global youth culture, with some older school students
identifying with social movements seeking a more just and democratic world order.
An ESD that develops global citizenship can answer pupils’ needs to make sense of
their world and form plural political identities that acknowledge their membership of
nested political communities from the local to the global.
Elements of citizenship education for sustainable development in ITT
After a reminder of relevant statutory and non-statutory curriculum guidance that
links citizenship education with education for sustainable development (ESD), this
article now explores key elements of the ITT citizenship education curriculum. It
recommends that all beginning teachers (BTs) of citizenship should be aware of the
background to current policies designed to promote sustainable development and
ESD; consider sustainability as a frame of mind; explore the ethics and politics of
sustainable development; understand evolving theories of environmental and
ecological citizenship; engage with community initiatives to realise sustainability;
develop relevant skills in curriculum planning and pedagogy; and learn of the wide
range of resources and services available to support citizenship education for
sustainable development (CESD). There is a wealth such resources and services to
assist tutors and hyperlinks in this article provide those who are reading it while
online with direct access to the most significant of these.
Curriculum guidance
The QCA ESD website should perhaps be the starting point for the tutor and BTs.
Here they will find definitions of sustainable development and ESD; lists of the key
elements and characteristics of ESD; help with curriculum planning; case studies of
good practice; and professional development activities. ESD has been much
influenced by the Governments’ Sustainable Development Education Panel that met
from 1998 until 2003 and its report on the schools sector (Sterling, 1998). This
suggested seven key concepts (interdependence; citizenship and stewardship; needs
and rights of future generations; diversity; quality of life; sustainable change;
uncertainty and precaution) and outlined progression in the teaching of these across
key stages. They are included on the QCA site along with six other elements of
curriculum content. Citizenship and stewardship (recognising that we have rights and
responsibilities to participate in decision-making and that everyone should have a say
in what happens in the future) points to direct links to citizenship education as do
other elements of suggested content including personal and social development, the
global dimension, range of viewpoints and opinions, and futures.
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The website also shows opportunities for ESD in national curriculum subjects,
DfES/QCA schemes of work, and GSCE, GCE, and VCE examinations. Under
citizenship/PSHE two requirements of the national curriculum are listed:
KS3/Ii
Knowledge and understanding about becoming informed citizens
i) the world as a global community, and the political, economic, environmental and
social implications of this, and the role of the European Union, the Commonwealth
and the United Nations
KS4/1j
j) the wider issues and challenges of global interdependence and responsibility,
including sustainable development and Local Agenda 21
Seven of the units in the DfES/QCA schemes of work for citizenship are highlighted
as having significant ESD content and there are suggestions for enhancing such
content in four other units. BTs might review several of these units as initial
orientation to the scope for ESD within citizenship education.
The other nations within the United Kingdom have their own guidance on ESD
(download Wales; download Scotland (Citizenship); access Northern Ireland
curriculum).
The background: sustainable development and ESD
The term sustainable development first gained widespread attention in the run up to
the UN conference on the environment and development (UNCED), held in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992. It seeks to reconcile economic development with environmental
protection and was thus a means of avoiding the tensions between rich and poor
nations that blighted an earlier UN conference in 1972.
Sustainable development has been defined in many ways. The most familiar
definition remains that given in the Brundtland Commission report, Our Common
Future (WCED, 1987): sustainable development is development that meets the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.
The Sustainable Development Commission offers an alternative definition:
sustainable development provides a framework for redefining progress and
redirecting our economies to enable people to meet their basic needs and improve
their quality of life, while ensuring that the natural systems, resources and diversity
upon which they depend are maintained and enhanced both for their benefit and for
that of future generations (SDC, 2004, p. 37).
Sustainable development takes different forms in different societies and environments
and is the process whereby societies realise that state of dynamic equilibrium between
bio-physical and social systems, termed sustainability (Reid, 1995, Capra, 2003).
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The aim of sustainable development was endorsed by 149 countries, including the
UK, at UNCED in 1992. This conference agreed Agenda 21 (UN, 1993) a global
action plan for sustainable development that required governments to draw up their
own agendas in consultation with business and civil society. The European Union, the
UK Government, the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly and local authorities
such as Nottinghamshire subsequently produced agendas or strategies for sustainable
development. At the Earth Summit 2002 in Johannesburg the emphasis was on the
implementation of such agendas.
Agenda 21 suggests the content, process and tools of sustainable development, and
seeks the active involvement of citizens through consultation, participation and
empowerment. It places particular emphasis on local partnerships and capacity
building and recognises education as a key tool. Chaper 36 on Education, Awareness
and Training states:
Education is critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and
attitudes and behaviour consistent with sustainable development and for effective
public participation in decision-making. Both formal and non-formal education are
indispensable to sustainable development.
The chapter calls on governments, international agencies, business and civil society
groups to make environmental and development education available to people of all
ages and integrate environmental and development concepts into all educational
programmes. As the manager for Chapter 36, UNESCO monitors and coordinates
efforts towards these goals and in re-visioning education it now emphasises the strong
links between ESD and citizenship education.
Since Rio, there has been increasing recognition that a curriculum oriented
towards sustainability would place the notion of citizenship among its primary
objectives. Many existing curricula are being revised along these lines. Efforts
are being made to develop objectives and content themes, and teaching,
learning and assessment processes that emphasize values, ethical motivation
and ability to work with others to help build a sustainable future. Increased
attention is being given to the humanities and social sciences in the curriculum.
