This is a theoretical article to open the discussion of what an education for sustainable development is supposed to achieve and how teachers can help students to develop skills that might be needed in order to support a sustainable future. The focus in the article will be on education. As it is an article aiming to open this kind of discussion for further research, it summarizes a part of the research in the research area. This article presents the view that even as international organizations, states and governments advocate a change of the educational system to educate for sustainable development, researchers suspect that the change remains at a rhetorical level. If one wants to change the society and education, one of the cornerstones to start with is the education and training of already qualified teachers and teacher educators. This requires a change both in education and in teacher education.
Agenda 21. (1992). United Nation. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdf. Accessed 19May2015.
2.
AlmersE. (2009). Action competence for sustainable development: Three stories about the path leading there. Diss. Jönköping: School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University.
3.
AlsopS., DippoD., & ZandvlietD. B. (2007). Teacher education as or for social and ecological transformation: Place-based reflections on local and global participatory methods and collaborative practices. Journal of Education for Teaching, 33(2), 207−223.
4.
AngelottiM., PerazzoneA., TononM. D., BertolinoF., & BarbieroG. (2009). Educating the educators. In GrayD., Colucci-GrayL. & CaminoE. (Eds), Science, society and sustainability: Education and empowerment for an uncertain world (pp. 154−187). New York: Routledge.
5.
BlewittJ. (2008). Understanding sustainable development. UK and US: Earthscan.
6.
BreitingS., & WickenbergP. (2010). The progressive development of environmental education in Sweden and Denmark. Environmental Education Research, 16(1), 9−37.
7.
Brent EdwardsD., Jr. (2010). Critical pedagogy and democratic education: Possibilities for cross-pollination. Urban Review, 42(3), 221−242.
8.
Bruun JensenB., & SchnackK. (2004). Assessing action competence? In ScottW. & GoughS. (Eds), Key issues in sustainable development and learning: A critical review (pp. 164−166). US and Canada: RoutledgeFalmer.
9.
BungeM. (2000). Systemism: The alternative to individualism and holism. Journal of Socioeconomics, 29(2), 147−157.
10.
CloudJ. P. (2009). Some systems thinking concepts for environmental educators during the decade of education for sustainable development. In ChalkleyB., HaighM. & HiggittD. (Eds), Education for sustainable development (pp. 225−229). New York: Routledge.
11.
CloverD. E. (2004). Collective knowledge and the creative imagination in a globalised world. In ScottW. & GoughS. (Eds), Key issues in sustainable development and learning: A critical review (pp. 240−242). US: RoutledgeFalmer.
12.
CostanzaR. (2008). Stewardship for a ‘full’ world. Current History, 107(705), 30−35.
13.
DaleA., & NewmanL. (2005). Sustainable development, education and literacy. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 6(4), 351−362.
14.
DillonP. (2006). A pedagogy of connection and education for sustainability. In RaumaA.L., PöllänenS. & Seitamaa-HakkarinenP. (Eds), Human perspectives on sustainable future (pp. 261−276) (Research report 99). Joensuu: Faculty of Education, University of Joensuu.
15.
GardnerH. (1991). The unschooled mind: How children think and how schools should teach. New York: Basic Books.
16.
GardnerH. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books.
17.
GardnerH. (2007). Five minds for the future. US: Harvard Business School Press.
18.
GruenewaldD. A. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3−12.
19.
HargreavesA. (2003). Teaching in the knowledge society: Education in the age of insecurity. New York: Teachers’ College Press.
20.
HealyJ. M. (1999). Endangered minds: Why children don’t think and what we can do about it (2nd ed.). New York: Touchstone.
21.
HofmanM. (2012). Sustainable development in the Finnish teacher education—Political rhetoric or reality (Research report 34). Vasa: Faculty of Education, Åbo Akademi.
22.
ImsenG. (2009). The teachers’ world: Introduction to general education (4th revised ed.) (trans. author). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
23.
JicklingB. (2009). Education and advocacy: A troubling relationship. In JohnsonE. & MappinM. (Eds), Environmental education and advocacy: Changing perspectives of ecology and education (pp. 91−113). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
24.
KatayamaJ., & GoughS. (2008). Developing sustainable development within the higher education curriculum: Observations on the HEFCE strategic review. Environmental Education Research, 14(4), 413−422.
25.
KempleK. M., DavidG. M., & WangY. (1996). Preschoolers’ creativity, shyness and self-esteem. Creativity Research Journal, 9(4), 317−326.
26.
KimaryoL. A. (2011). Integrating environmental education in primary school education in Tanzania. Diss. Åbo: Åbo Akademi University Press.
