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.

„At its heart, the distinction between these two positions comes down to one of
confidence. If we are secure in our estimation of the worth of what we already know,
and clear about what we want to happen next, then we can certainly decide what the
next generation needs to know, and universities can teach it to them. On the other
hand, if we recognise and acknowledge our human failures, and are nervous about
the future, then we need universities to prepare a generation that will understand,
and act, better than any of us presently do.’ (Gough and Scott 2007: xi)

If the role of education is to help learners of all ages to develop the knowledge, skills and
capacities which enable them to think critically, to solve problems, and to address
uncertainty, then the focus of climate change interventions should not simply be on new
inputs/ content (although these are also necessary), but also on more holistic ways of
addressing climate change through high quality teaching and learning.

This agenda also runs parallel to even longer-standing research and policy discourses about
the central role of education in promoting individual and social development. As noted
above, it also draws on at least two core strands of educational research and policy in
development - access and quality - and integrates these with thinking on environmental
learning and its impacts.

An emerging body of research, for example, has begun to identify strong links between EFA
and ESD agendas. As a recent policy paper for UNESCO highlighted, the areas share a
number of key concerns:

Source: Wade and Parker (2008: 4)

In addition, ESD shares an interest in the universal provision of basic education and literacy
both for their own value as well as because they are pre-requisites for quality environmental
learning; this is particularly important in preparing learners to address complex global
concerns like climate change. Both EFA and ESD can also play a significant role in poverty
reduction by contributing to the development/ protection of human, social and natural capital:

‘... poverty can be seen as resulting from a lack of a sufficient amount of any of these
elements. ESD has a strategic role in helping to develop these complex
understandings and in particular the links between degradation and depletion of the
natural environment and poverty. With its broad remit it also enables issues of
poverty to be looked at in conjunction with issues of appropriate development both in

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