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Education for Sustainability: A Wisdom Model

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Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education

Part of the book series: World Sustainability Series ((WSUSE))

Abstract

Educating students to become more sustainable in thinking and behaviors, both at a personal level and in their professional careers, is an important contribution to moving the planet toward more sustainable development. The lack of a strong theoretical framework which would unite education for sustainability across academic fields and allow for long-term and big picture planning, however, is a weakness. This paper proposes a new model to guide education for sustainability based on the concept of wisdom. Benefits of this model include connecting educators to a range of existing education and developmental theories connected to its four main components. The model also provides for organization of approaches to sustainability education across disciplines, supports curricular design, and assessment. It can be applied at levels from lesson through course and degrees, as well as across years of education. In fact, a review of wisdom theory further supports that sustainability thinking and actions can be considered wisdom in action. One important implication of implementing this model is that good quality education for sustainability will also encourage the development of wisdom. The paper will be of interest to anyone connected to education for sustainability.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State University of New York-Empire State College, 25 North Street, Canandaigua, NY, 14424, USA

    Lorraine Lander

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  1. Lorraine Lander
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Correspondence to Lorraine Lander .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. FTZ-ALS, HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Centre for Environmental Education and Research, University of Malta , Msida, Malta

    Mark Mifsud

  3. Life and Environmental Science, Bournemouth University, Poole, United Kingdom

    Chris Shiel

  4. Geography (Science campus, Florida), University of South Africa , Johannesburg, South Africa

    Rudi Pretorius

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Lander, L. (2017). Education for Sustainability: A Wisdom Model. In: Leal Filho, W., Mifsud, M., Shiel, C., Pretorius, R. (eds) Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47895-1_3

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