From UNESCO web page
The United Nations has designated 2005 – 2014 as the Decade of Education for
Sustainable Development with UNESCO as the lead agency. The Council of Europe
will support the Decade as part of its programme to improve and increase global
education in Europe.
The UK Government’s Strategy for sustainable development, A Better Quality of Life,
was published in 1999. It publishes annual reports on sustainable development and is
currently (Spring 2004) consulting on a revision of the strategy. The title of the
Sustainable Development Commission’s assessment of the Government’s reported
progress sums up its conclusions: Shows promise. But must try harder (SDC, 2004).
The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee was established to monitor
how far the Government was succeeding in its undertaking to put the environment,
and more broadly sustainable development, at the heart of policy and operations. In
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2003 it conducted an inquiry into ESD and published its report Learning the
Sustainability Lesson (download) in July 2003.
The Department for Education and Skills subsequently published an action plan,
Sustainable Development Action Plan for Education and Skills (SDAPES download).
In his foreword, the Secretary of State sets out his vision which includes making sure
that children, young people and adult learners are aware that what they do in their
day to day lives has huge implications for everyone in this country and in the world at
large . . . ensuring that people engaged in learning are given the inspiration to think
about and really appreciate their role as world citizens (SDAPES, pp. 2 –3). The first
objective of the plan is that all learners should develop the skills, knowledge and
value base to be active citizens in creating a more sustainable society.
Paragraph 1.3 of SDAPES is on improving content and engagement with schools. The
Department is exploring whole school approaches to ESD, identifying models of good
practice, and strengthening links with subjects, particularly citizenship,
design/technology, geography, and science.
Sustainability as a frame of mind
While there is no shortage of strategies and policies for sustainable development,
there is no consensus on the nature of such development. Further examination reveals
a lack of agreement on what is to be sustained, at what levels, over what spatial and
temporal scales. Sustainability as policy is fraught with semantic, ethical and
epistemological problems. Advocates disagree on the meaning of the term; the ethics
that should guide relations between human and non-human nature; and the kind of
knowledge that best provides understanding of complex bio-physical and social
systems, their interactions, and foundations for policy. BTs should clearly be aware of
these problems and the ways they are reflected in everyday political debate over such
issues as wind power, sustainable communities, or world trade.
Bonnett (1999, 2002) argues that the root causes of unsustainable development are
prevailing values, and social (economic, political, cultural) arrangements. Modern
beliefs and institutions mean that sustainability as policy is generally so pervaded by
instrumental rationality that it overlooks the above problems; precludes recognition of
the diversity and complexity of meanings and values placed on nature; and fails to
question an attitude of mind that sanctions the continued exploitation and oppression
of human and non-human nature. Rather than viewing sustainability as policy
designed to achieve a certain state of affairs, he suggests that teachers should conceive
of sustainability as a frame of mind that involves respect for human and non-human
nature seeking their own fulfilment through a process of co-evolution. People can
encourage this with appropriate technology (tools, institutions and ideas, including
institutions of governance).
BTs should consider whether ESD should primarily seek to develop such a frame of
mind rather than develop ‘positive’ attitudes and behaviour, realise sustainability
indicators, and deliver ‘relevant’ knowledge as set down in policy documents.
Developing sustainability as a frame of mind, rather than as an aspect of policy,
requires teachers and learners to be open and engaged with the complexity and
meaning of things in the manner of great art or literature; attuned to harmony and
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discord in the world via a heightened sense of attachment; and capable of viewing
nature in ways that are essentially poetic and non-manipulative. It requires BTs of
citizenship to acknowledge the roles not only of science, geography and
design/technology, but also those of the arts and humanities that can encourage
learners to balance the economic or instrumental values that modern society places on
(and extracts from) nature with ecological, aesthetic, scientific, existence and spiritual
values. Along with citizenship education, religious education and PSHE, these
subjects can also explore the virtue of sufficiency over excess and of sustaining things
not in order to have something in hand for the future, but in order to let things be true
to themselves, unalienated from their own essence and development.
Having engaged with this debate, BTs may agree with Bonnett regarding the deeply
subversive nature of ESD focussed on sustainability as a frame of mind:
If we are to enable pupils to address the issues raised by sustainable development
rather than preoccupy them with what are essentially symptoms masquerading as
causes, we must engage them in those kinds of enquiry which reveal the underlying
dominant motives that are in play in society; motives which are inherent in our most
fundamental ways of thinking about ourselves and the world. That such a
metaphysical investigation will be discomforting for many seems unavoidable, but it
promises to be more productive in the long term than proceeding on the basis of easy
assumptions about the goals of sustainable development as though it were a policy
whose chief problems are of implementation rather than meaning.
Bonnett, 2002, p. 19
The ethics of sustainable development
Engaging in metaphysical investigation to question motives and clarify issues of
meaning and value involves consideration of the ethics of sustainable development.
BTs might begin by recognising that the human condition is contradictory in that we
are both part of nature, yet apart from nature. People are part of ecological relations
(members of a biological species, dependent on ecological resources and services to
supply their needs) yet partly independent of such relations as part of social relations
(they have powers of language and technology that enable them to transform their
own nature and that which surrounds them). It follows from our contradictory position
that we experience both the pull of nature, or the desire to live according to nature,
and the pull of culture, or the desire to rise above the harsh realities of nature. In
finding sustainable ways to live we have to balance these two attractions, exercising
care or stewardship towards the rest of nature as we free ourselves from scarcity,
disease and risk and create conditions for the continued co-evolution of nature and
society. Appropriate values have to be translated into appropriate technologies
including appropriate forms of citizenship and global governance.
