Increasing the Value of the Environment: A 'real options' metaphor for learning

Academic debate continues about the meaning (or lack of meaning) of the terms 'sustainable development' and 'sustainability', and about the nature of any relationship these might have to education and learning. At the same time there are non-academic forums in which certain ideas about sustainable development (or sustainability) are becoming common currency. These are forums in which, typically, policy or compliance issues compel more or less prompt action of one sort or another. Learning is almost always implicit to some degree in such action. In this article, one widely held idea about sustainable development is critiqued in a constructive way, and an approach to thinking about issues of sustainable development and learning (including formal education) advanced. This approach employs a metaphor for possible human interactions with non-human nature that is derived from the world of financial management.