In an "age of measurement" where students' "qualification" is a hot topic on the political agenda, it is of interest to ask what the "function of qualification" might implicate in relation to a complex issue as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and what function environmental and sustainability issues serve…

For more than 40 years, the international community has acknowledged the role education might play in environmental awareness and conservation. The last major initiative came when the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014). In the final year of the decade, teachers still struggle to…

The integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) into all levels of education is a key priority in Kosovo's environmental action plan. However, at present it is not even known how environmental education (EE) is integrated in the country's educational system. With the help of a written questionnaire and in-depth interviews with 18…

The United Nations' declaration on climate change education in December 2014 has sparked a renewal of policies and programs initiated during the "Decade of Education for Sustainable Development" (DESD, 2005-2014), aimed at promoting awareness, understanding, and civic action for environmental sustainability within learning communities…

This study is part of a first study of collaborative socio-environmental projects that engage Jewish and Arab students in Israel in learning about their local environment and about each other through outdoor learning and environmental action. We used ideas of social learning and environmental citizenship to frame our research. We investigated…

In creating a society whose citizens have sustainable lifestyles, education for sustainable development (ESD) plays a key role. However, the concept of sustainable development (SD) has developed independently from the input of educators; therefore, ESD presents current teachers with many challenges. At this point, understanding how stakeholders in…

This paper considers how the school science curriculum can be conceptualised in order to address the contingent and complex nature of environmental and sustainability-related knowledge and understanding. A special concern lies in the development of research perspectives and tools for investigating ways, in which teachers are faced with complex and…

In response to global climate change, loss of biodiversity, and the immense human impact on the carrying capacity of the earth systems, attention has been given to sustainable development worldwide. In this paper, we explore the emerging field of sustainability science within the context of the socio-cultural milieu of Malawi, a sub-Saharan…

Today's society is continuously coping with sustainability-related complex issues in the Science-Technology-Environment-Society (STES) interfaces. In those contexts, the need and relevance of the development of students' higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) such as question-asking, critical-thinking, problem-solving and decision-making…