Education for sustainable development (ESD) is defined as a ‘concept that encompasses a new vision of education that seeks to empower people of all ages to be responsible for creating and enjoying a sustainable future’ (UNESCO, 2002: 7). ESD is applicable to all education sectors including initial teacher education. From September 2012, initial teacher education in Ireland was offered as a radically different four year B.Ed. Degree Programme. This reform of initial teacher education offers immense potential for teacher educators to re-imagine their programmes in light of a range of guiding paradigms and theoretical frameworks including Education for Sustainable Development. This paper looks at ESD in the context of the Rio+20 conference, its relationship with development education, the reforms which are taking place in initial primary teacher education and concludes with a number of recommendations for incorporating ESD as a core part of initial teacher education.
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