Texts on environmental politics or sustainable development generally include a
chapter on philosophy and ethics (Connelly & Smith, 1999, Garner, 1996). BTs
should consider the claims of ecocentrism and anthropocentrism, and consider
whether a weak anthropocentrism is the most appropriate ethic to foster the mutual
flourishing of human and non-human nature. It maintains that while humans are the
only source of value, they are not the only bearers of value. An essential part of
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human consciousness is to recognise the value of the ‘other’ and so be capable of
deep respect for things non-human, that are not perceived as serving primarily human
purposes. Sustainable development guided by weak anthropocentrism can balance the
five dimensions of sustainability (ecological, economic, social, cultural and personal)
and the interests of present and future generations alongside those of the rest of
nature, provided it is also guided by democratic values and processes.
The Earth Charter, is the result of ‘a decade long, worldwide cross-cultural
conversation about common goals and shared values’, and part of the unfinished
business of the 1992 Rio summit. The final version, approved in 2000, is essentially a
people’s treaty, shaped by both experts and representatives of civil society. Its ethical
vision recognizes that environmental protection, human rights, equitable human
development and peace are interdependent and indivisible. Its sixteen principles are
grouped into four sections (respect and care for the community of life; ecological
integrity; social and economic justice; and democracy, non-violence and peace) and
provide a new framework for thinking about what constitutes a sustainable
community and sustainable development. The Earth Charter Initiative seeks to
promote the Charter as a sound ethical foundation for the emerging global society and
its goals encourage and support the educational use of the Charter. Principle 14 seeks
to integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and
skills needed for a sustainable way of life.
In considering the moral and social responsibility strand of the citizenship curriculum,
BTs should consider the claims of globalists regarding global citizenship, ethical
discourse and the political good. The statement of values that underpins the national
curriculum refers to the self, relationships, society, and the environment, and in
introducing this curriculum NC Online outlines aims that make reference to
sustainable development. BTs might debate whether the statement and aims provide
them with the authority to instil such values as those found in the Earth Charter, the
World Conservation Strategy Caring for the Earth (Chapter 2, Box 2, p.14) the Rio
Declaration on the Environment and Development, or the United Nations
Development Programme’s document on integrating human rights with sustainable
development.
The politics of sustainable development and the political good
It is when the ethics, principles and dimensions of sustainable development are
translated into political policies and programmes that the underlying semantic, ethical
and epistemological problems become most apparent. Politicians, business leaders,
community activists, non-governmental organisations and others seek to advance
different values, ideas and policies in the name of sustainable development. For many
advocates of economic growth, sustainability as a frame of mind supporting weak
anthropocentrism and democratic values remains contentious and/or unacceptable.
Four websites indicate something of the breath of viewpoints: those of the World
Business Council for Sustainable Development, Redefining Progress, Envolve, and
Greenpeace International.
While risking simplification of the multiple meanings produced when sustainability
finds expression within differing political ideologies and utopias, it is possible to
suggest two contrasting meanings revealed in much political debate. The dominant or
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mainstream meaning of the term is reformist in orientation and seeks to balance
economic growth with considerations of social welfare and environmental protection,
The contesting meaning is radical and seeks to reshape the economy and society in
ways that respect ecological limits and global justice. The two meanings express and
conceal a range of discourses on the environment and development and can be
expanded, as in Figure 1, where they are termed sustainability in the growth mode and
sustainability in the development mode. By highlighting differences the figure acts as
an heuristic devise that can stimulate engagement and prompt learning. It should be
used with caution however since it necessarily simplifies complexity and overlooks
the continuum of political beliefs that link and stretch beyond these positions.
Figure 1
Sustainability in growth and development modes
Sustainability in the growth mode (reformist)
Sustainability in the development mode
(radical)

Does not require a radical restructuring of
capitalist social relations. Human and nonhuman nature are viewed instrumentally and
sustainability is one goal to be realised along
with continued capital accumulation or
economic growth.


Seeks ecological and economic sustainability
with less attention to social, cultural and
personal sustainability. Develops ecological
and manufactured capital at the expense of
human, social and organisational capital. Is
prepared to substitute critical ecological
capital for other forms of capital and so
promotes weak sustainability.
Includes groups that promote global welfare
through institutional reform and
redistribution. Favours representative forms
of democracy over direct democracy.

Includes groups that promote ecological
modernisation (a shift to more
environmentally benign systems of
production and consumption).
Stresses the role of experts (eg. ecologists,
engineers, economists, planners, lawyers)
guided by normal science.
Regards ecological limits as constraining.
Emphasises efficiency.
Values are strongly anthropocentric and
technocentric
Advocates forms of liberal democracy with
passive citizenship.
Allows and promotes the greening of
capitalism.










Stresses the role of local community
development guided by citizens’ science.



Regards ecological limits as enabling
Emphasises sufficiency.
Values are weakly anthropocentric and
ecocentric
Advocates forms of direct and cosmopolitan
or ecological democracy with active
citizenship.
Allows and promotes the greening of
socialism.

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Ensures that social development promotes the
continued progressive evolution of human
and non-human nature. It facilitates the
redistribution of wealth from the rich to the
poor and favours direct democracy as a
means of allowing local communities to
realise their own forms of sustainable
livelihood.
Recognises the value of ecological
modernisation


Based on Huckle & Martin, 2001, p. 235
Implies a radical democratisation of current
social relations. New systems of global
governance, involving cosmopolitan or
ecological democracy, protect the well being
of human and non-human nature while
constraining the global economy within
ecological limits.
