My material

I’ve been writing over many years, covering a wide range of topics centering on the need for education systems to respond much more fully and urgently to global challenges and help ensure more sustainable futures, not least for young people alive now, and for generations to come.

I’ve written on the implications of sustainability and ecological perspectives for all aspects of educational Paradigm, Purpose, Policy and Provision, and the nature of transformative learning, transformative learning systems and pedagogies.

My other topics include: Education for sustainability history, philosophy, theory and policy, the nature of systemic and paradigmatic change in education, sustainability and institutional learning and change, and the relationship between ecological thought, systemic thinking and an emergent postmodern ecological paradigm. Below you can find details of my publications and presentations.

I wrote this book because education is not yet sufficiently aligned to the realities of complexity, instability, unsustainability, and the need for rapid socio-economic transition towards a liveable and safer planet and world. There is a critical time lag, and yet the need for societal transformation is more than urgent.

Learning and Sustainability in Dangerous Times was published on the 25th April 2024, by Agenda Publishing. This anthology collection offers a new overview and includes chapter-by-chapter introductions that link together my thinking.

The book offers a compelling and stimulating perspective on the critical issue of how learning and education can make a decisive difference to securing the future in an increasingly uncertain and threatened world.

Foreword by David W. Orr, who writes that the book is:‘…as timely as any book can ever be.’

‘Education is at a watershed: either we drift along, tweaking the curriculum here and there as we head towards an ecological abyss, or we work with active agents of change to transform the entire educational system. Stephen Sterling has been at the heart of this debate for 50 years, and has become the go-to philosopher and thought leader for everyone who cares about the future of education and of life on Earth.‘

– Jonathon Porritt

‘...this engaging and inspiring book is not ‘just’ for those involved in ‘sustainability education’ but needs to be read and acted upon by anyone involved in formal education at all levels, and perhaps most pressingly by those involved in policy and curricular development. I cannot recommend it highly enough.’ – Prof Peter Higgins

‘Essential reading for all those that are committed to rethinking, reimagining and remaking education.’– Prof Bob Jickling

‘Educators who want to prepare their students for the world that is coming would be well advised to read this powerful and inspiring book.‘ – Molly Scott Cato