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Can we avoid inheriting serious issues from research related to environmental education when the researcher community is addressing education for sustainable development? This paper identifies and discusses three main issues: if an explicit and coherent concept of environmental education or education for sustainable development is missing; if the field is dominated by researchers with an environmental science background; and if the research is aiming at improving practice through prescriptive, normative recommendations. The elaboration of the issues is taking a point of departure in the World Environmental Education Congress 2007 in Durban with perspectives for future ESD research and traces the historical roots of some of the trends and issues. It is argued that the overall question is related to a basic dichotomy: is the researcher seeing the role as a support to solving environmental problems here and now, or is the researcher seeing long-term empowerment through education as the main idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]