This study examines how Education for Sustainability (EfS) is interpreted and enacted in toddler classrooms, focusing on the interaction between policy frameworks and teachers' daily practices in Sweden and T & uuml;rkiye. Using a qualitative multiple-case design, data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis in one preschool from each country. Findings reveal both shared commitments and notable differences. Swedish teachers approached EfS as a holistic, child-centered responsibility, positioning toddlers as active participants and embedding sustainability into everyday routines. In contrast, Turkish teachers implemented more structured, task-oriented activities, often shaped by developmental expectations, limited resources, and the absence of explicit EfS policy for children under three. Across both contexts, practices reflected an ongoing negotiation between systemic frameworks and classroom realities. The study highlights EfS in toddler education calls for stronger curricular integration and professional development while advancing debates on child agency and early sustainability pedagogies.
This study explores connection-to-nature (CtN) among primary-school children attending Forest School (FS) and conventional school settings amid growing concerns about nature disconnection in urbanized, technology-driven societies. As opportunities for engagement with nature decline, schools may play a critical role in providing exposure. This study explores whether children attending FS differ in their cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of CtN compared with peers in conventional schooling, addressing a gap in empirical research on associations between FS educational contexts and children's CtN. Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, validated survey and visual instruments were administered to children in rural primary schools in Israel- two FSs and one conventional public school. Across instruments, FS students reported higher levels of CtN, reflected in stronger environmental awareness, emotional affinity with nature and protective behaviors. Contributions to FS research are discussed and directions for further research clarifying the nature of associations between FS contexts and student's CtN.
Climate change is threatening the environment and communities globally, yet in the United States, it is not consistently taught in formal education. Understanding teachers' personal perspectives about climate change and whether they feel capable of teaching the topic is critical to supporting their efforts to integrate it into their curriculum. This United States-based study looks at K-12 educators' knowledge, personal values, concern about climate change, and self-efficacy beliefs, and analyses how these traits relate to teaching climate change. Using 393 questionnaire responses, findings suggest there are moderate to strong positive correlations between knowledge, ecological values, concern, and self-efficacy, while individual, egoistic values have weak to moderate negative correlations with the other characteristics. A latent profile analysis suggests a range of climate change educators, categorized into five profiles based on the variables of interest. Implications of this work include ensuring different types of support are available for teachers with different perspectives.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) possesses remarkable theoretical richness, yet classroom practice does not consistently yield the durable, transferable cognitive architectures that sustainability's complexity demands. This article argues that the persistent gap lies less in the definition of sustainability competencies than in the absence of a cognitive architecture specifying how those competencies are constructed, integrated, and transferred. Building on Tabka, we develop the concept of sustainable schemas: cognitive structures specifically organized around the operational invariants that characterize sustainability situations, systemic interdependence, extended temporality, productive uncertainty, extended responsibility, and differential justice. Drawing on Vergnaud's theory of conceptual fields and Morin's epistemological foundations, we distinguish sustainable schemas from adjacent constructs (mental models, epistemic cognition, socio-scientific reasoning) and articulate their internal architecture. A central theoretical advance of this article is the integration of environmental justice not as a normative add-on but as a structural invariant of the cognitive architecture itself. We conclude with implications for curriculum design and a research agenda.
Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) research contain empirical knowledge as well as values and norms. This article discusses how value-premises should be handled in ESE research. The article uses a theoretical model on value-premises: value-premises can be (1) explicitly stated and justified, (2) explicitly stated but not justified, or (3) implicitly embedded without critical discussion, perceived as self-evident and uncontroversial. The article argues that value-premises should be explicitly stated and justified. The implications are several. Firstly, it becomes clear which value-premises that have been chosen by the researcher and on what grounds. Secondly, it contributes to the understanding of when researchers are doing science and when they are doing politics. Thirdly, it clarifies how the value-premises are conceptualized. Fourthly, it fosters a discussion about which value-premises are accepted within the research community. Lastly, it enhances the possibility of scrutinizing the quality of the empirical research.
Interventions using social norms to encourage sustainable behavior are common, but few explicitly apply cultural evolutionary theory or consider specific social learning strategies. Using a survey, vignette-primed choice test, and semi-structured interviews, we explored how a student population used and were influenced by, social information in their sustainable behavior. We focused on three social learning strategies: conformity, payoff bias and prestige bias. Surprisingly, vignettes framed around these strategies had no or a negative effect on preferences for a sustainable choice, while prior environmental views and demographic status were stronger predictors. By contrast, our survey and interview responses suggested influences consistent with conformity along with influences of friends, family, and knowledgeable individuals, but little evidence of payoff or prestige bias. The results suggest that the operation of social learning strategies in complex socio-cultural environments is nuanced, but also that one-shot social information interventions may not be sufficient to override existing attitudes.
