Beyond sustainability: is social-ecological resilience the new concept for surviving the 21st century?

Resilience is one of the most important concepts in thinking about sustainability in the 21st century (Brand & Jax, 2007). In this article we attempt to explain what social-ecological resilience is and why these new ways of thinking are important to you as an educator of young people. We then look at action competence as pedagogy for environmental and social development in schools. We explore ways in which learning experiences might be re-oriented in schools to build upon the four pillars of sustainability (see Fien, 2001), to include strategies for direct action in response to possible chaotic change