Sustainable Development as a World-view: Implications for Education

Abstract

The normative philosophy of education has been argued by many (e.g. Brezinka (Philosophy of Educational Knowledge (trans: Brice JS, Eshelman R). Springer, Dordrecht, 1978/1992)) as the most important branch in the field of philosophy of education, as it sets aims for education, makes recommendations on the means and justifies them. The historical development of the normative philosophy of education goes back to the nineteenth century when attempts were made to establish a secular school system (Durkheim (Moral Education. The Free Press, New York, 1973)). Normative philosophy contains value judgments and normative statements based on a certain world-view and moral point of view. The objective is not only to investigate human behaviour but also to guide it. Educational aims express something that is desirable, such as abilities, competencies and virtues that should be acquired.

This chapter refers to ideas of sustainable development and argues that its conceptualisation within the ethics of weak anthropocentrism – the environmental ethic that promotes the mutual flourishing of human and non-human nature (Pavlova 2009a) – provides a world-view and a moral stand that can be used by the normative philosophy of education for formulating objectives, and approaches to, education. With Russia as an example, where sustainable development was positioned as a world-view that formulates basic premises about humanity and the world, this chapter demonstrates that at the level of educational policy these dispositions have not been fully accepted.