IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jousus/v19y2025i2p235-247.html

Truly Transformative? Why ESD Falls Short in Epochal Times

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen Sterling

    (Stephen Sterling, Sustainable Earth Institute, Kirkby Lodge, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK. E-mail: stephen.sterling@plymouth.ac.uk)

Abstract

This reflective article argues that despite the widespread adoption of education for sustainable development (ESD), most manifestations of ESD are not sufficiently radical. They do not effectively nurture the kinds of social learning and societal shifts that international agencies agree are urgently needed to address current unsustainable socioeconomic pathways. Ten points are presented, which offer a coherent appraisal and critique of ESD. An argument is presented that in conditions of polycrisis and a threatened future, much greater efforts should now be directed towards whole system change at all levels—truly transforming education policy and practice as a whole, so that it can in turn be transformative in effect. This shift needs to be based on the conscious adoption of an emergent ecological or relational worldview in order to transcend the persistent and narrowing effects of mechanistic, neoliberal and economistic influences on educational thinking and practice. This emergent paradigm is life-affirming and offers hope for the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Sterling, 2025. "Truly Transformative? Why ESD Falls Short in Epochal Times," Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, , vol. 19(2), pages 235-247, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jousus:v:19:y:2025:i:2:p:235-247
    DOI: 10.1177/09734082251336543
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09734082251336543
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09734082251336543?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jousus:v:19:y:2025:i:2:p:235-247. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.