When businesses go to school: Neoliberalism and education for sustainable development

This paper foregrounds education for sustainable development (ESD) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as emergent discourses that need con-scious efforts to align their ideals. While it explores the capacity of ESD to make signifi cant contribution towards educational thinking and practice, it does so recognising that current neoliberalists ’ and capitalists ’ agenda, particularly as they relate to formal schooling, contradicts the ideals of edu-cation for sustainable development. Using the United States—a capitalist giant—as a focus, the paper employs critical discourse analysis to expose such conceptual and operational contradictions inherent in current business involvement in schools. In calling for a change, the paper draws attention to the need for a conscious alignment of CSR activities both in schools and in the wider community to current ESD agenda. The paper concludes that if CSR is a business ’ contribution towards sustainable development, then its pedagogical imperatives must be critically explored