Abstract
This article will discuss social, environmental, and ecological justice in education for sustainable development (ESD) and Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG). The concept of sustainable development and, by extension, the ESD, places heavy emphasis on the economic and social aspects of sustainability. However, the ESD falls short of recognizing ecological justice, or recognition that nonhumans also have a right to exist and flourish. An intervention in the form of an undergraduate course titled Politics, Business, and Environment (PBE) will be discussed. As part of this course, students were asked to reflect on the three pillars of sustainable development: society, economy, and environment, linking these to the fourth concept, ecological justice or biospheric egalitarianism. Biospheric egalitarianism is characterized by the recognition of intrinsic value in the environment and is defined as concern about justice for the environment. Some of the resulting exam answers are analyzed, demonstrating students’ ability to recognize the moral and pragmatic limitations of the anthropocentric approach to justice. This analysis presents ways forward in thinking about the role of “ecological justice” as the ultimate bottom line upon which both society and economy are based.
Highlights
This article questions the Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG) through the lens of critical theory and ecopedagogy
Fromm [3,4] believed that education makes learners internalize the alienation inherent in capitalist society and increases uncritical adherence to the dominant values espoused in these societies
The challenge of biospheric egalitarianism remains. This leaves a question as to what extent the interests of non-humans should be considered in the decision-making process [25], exposing a problem with ESDG, which favors social and economic justice above biospheric egalitarianism
Summary
This article questions the Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG) through the lens of critical theory and ecopedagogy. Sci. 2020, 10, 261 critical pedagogists, Kahn sees education as a form dominating bureaucracy that annihilates creativity Kahn discusses this annihilation based on Fromm’s and Freire’s work in the context of modern capitalist society and sustainable development discourse. Anthropocentrism, or human-centredness, refers to the interests that are not just centered on a single (human species) but simultaneously excuse moral, political, or legal concern with nonhuman beings [15] This criticism has turned toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), seventeen goals primarily addressing social and economic development [16]. This leaves a question as to what extent the interests of non-humans should be considered in the decision-making process [25], exposing a problem with ESDG, which favors social and economic justice above biospheric egalitarianism To illustrate this problem with an empirical example, the case study of educational intervention will be examined. The students were asked to reflect on the concepts related to the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable development, linking these to “justice”
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