This dissertation reports a study exploring adult engagement with sustainability learning practices in EcoSchools-certified secondary schools in Canada, Lithuania and Sweden as a means towards shaping a liveable future. The study is situated in the area of education for sustainable development. The study design was initially based on an interest in revealing specific practices of sustainability education as a means of improving the relationship between environmental impact and wealth. While echoing findings in the existing literature, this research contributes to the development of the field through insight into the perspectives that adults bring to sustainability education. Primary data collected in the spring of 2006 were recorded (mostly single) semistructured interviews with 30 individuals (national coordinators, caretakers, teachers and administrators), including 10 Canadians from four schools, 14 Lithuanians from four schools, and six Swedes from two schools. Four phases of qualitative analysis were used on the data: initial transcript coding and trends; précis document trends; a six-stage model of interview responses allowing vertical (between question) and horizontal (between stage) comparisons; word maps of subthemes as a scaffold to detail participants’ four primary views (long, wide, deep, dynamic) regarding sustainability. Ultimately, the results of this study point less than expected to revealing specific transferable practices regarding success and challenge in EcoSchools. Rather, these findings provide some insight into a means of shaping a sustainable future through an individual’s sustainability perspective: a living responsiveness based on a sense of connection, supported by improved sustainability cognition, and realized through sustainability practice and considered engagement.

The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to the debate about Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and provide a practical tool for teachers with which they can relate to ethical and moral learning in the ESD context. This aim is based on the ambition to develop an approach that takes its starting point from our practical experience of ethics and morals, inspired by the later works of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the transactional perspective developed by John Dewey. This implies that ethics and morals are regarded as a human tendency that is observable in action. The central method used to clarify ethical and moral meaning-making is, by the use of examples, to remind of common experiences of how this meaning-making appears in everyday situations. These clarifications are made in order to dissolve (rather than solve) philosophical problems, as well as to create new knowledge. The approach has been applied to four different studies. The first study focuses on the differences between three selective traditions in environmental education: fact-based, normative and pluralistic, with regard to the relationship between facts and values. It is argued that a pluralistic approach can be seen as way of relating facts and values in practice, and consequently that the democratic process neither precedes nor succeeds education but is an integral part of it, and that students therefore are constituted as citizens participating in the progress of sustainable development. The purpose of the second study is to suggest an approach that allows in situ analysis of how individuals’ prior experiences are included in the processes of moral meaning-making. A concrete example shows how individuals can transform the moral discourse in different situations. In the third study, it is suggested that the ethical tendency can be recognised as a communication in which certain values and actions are treated as if they were universally good and right. Three different kinds of situations in which this communication appears are highlighted: personal moral reactions, norms for correct behaviour and ethical reflections.The diverse conditions for learning in these situations are discussed, and specific notice is taken of the risk of indoctrination in ESD. The fourth study addresses the question of how to understand and deal with criticism in a pluralistic educational approach. Through reminders of how criticism appears in everyday practice, it is argued that criticism does not necessarily have to be understood theoretically. Criticism can also be seen as the diverse ways in which human beings morally react, encounter different norms and ethically reflect.

This thesis takes its point of departure in the change of emphasis in the field of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) towards the inclusion of social and human development issues. The theoretical frames of the thesis are poststructural and postcolonial theories, from which different writings, central concepts and approaches are drawn. The thesis also builds on a pragmatist and anti-essentialist approach which argues that we socially construct the meaning of right and wrong and what works better in our lives on the current problematic or situation. The results are presented in four studies and the thesis has three purposes. The first purpose is to describe and investigate theoretical perspectives that take a critical stand on and offer alternatives to universal and consensus-oriented approaches. This purpose is the central focus in the first and second studies. The first study examines the re-emergence of classical cosmopolitanism and contemporary views of the perspective with the intent of discussing its potential for the development of education for sustainable development (ESD). The second study aims to clarify the philosophical problem of addressing universally sustainable responsibilities and values in environmental and sustainability education. The second purpose is to investigate teachers’ ethical reflections in a first-hand intercultural experience. This purpose is dealt with in the third study, where seven Swedish upper secondary school teachers facing particular conflicts of interest and moral situations during a study visit to Central America are interviewed. The third purpose is to investigate how teachers deal with the complex issues of intragenerational equity or social justice in their teaching. This is dealt with in the fourth study, which explores how teachers integrate issues of social justice into their teaching of global sustainability. My hope is that this thesis will contribute to the discussion about how teachers can develop a conscious and critically informed approach to the teaching of environmental and sustainability issues and also contribute to theoretical and philosophical discussions about universalism, normativity and global ethics within environmental and sustainability education research.