Working constructively with grief is central to well-being, particularly as grief corresponds to the resilience of youth. The study explores the role of grief and resilience in the climate crisis, specifically for undergraduate youth in the Northeastern United States. Using phenomenological inquiry analyzing 11 research interviews, themes emerged including climate grief, well-being, and hope. Subthemes included: anticipatory grief; climate anxiety; climate shame and blame; coping individually and coping together; anxious acceptance and beyond; hope in Generation Z; and higher education's role in cultivating hope and resilience. However, participants shared several coping mechanisms or resilient responses that they perceived as useful in addressing the impacts of climate change including internet humor as well as local action within their sphere of influence while awaiting the opportunity for their generation to make meaningful systemic change as their peers amass more power.
Climate change (CC) is a global challenge that disproportionately affects vulnerable regions. Education is essential to strengthen mitigation and adaptation efforts, particularly through competence-based approaches that integrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The Climate Change Competence (C3) aligns with this aim, but practical tools are needed to assess it effectively. This study adapts and validates a scale to measure C3 in adolescents aged 12 to 18, across two contrasting national contexts: Spain and Honduras. Developed through literature review and expert consultation, the instrument was tested using confirmatory composite analysis with partial least squares-structural equation modeling (N = 637). The resulting 42-item 'Teens Climate Change Competence Questionnaire' (TC3Q) shows strong psychometric properties and can be applied in diverse educational settings. While the focus is on cross-national validation, the study also explores differences in student responses between countries, suggesting that national context may influence C3 levels.
Across North America, climate education scholars have called for bolder and more critical analyses of power and coloniality in teaching and learning about the climate crisis. Garnering momentum for this shift in climate education discourse and practice requires a greater integration and engagement with the lived experiences, epistemes, and knowledges of Black, Indigenous and racialized diasporic communities. We have little to no North American education research outlining the ways educators of color approach climate justice education; how their positionality, their knowledge, their families' stories, or their relationship(s) to land(s), influence how they develop desires and intentions when teaching about the climate crisis. Using narrative inquiry, this research takes up this gap by revealing how ecological precarity is felt across national boundaries, or put differently, how "the heaviness of climate coloniality" travels across borders and into the educational projects of racialized climate educators.
Climate change is among the most urgent global challenges, yet Higher Education (HE) often provides climate change education (CCE) that is too narrow in focus and disconnected from students' perspectives. This project, developed through staff-student partnership, examined mismatches between staff assumptions about teaching content, methods, and outcomes, and what students already know, value, and wish to learn. Contrary to expectations, students were less concerned with identity representation in CCE and more with aligning teaching to their interests and prior knowledge. In response, we co-constructed a framework for inclusive and engaging climate education, centered on iterative "climate change education manifestos." These manifestos highlight shortcomings in current practice and articulate shared standards for improvement. While our project produced one manifesto, led by student partners, the proposal within this article is for such documents to serve as living tools that foster dialogue, adaptability, and co-construction of CCE, ultimately advancing inclusivity and meaningful engagement.
This study examines the disconnect between universities' sustainability initiatives and students' everyday environmental practices. Through qualitative interviews, we explore how environmental habits formed during youth are disrupted by barriers encountered in university settings. The transition from home to campus provides an important "window of opportunity" for promoting and reinforcing environmental habits, yet institutions often fail to support this critical period of behavioral adaptation. Participants reported inconsistent recycling systems, widespread single-use plastics in dining services, and limited support for sustainable living, leading many to discard prior sustainability practices. While some students maintained environmentally responsible behaviors through personal ethics or peer networks, most described a persistent gap between intention and action. This divide reveals habit discontinuity from home to campus. It also illustrates a misalignment between institutional sustainability goals and students' lived experiences, creating frictions that undermine universities' stated commitment to sustainability. We argue that fostering environmental practices requires supportive micro-level infrastructures that make sustainable choices accessible, convenient, and consistent with institutional values.
This quantitative study aims to explore the role of higher education institutions in promoting sustainable behaviors among university students in Kazakhstan. A total of 817 responses were collected from six universities through a trilingual (Kazakh, Russian, and English) survey assessing students' knowledge, attitudes, values, and skills related to sustainability. Sustainable behavior was operationalized as the total count of 14 binary actions, representing students' engagement across environmental, economic, and social domains. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that skills developed at university were associated with a 0.19 increase in sustainable behavior, 95% CI [.12, .27], after controlling for their background characteristics (i.e., major, gender, geographic location, and economic status), their knowledge about sustainability, and their attitudes toward sustainable development. A latent profile analysis identified four distinct profiles of university students' perceptions of sustainable development based on their knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors related to sustainability. The study suggests that while attitudes toward sustainability are generally positive among students, universities play a vital role in transforming these attitudes into behaviors through skill-building and practical engagement. Tailored strategies that account for demographic differences and distinct student profiles can further enhance the effectiveness of sustainability education in higher education institutions.
