FROM THE HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT THEME TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY – DANISH GEOGRAPHY AND EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Research on geography in relation to education for sustainable development (ESD), has only
recently climbed the research agenda. The geopolitics of intended learning outcomes in the
ESD debate, carries policy that produce dilemmas and challenges confronted with
disciplinary traditions. In this article it is examined dialectically how the changing climate
and the paradigm of sustainability have been dealt with in Danish geographical university
education. It is shown how curriculum programs in higher geographical education have taken
different approaches to address issues of sustainability and climate change and how
geographers articulate their role and function as knowledge on human-environment
interactions changes. The analysis of the geographical education reveal that geographers’ find
their discipline contribute considerably to ESD, and thus the human environment theme
seems to be associated more closely with sustainability issues.