Proposal information 

This study seeks to investigate the experiences of teachers working as ESD-facilitators within a whole school approach project designed to implement education for sustainable development (ESD) in their schools. The program activities included school leaders, teachers, and ESD- facilitators. During a period of three school years, five schools in a municipality in Sweden took part in order to integrate ESD in their organization and teaching practice. The ESD-facilitators took part in the design of the development process, workshop activities and content, and facilitated each school’s internal work. This study aims to identify in what ways ESD-facilitators function as sustainability change agents and how contextual factors might contribute to success or form hindrances in their work.The project was designed based on teachers’ learning and collaborative and reflexive work (Desimone, 2009). The purpose was to direct the development work of the schools towards a whole school approach (Mogren et al. 2019), meaning that ESD is fully integrated in the local curriculum. The main areas of development were to increase interdisciplinary teaching with focus on ESD as holistic pedagogical idea, and that ESD should permeate the work in all levels of the internal and external organization of the school (Sund & Lysgaard, 2013), implying that the different actors in the school and its societal context (students, teachers, school leaders and the outer society) work towards sustainability (Mogren et al., 2019). An additional aim was to integrate pluralistic approaches in the teachers’ classroom practice.The project included two project leaders, who also participated as researchers in the project. Together with the school leaders and ESD-facilitators, they took a leading role in the development of the project, which included joint seminars, and meetings between project leaders and a) school leaders (across schools), b) school leaders and facilitators (within schools), and c) facilitators (across schools). The ESD-facilitators were intended to function as a link between school leader, project leaders and the teaching staff. They were supposed to support the teacher work teams in their discussions and implementation work with transforming ESD principles into practice.A recent study by Van Poeck et al. (2017) explored different change agent roles by mapping the different ways in which change agents actively contribute to sustainability. In relation to different roles, various types of learning is being made possible. The authors identified four types of change agents that position themselves in different ways along the two axes of personal detachment vs. personal involvement, and instrumental vs. open-ended approaches (to change and learning). This study investigates the views and practices of the ESD-facilitators in relation to these two dimensions. Thus, different change agent positions may be taken.The ESD-facilitators have a middle leading role in their schools, which means that they enact leading practices from a position in between the teaching staff and the school leader (Grootenboer, Edwards-Groves & Rönnerman, 2015). There is limited research focusing on practitioners who facilitate processes of professional development (Perry & Boylan, 2018). Thus, little is known about how facilitators, and particularly those who facilitate a whole school approach to ESD, could be supported to carry out their role and tasks in an effective way, and what adequate conditions and arrangements for this might be. Taken together, this implies a gap in current knowledge about ESD implementation strategies, which this study aims to help bridging.The research questions guiding the research are twofold: in the ESD-facilitators’ descriptions of their roles, functions and practices:        

• What kinds of sustainability change agent roles can be identified?
• What contextual factors are experienced as successful and/or hindering?

Methodology or Methods

After the project ended, interviews were carried out between November 2020 and April 2021 with seven ESD-facilitators from five different schools. Two of the schools had appointed two facilitators, who either focused on different programs (in upper secondary school) or on different levels in compulsory school (primary or secondary level).The interviews followed a semi-structured approach (Bryman, 2018) and included pre-defined areas concerning the ESD-facilitators’ view on: a) the long term purposes and goals of the project, b) in what ways they viewed their role in the development work in their school, and c) their experiences of factors that were of central importance in order for them to be able to perform their task effectively. Their responses were followed up by the interviewer in a flexible manner.The analysis of data followed a multi-step process. The three parts above constitute the basis for the first step of the analysis, which was performed inductively and followed a broad approach to data driven thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The next step was analyzed deductively, based on the typology of sustainability change agents by Van Poeck et al. (2017). In this step, the utterances connected to the ESD-facilitators’ role in the development work, together with utterances concerning their view of long-term purposes and goals of the project, were analyzed in relation to the four different types of sustainability change agents in the typology. The analysis concerning their role focused mainly on the two dimensions identified as open-ended or instrumental, and personal detachment vs. -involvement. Utterances were identified that could be associated with a specific role description under the four ideal types of change agents. Moreover, utterances of how they viewed the purpose and goal of the ESD development work were analyzed, mainly connected to how different types of change agents may enable different forms of learning (Van Poeck et al., 2017). However, research on middle leading practices as well as research of sustainability change agents emphasizes that roles and practices should be interpreted in relation to the context they are enacted within (Grootenboer, Edwards-Groves & Rönnerman, 2015; Van Poeck et al., 2017). Therefore, the analysis also focused on identifying how different contextual factors affect and enable the roles and practices of the ESD-facilitators. Thus, the final step is to look for relationships between expressed purposes and goals, roles, and what factors are experienced as promoting and/or hindering their role and mission.

