Teachers' implementation of and attitudes to school reforms and overriding pedagogical ideals have long been a topic of debate and research. In this article, we centre on teachers' descriptions of how progressive teaching was conducted as well as on the teachers' reasons for implementing such teaching in the 1940s. This study is based on written material consisting of 360 elementary school teachers' accounts of their teaching collected in 1946. The material was collected by a government investigation of how progressive teaching was conducted in Sweden. The accounts offer detailed descriptions of how pupils were activated and how elementary teachers at the time could use the community as a teaching resource. The article is inspired by a prosopography approach, in which the basic assumption is that it is possible to extend knowledge of social processes and societal development by studying the group profile of members of various institutions such as political or professional organisations. The analysis is based on John Dewey's and Larry Cuban's perspectives on progressivism. We found that, according to teaching the theme of pupils participation was frequently reported in 59% of the accounts, while student interaction (35%) and extended classroom (16%) were less reported. The teachers motivated their teaching on the basis of general ideals, as democracy. Also important were practical circumstances such as available teaching resources as well as physiological aspects as student's interest and development.

This paper defines transformative language teaching for sustainability (TLS) and shows how contemporary, learner-oriented language teaching can foster important competencies and skills needed to reach the goals of education for sustainable development (ESD). The main aim of our approach is to integrate transformation-oriented ESD into language teaching in a way that considers and utilises the special features of language teaching and learning. We discuss the substantial possibilities that language education offers to ESD and propose a transformation-oriented ESD framework as the foundation for TLS, covering the linguistic and cultural features of sustainability that are central to language teaching and learning. Finally, we outline the pedagogical implications for TLS related to subject matter content and methods, that is, how language teachers can use learner-oriented language teaching methods to integrate ESD in their lessons. We propose a theory-based interdisciplinary model for the implementation of TLS in language education and language teacher education.

Early childhood education aims to support children to develop cognitive, social, and motor skills, alongside values and ethics central to sustainability. From a Nordic perspective, this chapter reflects on how global citizenship education in preschool can illuminate possibilities and barriers to developing a whole school approach to sustainability. A review of Nordic policy and research identified four perspectives rooted in the global citizenship tradition that can support a whole school approach to sustainability: The greening of the whole preschool; The whole child’s learning; Wholeness in preschool teaching; and Thematic approach as a perspective on a whole preschool. We propose that efforts to implement a whole school approach to sustainability could be aligned with these perspectives. Nonetheless, Nordic preschools currently lack robust engagement with society—a perspective that requires further cultivation. To advance, empirical studies are needed to explore how a whole school approach to sustainability can be developed and implemented within preschool education. 

Worldwide, preschool is recognized as an important arena for the implementation of education for sustainability (EfS). In Swedish preschools EfS has been a part of the national curriculum since 2019, but little is known about what this means in practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to increase our understanding about preschool teachers’ perspectives on teaching for sustainability. Using individual semi-structured interviews with 16 randomly selected preschool teachers in Sweden, the results of which were analyzed thematically and then quantitatively, this study examines how teachers put EfS into practice. Four teaching practices were identified: actively present teachers, children’s experiences as a basis for learning, children’s opportunity for agency–a democratic approach, and communication between children and teachers. Taken together, these four teaching practices demonstrate a pluralistic teaching tradition. The analysis also demonstrates a holistic perspective on subject content where environmental, social and economic issues are addressed. A third result is that EfS is carried out using three teaching strategies planned, spontaneous and semi-spontaneous. The identification of semi-spontaneous teaching is an important finding which is made possible in created learning environments aiming to stimulate children’s agency, which is of central importance in EfS and an important contribution from this study. 

The theoretical framework and empirical examples presented in this chapter stem from school improvement research and can be used by schools that want to work practically according to a whole school approach (WSA) toward education for sustainable development (ESD) through policymakers who want to establish guidelines enabling the implementation of WSA to ESD and through researchers who want to investigate and analyze the process of institutionalizing WSA to ESD. 

The literature on whole school approach (WSA) to education for sustainable development (ESD) has mainly been practice-based, lacking empirical and theoretical grounding. Moreover, the existing literature shows that it is difficult to accomplish WSA to ESD. This chapter addresses these issues by grounding WSA to ESD in applied methods and theories from the field of school improvement research and exemplifying with empirical findings of how to build the capacity to reform a local school in line with WSA to ESD. Four identified themes for developing a local school’s capacity are discussed: improvement history of the school, infrastructure of the school organization, improvement processes, and improvement roles. The chapter takes a novel process-oriented perspective and discusses the school improvement process longitudinally from initiation via implementation to reach institutionalization of WSA to ESD. The main conclusion is that it may take 5–8 years to institutionalize WSA to ESD. 

The aim of this study is to investigate students’ meaning–making of multiple visual representations of epigenetics at different levels of biological organisation, and to discern what visual aspects of the multiple visual representations might influence students’ reasoning. Adopting an exploratory approach, we analysed how students made meaning of visually communicated epigenetics phenomena while pointing at and reasoning about the multiple visual representations as part of semi-structured focus groups. We investigated students’ meaning-making of the multiple visual representations by analysing their indications through physical pointing and accompanying verbal utterances. The analysis revealed meaning-making and the nature of linking between levels of organisation in four distinct patterns, namely intra horizontal linking, inter horizontal linking, one level vertical linking and two level vertical linking. In addition, five different visual characteristics of the multiple visual representations emerged as influencing students’ reasoning while linking between different organisation levels: multiple visual representations, salient visual features, analogous visual features, familiar visual elements, and textual adjuncts. The study shows that multiple visual representations at different levels of organisation can support students’ meaning-making of epigenetics, indicating that this way of communicating can be transferable to other biological domains. Potential implications for future research and teaching practice are provided.

This paper presents an empirical study on leadership actions related to education for sustainable development, i.e. education that embraces ecological and socio-economic perspectives to foster students’ awareness of the importance of long-term sustainable development. The aim is to identify leadership actions that enable or constrain permanent implementation of such educational perspectives. Empirically, the study is based on data acquired in a school improvement project on sustainability, involving five schools in a Swedish municipality during the years 2016 to 2021. Data were collected in two rounds, in 2018 and 2020, through interviews with school leaders. A theoretical framework including the coupling mechanisms concept and previously identified organizational routines is applied in analysis of the rich data acquired to explore the school leaders’ reported actions, associated routines and their outcomes. The results reveal leadership actions that enable, and others that constrain, long-term establishment of education for sustainable development. The study confirms the importance of early establishment of a holistic educational idea embracing education for sustainable development, and both communication and feedback systems for leaders on its compliance. The study also shows the value of collegial structures and transformational leadership actions that prevent the fading or failure of intended implementation.