Education for Sustainability Principles

1. Envisioning a better future

Establishes a link between long-term goals and immediate actions, and motivates people to action by harnessing their deep aspirations.

• Identifies relevance and meaning for different people
• Explores how to achieve change
• Offers direction and energy to take action
• Results in ownership of visions, processes and outcomes
   

2. Critical thinking and reflection

Challenges us to examine and question the underlying assumptions that shape our world, knowledge and opinions by looking beneath the symptoms of unsustainable practice.

• Develops the ability to participate in change
• Provides a new perspective
• Promotes alternative ways of thinking
• Questions the power behind hierarchies and leadership

3. Participation

Goes beyond consultation, involving people in joint analysis, planning and control of local decisions.

• Puts decision-making and responsibility for outcomes in the hands of the participants
• Creates a greater sense of ownership and commitment to action
• Builds capacity for self-reliance and self-organisation
• Empowers individuals to take action

4. Partnerships for change

Strengthens ownership and commitment to sustainability actions through formal and informal opportunities for learning.

• Builds a shared vision amongst diverse stakeholders
• Combines knowledge, technology and resources
• Motivates and adds value to initiatives

5. Systems thinking

Recognises that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and is a better way to understand and manage complex situations.

• Identifies connections and relationships
• Shifts thinking from ‘things’ to ‘processes’
• Integrates decision-making and adaptive management techniques.