Seeks ecological, economic, social, cultural
and personal sustainability by developing
ecological, human, social and organisational,
and manufactured capital using appropriate
technology. Has high regard for critical
ecological capital and promotes strong
sustainability.
The figure suggests a key right/left conflict between those who seek sustainability
through reform of industrialism and the global capitalist system and those who seek
sustainability by moving beyond industrialism and radically democratising the global
system. It reminds us that political debate about sustainability is closely linked to that
about globalisation and the political good. While globalists maintain that globalisation
is a real and profound transformative process at work in the world, sceptics suggest
that their claims are highly exaggerated and distract us from confronting the real
forces shaping societies and political choices (Held & McGrew, 2003). Globalists and
sceptics are to be found on both sides of the sustainability divide (Figure 1) and BTs
might be challenged to relate their diverse discourses (see page 13) to associated
discourses on sustainable development.
While sceptics continue to associate ethical discourse and what is right for citizens
with the cultural, political and institutional roots, traditions and boundaries of a single
political community or nation state, globalists maintain that the political good can
only be disclosed by reflection on the diversity of communites of ‘fate’ to which
individuals and groups belong, and the ways in which this diversity is reinforced by
the political transformations of globalisation considered above. Since the political
good is now entrenched in overlapping political communities and in an emergent
transnational civil society and global polity, disputes about it should be disputes about
the nature and proper form of the developing global order. Hence globalists generally
associate sustainable development with new forms of global democracy and
citizenship. These include their cosmopolitan and ecological forms.
Global citizens have complex loyalties and multi-layered identities; exercise their
citizenship partly through transnational movements, agencies, and legal/institutional
structures; are aware of the increasing interconnectedness of political communities in
diverse (ecological, economic, social, cultural) domains and their overlapping
fortunes; recognize that collective interests require multilateral regulation and
domestic adjustment; and accept that their rights, responsibilities and welfare need to
be established not only in national constitutions, but in regional and global regimes,
laws and institutions. They link ethical discourse and the political good to the global
order and may support the Earth Charter initiative. Lynch (1992) and Oliver and
Heater (1994) consider education for world/global citizenship.
Environmental and ecological citizenship
Dobson (2003) starts his discussion of citizenship and the environment by noting that
asymmetrical nature of globalisation. Local acts with global consequences produce
communities of obligation that are primarily communities of injustice. Cheap food in
European supermarkets, for example, is often the result of exploited labour and land
in Africa, and British consumers therefore have non-reciprocal duties to African
farmers that should be discharged through redistributive acts.
Advocates of cosmopolitan citizenship, such as Held (1995), focus on the human
community and suggest that uncoerced dialogue and greater democracy will allow the
realisation of universal values, such as those expressed in the Earth Charter. Dobson
maintains that they focus on the wrong kind of community (the human community
rather than communities of obligation); the wrong mode of operation (impartiality
rather than partiality); and the wrong political objective (more dialogue and
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democracy rather than more justice and democracy). Rather than a thin and nonmaterial account of the ties that bind members of the cosmopolitan community
(common humanity and a commitment to dialogue), Dobson offers a thickly material
account linked to the production and reproduction of daily life in an unequal and
globalising world. This prompts him to canvass the emergence of post-cosmopolitan
citizenship, alongside liberal and civic-republican forms.
Figure 2
Three types of citizenship (Dobson, 2003, p.39)
1 Liberal
Rights/entitlements
(contractual)
Public sphere
Virtue-free
Territorial
(discriminatory)
2 Civic republican
Duties/responsibilities
(contractual)
Public sphere
‘Masculine’ virtue
Territorial
(discriminatory)
3 Post-cosmopolitan
Duties/responsibilities
(non-contractual)
Public and private spheres
‘Feminine’ virtue
Non-territorial
(non-discriminatory)
In comparing citizenship in its liberal, civic republican, and post-cosmopolitan forms,
Dobson focuses on four dimensions (rights/responsibilities; public/private; virtue/nonvirtue; and territorial/non-territorial), see Figure 2. It is the fact that citizens of
globalising nations are ‘always already’ acting on others that requires postcosmopolitan citizenship to acknowledge non-reciprocal, non-contractual and
unilateral duties. Since acts in the private sphere impact upon people and
environments at a distance (have public implications), this sphere is properly a site for
politics and the exercise of post-cosmopolitan citizenship. Such citizenship focuses on
horizontal citizen-citizen relations rather than vertical citizen-state relations, and is
committed to such ‘feminine’ virtues as care and compassion. It is non-territorial in
that it spans borders and is associated with a global civil society as exemplified by the
anti-globalisation movement.
Both the major citizenship traditions, liberal and civic republican, can be fruitfully
connected to the project of sustainability, but Dobson does not think that the project
can be fully captured by these traditions, either together or in isolation. Green
thinking on citizenship seeks to extend conceptions of rights (environmental rights);
enlarge the scope of citizenship beyond the state (cosmopolitan, post-cosmopolitan,
and global citizenship); and recognise citizens’ responsibilities to future generations
and the rest of nature. The associated literature (Barry, 1999, Smith 1998, Doherty &
de Geus, 1996) debates such issues as whether environmental rights are distinct from
social rights and whether non-humans can properly have rights (be citizens) with
humans speaking on their behalf. At the heart of the sustainability project’s tendency
to overflow liberal and civic republican traditions is the non-territorial nature of
sustainability as a social objective. Dobson maintains that this requires a variant of
post-cosmopolitan citizenship that he terms ecological citizenship.
