Education Responses to Climate Change and Quality: Two Parts of the Same Agenda?

Citation: Bangay, C. and Blum, N. (2010) Education Responses to Climate Change and Quality: Two
Parts of the Same Agenda? International Journal of Educational Development 30(4): 335-450.

Source: Haichour, Metzger and Pigozzi (2007)

This emphasis on the development of capabilities as an indication of quality is strongly
connected to core thinking in development (e.g. Sen 1999, Nussbaum 2000, Chambers
2008). It also highlights the need for greater attention to the fundamental aims and goals of
education in development (i.e. provision of content vs. enabling learning processes), as well
as revealing a shared agenda for improved learning:

„Quality education and education for sustainable development seek to achieve similar
learning outcomes - those that enable learners to make decisions and choices that
foster sustainable development - and are thus complementary.’ (Pigozzi 2007: 27).

Rather than representing an entirely new area of theory, policy or practice, therefore,
thinking in ESD (and related areas of environmental education, etc.) is better understood as
sharing many of the key concerns of education and development, and particularly the need
for education which develops human potential to address future change and challenges.
Unfortunately, this area of thinking has so far been largely ignored by mainstream
development thinking, and so such potential contributions have gone relatively
unacknowledged.

6. Educational Responses to Climate Change

In practical terms, the integration of quality environmental learning into existing education
systems represents both immediate and longer term challenges for responding to climate
change. The immediate challenge is to climate proof education systems (adaptation), while
the longer and even more challenging task is to develop education systems that equip
learners with the requisite skills, knowledge and attributes to deal with future challenges. In
many ways the latter is nothing new, but is at the heart of the very purpose of both education
and development agendas. What has changed, however, is the nature and urgency of the
challenges faced - locally, nationally and globally. Figure 1 provides a generalised
chronological view of the possible sequencing of educational responses.

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