2015 Volume 24 Issue 3 Pages 3_18-31
This paper reviews discussions on environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) in Japan between 2002, the year the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) was proposed, and 2014, the final year of the DESD, with a particular focus on papers published in Environmental Education, the journal of the Japanese Society of Environmental Education. The influence of ESD on EE is examined, and seven major impacts are identified: an increased focus on the process of education and learning within local community development practices, and the need to learn from studies and discussions in the field of adult and community education; expansion of EE in schools as part of community development practice; the development of collaboration between EE and development education/ international education to gain a global perspective; an increased awareness of the importance of the whole-institution/activity approach to realize sustainability; an increased focus on value development in EE/ESD; the development of forums for discussion of EE as ESD following the Great East Japan Earthquake; and a greater focus on the necessity of a “reflective” review of EE and ESD. The paper also provides an overview of international and domestic reports, declarations, and proposals announced at the end of the DESD. Finally, the paper presents three important challenges for EE research and practice in Japan: the further development of viewpoints on local and global social rejection issues through mutual learning in cooperation with other fields of education concerning human rights, social welfare, gender, and multicultural co-living; the critical and reflective review of whole-institution/activity sustainability, based on an understanding of education as a process that explores and experiments with approaches to achieve sustainability; and further pursuit of the distinctive perspectives and values of EE.
