Reading to Make the World a Better Place? Critical Literacy and Education for Sustainable Development

The article explores the role of literature in advancing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), examining its potential to enhance understanding of global challenges and to foster transformative action.After the framework of ESD is outlined, UNESCO's SDG Book Club initiative is taken as a starting point for an analysis of the opportunities, challenges and limitations of reading literature for sustainability education.The authors suggest critical literacy as a way of reading with and against texts, and the approach of critical literary conversations that encourages learners to engage in democratic discourse.