Towards a Sustainability Education Framework: Challenges, Concepts and Strategies—The Contribution from Urban Planning Perspectives

Education for sustainability is becoming a critical component in achieving a sustainable life and protecting our planet and human habitats. However, a review of the sustainability literature reveals a great deal of confusion and misinterpretation regarding the concepts, themes, and goals of education for sustainability. Education for sustainability, including the themes that should be derived and taught, lacks an interdisciplinary conceptual framework. In addition, the literature of education for sustainability mostly lacks the aspects of urban and community planning and the significant contribution of the planning profession. This paper proposes a new conceptual framework, Sustainability Education Framework, which is composed of concepts that derived from different disciplines. At the heart of the conceptual framework rests the normative category and its concepts. The epistemological foundation of the conceptual framework of education for sustainability is based on the unresolved paradox between ‘sustainability’ and ‘development’.