Pioneering Education for a Sustainable Future : Education for Sustainable Development through the Lens of Experts

Sammanfattning: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) provides a framework for reorienting education towards sustainability. The ESD framework is criticized for reproducing rather than transforming unsustainable systems, thus a critical analysis of the framework is crucial to understand its role in reorienting education towards sustainability. To this end, we contribute to an understanding of the role of ESD through the lens of experts who are reorienting education towards sustainability. These experts use various approaches at regional, national, and/or international levels. Based on thirteen semi-structured interviews, we find two strands in the understanding of ESD. The first strand reflects the importance of the framework in reorienting education, and the second strand reflects on ESD as part of a larger movement. Furthermore, we flag a critical need for a democratic process of reorienting education towards sustainability, to progress transformative change through ESD. Lastly, our findings suggest a need to consider the individual experience of those involved in bringing ESD into practice.