Education for sustainability: public policies vs reality

Abstract

Although sustainable development seems to be one of the greatest worldwide commitments , we cannot deny that, unfortunately, in Mexico such topic is, in many occasions, only present in the discourses of political elites. In turn, civil society seems unable to make more than a minimal contribution to it, due to the fact
that the large majority of people do not possess an extensive knowledge on these issues, nor do they attain the necessary academic instruction to achieve such knowledge. Furthermore, governments themselves do not have enough qualified advisors that consider educational sustainability a priority during their mandates, which means that frequently these commitments are nothing but good ideas that never get to be implemented in real life. Nonetheless, the awareness of sustainable development has gradually been infiltrating different social strata, in specific locations in the country, as the consequence of isolated actions national decrees, touristic interests and individual interests of some communities, among other initiatives.
Academic programmes have also been incorporating the sustainable approach, while research
urges the achievement of results that take into account environmental preservation.