UNITED NATIONS DECADE OF EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. BACKGROUND AND MEANING

Abstract

United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Background and meaning The following article analyzes the United Nations call to proclaim the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Its intention is to verify if it entails an original proposal which would offer significant innovations in the education field. The reference model taken is that of Environmental Education since the beginnings of the seventies which is firmly orientated towards global sustainability. The attention focus is situated on three central pillars of this model: theoretic principals, aims and values which orientate the educational action. Each of these elements is analyzed in the article, which concludes that Environmental Education is, and has been for decades, a genuine education for sustainable development. The Decade has, nonetheless, the great value of drawing attention to the necessity to attend the requirements of sustainability in different educational focus. Key words: Environmental education, Education for sustainable development, Values, Global sustainability, United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.