On the need to repoliticise environmental and sustainability education: rethinking the postpolitical consensus

Abstract

This article draws attention to the possibilities of the ongoing philosophical discussion about cosmopolitan universal values in relation to the normative challenges in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). The purpose of this paper is to clarify the philosophical problems of addressing universally sustainable responsibilities and values in ESE. Our arguments draw inspiration from the work of three poststructuralist scholars: we explore how Butler develops her claim that universal assertion requires a cultural translation, how Mouffe exposes the political in universal claim and how Todd argues that education needs to introduce students to a political language that enables them to critically reflect on their own and other groups’ values and actions. In the concluding part, we suggest the following guidelines for rethinking ESE: unmasking the political dimension, re-politicising education, seeing beyond the relativist and objectivist divide and using passion as a moving force.

Keywords:

• environmental and sustainability education
• cosmopolitanism
• pluralism
• political
• normativity
• universal values

Acknowledgements

We thank the contribution of the SMED (Studies of Meaning-making in Educational Discourses) research group, and the helpful support of anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1. For a special issue on ‘Cosmopolitanism in the Making’, see Studies in Philosophy and Education 29 (2).

2. A cosmopolitan orientation on environmental and sustainability education has also been developed by scholars from the social sciences; see, for example, Beck (2006) and Dobson (2003).

3. Also referred to as principles of intra- and intergenerational equity.

4. The essay was first published 1991 in Praxis International 11 (2).

5. For a special issue on environmental and sustainability education with a focus on research in Scandinavia, see ‘Democracy and values in environmental and sustainability education: research contributions from Denmark and Sweden’, Environmental Education Research 16 (1).