Societies generally expect educational systems to prepare young people for their future
professional life and/or continued studies. The educational system is seen as having a
socialising role and is expected to contribute to preparing young people to take up their
responsibilities in helping to shape the complex society in which we all now live.
It is because of the latter reason that, by the mid sixties and early seventies, so-called
adjectival educations –such as environmental education, health education, citizenship,
peace education etc.- were introduced into the curriculum of many educational systems.
However, the risk society requires competences from their citizens which will markedly
differ from the competences citizens needed about three decades ago. The introduction of
issues of sustainable development in the curriculum of both primary and secondary
education is therefore strongly recommended by several international organisations, such
as UNESCO and UNECE.
Above, we described issues of sustainable development as complex, because of the tight
connections between social, economic and ecological aspects, but also because many
proposed solutions, may lead to new (global) risks.
This implies that education for sustainable development requires at least a holistic
approach, rather than the reductionist approach which is common in traditional
educational systems. Indeed, a reductionist approach can often be the origin of these
problems. It follows that, if we desire a consensus rather than a (usually messy)
compromise, then sustainability challenges need to be approached at a systemic level.
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