Communicating climate change in a manner that spurs engagement and motivates actions among the public is a challenging task, due to its complex nature with many uncertainties. The same problem is evident when communicating climate adaptation where there often are trade-offs made between different needs. Information and communication technology is an area that has been highlighted as a possible form to communicate climate change, especially to youth due to their generally good technological skills. In this study, an application of information and communication technology, a digital serious game, has been studied in the context of communicating and educating about climate adaptation in schools. A total of 96 students and three teachers have been part of the study and the material was analysed using a thematic analysis. The aim of the study was to see how students and teachers reflect on the possibilities and challenges with using games to communicate and educate. In addition, the role of serious gaming in experiential learning was explored, which is a commonly used theory when studying serious games. The results revealed that serious games could play a role in communicating and educating about climate change, where the participants highlighted the game’s focus on local perspectives and solutions. The respondents also found that games could provide a more active learning process allowing the students to make decisions and see the results of their choices, an approach that could open up for discussion and reflection, which are important aspects found in the theory of experiential learning.

Vi möts idag ofta av nyheter om klimatförändringar, plast i haven och överkonsumtion. Därför är det mycket angeläget att undervisa om hållbar utveckling för att ge eleverna bästa möjliga förutsättning att hantera all information och skapa sig en handlingskompetens. Därför är syftet med den här studien att ta reda på hur lärare upplever att undervisning om hållbar utveckling fungerar i skolorna och vad de skulle vilja utveckla inom detta område. Detta har jag undersökt med semistrukturerade intervjuer som sedan analyserats med hjälp av den kvalitativa innehållsanalysmodellen som analysmetod. Resultatet visade att lärarna såg både svårigheter och möjligheter i att undervisa om hållbar utveckling. De ansåg att det var av stor vikt att eleverna fick tillräckligt med kunskaper för att kunna skapa sig en handlingskompetens så att eleverna känner att de kan göra skillnad. Lärarna ansåg även att man behövde se till att få in mer vardagsnära och praktiskt arbete inom undervisning om hållbar utveckling för att eleverna skulle känna att deras egen insats var betydelsefull. Resultatet visade även att lärarna ansåg att ämnesövergripande arbete var mycket viktigt i undervisningen om hållbar utveckling men att det var en svårighet att få till sådan undervisning rent schematiskt, men att det var ett utvecklingsområde som skulle behöva förbättras. Slutligen visade resultatet att lärarna ansåg att pedagogens eget intresse påverkade hur mycket man undervisade om hållbar utveckling i klassrummen. / We often meet news today in media about climate change, plastic in the sea and overconsumption. Therefore, it is very relevant to teach sustainable development in the Swedish schools to give students the best possible prerequisite to manage all the information available and creating action competence. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out how teachers perceive on education for sustainable development in schools and what they would like to develop in this area. I have studied this with semistructured interviews, which were then analyzed using the thematic analytical method. The result showed that the teachers saw both difficulties and opportunities in teaching sustainable development. They considered it important that the students gained sufficient knowledge in order to be able to create action competence so that the students feel they can make a difference. Teachers also felt that they needed to ensure that more inclusive and practical work in the field of sustainable development was taught so that the students would feel that their own initiative was important. The result also showed that the teachers felt that interdisciplinary work was very important in the teaching of sustainable development, but that it was a difficulty to get such teaching to fit inside the schedule, but that it is a development area that would need to be improved. Finally, the result showed that the teachers felt that the teacher's own interest influenced how much they were teaching about sustainable development.

This study explored five preschool teachers' perceptions about Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Early Childhood Education (ECE). Participating teachers provided a wide range of responses about ESD and its related subthemes. The findings of this study show that the participating teachers indicated a willingness to reflect on the principles of sustainable development, a commitment to developmentally appropriate practice, a value for participatory and problem-based curriculum, and appreciation for the benefits of community engagement. Teachers also expressed values of fairness and equality, and being open, honest, and matter-of-fact with children. Teachers were new to the ideas of interdependence, social justice, human rights, and economics education in ECE. The teachers expressed concerns about the inclusion of issues that they considered too complex for children, too personal, or potentially offensive. These findings can inform ideas for beginning professional development and further study for ESD in ECE.