Liberal theory leads to the following understanding of environmental citizenship:
Environmental citizenship deals in the currency of environmental rights, that is
conducted exclusively in the public sphere, whose principal virtues are the liberal
ones of reasonableness and a willingness to accept the force of better argument and
procedural legitimacy, and whose remit is bounded political configurations modelled
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on the nation-state. For the most rough-and-ready purposes, it can be taken that
environmental citizenship here refers to attempts to extend the discourse and practice
of rights-claiming into the environmental context. Dobson, 2003, P. 89
Environmental citizenship is then about the defining, enshrining and claiming of
environmental rights and their incorporation into law, culture and politics. Related
knowledge of environmental rights, and of rights to development, is a key element of
the propositional and procedural knowledge that contributes to political literacy. BTs
should therefore learn about such rights and the institutional arrangements for
establishing and upholding related law. A comprehensive understanding of relevant
UK, European, and international institutions and legislation is not to be expected, but
BTs should study issues at a range of scales to gain an understanding of how such
rights are established and defended. There is no shortage of relevant case studies from
around the world (Alder & Wilkinson, 1999, Elliott, 1998, Kingsnorth, 2004) and BTs
might study a local planning issue, national policy on renewable energy, European
fisheries policy, and disputes over international trade, gaining knowledge from such
sources as the Royal Town Planning Institute; the Association for the Conservation of
Energy, EUROPA, and the Fairtrade Foundation.
Ecological citizenship is a specifically ecological form of post-cosmopolitan
citizenship. It recognises that as members of global society we are ‘always already’
obligated to others at a distance, a concept best expressed in the notion of ecological
footprints. Such a footprint is a measure of the total amount of ecologically productive
land and water supporting one’s lifestyle, and for the more affluent members of global
society, much of this land and water is located far from their place of residence
(Carley & Spapens, 1998, Wackernagel & Rees, 1996). As we consume more, our
ecological footprints grow, and we are obligated to more strangers across space and
time (to those at a distance and to those not yet born). The community of ecological
citizenship is created by our material activities and obligates us to protect a healthy,
complex and autonomously functioning ecological system for the benefit of present
and future generations. Such obligation is encouraged by viewing sustainability as a
frame of mind, and by adopting a weak anthropocentrism as outlined above.
Ecological citizenship has international and intergenerational dimensions and its
responsibilities are asymmetrical, falling on globalising rather than globalised
individuals. Ecological citizens will want to ensure that their ecological footprints do
not compromise or foreclose options for present and future generations and will be
prepared to reduce them without expecting others to follow their example. Obligation
ends when ecological space (resources and services) is fairly distributed but such
fairness may require the righting of historical wrongs. Virtues normally associated
with the private sphere, such as care and compassion, help ecological citizens meet
their responsibilities, and this sphere will increasingly become a site of citizenship as
they realise that by reducing household consumption they can reduce their ecological
footprints (see Ecoteams initiative). Such politicisation of the private sphere is a
challenge for liberals since it questions personal choice and subjects the idea of the
‘good life’ to political scrutiny.
BTs might be introduced to ecological citizenship via websites on ecological
footprints, policies to tackle global warming, or the agenda of the European Social
Forum. These and other sites suggest that there is no agreement on what model of
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global democracy would best facilitate environmental and ecological citizenship and
so promote sustainable development. There is intense debate about whether, or how,
to resist, contest, manage or adapt to global forces, and BTs should understand the
main positions adopted by those who are for and against globalisation. While the
former group contains neoliberals, liberal internationalists, and institutional reformers,
the latter consists of global transformers, statists/protectionists, and radicals (Held &
McGrew, 2003). Cosmopolitan social democracy draws support from liberal
internationalists, institutional reformers, and global transformers. The latter, along
with radicals, are influenced by Marxism and anti-capitalism (Saad-Filho, 2003).
George Monbiot’s website and his manifesto for a new world order (Monbiot, 2004)
provide one route to engaging BTs with these debates. Another is provided by current
debates on the European constitution.
Post-cosmopolitan democracy and citizenship feature less prominently than other
forms in the literature, but there is no shortage of texts linking sustainability to
politics and citizenship (Christie & Warburton, 2001, Doherty & de Geus, 1996,
Mathews, 1996, Smith, 1998). BTs might go beyond Figure 1 (page 9) to consider the
range of environmental discourses outlined by Dryzek (1997). They might evaluate
his argument that the discourse of sustainable development is essentially reformist
and will only contribute to the realisation of ecological democracy if given a more
radical meaning through association with other discourses that he labels democratic
pragmatism, ecological modernisation, and green rationalism. They might compare
the case for the greening of capitalism as outlined by Turner (2001) with that for the
greening of socialism as advanced by Dickenson (2003). Little (1998) includes a
chapter on socialist citizenship in his book on post-industrial socialism. This seeks to
revive citizens’ engagement with politics and the public sphere by providing them
with new economic rights. Reduced working hours enabled by new technologies,
together with a guaranteed wage for work in the formal and community sectors, are
the preconditions for greater individual autonomy and collective self-determination.
New economies of time and welfare free citizens from the treadmill of work and
consumerism and allow them to establish more sustainable relations with one another
and the rest of nature.
Community involvement
There are many opportunities for BTs to engage with communities that are learning
their way to sustainability and so acquire the knowledge, skills and values that will
enable them to foster active citizenship amongst pupils. Local and regional
governments have statutory duties relating to sustainable development and may have
policies on the nature and form of their support for ESD in schools (Selman, 1996).
