Education for Sustainable Development and Argumentation

Abstract

This chapter elaborates on my approach of transformative pedagogic practice for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). I explore how ESD principles can contribute to overcome memorization and the fragmentation of knowledge by postulating network and critical thinking, student orientation and environmental action. I argue that the development of critical consciousness (Freire 1996) through the promotion of argumentation skills is one important way to work toward reflective decision-making on sustainable development. In this chapter, I develop a didactic framework for the implementation of ESD in geography education by linking the principles of ESD with an approach that emphasizes argumentation (Toulmin 2010). Firstly, I critically review the political and conceptual development of sustainable development and ESD. Secondly, I discuss the societal relevance of argumentation and its role in the Indian subcontinent. Furthermore, I examine the didactic relevance of argumentation skills and their promotion in classrooms before merging this approach to the concept of ESD for a didactic framework. Finally, I develop a refined definition of ESD as “pedagogic practice that promotes critical consciousness through argumentation to empower decision-making on sustainable natural resource use by facilitating learner-centered, problem-posing, and network-thinking teaching approaches.”