Reimagining Geoscience Education for Sustainability

Abstract

Geoscience is crucial for addressing sustainability challenges related to climate change, the energy transition, water resources management, and natural hazards. However, the capacity of the geosciences to enable sustainable societies is limited by several weaknesses in geoscience education. This paper supplies a concise review of Earth science education around the world and highlights resources and strategies for reshaping it to better support sustainability initiatives and attract more students to geoscience degree programmes and careers. The poor quality of Earth science education in schools around the world reverberates throughout society to perpetuate low levels of awareness of geoscience and misperceptions about its relevance and problem-solving potential. University geoscience programmes, which typically focus on geoscientific content and technical skills, must broaden to encompass the social and ethical dimensions of sustainability and to foster communication skills that enable interdisciplinary, cross-sector collaboration. Efforts to recruit future geoscientists must diversify to highlight a wide range of sustainability-related career paths and to attract people who bring perspectives from different backgrounds, cultures, gender identities, and life experiences. Many of these challenges have persisted for decades, but connecting geoscience education to wider conversations around sustainability, social justice, diversity and inclusion, and ethics is providing a new narrative for Earth science education that better aligns with evolving societal needs and the interests of today’s young people. This piece aims to provide a point of entry into the multifaceted literature around geoscience education and its importance to sustainability. It also reflects on how critical examination of the history, culture, and ethical responsibilities of the geosciences underscores the urgent need to reinvent Earth science education as an essential tool for addressing obstacles to sustainability arising from human-Earth interactions.