This study investigates the emotional subjectivities of teachers in Iran's formal environmental education (FEE) and how pedagogical, institutional, and socio-political forces shape climate-related affect and practice. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, we surveyed 379 teachers with a Climate Emotion Inventory and conducted interviews with 38 educators across five provinces. Findings show prevalent constructive emotions (Responsibility, 72%; Hope, 68%) alongside inhibitory affects (Anxiety, 61%; Guilt, 47%). Curriculum constraints (76%) and weak institutional support (64%) strongly correlated with anxiety, while environmental identity was positively linked with hope and responsibility. Interviews revealed regionally grounded grief, the emotional costs of teaching crises, and coping strategies such as reframing, peer dialogue, spiritual grounding, and fostering student agency. While these practices sustain pedagogy, they remain compensatory in the absence of systemic reform. We argue that climate emotions are socially produced and politically mediated, shaping both vulnerability and resilience in sustainability education.
This study aims to explore how the teaching of Indigenous Science (IS) within the Environmental Education course can contribute to the enhancement of students' attitudes, knowledge, and sustainability competencies. This is an experimental study involving one experimental group (34 students) and one control group (28 students). The experimental class received instruction enriched with a specially developed monograph based on the IS of the Danau Tempe community, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, whereas the control class was only given general explanations of local wisdom without supporting learning materials. Overall, students demonstrated a positive perception of the integration of IS. The findings of this study indicate that students in the experimental group exhibited higher levels of sustainability attitudes, knowledge, and competencies compared to the control group. This study highlights the transformative potential of integrating Indigenous Science into environmental education, offering a contextually grounded pedagogical model that can strengthen sustainability learning in culturally diverse settings.
We surveyed 82 North Carolina K-12 teachers about their motivations and beliefs related to teaching climate change. Additionally, we examined whether the political environment of the county (Democrat or Republican) the teacher taught in was associated with their motivation to attend climate change professional development. Results showed that over 90% of participants taught climate change in some capacity. Teachers who taught formal lessons reported climate change aligned with their curriculum and standards, as well as their knowledge on the topic. Teachers who facilitated informal discussions agreed climate change is an important topic, is solid science, and is not too controversial to teach. The majority of the teachers in the study, regardless of teaching climate change lessons formally, informally or not at all expressed interest in climate change professional development.
Sustainability education needs a holistic approach that includes multiple perspectives, but traditional curricula often prioritize Western scientific knowledge, overlooking local understanding. This gap is particularly evident in Hong Kong, where sustainability education is fragmented and underrepresented. This study examines how engaging a conservationist and a local fisher as guides on place-based field trips to a rural area shaped urban undergraduate students' sense of place and understanding of a complex sustainability issue in Hong Kong. Using a case study approach, 27 undergraduates participated in field trips to a rural fishpond area, with 13 agreeing to be interviewed. Findings indicate that the conservationist strengthened students' connection to the biophysical dimension, while the fisher's narratives engaged them with sociocultural and political-economic dimensions. The competing perspectives encouraged students to reconsider their stance on this sustainability issue, reflecting on the complexity of balancing conservation, cultural heritage, individual livelihood and economic development.
This paper presents the findings of a study focusing on the role of experiential learning pedagogy in higher education to evaluate how it can contribute to competency building for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The UNESCO competencies framework for ESD was used to evaluate the different learning attributes and assessed for competency building across a cohort of postgraduate students attending an experiential outdoor field course to the Isle of Eigg, Scotland. Results identify a wide range of competencies developed on the course, with collaborative, critical thinking, and normative competencies most prominent. Four connecting qualities shared across student interviews: place-responsiveness, collaborative learning structure, real-world contexts, and critical reflection. Qualities of learning, as we argue, shifts the focus away from curriculum design solely for the attainment of abstract competencies, toward meaningful experiences where competencies can be identified through critical self-reflection by learners.
Since 2023, a reconfigured Indonesian curriculum has afforded the embedding of environment-related literacies (ErLs) into its co-curricular program, ProjekPenguatanProfilPelajarPancasila, P5 [Project to Strengthen Pancasila Students' Profile]. This small-scale study explores how high school teachers have understood and enacted the embedding of ErLs during the 'launch phase' of P5. Our primary research focus is how teachers from various subject backgrounds understand prospects for embedding ErLs, focusing on drivers, enablers and barriers to enactment. Data were collected in two contrasting Public High Schools in Indonesia, using interviews, observation of P5 planning meetings and lessons, and document analysis. Following thematic analysis, key findings lead us to propose an alternative model for ErLs in Indonesia, grounded in closer attention to Indonesian sociocultural settings. The model is called the Spiritually-infused, Environmentally-Integrated Sustainability Model for Inquiry-driven Contextualized Literacies ["SEISMIC Literacies"]. Theoretical and practical implications are also offered.