Following the publication of Agenda 21 many drew up Local Agenda 21s but these
have now often given way to newer initiatives on community development or
regeneration. The Local Government Association and Improvement and Development
Agency are relevant sources of information.
Many schools work with local and regional government officers, elected members,
and community groups on such initiatives as children’s parliaments, ‘walking buses’
to school, food growing and recycling. The North West Regional Assembly illustrates
how ESD is often part of such initiatives as healthy schools, education action zones,
or urban regeneration, while ESD Bristol is one example of how curriculum guidance
13
can be delivered in a local context. Further examples are provided by Worcestershire
and Bolton. The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives provides
information on local government initiatives around the world. Hart (1997) and Adams
and Ingham (1998) provide guides to encouraging children’s participation in
environmental planning and community development.
Sustainable development may be a focus of school-industry links and BTs should be
introduced to the debates surrounding corporate social responsibility or corporate
citizenship. Codes of corporate governance are relevant to environmental and
ecological citizenship as are those corporate social responsibility campaigners who
seek to ensure more widespread and honest reporting. Authentic Business provides a
newsletter about ethically sound businesses; the Social Science Information Gateway
lists internet resources relating to business, society and the environment; while the
WorldWatch Institute monitors progress towards more sustainable forms of
production and consumption. Ecological citizens will practice ethical consumerism
and will also be aware of the efforts of trade unions and the International Labour
Organisation to realise social and environmental justice.
Agenda 21 seeks a partnership between government, business and community groups
in realising sustainable development. Community groups or NGOs provide further
opportunities for community involvement through their diverse projects to improve
the sustainability of local and distant communities. Wildlife Trusts, Groundwork,
Oxfam, Community Service Volunteers, and WWF are just five examples of NGOs
that work with schools on ESD related projects and campaigns. Pointers to others are
provided in the section on resources below.
Curriculum planning and pedagogy
In the final chapter of his book Dobson (2003) examines the potential of the
citizenship curriculum to legitimately produce young citizens who will work for
sustainability and sustainable development. He argues that the normative elements
and guidelines in the Crick Report and the national curriculum allow teachers to raise
key questions that lie at the heart of the sustainability debate: questions of ethics,
spirituality, the kind of society pupils’ wish to live in, and what it means to be an
ecological citizen. CESD fosters the moral development that underscores citizenship
education; allows community campaigning (not community service) in the interests of
social and environmental justice; and prompts links with distant strangers and global
institutions through the study of real events and issues. After considering curriculum
frameworks for the delivery of ESD, Dobson argues that the whole curriculum might
be delivered through environmental and ecological citizenship ‘because practically
every theme in the curriculum is importantly present in them’. And in reference to the
citizenship curriculum he adds:
14
In sum, then, the curriculum injunction to teach ‘education for sustainable
development’ might profitably be regarded as a vehicle for teaching the citizenship
curriculum as a whole Dobson, 2003, P. 195
The focus of Dobson’s chapter is whether a liberal educational system, committed to
neutrality as far as ‘plans for life’ are concerned, can cope with the value-laden nature
of sustainability questions? His arguments here support those of Bonnett (page 6) for
he recognises that sustainability is always a discourse/practice under construction,
rather than a truth or something settled, and the appropriate liberal commitment is not
to offer some determinate account of it, but to ensure the conditions within which the
widest range of opportunities for thinking and living sustainability are authentically
available ( P. 198 ). In the context of environmental and ecological citizenship, bias is
more likely by omission than by indoctrination. While CESD should embrace the
ambiguities, tensions and contradictions in the sustainability debate, it should confront
pupils with live examples of commitment: of individuals and groups who think and
live differently. Guided reasoning about such examples develops their moral
autonomy, political literacy, and commitment to sustainability as a frame of mind.
Dobson’s chapter should be a key reading for BTs. With reference to the citizenship
curriculum in schools, he concludes:
All the elements of environmental citizenship are present in the curriculum . . . . All
the elements of ecological citizenship are present in the curriculum too. The
citizenship curriculum, in other words, offers a gift-wrapped opportunity to politicise
the environment for young people. P. 206/7
Having explored the potential of the citizenship curriculum, BTs might return to the
QCA’s ESD web pages (page 3) and review the help offered on curriculum planning.
They should gain experience of planning curriculum units that incorporate ESD’s key
concepts alongside those of political literacy, and should be aware of the suggested
contributions of other subjects, particularly geography, science and design
technology. The interdisciplinary nature of ESD requires them to consider an
appropriate philosophy of knowledge, or philosophical framework. Clearly this
should be able to integrate knowledge from the natural and social sciences, the arts
and humanities, and should also be able to integrate formal or academic knowledge
with the lay and tacit knowledge of everyday life. Dickens (1996) argues that
academic divisions of labour (between for example the natural and social sciences)
serve to alienate people from nature and hinder the transition to sustainable
development. While he suggests that critical realism provides a framework for
integrating academic knowledge and uniting it with lay and tacit knowledge, Sterling
(2001) seeks to reorient education towards sustainable development using systems
thinking (Capra, 2003). BTs with a background in social and political theory will be
able to relate such debates to those over postmodernity and the rise of postmodern
knowledge or citizen science (Irwin, 1995). They may regard debates over sustainable
development and ecological citizenship as evidence of reflexive modernisation, the
15
rise of network society, and the increasing significance of culture, identity, and
identity politics in the lives of young people (McGuigan, 1999).
