This formative article on indigenous heritage and cultural phenology informs environment and sustainability education as reflexive processes of heritage-mediated, deliberative learning to change together. It shows how transformative learning can be informed by engaging with biocultural heritage that has shaped the southern African biomes as living landscapes. Drawing on historical and agroecological evidence, the article illustrates how local practices have shaped environments that support sustainable livelihoods and community well-being. It reviews evidence of how expanding agroecology practices successively ‘tamed’ the land, making village surroundings safe, healthy and productive. The heritage practices examined show how colonial Arcadian ideals, together with the empirical traditions of the natural sciences, shaped Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as primarily a learner-led problem-solving approach. The study suggests that a broader view of learning and biocultural change can help reframe ESD as a more reflexive critical process, informed by biocultural heritage and connected to school disciplinary subjects knowledge.
This article presents a practice-based case study of embedding sustainability within a Bachelor of Arts course through a hybrid ‘One-to-many/Many-to-one’ pedagogy. Sustainability was positioned both as a cross-cutting theme within majors and as a shared problem space for interdisciplinary dialogue. Drawing on a compulsory sustainability unit at a regional Australian university, we analysed student forums and reflective essays to examine two dimensions: how majors aligned their disciplinary practices with selected SDGs and how sustainability competencies emerged through reflective and experiential pedagogies. Distinctive disciplinary strengths were evident: some majors emphasized systems and anticipatory reasoning, others normative critique and cultural analysis, and still others strategic, creative or collaborative practices. Collectively, these complementary profiles enriched sustainability literacy. The study contributes by showing how arts courses advance sustainability education, by operationalizing competency-based proximity coding to map disciplinary strengths and by aligning SDG engagement with competency development as a transferable scaffold for curriculum design.
The practical and skills-focused learning emphasized across STEM education tends to overlook the importance of connectivity and engagement with community stakeholders—this is problematic given these relationships are at the core of sustainable development. STEM education is crucial for advancing sustainability mindsets, yet its focus is often exclusively on only two of the three pillars: economic and environmental. There is a pressing need to raise awareness and expand STEM education to comprehensively address the third pillar, social sustainability. This inquiry-based case study responds to this sustainability deficit, paying particular attention to how education for sustainable development (ESD) can be bolstered within existing coursework and programmes. A primary aim of this research is to identify student knowledge gaps in social, community-focused sustainability knowledge. Qualitative, multidisciplinary analysis of student experiences offers insight into identifying best practices in the development of comprehensive and replicable ESD curricula that emphasizes social consciousness and accountability, ultimately preparing students to be effective practitioners in their STEM fields. Rather than a comprehensive report of data, this article serves as a call to action for other STEM programmes to integrate ESD-centred learning, promoting a holistic educational experience that fosters sustainable development and community well-being.
Heatwaves are increasing in duration and frequency as a result of anthropogenic climate change. Extreme heat has an impact on health and education, even in cooler climates, but little is known about how UK schools are adapting. The study draws on a survey of publicly available policies from 85 schools and survey responses from staff in 179 schools to understand the psychological and situational barriers and enablers to extreme heat adaptation. We find that adaptation is hindered by perceptions of threat, knowledge of actions that can be taken, agency of school staff linked to leadership and policy, and the quality of the school estate and infrastructure. We argue that climate adaptation education for school leaders is needed to raise an awareness of extreme heat risks and protective actions, to develop policies with and for communities, and to advocate for political actions to reduce vulnerability to climate change and bring about a more sustainable school sector.
This study investigates the scholarship of sustainability teaching and learning (SoSTL) in higher education (HE), focusing on the disciplinary integration of Education for Sustainable Development (EfSD) at the module level. Employing a narrative review of 33 case studies published between 2017 and 2023, the research explores disciplinary patterns using Biglan’s classification of academic fields. Results reveal a dominant presence of SoSTL in applied disciplines ( n = 32), particularly in business, education and engineering, with minimal representation in pure disciplines ( n = 1). The case studies exhibit an even distribution between sustainability-focused ( n = 17) and sustainability-inclusive ( n = 16) modules, highlighting diverse pedagogical approaches. General education interventions were fewer ( n = 6) than discipline-specific ones ( n = 27), underscoring the structural challenges of interdisciplinarity in HE. These findings illuminate gaps in disciplinary SoSTL engagement and emphasize the need for expanded scholarship across pure disciplines to foster comprehensive EfSD integration and equip students to address global sustainability challenges effectively.
