Who Is Afraid of Teaching Values? Challenging the Neutrality Myth in (Sustainability) Education
Journal
Evidence-informed Sustainability Education (EvSusEd)
Type
digital resource
Date Issued
2026-08-04
Author(s)
Abstract
Neutrality is not a solution but a barrier to meaningful education. The kernel of truth in the myth deserves protection: fairness, balance, and the prohibition of overwhelming remain binding professional standards. Complete value-neutrality, by contrast, is impossible and undesirable, because education always involves choices about content, framing, and pedagogy. The professional alternative is transparency, not suppression: educators disclose and justify relevant commitments, organise rather than foreclose controversy, and strengthen learners’ capacity to reach informed, independent judgments. Sustainability education is political, not in the sense of partisanship, but in its engagement with societal transformation. Sustainability education can be normative without being indoctrinating; what it cannot be is neutral.
Language
English
Keywords
sustainability
education
ESD
Teaching
Learning
Values
Neutrality
Integrity
Judgement
Normativity
Responsibility
Educator
Ethics
Beutelsbacher Konsens
Ideology
Activism
Bias
Ambivalence
Indoctrination
Professionalism
False Dichotomy
MYTHSE
Myth
Evidence
Dr. Stefan T. Siegel
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Official URL
Division(s)
Contact Email Address
stefan.siegel@unisg.ch