Education has become an essential component in the vision for societies to achieve sustainable development.
The concept of sustainable development has been on the international agenda for development since the Bruntland Report, developed as part of UN´s goal of linking environmental protection with development, globally.
The big question related to the function of education as part of the strategy for sustainable development is:
Should education be seen as a tool to form citizens´ behavior in a pre-determined way acceptable for a socalled sustainable lifestyle ?
OR
Is education seen as a crusial part of the democratic involvement in decisions related to how we would like our societies to develop?
Some important aspects of these questions are also part of the discussion about the action comptetence approach to environmental education and the 'new generation of environmental education' compared to the main stream 'former versions' of environmental education.
References to these can be found at www.environmental-education.net about Environmental Education and www.ActionCompetence.com about action competence (Both opens in new windows).
More on-line references to action competence related to environmental education and to health education can be found here.
(Opens in new windows).
A website from Soren Breiting
www.education-sustainable-development.com