Whole-institution approaches (WIA) have become a promising instrument promoting holistic implementation of sustainability in the global discourse on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Yet, the literature often presents idealized models of the ‘sustainable institution’ that may be difficult for institutions to translate into practice. This article reviews the literature on whole-school and WIA to sustainability learnings and practices across all levels of education in order to identify recurring elements that support institutional transformation. The literature review was conducted in 2024–2025 to inform the development of a UNESCO guidance tool on the WIA. The review identifies 14 components that frequently appear as areas of action within WIAs, including leadership, curriculum, pedagogy, governance, institutional culture and community engagement. The article conceptualizes these elements as flexible ‘building blocks’ that institutions can pick and choose to design their version of the WIA, according to the institutional and local context. This component-based perspective moves away from the understanding of the WIA as an ideal state of an institution and aims to support new forms of engagement with the WIA, inform policy dialogues and contribute to further research and institutional practice on sustainability transformation in education systems.
As the agriculture sector in many countries ages, sustainable agricultural systems that engage youth are necessary for food security and economic stability, both global priorities. However, this requires that young people are committed to their communities and (re)engaged in farming activities despite ongoing global patterns of urbanization. While education is key to achieving these sustainable development goals, young people are engaging in agriculture, a field often perceived as outdated, at diminishing rates. This study examines rural high school learners in Cambodia and their aspirations for agricultural careers after participating in sustainable agricultural education activities that focused on innovations in farming. Situated in social cognitive career theory, this study finds that as youth are exposed to modern agricultural education, including innovation and sustainable mechanization, they become more interested in a future career in agriculture and increasingly see education as integral to the agriculture sector.
Holistic education empowers learners with a transformative impact and improves their living conditions by enhancing their core competencies. A project-based learning approach helps to further facilitate environmental improvement initiatives at individual and institutional levels through a whole-school approach, ensuring sustainability and contributing to measurable results. GREEN Olympiad is a step in this direction and an example of a programme transcending towards education for sustainable development goals. This programme focuses on inspiring the school fraternity to incorporate various aspects of ‘environment and sustainable development’ into their curriculum through an instructional mode. GREEN Olympiad is a leading environmental education initiative of TERI that has completed 25 years since its inception. The importance of organizing Olympiads is also articulated in the National Education Policy introduced in India in the year 2020. Olympiads are seen as a medium to minimize rote learning and encourage holistic development and enhance twenty-first-century skills. This is the premier Olympiad on the environment in India and draws its linkages with the Sustainable Development Goal 4, Target 7 (SDG 4.7), which states, ‘ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development’ by 2030.
This commentary explores education for sustainable development (ESD) and international policy, focusing on participatory decision-making, long-term planning and education and awareness. Highlighting sustainable development goal (SDG) 4.7, which emphasizes sustainability, peace, gender equality and human rights in education, the text underscores the importance of inclusive, youth-driven participation in policy development. Drawing from the Youth Declaration (2022) and recent UN forums/ documents, the piece advocates for long-term, systems-based planning that addresses global challenges like climate change and generative artificial intelligence (AI). It emphasizes the need for educational literacy that transcends technical skills, fostering critical engagement with global systems and interdependencies. ESD’s goal is to promote meaningful action, empowering individuals to contribute to a sustainable and equitable future.
The technological revolution has many positive effects, including making life easier, connecting people and helping economic development. However, it has also been responsible for social isolation, mental health problems, and increased concerns around privacy and security. Evidently, the digital revolution, despite many changes in people’s lives, is not sustainable and not equitable. To ensure the global digital economy is equitable, it is essential for educational institutions to come up with new rules and regulations, produce upskilled workers, and encourage a balanced approach to life that incorporates both technology and spiritual practices. compassion, love and respect. The emphasis on Sustainable Development Goals is important, but it should be given due emphasis by making education reach the entire community. This necessitates establishing communiversity and is currently being practised at the International Islamic University Malaysia.
