Integrating education for sustainable development & education for international understanding: conceptual issues and pedagogical principles for teacher education to address sustainability

It is in this spirit that this essay seeks to “integrate” two active and expanding fields of 2 educational innovation and transformation worldwide, namely ESD (education for sustainable development or sustainability) and EIU (education for international understanding). The key conceptual issues and themes of both of these movements will be clarified and shared values and understandings highlighted. It will also be argued that both ESD and EIU , in order to effectively fulfill their goals of building a peaceful, just and sustainable world order, rests on some key common pedagogical principles and processes. Another introductory caveat is also essential here, namely the question of paradigm. Among policy-makers, theorists and practitioners, there may well be and often are distinct differences in conceptualization according to their paradigmatic interpretations, with consequently alternative implications for policies and practices.