If you hear a dull thud as you read this, it's the digitally-enhanced sound of my heart sinking (again).
At a recent Unesco Executive Board, its panjandrums decided that a special focus on climate change education was just what ESD needed to render it more meaningful. Just to make sure we're all on the same page, in Unesco insider-speak, this is a thematic area of expected results within one of the main lines of action of biennial sectorial priority 36 C/5.
Now, a focus on climate change itself within ESD might just have been ok as part of an integrated programme, as its hard to imagine that this doesn't exist anyway. But climate change education? I think not. Yet another adjectival education to get in the way of more meaningful reform. As the much missed John Smyth reminded us now and again, changing education was the goal, not tinkering around the (already marginalised) margins. Sad, really. Whether it makes any difference on the ground is another matter ...
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