The article starts by making a case as to why it is necessary to transform knowledge and research. It is argued that transformation is essential for epistemic justice and to tackle the complex problems of unsustainable development. Higher education (HE) has a crucial role given its pivotal position in knowledge generation, circulation and governance processes. However, the HE sector must be transformed to play such a role. The article argues that the current neoliberal social imaginary based on markets and competition is antithetical to the required transformations. Instead, a new social imaginary based on Mbembe’s idea of a new planetary consciousness is suggested to provide a more robust vision to base reform. The article discusses priorities for transforming teaching, research, global and civic engagement and how universities are governed. The article concludes by arguing that transformation must be considered holistically across these areas and that governments, civil society and multilateral organizations, such as UNESCO, also have a critical role in transforming the broader knowledge ecosystem HE currently operates.
As the world approaches the 2030 deadline, the promise of education in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remains unfulfilled, while the dominant educational models prevail without critical scrutiny. Our analysis dives into the SDG targets and their portrayals in seminal reports from UNESCO, the OECD, and the World Bank, revealing the heavy hand of these international bodies in shaping the global education trajectory. The evidence suggests that these influential bodies often perpetuate a business-as-usual approach in education, continuing to idolize economic growth and social equity, while relegating environmental concerns to the back burner. This approach not only compromises our future survival, but also solidifies a global education agenda that may, inadvertently, be scripting the planet’s peril. Focusing on the complex interplay between education and the sustainability agenda, our essay urges a cultural shift towards a more ecologically attuned approach in education response.
This study utilizes literature databases and correspondence between UNESCO and Japan to clarify the effectiveness of implementing UNESCO’s recommendations for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and examines Japan’s domestic educational policy. After the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development ended in 2014, a noticeable decrease in references to ESD within the databases was observed. However, with the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, a noticeable pivot towards promoting sustainable development via ESD and global citizenship education (GCED) has occurred in Japan. This shift suggests that the SDGs act as an inclusive framework that effectively incorporates both GCED and ESD. With the recognition of the SDGs from 2015 onwards, problem-based research in the integrated study periods focused on the 17 SDGs became widespread in public schools, further accelerating the integration of sustainability concepts into mainstream education.
Education for sustainable development (ESD) has become a popular avenue to advance progress toward global goals linked to climate change, social issues and economic growth. For more than three decades, ESD has risen to prominence in international policy fora as a fundamental step in the implementation of a wide range of global development objectives. Particularly, following the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), enthusiasm for ESD has grown rapidly. However, the current moment represents a break in the wave of support for global projects like the SDGs. Catastrophes like the COVID-19 pandemic and violent regional conflicts have elicited scepticism for global cooperation and the efforts of agencies like the United Nations (UN). Consequently, in 2024, the UN Secretary-General convened the Summit of the Future (SOTF) to revitalize multilateralism and reconcile the grievances of nations. Among those grievances were demands for more critical assessments of the transformative potential and relevance of the SDGs. Provoked by the recent global momentum, this special issue highlights key perspectives regarding how the international education community has rolled out ESD initiatives during the SDG campaign, with special focus on SDG Target 4.7. The commentaries offer valuable insights into concrete actions to enrich ESD, the evolving contours of policy production, and, more deeply, critiques of the underlying forces shaping the field. Following the SOTF, the degree to which the UN was successful in assuaging scepticism and re-mobilizing support for its mission is still to be determined. Rebuilding the trust and faith of nations is a long-term effort, but certainly, the range of voices emerging offers enriching new pathways for the field of ESD and across the development spectrum.
In an era of environmental and social crises, integrating Indigenous knowledge into Education for Sustainable Development is critical for fostering a holistic, inclusive and effective approach to sustainability. This article explores the essential role of Indigenous knowledge in contextualizing education, highlighting its contributions to sustainable resource management, environmental stewardship and cultural preservation. Historically marginalized, Indigenous wisdom offers practical solutions for contemporary global challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity loss. By valuing and incorporating Indigenous perspectives into educational frameworks, education stakeholders can create more robust and culturally relevant learning experiences that empower communities and promote social equity. Examples from various countries, including Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Peru and Canada, illustrate the transformative impact of blending Indigenous and scientific knowledge. The article argues for a paradigm shift in education, emphasizing the importance of respecting and utilizing Indigenous knowledge to achieve a more sustainable and just world for future generations.