By drawing on the philosophy and sociology of education and the curriculum, tutors
might also explore with BTs the way in which different discourses or ideologies of
environment, development and education, shape different forms of ESD. Following
Habermas’ theory of knowledge constitutive interests it is possible to recognise ESD
as environmental science and management, ESD as values and behaviour change, and
ESD as socially critical education (Huckle, 1996, 2003). Citizenship education is
central to ESD as socially critical education since it is able to counter the positivism
and idealism of the other two forms. Scott and Gough (2003) see such education
somewhat differently: as an affront to the autonomy of learners and teachers that is
ineffective and too radical to be accommodated in schools.
ESD has understandably developed largely from roots in environmental and
development education. BTs should be aware of the range of such ‘adjectival’
educations that grew out of the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s
(Dufour, 1990); their fate alongside cross-curricular themes in the 1990s; and the
extent to which they may continue to represent a more relevant education for
postmodern times. Such educations (for example human rights education, peace
education, futures education) can also be seen as a response to the lack of coherent
social education within the English school curriculum and BTs might consider the
extent to which citizenship education should now become their vehicle.
Practitioners of environmental and development education draw on a range of well
established experiential teaching and learning activities. They regard students as
researchers, seek democratic classrooms; and provide relevance by relating learning
to the knowledge and concerns of communities near and far. BTs should examine
some of the resources that support such activities (for sources see next section) and
should develop and trial their own activities. They might consider the different
orientation to learning outlined by Kemmis (1998), the extent to which his modern,
late modern, and postmodern orientations are complementary or contesting, and
whether CESD requires such orientations. Both late modern and postmodern
orientations regard knowledge as socially constructed and acknowledge increased
reflexivity whereby individuals become more aware of the diversity and fallibility of
knowledge and the unintended consequences of its application. While late modern
learning clings to the possibility of consensus yielding general truths that provide the
foundation for critical pedagogy, postmodern learning accepts only partial truths,
invites a wider concept of rationality, and is valued by new kinds of identity politics.
Giroux develops the notions of border youth and border pedagogy to describe young
people and teaching and learning styles caught between modernity and postmodernity.
Border youth have little or no faith in modern narratives of work, progress and
emancipation; recognize new or heightened risks such as unemployment,
homelessness or HIV/Aids; and find their attention and understanding dislocated by
16
popular culture and consumerism. Sustainable development can offer them a shared
language of hope and possibility provided it keeps a wide range of options open. For
indeterminancy rather than order should become the guiding principle of a pedagogy
in which multiple views, possibilities and differences are opened up as part of an
attempt to read the future contingently rather than from the perspective of a master
narrative that assumes rather than problematises specific notions of work, progress,
and agency (Giroux, 1999, p. 102).
Furlong and Cartmel (1997) support Giroux’s argument for a border pedagogy that
connects young people with social movements that offer alternative meanings and
identities. They write of an ‘epistemological fallacy’ whereby postmodernity with its
diversification of lifestyles, erosion of collectivist traditions, and intensification of
individual values, increasingly obscures the structures and processes shaping pupils’
life chances and the environments in which they live. Unaccountable and
undemocratic powers continue to deny them more sustainable ways of living, yet they
are increasingly encouraged to regard the resulting risks, setbacks and anxieties as
individual shortcomings that they must solve on a personal basis rather than through
politics. CESD in schools can help pupils confront this fallacy if they are realistic
about power and agency, acknowledge new forms of identity politics, and provide the
real participation in decision making that many young people seek.
Rushkoff (1997) offers a more optimistic view of young people, seeing them as
pioneers in an ‘age of chaos’ in which the predictability and linearity of an organized,
hierarchical civilization has been overwhelmed by a seemingly random and disjointed
wave of change. Drawing concepts from postmodern science, he sees in children’s
play and use of the new media, evidence that they adapting to the discontinuity of the
postmodern experience.
BTs clearly need to consider such arguments, understand changing youth culture, and
reflect the importance of identity, consumerism and media for the young, in their
curriculum planning and delivery. Quart (2003) provides insights into teenagers who
are pioneering ecological citizenship by resisting the culture of brands, while the
adbusters website and magazine are powerful resources for exploring consumerism.
Future citizens should be able to constructively contest and transform advertising and
the media (see for example the Media Awareness Network) so that they no longer has
the power to render them passive, apolitical subjects who remain unaware of more
sustainable and fulfilling ways of life.
Resources and services
The Council for Environmental Education (CEE ) is a national charity which is
governed by its members. These include individual teachers and 80 national
organisations with a shared belief in the value of education for sustainable
development. Its website includes an information centre that allows searches for
citizenship related resources dealing with specific topics such as climate change or
poverty. CEE has a newsletter and an annual conference.
The Development Education Association (DEA) works with key governmental and
non-governmental educational bodies across the UK to provide guidance on how
teachers can incorporate development issues and a global dimension into their
17
teaching. Developing a global dimension in the school curriculum, was published,
with DFID, DFEE, QCA and the Central Bureau, in 2000, and the Global Dimension
website catalogues over 500 evaluated resources for teachers to use across the
curriculum. The DEA is currently developing a series of guidance booklets with
subject associations. Those published by summer 2004 relate to science and
geography.
The DEA works in partnership with teacher educators and published a charter for
initial teacher education Training Teachers for Tomorrow in 1998. It has subsequently
published a set of good practice case studies (Symons, 2004). At least two of these
refer to citizenship.
