Education for sustainable development: Implications for small island developing states (SIDS)

•Importance of contemporary environmental and economic challenges for small island developing states (SIDS).•Implications for sustainable development strategies and initiatives worldwide.•Strategic and urgent implications for education for sustainable development (ESD) in SIDS.•SIDS have pioneered innovative approaches to ESD.•The international community has much to learn from the SIDS experience. Climate change and global recession have especially dramatic implications for small island developing states (SIDS). It is argued that such issues warrant urgent attention from researchers, policy-makers and the international development community. The existing literature relating to sustainable development in SIDS is limited in scope and rarely addresses the educational implications of sustainable development in significant depth. This paper draws upon recent theoretically and empirically grounded research carried out in collaboration with colleagues working within small states worldwide. The analysis examines how SIDS are responding to these contemporary global challenges, how the international community is engaging with such developments, and how education research and development co-operation might play more effective roles in advancing sustainable development in small state contexts. The paper concludes by exploring ways in which the wider international community may learn from the small states experience.