This article clarifies the role of higher education networking in promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The significance of ESD in higher education has been recognized since the 1990s. Globalization and internationalization emphasize the importance of creating partnerships through networking and international collaboration. Higher education networks play a significant role in the development of ESD. This article analyses three networks in Asia to compare the characteristics of networking and ESD in higher education. It also identifies the significance of networking in advancing the following aspects: the whole school/institution approach, the formation of a platform through partnership building, interdisciplinary educational research activities, and the sharing of knowledge. The networks include environmental education teachers, graduate schools for environmental studies in the Asia-Pacific region, and a university network that supports UNESCO-associated schools in Japan.
This article seeks to reconceptualize education for sustainable development (ESD) with the explicit inclusion of innovation. Drawing on policy dialogues held over the past three years, including those at COP28, a Theory-of-Change framework for youth-led innovation is proposed. Some of the key barriers faced by youth in the pursuit of green innovation are identified, and possible solutions are proposed. Global examples of action-oriented, citizenry-focused projects serve to illustrate the range and scope of ESD-led innovation focused on youth, with radical collaboration among stakeholders connecting global policy aims for sustainable development with local practice-based innovation. While some innovation hubs do include youth-oriented engagement activities, genuine partnerships between young innovators and established organizations involved with innovation are not well developed. At a policy level, it is held that there is a need to initiate and strengthen such partnerships between youth and private sector actors. Policy in this domain should also reference targeted mentorship focused on connecting young innovators with experienced advisors and professionals across established businesses, industries, government, and civil society organizations involved in innovation. As such, policy needs to embrace the integration of innovation with ESD curricula at all levels to enhance education and awareness about sustainability issues and the novel actions needed to progress sustainable development.
This article contributes to the scholarship on integrating education for sustainable development (ESD) into global development frameworks, which emerges from the need to investigate and propose solutions to enrich and enhance the nexus between policy and practice. The article responds to two of the four guiding questions of this special issue: (a) How does the field of ESD align or misalign with global development objectives? (b) What kind of education do we need to address the pressing challenges of the twenty-first century? This article argues for the centrality of sustainable development/ESD policy, practice and change-oriented methodological approaches to human and global development. It presents five examples of generative and analytical change-oriented methodological approaches. These include (a) Cultural Historical Activity Theory and the associated expansive learning; (b) social learning; (c) position–practice systems; (d) social morphogenesis; and (e) laminated system. It argues that these can propel learning, practice and change processes and tackle context-dependent and cross-cutting human, global, environmental and sustainability issues and risks supported by policy. They also have the potential to help develop an in-depth understanding of individual and collective SD/ESD change-oriented learning and change processes towards a more sustainable human and global development.
The Greening Education Partnership (GEP) has emerged as an actionable initiative with four strategic pillars each having its measurable indicators. An outcome of the UN Secretary General’s Transformative Education Summit, GEP sets ambitious targets for countries to be achieved by 2030. It has potential to fast pace the global educational agenda towards the integration of sustainability and climate literacy. This aligns well with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4.7. Despite widespread international support, the implementation of education for sustainable development (ESD) has significant challenges. These include fragmented policy, insufficient political will and diverse socioeconomic challenges. This article presents a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of GEP and critically examines GEP and opportunities it presents to scale up ESD. Drawing insights from the Foundation for Environmental Education’s (FEE) Eco-Schools programme, this article discusses necessary areas to enable the whole-school approach that integrates sustainability across curricula, pedagogy and community engagement, emphasizing local relevance and inclusivity. The varying readiness and resource availability across countries pose significant challenges to achieving the ambitious goals. The analysis identifies critical success factors, including sustained government commitment, resource mobilization, strategic actions to scale up the learning and experiences of stakeholders to enable transformative educational outcomes.
