three decades of international guidelines for environment-related education: a critical hermeneutic of the united nations discourse

abstract

the unesco-unep international environmental education program (1975- 1995) provided impetus for developing, legitimizing, and institutionalizing environmental education. more recently, unesco was mandated by the united nations to carry out a worldwide shift towards education for sus- tainable development. as international organizations' recommendations and guidelines often act as beacons for the conception and implementation of national formal and nonformal education programs, it is necessary to critically appraise their content. our hermeneutical analysis of united nations documents concerning environmental education, which is now sub- sumed to sustainable development, highlights an instrumental view of edu- cation, a resourcist conception of the environment, and an economicist view of development. such a worldview needs to be discussed.