Abstract

Educating for Sustainable Development (ESD) is for everyone. It is for ALL (humanity and nature). By engaging in processes and activities that promote ESD, we ALL benefit. For higher education to remain relevant and engaged it must not only integrate insights, principles and lessons drawn from perspectives rooted in the Western worldview, ESD must also draw on and learn from other worldviews that include Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Gaianism. This paper highlights a variety of theoretical and practical information for students, teachers, researchers, and administrators who seek to integrate sustainability at all levels from early childhood to higher education. We do not see educating for a sustainable present and future as only an outcome and a process of learning in higher education, but as a catalyst for educational change and institutional innovation. Although some universities are beginning to view ESD as an academic discipline in its own right, the majority of universities are still lagging behind. However, increasing public and professional familiarity with the concept, and the growing urgency of global calls for educating for a sustainable present and future, suggest that ESD may soon become an academic discipline at all universities.