Sustainable development as a subject area and learning objective increasingly finds its way into the curriculum from pre-school to university level, and education and learning are emphasized as key drivers for sustainable development. At the same time, the sustainable development discourse has since its inception been met with critique, not least…

We communicate, relate, educate and make our world meaningful through stories. Stories are integrated in and are a part of every sustainability issue. In this article, we develop the concept of sustainability stories, and how they can be assessed and developed to correspond with the intentions of education for sustainable development (ESD).…

Within socio-economic transformation processes, the task of education is often reduced to short-term economic factors, that is, a suitable qualification profile of the local population. Transformative education should, however, be based on the broader claim that education contributes to successful transformation processes in the sense of…

The focus of this article is on the evaluation and outcomes of a professional learning opportunity that focused on 13 current K-12 public school science educators in the United States. This teacher training concentrated on sustainability education that utilized marine sciences as a unifying concept. Findings from this training helped to identify…

The knowledge content of university-level introductory sustainability courses elicits emotional reactions by students that are novel within the typical classroom context. Common negative reactions include 'sadness', 'worry', 'guilt' and 'disgust', while more positive responses include 'feeling angry', 'empowered', 'like trying to make a…

This article analyses the National Council of Educational Research and Training textbooks of environmental studies using critical discourse analysis to shed light on questions such as how the environment is dealt with in the text, using what kind of language are environmental concerns framed, how is the current environment crisis contextualized…

Environmental education is an increasingly important concern for policymakers and universities, as it is critical to the success of the broader agenda represented by the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. Achieving this within the higher education sector has proven difficult, however. This article examines how an interdisciplinary,…

The aim of this article is to highlight the role of religiously motivated ethics within the field of sustainability didactics. The article starts with critical reflections on the idea that religion, by proposing claims for knowledge of absolute authorities such as "divine beings or supernatural dimensions", offers capacity for uniting…

Climate change education (CCE) is a new phenomenon which is gaining increasing significance in the work of international organizations and international non-governmental organizations. Based primarily on a cross-national desk study of national policy documents relevant to CCE in 17 countries, which was commissioned by UNESCO to gain a robust…

This article maps and explains Brazil's policies, strategies, plans and initiatives related to Climate Change Education (CCE), in the overall context of Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The case of Brazil offers useful insights on how to enhance climate response through education because of its unique…

Recognizing the significance of education in promoting sustainable development (SD), China has developed a number of policies and initiatives relating to education for sustainable development (ESD) and climate change education (CCE). The article first reviews China's national policies and initiatives with regard to SD, climate change, education,…

The Republic of Korea (ROK) has officially declared its national vision of green growth, and actively develops and implements policies related to education for sustainable development (ESD), green growth education (GGE) and climate change education (CCE). Over the Decade of ESD, the ROK experienced three administrations which have taken different…

This article is based upon a longer concept paper commissioned by UNESCO in preparation for the World Conference on ESD, and entitled "Winning the Future We Want--the pivotal role of education and learning". Neither this article nor the original paper necessarily represents UNESCO'S views. The brief for this paper was to make a…

Colonizing processes take many forms. Although they are generally related to the use of force, they may also happen through subtler means such as education, and subconsciously, whenever educational proposals are designed to suit a wide variety of contexts. This essay suggests that environmental pedagogies should be based on a dialogical mindset…

The Convention on Biodiversity has developed the concept of "ecosystem services" and "natural resources" in order to describe ways in which humans benefit from healthy ecosystems. Biodiversity, conceived through the economic approach, was recognized to be of great social and economic value to both present and future…