Education for Sustainable Development: Theoretical Framework, Historical Development, and Implications for Practice

Abstract

Along with the 21st century goals building on the idea ‘the earth we want to live on,’ a global route map was established to construct sustainably developing societies that are able to ensure the welfare of the current as well as future generations. The awareness and commitment required for those goals are thought to be empowered principally through education. In line with this assumption, the period between the years 2005 and 2014 was declared as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development by the United Nations.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aims to ensure the acquisition of necessary knowledge of and sensitivity to a sustainable lifestyle by individuals and in this way the realization of societal transformations in the long run. Being a review article, this paper first presents the definition, scope, and chronological evolution of the sustainable development concept in a global context and puts forward the conceptual framework of ESD initiative. The paper later draws the local portrait of the issue in Turkey through an examination of the resources reporting ongoing educational implementations, academic papers published in educational journals,
and postgraduate theses and dissertations conducted in higher education institutions, and finally provides implications for practice in relation to primary education and teacher education.