The aim of this project is to explore the state of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Kosovo, from a student's perspective. The education system in Kosovo has for some years undergone reform. The principles of Education for Sustainable Development have been incorporated in ministerial policy and the curriculum. Throughout the past years, numerous research papers and reports have assessed the practice of ESD in Kosovo. An assessment of the voice of youth regarding this topic seems to be lacking. This project contributes towards filling this gap. The results of this study show that official policy in Kosovo makes reference to ESD, yet educational practice remains far from living up to what is desirable and doable in terms of ESD. By and large, this study suggests there is a large gap between the rhetoric of ESD in the education system in Kosovo and the actual practice in schools. Further research is hence needed to provide a more in-depth and representative analysis of ESD in the Kosovo education practice. Moreover, this study concludes that it is increasingly important to recognize the opinion of young people, they are marginalized and have been left out of the decision making about the future of the country. More importantly, youth will determine what Kosovo will be in 10-20 years and therefore they should be heard more strongly and more often.

There is a huge emergence for sustainable change, but there are not many clear approaches for teaches to teach into sustainability. With the proof that the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) can be used up to large extent to provide primary schools from Education to sustainable development (ESD), the aims of ESD can be achieved in great extent, while the IPC is used in over 98 countries. Therefore teacher do not have to be introduced to a new approach; they can continue using the IPC. There is done a literature research about the similarities between the educational vision & mission and practical investigation into the teachers experiences, by the use of a questionnaire, about similarities in the teachers competences between ESD and the IPC. Concerning the research the educational vision of ESD and the IPC are very similar, but in the education mission is a difference in focus. Where ESD wants a behavioural change, is the IPC focusing on improving the learning. However, this different focus is not eliminating the similarities that are shown. Practically seen are teachers who work with the IPC are experiencing a 66.6% match with the teacher competences of ESD. The differences that are found are based on the different educational focuses of ESD and the IPC, but in here the IPC can easily adjust. All together I can state that the IPC can be used as an approach to provide Dutch primary school pupils with ESD from a reasonable up to a pretty large extent, under the condition that the IPC is adapting to the educational mission of the ESD, without letting go of their own educational mission.

This study adopts an experimental design to examine the use, in practice, of interactive computer simulations as educational tools. With the accelerated use of digital learning and the urgency of implementing sustainable development, the important role of interactive computer simulations is examined. While rooted in the digital humanities, the study focuses on ecopedagogy as a theoretical lens by which to assess critical learning. Drawing on previous research, ‘Shiny’ was used to develop a simple, interactive application consisting of a tool where users can calculate the cost and carbon emissions of energy production within a specific system. This application was used as part of a participatory experiment with 47 participants, and the data returned was analysed to examine its educational merit. The findings of the study indicate positive engagement with the simulation tool used, along with important lessons for further study.

Higher education in any area of sustainable development is increasingly seen as aremedy to solve the currently faced climate crisis. However, the complex,interdisciplinary, and even personal nature of Education for Sustainable Development(ESD) questions the status quo of traditional pedagogic approaches and learningtechniques. Using the example of a study trip provider specialized in ESD, therelevance of experiential real-life studies in a foreign setting is investigated and theirpotential for Sustainability Education highlighted. An online questionnaire serves as afundament for understanding the impacts of multidimensional study trips regardingpersonal but especially professional choices. Data of more than 100 formerparticipants of sustainability-related study trips were gathered and evaluatedquantitatively as well as following a deductive analysis. Focus is drawn topro-environmental behaviors and beliefs that are potentially nourished by theexposure to natural treasures and first-hand expertise in Sustainable Development.The results of this study substantiate the great potential for knowledge transfer,behavioral changes, and shifts in mindsets based on experiential learning taking placein the context of traveling. Participants are encouraged and determined to follow acareer in sustainability after participating in the program. Half of the examined alumnigroup is already in a position that supports Sustainable Development in some form,leading to the overall success of the utilization of study trips in ESD, despite existingweaknesses.