This article engages in the discussion about education's role in relation to sustainability problems, a debate characterised by a tension between two legitimate concerns: a concern about the instrumentalisation of education, and a concern for the urgent need of widespread engagement and mobilisation for coping with the consequences of severe…

Purpose: This study aims to provide an overview of sustainability in Flemish higher education (HE) by using the multi-level perspective (MLP) on sustainability transitions for a comprehensive empirical analysis of how sustainability is embedded in Flemish HE. Design/methodology/approach: MLP was used as analytical framework to study the case and…

This article focuses on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) in the context of the topical post-truth debate. It aims to progress theoretical research as well as empirical investigations on how ESE practices can avoid the pitfalls involved in an objectivist as well as a relativist approach to teaching and learning. After elaborating…

In this response article, we explain why sustainability issues are often interpreted as 'wicked' or unstructured problems and focus on the consequences for education and societal transformation in view of sustainable development. Drawing on Funtowicz and Ravetz' (1993) fourfold 'facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions…

Based on an exploratory case study of a community food waste initiative in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article presents a novel analytical approach to studying the role of learning within sustainability transition niches. The article's theoretical perspective draws from pragmatist educational philosophy, practice theory, and sustainability transition…

This article presents a categorisation of the different situations in which the political dimension of environmental and sustainability education can be handled and experienced in practice: the "political tendency." Using a methodology inspired by Wittgenstein's user perspective on language, we empirically identified situations that…

As an introductory article of a Special Issue on Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in the Benelux region, this paper provides an overview of ESE research, policy and practice in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. It discusses the different contributions in this collection with regard to how the central theme of this issue, the…

Literature about education's role in realising a more sustainable world emphasises the importance of acknowledging democratic and political challenges in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). This article offers an empirically grounded theoretical and methodological contribution to future research on how 'the political' is introduced,…

In this article, we address the democratic paradox in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) by drawing on Bruno Latour's conceptual distinction between "matters of fact" and "matters of concern" and the notion of attachments that goes with it. We present an analysis of three cases (nature excursions, workshops that…

"Environmental Education Research" has developed a Virtual Special Issue (VSI) (http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/ed/ceer-vsi) focusing on studies of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) policy. The VSI draws on key examples of research on this topic published in the Journal from the past two decades, for three reasons.…

In this paper, we address the implementation of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Flanders, a sub-national entity of Belgium. Our analysis shows how the policy-making process in Flanders is inextricably intertwined with three developments in environmental and educational policy: the increasing impact of ESD policy and…