27.
KogerS. M., & WinterD. D. N. (2010). The psychology of environmental problems (3rd ed.). New York: Tylor and Francis Group.
28.
LindroosP. (2009). The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005–2014 in support of responsibility. In VirtanenA. & KaivolaT. (Eds), Global responsibility and sustainable development in education: Development and monitoring of the knowledge base (pp. 23–29) (trans. author). Helsinki: Opetusministeriön julkaisuja, 56.
29.
MånsonP. (2000). Modern social theories (5th ed.) (trans. author). Stockholm: Prisma.
30.
McKeownR., & HopkinsC. (2003). EE ! ESD: Defusing the worry. Environmental Education Research, 9(1), 117–12.
31.
McLeanM. (2006). Pedagogy and the university: Critical theory and practice. London: Continuum International Publishing.
32.
MeyerB. ([2007] 2009). Costing the earth? Perspectives on sustainable development (trans. Baker and Harrison). London: Haus Publishing Ltd.
33.
MogensenF., & SchnackK. (2010). The action competence approach and the ‘new’ discourses of education for sustainable development, competence and quality criteria. Environmental Education Research, 16(1), 59–74.
34.
RudsbergK., & ÖhmanJ. (2010). Pluralism in practice—Experiences from Swedish evaluation, school development and research. Environmental Education Research, 16(11), 95–111.
35.
SalonenA. O. (2010). Sustainable development and its promotion in a welfare society in a global age. Diss. (Research report 318). Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto, Käyttäytymistieteellinen tiedekunta.
ScottW., & GoughS. (2003). Sustainable development and learning: Framing the issues. US and Canada: RoutledgeFalmer.
38.
SpethJ. G. (2008). The bridge at the edge of the world: Capitalism, the environment, and crossing from crisis to sustainability. London: Yale University Press.
39.
SteinbergJ. (1994). The new learning (trans. author). Solna: Ekelunds Förlag.
40.
StephensJ. C., HernandezM. E., RománM., GrahamA. C., & ScholzR. W. (2008). Higher education as a change agent for sustainability in different cultures and contexts. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(3), 317–338.
41.
SterlingS. (2009). Sustainable education. In GrayD., Colucci-GrayL. & CaminoE. (Eds), Science, society and sustainability: Education and empowerment for an uncertain world (pp. 105–118). New York: Routledge.
42.
StevensonR. B. (2007). Schooling and environmental/sustainability education: From discourses of policy and practice to discourses of professional learning. Environmental Education Research, 13(2), 265–285.
43.
SundP. (2008). Discerning selective traditions in the socialization content of environmental education—Implications for education for sustainable development. Diss. Västerås: Mälardalen University Press.
44.
TorkarG. (2006). Importance of Wiktor E. Frankl’s work for sustainable education. In RaumaA.L., PöllänenS. & Seitamaa-HakkarinenP. (Eds), Human perspectives on sustainable future (pp. 290–296) (Research report 99) Joensuu: Faculty of Education, University of Joensuu.
45.
UljensM. (2007). The PISA results in Finland: Perspectives on and explanations for success (trans. author). Retrieved from http://www.vasa.abo.fi/users/muljens/pdf/PISA.pdf. Accessed 19May2015.
46.
UljensM. (2011). The level in the Finnish–Swedish school in Finland (trans. author). Retrieved from http://www.vasa.abo.fi/users/muljens/pdf/Uljens_Skolprestationer_i_Svenskfinland.pdf. Accessed 19May2015.
47.
UusikyläK. (2002). Can creativity be taught? In KansanenP. & UusikyläK. (Eds), Creativity, motivation, emotion: Teaching research in new directions (trans. author) (pp. 42–55). Jyväskylä: PS-kustannus.
48.
VygotskyL. S. (2002). Imagination and creativity in childhood (trans. LindstenK. Öberg). Göteborg: Daidalos.
49.
WalsA. E. J. (2010). Between knowing what is right and knowing that is it wrong to tell others what is right: On relativism, uncertainty and democracy in environmental and sustainability education. Environmental Education Research, 16(1), 143–151.
50.
WolffL. (2006). Critical pedagogy for sustainable development. In HäggblomL., PalmbergI. & StrömK. (Eds), From natural science and special education to sustainable development in teacher education (trans. author) (pp. 127–147) (Rapport 19). Vasa: Faculty of Education, Åbo Akademi.
51.
WolffL. (2011). Nature and sustainability: An educational study with Rousseau and Foucalt. Diss. Saarbrücken: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing GmbH & Co.
