Systems approaches to managing sustainable development: experiences from developing supported open-learning.

It is argued that a failure to consider ecological sustainability within a systemic framework constrains the design of learning systems which are needed for taking effective purposeful action for 'managing' sustainable development. The arguments put forward are grounded in the author's experience of developing supported open learning curricula delivered in a distance teaching mode in the area of systems practice for managing complexity as well as the supervision of post-graduate student research