Educational leadership for sustainability: 50 shades of green, and much more
FORUM - Print ISSN 1474-7685 - Online ISSN 2047-7171
Volume 64 Number 1 (2022)
Educational leadership for sustainability: 50 shades of green, and much more
David Dixon pages 82‑93
DOI: 10.3898/forum.2022.64.1.82
Abstract
The world is facing an existential threat from yoked horses of the apocalypse, including catastrophic climate change, chemical toxicity, mass extinctions, certain populations overconsuming, unstable governments, migration and pandemics. The biosphere of the planet is becoming less conducive to life, including human life. As we enter the Anthropocene, how should we aim to reverse the damaging effects of our technology and culture in order to enter the Ecocene? What role should education play? This paper argues that leadership for sustainability should be a dominant model throughout education and wider society, rather than being consigned to the periphery, or totally unrecognised. It describes how the values and actions of these leaders relate directly to how our type of civilisation can be repurposed and ultimately redeemed for survival into the distant future. It also argues that progressive approaches have more to offer than traditional ones. The paper is polemical in style, and uses broad-brush contexts to hopefully instigate suitably new discussions on leadership in education.
To cite this article
David Dixon (2022) Educational leadership for sustainability: 50 shades of green, and much more, FORUM, 64(1), 82-93 . https://doi.org/10.3898/forum.2022.64.1.82