In educational settings, educators' individual perceptions of theories and concepts (e.g. about teaching and learning) are crucial for their professional performance. Thus, regarding education for sustainable development (ESD), it is vital to focus on teacher educators' (TEs') perceptions of this concept. As ESD is a comparatively young and…

Designing effective educational measures constitutes a key area of action for achieving global sustainability goals. Therefore, the present study examined a training addressing sustainable consumption practices in plastic reduction, fashion and food. An interactive training was held in a German comprehensive high school with grade 11 students,…

A range of stakeholder groups are involved with fostering Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). It is crucial that their views on the aims of ESD are aligned. This is a prerequisite for coordinated integration of ESD into the formal education system. However, research has not explored whether stakeholder groups have similar ideas about the…

Despite the increase in teaching approaches designed to integrate sustainability into higher education, the connection between students' learning experiences and their learning outcomes remains incompletely understood. The present multi-case study complements the discussion by investigating undergraduates' long-term meaning-making processes using…

Regular evaluation of environmental education is important for quality assurance and the self-assessment of educational institutions such as zoos. However, capacity is often lacking. Therefore, this study presents instruments that can be used to track the impact of educational programs on connection to nature, interest in species conservation,…

Equipping future change agents with the competencies to lead the societal transformation towards sustainability requires competent and committed teachers who effectively implement Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) across the education system. In a comparative case study, this paper investigates how individual ESD courses in teacher…

Zoo educators are important communicators of the targets in education for sustainable development and therefore carry great responsibility for global environmental change. However, German zoo educators form a heterogeneous group, many of them working in non-permanent job positions and facing multiple challenges at work. Applying the job…

Since the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), far-reaching efforts have been made to implement ESD worldwide. While ESD seems increasingly to be diffused as a social innovation related to environmental education, we still know little about how the concept is implemented through social relations and what role trust plays in…

In Germany, the implementation of the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for sustainable development (ESD) 2015-2019 aims to implement ESD more profoundly within the structures of Germany's educational system. In this context, a national monitoring has been set up in order to analyze the extent and quality of ESD implementation in…

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is intended to enable individuals to shape a fair and sustainable society. Implemented at schools, ESD addresses specific topics, e.g. "globalization" or "pollutants in clothing". This study investigates what challenges are connected with such issues in class and how students deal…

While science-policy interfaces (SPIs) are argued to be crucial in developing and implementing effective public policy programmes, what happens in a particular SPI policy-research relationship remains under-researched, particularly in relation to 'success criteria' for policy makers and researchers. In this article, we address this gap by…

It is widely recognized that education plays a key role in addressing current global challenges. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) combines local actions with global thinking. In Virtual School Garden Exchanges (VSGEs) primary and secondary students from the Global South and North interact and communicate digitally about their school…

Geogames are complex location-based games for smartphones and they are part of a critical discussion within the community of environmental education. The aim of the study is to asses if smartphone games are suitable to foster connectedness to nature and if there are differences between a complex Geogame and a less-demanding treasure hunt. For this…

Although a large number of different organisations offer various forest education programmes within Germany, specific information (i.e., sectoral and programme content and provision at a state level) is lacking. This study used a survey of all 61 forest education organisations (43 respondents) in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, to…

Within the curriculum guidelines for Bavaria, we designed a hands-on educational programme for teaching sustainability with regard to agriculture, food and consumerism, partly implemented on a farm as an out-of-school learning setting. The participants were fifth graders ("N"?=?176). The research followed a quasi-experimental design and…