Since no unlimited natural growth is possible, sustainable and future-oriented strategies are needed to cope with the resulting limits. Developing such strategies in the economical, ecological and social fields is a global challenge which can only be addressed interdisciplinary. Against this background, concepts of education for sustainable development (ESD) have become more and more important in the past few years. The UN Conference on Environment and Development passed the Agenda 21 in 1992, introducing a shift from traditional environmental education, which excluded social and economic aspects, to a comprehensive societal understanding of sustainability (cf. Michelsen 1998, p.165; Hoffmann et al. 2000, p.25; Haan 1999, p.6).

Concepts of ESD are based on different agendas and written by different protagonists in the field. They generally describe – explicitly or implicitly – the relation of individuals with other individuals as well as with nature regarding the normative aim of sustainability. Thus, the question arises by which normative assumptions the respective agendas of ESD are motivated. This paper, which is part of a larger PhD project, presents the concepts of nature which can be reconstructed in the German-speaking discourse.

Up to now, little empirical educational research exists in the German-speaking context which targets the understanding of nature in programmatic discourses of ESD. Although several studies theoretically analyse the term of nature (Gloy 1995, Heiland 1992), only one study touches the relation between ESD and nature within the discourse of ESD. This study shows that in international documents on ESD an anthropocentric approach is adopted (Di Giulio 2004, p.73; 162; 321).

In the international discourse, the concept of nature is only addressed singularly within certain discourse traditions. In „Retrieving Nature“ Bonnett asks „what constitutes a right relationship with nature“ (ibid. 2004, p.128) within the British discourse on ESD. In the Swedish study „Education for Sustainable Development“ Sandell et al. (2005) address environmental problems from different perspectives. They ask about the concepts of nature in ESD and argue that the international ESD largely corresponds to a „late-modern anthropocentrism“ (Sandell et al. 2005, p.101).

This PhD project reacts to the current deficit research situation focussing on the research question: “Which concept(s) of nature can be reconstructed from concepts of ESD in the German-speaking discourse?” The empirical reconstruction is based on analysing documents on and of ESD. Based on the interpretation of these documents, this PhD project also addresses in detail the questions (a) if there are different concepts of nature and (b) which position in nature is taken by the individual. It therewith contributes to the current research on ESD in terms of describing normative assumptions which motivate the different concepts of ESD.

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