Development education centres around the country are members of DEA and several
of these have curriculum development projects relating to ESD, Manchester has a
sustainable cities project and Birmingham one on citizenship and sustainable
development (DEC, 2002). DECs have also developed the global footprints project
and information and activities about global and ethical issues for teachers and students
of business studies and economics. The Department for International Development is
currently funding the Enabling Effective Support network (DFID, 2003) that has
officers in the regions co-ordinating the work of DECs and others. TeachGlobal is a
website offering online professional development courses to teachers.
There are a number of projects that schools seeking to demonstrate environmental and
ecological citizenship might join. Eco Schools, which is managed by EnCams,
involves the whole school together with members of the local community creating a
shared understanding of what it takes to run a school in a way that respects the
environment. Others include Learning through landscapes, healthy schools, and
growing schools. WWF offers schools a development framework whereby they can
reflect and act on their own interpretation of sustainability and engaged pupils in an
online debate about the sustainable school of the future in autumn term 2004.
The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) has published a report on effective
ESD practice in schools: the result of a limited benchmarking exercise to aid the
development of more detailed future work (download). By focussing on the quality of
learning in 27 schools, it identifies factors which characterise the work of the most
successful schools, and provides a checklist for school self-evaluation.
Oxfam is a development, relief, and campaigning organisation dedicated to finding
lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world. Its education programme
is guided by A Curriculum for Global Citizenship (Oxfam, 1997 and see Grunsell,
2004) and its Cool Planet website provides an overview of its work with young people
and schools. In advocating a curriculum for global citizenship, Oxfam seeks to
combine EE and DE and regards ESD and global citizenship as essentially ‘the same
thing, albeit coming from different starting points’. Its strategy regarding ITE
continues to be focussed on a limited number of institutions where it seeks to establish
ESD as part of the curriculum (Inman & Wade, 1997).
18
ESD is an ongoing interest of many ITT tutors who specialise in environmental
education and/or development education. The majority of these tutors also have a
specialism related to a NC curriculum subject, often geography, science, or
citizenship, but some approach ESD as professional studies specialists. The main
networks for these tutors are facilitated by the Global Teacher Project (Steiner, 1996);
the Centre for Research in Education and the Environment at the University of Bath;
and the NFER which has a project on connecting research and practice in ESD
(Rickinson, 2003, Rickinson et al, 2003). Such tutors are likely to publish in the
DEA’s Development Education Journal or in Environmental Education Research.
Subject associations may have working groups on ESD in which such tutors are
active, for example the Geographical Association. A group of tutors at the Oxford
University Department of Education is currently carrying out research into trainees’
and teachers’ understanding of ESD (Summers, Corney & Childs, 2003).
A particularly significant initiative is a dedicated ITT website called Education for a
Sustainable Future, jointly owned and managed by the Institute of Education at
Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and the Moray House Faculty of
Education of the University of Edinburgh. Developed from a Scottish ITT module and
the EU funded SEEPS Project, which promotes school focussed programmes in ESD,
it provides on-line supported self study materials, consisting of activities and
resources linked to a study guide (Robinson & Shallcross, 1998, Shallcross, O’Loan
& Hui, 2000). The SEEPS project is available separately on CD Rom (ISBN 1870355-13-X).
Tutors and teachers seeking continuing professional development in ESD might
consider the Education for Sustainability Programme at South Bank University that is
delivered through distance learning and attracts many teachers throughout the world.
The following texts provide insights into the current state of scholarship and research in
the field: Corcoran & Wals, 2004,Gough, 2001, Jucker, 2002, Huckle & Sterling, 1996,
Huckle, 2002, Plant, 1998, Scott & Gough, 2003, Stables & Scott, 2002, and Sterling,
2001.
UNESCO has an extensive website devoted to ESD. In 1999 it established a Chair on
Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability at York University in
Toronto. Professor Charles Hopkins is undertaking research on different approaches
to this task with an international network of around 35 teacher education institutions
that includes Bath University. UNESCO has already developed Teaching and
Learning for a Sustainable Future, a multimedia teacher education programme
containing 25 modules divided into four sections: curriculum rationale; teaching about
sustainability across the curriculum; interdisciplinary curriculum themes; and teaching
and learning strategies. This material is available on the internet and as a CD. In 2002
UNESCO published Education for Sustainability, from Rio to Johannesburg
(download) a report on the lessons learnt about ESD since UNCED 1992.
There is an educational programme associated with the Earth Charter Initiative.
19
The Commission on Education and Communication of the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature has several publications relating to ESD. Particularly
significant is ESDebate (download) the record of an online discussion between
international experts that took place in 2000.
Educating for Sustainability reviews 90 European ESD projects and details associated
publications. There are several teacher ESD initiatives in English speaking countries
that provide valuable sources of ideas and activities. Amongst these are the Education
for Sustainable Development Toolkit and Biodiversity Basics in the USA and
Learning for Sustainability in South Africa.
Responding to the challenge
If, as Dobson claims, ESD can be regarded as a vehicle for teaching the citizenship
curriculum as a whole, then it can similarly be argued that ESD might constitute the
sole focus of one year course preparing graduates to teach citizenship in schools.
While few tutors are likely to adopt such a strategy, this article suggests that CESD
now has official recognition, a considerable body of theory and practice, and
extensive resources. It deserves a significant place in such courses, for by training
teachers in CESD, tutors will be helping the transition to a more just, democratic and
sustainable world.
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John Huckle is an ESD consultant who formerly taught at De Montfort and South
Bank universities. In 2003 he wrote a briefing paper on ESD for the Teacher Training
Agency on which this article is largely based. John can be contacted via his website at
http://john.huckle.org.uk
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