Ireland’s ESD to 2030: second national strategy on education for sustainable development: enough to catalyse sociocultural transformation?

The entangled crises of climate change, ecological destruction and social injustices characterise the world we live in. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been embraced by a significant number of countries as an exemplar for driving the individual and social transformation needed to address these entangled crises. To gain a deeper and broader understanding of the values underpinning ESD, this paper employs Kincheloe and Berry’s (Kincheloe, Joe L., and Kathleen S Berry. 2004. Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill) bricolage approach, specifically their exploration of a point of entry text (POET). As the strategy tasked with embedding ESD in both educational and other applicable strategies in Ireland, Ireland’s ESD to 2030: Second National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development is selected as the POET. By interrogating the values underpinning the POET, this research aims to assess the capacity of ESD to catalyse sociocultural change.