Findings and conclusions 

The analysis indicates that teachers struggle with transforming ESD theory into teaching practice. The school culture has great impact on the readiness of teacher teams to engage in transformation of their teaching. The ESD-facilitator’ functions and practices are affected by the school culture and whether teacher teams are well functioning or not in terms of collaborative work.All the four roles in the typology (Van Poeck et al., 2017) were identified in their expressions, and different contextual factors were emphasized as either promoting or hindering their functions. Clear support and leadership from the school leader and the presence of a well-defined long term goal was important to provide direction and legitimize the ESD-facilitator role in schools where a broad anchoring of ESD among the staff was missing. Moreover, roles and processes became more open-ended in schools where there was room for collaborative work and reflexive discussions. In those schools where the culture encouraged collaborative work and shared agency, the ESD-facilitators pointed out their functions in mediating the process in terms of initiator, facilitator, mobilizer and/or awareness raiser (ibid.). When there was little space for collaborative work, or the culture was hindering it, the ESD-facilitator role and approach became more instrumental and it became harder to create agency and integrate ESD as a holistic pedagogical idea (see Mogren et al. 2019) among the community of teachers. Those facilitators emphasized their functions in terms of experts, councellors, managers, solution providers and exemplars (Ibid.).A challenge was how to transform ESD theories, which the facilitators expressed as abstract and far from everyday teaching, into concrete practice. In the school where a collaborative culture was present, a way to solve this was to start doing by daring to explore new ways of teaching, and then evaluate in a collaborative, open and reflexive manner

References

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101.

Bryman, A. (2018). Samhällsvetenskapliga metoder.(tredje upplagan). Liber.

Desimone, L. M. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational researcher, 38(3), 181-199.

Grootenboer, P.,  Edwards-Groves, C., & Rönnerman, K. (2015). Leading practice development: voices from the middle, Professional Development in Education, 41(3), 508-526, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2014.924985

Mogren, A., Gericke, N., & Scherp, H.-Å. (2019). Whole school approaches to education for sustainable development: a model that links to school improvement. Environmental Education Research, 25(4), 508-531.

Perry, E., & Boylan, M. (2018). Developing the developers: supporting and researching the learning of professional development facilitators. Professional development in education, 44(2), 254-271.

Sund, P., & Lysgaard, J. G. (2013). Reclaim “education” in environmental and sustainability education research. Sustainability, 5(4), 1598-1616.

Van Poeck, K., Læssøe, J., & Block, T. (2017). An exploration of sustainability change agents as facilitators of nonformal learning: Mapping a moving and intertwined landscape. Ecology and Society, 22(2).

This study investigates the experiences of teachers working as ESD-facilitators in a whole school approach project designed to implement education for sustainable development (ESD). The project included ESD-facilitators, teachers, and school leaders. The ESD-facilitators took part in designing joint seminars and workshop activities, and facilitated each school’s internal work. This study aims to contribute with knowledge concerning in what ways ESD-facilitators function as change agents in development processes and how their work can be supported. Different types of sustainability change agents who position themselves differently along the two dimensions of personal detachment vs. personal involvement, and instrumental vs. open-ended approaches (to change and learning) have been identified in previous research (Van Poeck et al., 2017). This study investigates the views and practices of ESD-facilitators in relation to these two dimensions, and focuses on what sustainability change agent functions are enacted, and what contextual factors they experience as successful and/or hindering in their work. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven ESD-facilitators from five schools. Focus areas were their views on: a) the long term goals of the project, b) their role in the internal development work, and c) factors of central importance for their ability to perform their task effectively. The findings indicate that roles and processes become more open-ended in schools where there is room for collaborative and reflexive work. In schools where the culture encourages shared agency, the ESD-facilitators point to their functions in mediating the process in terms of mobilizer, facilitator, initiator, and/or awareness raiser (Ibid.). When there is little room for collaborative work, or the culture impedes it, the ESD-facilitator role and approach become more instrumental and it is harder to integrate ESD and create agency. Those facilitators emphasized their functions in terms of managers, solution providers, experts, exemplars and councellors (Ibid.). 

