Environmental Education Between Modernity and Postmodernity - Searching for an Integrating Educational Framework

Oct 15, 2026

Debates around UNESCO proposals for education for sustainable development and for a sustainable future place environmental education at the center of a complex challenge: redefining its aim and securing its role within a renewed global educational project. The article analyzes epistemological, ethical, and pedagogical bases of UNESCO’s proposals, testing whether they provide an appropriate integrative framework for environmental education and other contemporary educational dimensions aimed at rebuilding connections among person, society, and environment.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages27

Reading Time1 h 8 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

UNESCO proposals and the need to restate environmental education

Integrating frameworks and their role

Preventing fragmentation of educational objectives

Epistemological, ethical, and pedagogical foundations

Modernity and postmodernity as a referential framework

Limits of reductionist views of environmental education

Environmental education as essential, not instrumental

Environmental Education Between Modernity and Postmodernity: Searching for an Integrating Educational Framework Lucie Sauvé, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada Abstract With the recent debates concerning the UNESCO’s proposals of Education for sustainable development (1992, 1988) or Education for a sustainable future (1997), environmental education is confronted with the necessity of restating its aim and establishing its niche in a global educational project, whose foundations have to be reconstructed in light of of the development of responsible societies. This article presents an analysis of the epistemological, ethical and pedagogical basis of the UNESCO’s recent proposals, so as to verify their offer of an appropriate integrative framework for environmental education, and other dimensions of contemporary education, that aim at the reconstruction of the person-society-environment web of relationships. This analysis is based on the referential framework of modernity and postmodernity. Résumé Avec les récents débats soulevés autour de la proposition del’Éducation pour le développement durable (UNESCO, 1992, 1988), ou de celle de l’Éducation pour un avenir viable (UNESCO, 1997), l’éducation relative à l’environnement se retrouve au coeur d’une problématique fort complexe: celle de la recherche de fondements appropriés pour l’éducation contemporaine. Cet article présente une analyse des fondements épistémologiques,éthiques et pédagogiques des récentes propositions globales del’UNESCO, dans le but de vérifier si elles offrent un cadre intégrateur adéquat pour l’éducation relative à l’environnement, comme pour l’ensemble des autres dimensions de l’éducation qui visent le développement de sociétés responsables. Cette analyse exploite le cadre de référence des courants de la modernité et de la postmodernité . Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 4, Summer 1999 9 As the century ends and the academic world vacillates between the era of modernity and that of postmodernity, many countries have undertaken, or are in the process of undertaking, reform of their educational systems. Education now generally leaves more room for consideration of present and evolving realities (Delors, 1996). In particular, most reforms propose the curricular introduction of various aspects of education related to contemporary social and environmental concerns: environmental education is often formally legitimized, along with human rights, peace, democracy, intercultural relationships, international solidarity and development education. In order to avoid a new fragmentation of educational objectives and to integrate these various concerns with one another, a number of comprehensive frameworks have been proposed, including Citizenship Education, Education in a Planetary Perspective (Projet des universités francophone del’est de Canada, 1995), Education in a World Perspective (Dionne, 1995), Global Education (GPE, 1987), Education for the Development of Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility (Council for the Earth, 1993), Education for Sustainable Development (UNESCO, 1992), Education for a Sustainable Future, Education for Sustainability (UNESCO, 1997), Education for World Responsibility and Solidarity (Fondation Charles Léopold Mayer [FPH], 1997) and some others. Each of these global proposals should be examined so that an integrating framework appropriate to fundamental education can be adopted or restructured such that it will include the consideration, criticism and transformation of our contemporary realities. Such a framework should not be seen as a straight jacket but as a proposal for the search of meaning, consistency, and relevance based on an ethical and epistemological reflection. In this article, I shall consider the UNESCO proposal concerning Education for sustainable development and its offshoot under the more recent title of Education for a sustainable future or Education for sustainability. According to

FAQs

What central problem does the article address regarding environmental education?

It addresses how environmental education must restate its aim and find a clear niche within a global educational project built around responsible societies.

How does the article evaluate UNESCO’s proposals?

It analyzes their epistemological, ethical, and pedagogical foundations to verify whether they offer an integrating framework for environmental education and related educational dimensions.

Why does the article argue against reducing environmental education to an instrumental tool?

It argues that environmental education is not merely an accessory for implementing sustainable development; it involves reconstructing relationships among persons, society, and the environment.

Oct 15, 2026

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