Education for sustainable development for Maltese policy-makers : a requisite or an option?

Abstract

This thesis focused on ESD for Maltese high-level policy-makers within the context of critical education targeting critical thinking thus laying a foundational pathway to policy-makers’ engagement with ESD. The research questions and the related fieldwork generated insights on the views of policy-makers on SD, the policy-making process and ESD. The qualitative research design developed to access the powerful was informed by critical theory, constructivism and phenomenology to critically investigate policy-makers’ perspectives. Semi-structured interviews served as a form of reflection and critical thinking on SD issues.

The findings of this study show that to Maltese policy-makers SD is a relative concept whereby its meanings and misinterpretations consolidate power. Values, attitudes and responsibilities are of an anthropocentric nature. SD is hindered by the partisan interests and intrinsic instrumentality. Thus the need for a convergence of politics and SD through normative socio-cultural critique. Policy-making for SD emerged as a complex process of power-based negotiations affected by the normalisation of power leading to a culture of inertia. This scenario highlights the need for ESD. Non-formal modes of ESD including personalised critical-reflective interviews coincide with the needs of policy-makers by encouraging an intra-personal counter-narrative on SD. This study contributed to knowledge by creating an innovative critical ESD learning space based on Freirean constructive dialogue and Habermasian emancipative reasoning that promotes critical thinking and awareness in high-level policy-makers for a sustainable life-role. This thesis fills the gap in critical pedagogy and SD literature by indicating ESD as a form of critical pedagogy for policy-makers based on dialogical encounters aimed at perspective transformational change.