Purpose Since 2006, higher education institutions (HEIs) in Sweden, should according to the Higher Education Act, promote sustainable development (SD). In 2016, the Swedish Government asked the Swedish higher education authority to evaluate how this study is proceeding. The authority chose to focus on education. This paper aims to produce a report on this evaluation. Design/methodology/approach All 47 HEIs in Sweden were asked to write a self-evaluation report based on certain evaluation criteria. A panel was appointed consisting of academics and representatives for students and working life. The panel wrote an evaluation of each HEI, a report on general findings and recommendations, and gave an overall judgement of each HEI in two classes as follows: the HEI has well-developed processes for integration of SD in education or the HEI needs to develop their processes. Findings Overall, a mixed picture developed. Most HEIs could give examples of programmes or courses where SD was integrated. However, less than half of the HEIs had overarching goals for integration of SD in education or had a systematic follow-up of these goals. Even fewer worked specifically with pedagogy and didactics, teaching and learning methods and environments, sustainability competences or other characters of education for SD. Overall, only 12 out of 47 got a higher judgement. Originality/value This is a unique study in which all HEIs in a country are evaluated. This provides unique possibilities for identifying success factors and barriers. The importance of the leadership of the HEIs became clear.

In this multidisciplinary study we have explored the function of school leading in the implementation process of education for sustainable development (ESD), employing a whole school approach (WSA). School leading and school improvement are both established research fields within leading and development; therefore, it was wise to use the knowledge that is available within these two fields on how to lead and implement improvements in school organizations. A multidisciplinary approach contributes through knowledge regarding the implementation of socially and educationally sustainable qualities. A WSA involves all parts of the school organization contributes to a comprehensive perspective by emphasizing connections between school leading, local school organizations, and ESD implementation. Finally, a practice-informed approach provides valuable insights by investigating principals’ leading and its preconditions in terms of the practice architectures enabling or constraining the realization of a WSA to ESD. Practice architectures exist in a dialectical relationship with the practices that they prefigure, in that they both constitute and are constituted by practice. Undertaking this work required an examination of what happened when ESD was implemented in local school over a period of time. In order to do this, we returned to the five schools in a municipality that had initiated an ESD project in 2016, interviewing principals in 2018 and then again in 2020. The interviews explored whether (or not) the local preconditions had developed into practice architectures that facilitated a WSA to ESD. Based on the empirical results from this study and school improvement theory, guidelines were developed that can be used to drive a WSA to ESD process forward through three different school improvement phases: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization. 

This study explored the function of school leading in the implementation process of education for sustainable development (ESD) in five Swedish schools employing a whole school approach (WSA). A follow-up study design was used, in which schools that had initiated an ESD project in 2016 were subsequently visited twice for interviews with principals during the project and after it was finalized. The theory of practice architectures in combination with the concept of school improvement capacity was used as the theoretical framework in the analysis. The study showed how school leading should be about enhancing the local school’s capacity to improve. It also showed how specific practice architectures prefigured a WSA to ESD and how school leading in this context was about arranging—or orchestrating—practice architectures in ways that enabled such an approach. The issues of time and endurance were pivotal.Based on the empirical results from this study and school improvement theory, guidelines were developed that can be used to drive a WSA to ESD process forward through three different school improvement phases: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization. The limitations and suggestions for further research are also discussed.

