Abstract
This chapter questions the role of competence in the ESD mission. It explores how competence is defined and used to describe intended outcomes in ESD and argues that definitions of competence widely used in the ESD discourse conflate cognitive and affective objectives, relatable to being able to do something and being willing to do the same thing, in a way that is unhelpful in the contexts of teaching and learning. The chapter suggests that teaching a student to be able to perform a sustainability-related behaviour and teaching that same student to be willing to perform that behaviour are different educational tasks, requiring different teaching and learning approaches, different assessments, and perhaps even different teachers. The chapter submits that replacing the term competent with the terms able and willing, as appropriate, would allow ESD practitioners to communicate with one another and others far more effectively than they do at present.