Demoting ecocentrism: towards ethical pluralism in sustainability education

Ecocentrism has made an important contribution to environmental ethics by affirming the value of ecosystems, species, and non-human life beyond instrumental human use. In sustainability education, however, its normative status requires closer examination. When ecocentrism is treated as a normatively authoritative framework, philosophical, pedagogical, and democratic problems arise. Claims about intrinsic value remain contested, and their institutionalisation may narrow ethical inquiry, reduce inclusiveness, and limit engagement with alternative perspectives. A more defensible educational response is to reconsider anthropocentrism in long-sighted terms, with emphasis on responsibility, care, reciprocity, and human dependence on ecological systems. This reframing resonates with recent work on relational values in environmental ethics. On this basis, ethical pluralism emerges as a stronger educational foundation than ecocentric normativity. Ecocentrism is thus better treated as one important ethical perspective among others than as the moral position to which sustainability education should lead learners.