Empiriska studier om lärares kompetens för undervisning inom utbildning för hållbar utveckling (UHU) är efterfrågade, men få forskningsinstrument finns tillgängliga. Studiens syfte är att ta fram ett enkätinstrument som kan beskriva lärares kompetens att implementera UHU. Ett andra syfte är att undersöka samband mellan UHU-kompetens och bakgrundsvariablerna: kön, ålder, undervisningsämne och antal år i yrket. I studien undersöks gymnasielärares (n=183) förhållningssätt till undervisning om UHU på en skola med ett uttalat UHU-arbete där förhållningssätt ses som ett uttryck för lärares UHU-kompetens. Utvecklingen av enkätinstrumentet baseras på det internationellt vedertagna OECD-ramverket DeSeCo:s (Definition and Selection of Competencies) definition av kompetensbegreppet. Explorativ faktoranalys identifierade fyra dimensioner av UHU-kompetens: didaktik, motivation, kapacitet och hinder. Inga korrelationer hittades mellan dimensionerna och bakgrundsvariablerna, vilket kan bero på en gemensam skolkultur. I framtida studier behöver instrumentets validitet för lärare som inte arbetat med UHU studeras.

The importance of an education that empowers students to engage with real societal problems to promote a sustainable future is widely acknowledged. However, the organisational characteristics of schools that facilitate such education for sustainable development (ESD) have received little attention. This thesis aims to fill this research gap by contributing new knowledge on ways that school organisations can implement transformative ESD, while aligning with a whole school approach.

Swedish upper secondary schools actively implementing ESD were selected for the study. The research design used a mixed-method approach developed from the field of school improvement research. Methods included semi-structured interviews with school leaders and questionnaire surveys for teachers. School leaders’ and teachers’ understanding of quality in their local school organisation was studied.

The thesis identifies the guiding principles that school leaders and teachers found important for promoting transformative ESD. These include four principal quality criteria that need structural support through collegial meetings to establish a holistic idea of ESD, namely collaborative interaction and school development, student-centred education, cooperation with local society, and proactive leadership and long-term perspective. With the support of the guiding principles, the whole school organisation contributes to teaching and learning practices in ESD active schools.

The two main contributions are 1) identification of the school organisation that provide firm ground for local implementation of transformative ESD, and 2) that the internal school organisation is a prerequisite for school collaboration with the surrounding society, which is a main goal of ESD, according to policy and theory. In the case of the latter, a student-centred approach in organising education was found to facilitate such links between education and the community, which is a main goal of ESD, according to policy and theory. The results may provide useful recommendations for schools and ESD implementation programmes.

Student outcomes of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is reported to be weak and empirical studies investigating the underlying causes have been called for. School organization is pointed out as essential, which highlights the role of school leaders in realizing ESD. This study aims to identify characteristic features of ESD active school organizations, by investigating how school leaders maintain high quality in their organizations. ESD is thus studied from an internal organizational perspective. Fourteen school leaders at ten upper secondary schools, active in ESD implementation, were interviewed and qualitative data quantified. A special focus was on school leaders’ transformative statements, in response to earlier criticism that ESD implementation has been too structural. Results consist of 26 identified quality criteria. By means of cluster analysis, the quality criteria were merged into four principal quality criteria: collaborative interaction and school development, student-centred education, cooperation with local society and proactive leadership and continuity. The school leaders’ quality strategies were identified through correlation analysis of their principal quality criteria. The quality strategies reveal a difference in the schools’ internal or external focus. An analysis of the school leaders’ quality statements in relation to their quality strategy implementation indicates that ESD to a large degree is introduced from a transformative perspective. One school in the study stands out as highly transformation-oriented, and has a quality strategy combining an internal and external focus, thus making it a possible benchmark for successful ESD-implementation. The study contributes a suggestion on how a progression of ESD implementation can take place and as well as possible obstacles.  

This empirical study on leadership actions investigate Education for sustainable development (ESD) in Swedish schools. School leaders at five schools in one Swedish municipality are interviewed twice in 2018 and 2020, to evaluate effects from a longitude school improvement project focusing ESD.   

