Abstract

ESCHENHAGEN, María Luisa  and  SANDOVAL, Francisco. The co-optation of environmental education by education for sustainable development; a debate from Latin American environmental thought. Trab. soc. [online]. 2023, vol.24, n.40, pp.81-104.  Epub Jan 01, 2023. ISSN 1514-6871.

Environmental Education (EE) is linked to sustainability, but not as an end in itself, but as a result of rethinking the rationality and scientificity of the disciplines from the environmental epistemology in order to understand environmental complexity, which results in cultural actions for the care of ecosystems, as well as the means that sustain life.

This text aims to make a critical reflection on the very idea of education, on the results that modern education has had, not only in ecological matters, but also in life itself. This reflection uses the theoretical references of environmental thought to analyse the conceptions and discourses that emerge from the relationship between societies and nature, as well as environmental education in the context of universities, environmental problems, and curricular contents/structures. It was found that critical EE is emancipatory, involves epistemic tensions and ruptures, which do not coincide with the principles of sustainability. The reflection proposes seven requirements for training future professionals in any career/discipline with environmental criteria, so that in the future they will have the capacity to make responsible and ethical decisions, thinking from life, identifying different discourses and parameters. This work was carried out through qualitative documentary research, analysing official United Nations documents and contrasting them with statements by educational theorists, as well as critical theory and Latin American environmental thought.

Keywords : Higher environmental education; sustainable development; sustainability; environmental thinking.

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