School in an age of “catastrophes”: Epistemological keys and didactic challenges for education for sustainable development

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is at the heart of schools’ priorities. Emphasis is placed on the fight against global warming, the protection of the environment and biodiversity, and the control of pandemics. The aim is to give students the necessary keys to understanding these major societal issues and the means to take action. Under what conditions is it possible to achieve such objectives? Our study approaches this subject from the point of view of catastrophes and catastrophisms. Their characterization in the natural sciences requires the use of modes of reasoning that integrate contingency in order to think about the history of the Earth and living beings, and the uncertainties of their future.