Actions can be seen as the school leader individual response on a direct stimuli. The school leader take action. Agency on the other hand is the gathered experience of such stimuli and the alternative possibilities at hand for a school leader to act upon (Feldman & Pentland 2003). Leadership agency in this study is defined the sense making of ESD over time by school leaders acting by experience, or what  Hallenberg (2018) call expert agency, based in their own actions and related to other school leaders way of acting as a collective (Tourish 2014). The study adds knowledge to how individual leadership actions can contribute or counteract ESD implementation. Further aspects that drives and establishes ESD over time in schools; leadership agency on ESD is outlined.  

A review study on school leaders and education for sustainable development, ESD (Mogaji & Newton, 2020) reported the need to make school leaders more aware of ESD,  as a way to empower students to handle sustainable. Research onschool leadership to  raise quality in ESD active schools points out a lack of connection between inner school organizational routines that give support to ESD and the external organizational routines that connect education to the surrounding society (Mogren & Gericke, 2017), which in ESD is a guarantee of the relevance of education to the learner. Knowledge on school leadership and ESD as exemplified is based on case studies that point out important starting points for an effective ESD implementation, holistic ideas (Leo & Wickenberg 2013; Mogren, Gericke & Scherp, 2019) collegial approaches in the school organization (Gericke & Torbjörnsson, 2022) and  legitimizing functions (Mogren & Gericke, 2019). This study builds on the knowledge identified at the formulation arena of ESD and take it one step further,  studying the realization arena, what actually falls out in practice of ESD implementation over time, based on initial intentions. The formulation arena of a project, setting the scene is not a guarantee for successful implementation, instead schools often fail in their ambitions on ESD (Hargreaves, 2008) and certification programs on ESD with initial ambitions is not always successful (Olsson, Gericke & Chang Rundgren, 2016 ). 

Sense making activities is a methodological approach in school improvement and used in this study to understand practice (Weick, 2001). Sense making deals with challenges in the daily work patterns for school leaders, when ordinary frames of reference are disrupted and new understandings needs to be incorporated (Weick, Sutcliffe & Obstefeld, 2005).  How school leaders make sense of ESD; couple the formulated visions  to the practical outcomes of ESD is understood in this study by the  framework of coupling mechanism (Liljenberg & Nordholm 2018). The framework of coupling mechanism seeks to understand more than if organizational routines  on ESD are in place, but also their outcome and how they are used in practice.  The coupling mechanisms is categorized according to either accommodation mechanisms leading to permanent changes of structures and routines in the organization for ESD. Mechanisms can also be assessed as assimilation, then leading to superficial changes, or decoupling mechanisms that shows no positive effects of implementation of ESD or  even hinder changes in education. 

Research questions 

A, What leadership actions are identified for reaching accommodation in an ESD school improvement process?

B, How is leadership agency in ESD formed and characterized in practical ESD implementation? 

Methods section  

This study is conducted within  a school improvement project, studied by researchers in  several different studies over time . The project was introduced to five schools in one municipality  starting with a pre-study in year 2016 and followed by research until year 2021. The respondent nine school leaders  from five schools all take part in the continues school improvement project on ESD. The aim of the practical improvement  work for schools is to steer their processes towards an ESD whole school approach (Henderson & Tilbury, 2004) that establishes  ESD in the school organization.            

The theoretical framework of coupling mechanisms, assessing actions as accommodative, assimilative or decoupling (Liljenberg & Nordholm 2018) link the formulation arena of ESD and the realization arena with outcomes in practice. School leaders actions  on three specific organizational routines of ESD  are studied  over time (a holistic idea of ESD, the interdisciplinary approach of ESD and leadership legitimization of ESD). Accommodation actions  are searched as they intend to transform and change pre-defined understanding of education, causing real changes that are permanent. Leadership agency on ESD is analyzed by thematization (White, 2009) of collective action by responding school leaders over time. Leadership agency towards an established ESD implementation is outlined by combining the mechanisms used by school  leaders steering their actions  and the identified themes of importance for the whole group in leading towards ESD. Interview data was coded, transcribed and narratives was constructed. nd characterized in practical ESD implementation?

We make use of the analyzation of narratives to answer research question 1, RQ1, What leadership actions are identified for reaching accommodation in an ESD school improvement process? In the second step, thematization of narratives (from RQ1) for each mechanism of ESD (accommodation, assimilation and decoupling) are analyzed to search for characteristics of leadership agency in ESD, answering RQ2, How is leadership agency in ESD formed and characterized in practical ESD implementation?

Conclusions

Results on identified leadership actions for reaching accommodation of ESD confirm the importance of  leadership actions to establish a guiding  holistic idea on ESD in the school organization, as well as acting on communication and feed-back systems where collegial long reaching work can develop over time.  

Results further shows that a realization on ESD towards a permanent implementation is a pathway of  distancing reliance on individual responsibilities of ESD  to instead build structural support in the organization. Accommodating agency, as searched in the study consist of  school leaders that involve collegial with other school leader to find moral support in decision-making  as the same time as they increase their own understanding of the improvement of ESD. Five characteristic expressions for advancement in leadership agency of ESD towards a permanent implementation is identified;

1, changes in the infrastructure of education to establish interdisciplinary teacher teams.

2, the use of a distributed leadership approach  to collaborate collegial on ESD.

3, the active use of steering documents to support and legitimize ESD implementation and as a response to critical voices.

4, the development of  supportive and structural routines as well as continuously keeping school improvement on ESD alive.

5, establishing a terminology about ESD that is used at the local school and that need specific introduction to new staff .  

Over all the pathway towards a permanent accommodation of ESD and the characteristic of accommodation mechanisms state that leadership agency of ESD is a question of nesting ESD to the robust foundations within education to establish structures and processes that prevents ESD implementation  to fade or fail.  In this study robust foundations are identified as ESD common goals in the organization, collegial work, communication, and leadership ambitions.   

References  

Feldman, M. S., & Pentland, B. T. (2003). Reconceptualizing organizational routines as source of flexibility and change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 94–118.  

Gericke, N. & Torbjörnsson, T. (2022). Supporting local school reform toward education for sustainable development: The need for creating and continuously negotiating a shared vision and building trust, The Journal of Environmental Education, 53(4), 231-249.  

Hallgren, E. (2018).  Clues to aesthetic engagement in process drama: Role interaction in a fictional business Doctoral dissertation, Institutionen för de humanistiska och samhällsvetenskapliga ämnenas didaktik, Stockholms universitet.

Hargreaves, L. G. (2008). The whole-school approach to eduation for sustainable development: From pilot   projects to systemic change. Policy & Practice-A Development Education Review, (6).

Henderson, K., & Tilbury, D. (2004). Whole-school approaches to sustainability: An international review of sustainable school programs. Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability:Australian Government                       

Leo, U., & Wickenberg, P. (2013). Professional norms in school leadership: Change efforts in implementation of education for sustainable development. Journal of Educational Change, 14(4), 403-422.  

Liljenberg, M., & Nordholm, D. (2018). Organizational routines for school improvement: exploring the link between ostensive and performative aspects. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 21(6), 690-704.

Mogaji, I. M., & Newton, P. (2020). School Leadership for Sustainable Development: A Scoping Review. Journal of Sustainable Development, 13(5).

Mogren, A., & Gericke, N. (2017). ESD implementation at the school organization level, part 2 investigating the transformative perspective in school leaders’ quality strategies at ESD schools. Environmental Education Research, 23(7), 993-1014.

Mogren, A., & Gericke, N. (2019). School leaders’ experiences of implementing education for sustainable development—Anchoring the transformative perspective. Sustainability, 11(12), 3343.

Mogren, A., Gericke, N., & Scherp, H. Å. (2019). Whole school approaches to education for sustainable development: A model that links to school improvement. Environmental education research, 25(4), 508-531.

Olsson, D., Gericke, N., & Chang Rundgren, S. N. (2016). The effect of implementation of education for      sustainable development in Swedish compulsory schools–assessing pupils’ sustainability    consciousness. Environmental Education Research, 22(2), 176-202.

Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79-98.

Weick, K. Making sense of organization. Oxford:Blackwell, 2001. Weick, K. E., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Obstfield, D. (2005). Organizing and the process of sensemaking.               Organization Science, 16, 409–421. White, J. (2009). Thematization and collective positioning in everyday political talk. British Journal ofPolitical Science, 39(4), 699-709.    

This is an empirical study on leadership actions that promote Education for sustainable development and facilitate teachers abilities to realize ESD in Swedish schools. A review study on school leaders and education for sustainable development, ESD (Mogaji & Newton, 2020) reported the need to make school leaders more aware of ESD as a way to empower students to handle sustainable. The aim of this study is to identify the leadership actions that enable and constrains a permanent implementation of ESD. School leaders at five schools in a Swedish municipality is interviewed twice in 2018 and 2020, to evaluate effects from a longitude school improvement project focusing ESD. A theoretical framework; coupling mechanisms (Liljenberg & Nordholm 2018), is used to study how school leaders act on three organizational routines of ESD (a holistic idea of ESD, the interdisciplinary approach of ESD and leadership legitimization of ESD) over time. Accommodation mechanisms are searched as they intend to transform and change predefined understanding of education, causing real changes that are permanent. Leadership agency on ESD is demonstrated by thematization of collective acting by the whole group of respondents over time. Leadership agency towards an established ESD implementation is outlined by combining the mechanisms used by school leaders and identified themes of importance for the whole group in leading towards ESD. 

In this study we have explored the function of school leading in the implementation process of education for sustainable development (ESD), employing a whole school approach (WSA). School leading and school improvement are both established research fields within leading education and school improvement; therefore, it is wise to use the knowledge available within both these two research fields on how to lead and implement improvements on ESD in school organizations.

School leaders and teachers facilitating ESD at five schools in a Swedish municipality is interviewed twice in 2018 and 2020, to evaluate effects from a longitude school improvement project focusing ESD.  The presentation builds on three papers that investigate  different leadership perspectives in an ESD implementation processes of five schools in a Swedish municipality. The contributions from Mogren et al. and from Forssten Seiser et al. focus on the local pre-conditions in the school organization and school leadership agency in ESD. The contribution from Berglund et al. focuses on middle leadership, which is a position in between the school leader and the teaching staff in which leading is enacted by teachers from “among” their colleagues, while at the same time retaining their role as teachers. The development process was directed towards a whole school approach, meaning that ESD is fully integrated in the local curriculum and functions as a pedagogical idea. 

Undertaking this work required an examination of what happened when ESD was implemented in local school over a period of time. In order to do this, we returned to the five schools in a municipality that had initiated an ESD project in 2016, interviewing principals in 2018 and again in 2020.  The interviews explored whether (or not) the local preconditions had developed into established structures for a WSA in ESD. Practice architectures was used as one of the theoretical and analytical framework to study outcomes (Forssten Seiser et al. 2022). A practice-informed approach provides valuable insights by investigating principals’ leading and its preconditions. Practice architectures exist in a dialectical relationship with the practices that they prefigure, in that they both constitute and are constituted by practice. Another  theoretical framework; coupling mechanisms (Liljenberg & Nordholm 2018), was used to study how school leaders act on three organizational routines of ESD (a holistic idea of ESD, the interdisciplinary approach of ESD and leadership legitimization of ESD). Accommodation mechanisms were searched as they intend to transform and change pre-defined understanding of education. Previous research has identified the role of change agents in a model developed by Van Poeck et al., (2017) Dimensions of personal detachment or personal involvement as well as instrumental or open-ended approaches (to change and learning) is used as the final analytical tool in this study. The views and practices of middle leaders were investigated in relation to these dimensions. Semi-structured interviews with seven middle leaders from the participating five schools were conducted.

Results confirm the importance of  leadership actions on ESD to establish a guiding  holistic idea in the school organization, as well as acting on communication and feed-back systems where collegial long reaching work can develop over time. Leadership agency demonstrate how the establishment of supporting structures and processes take place and a sketcha possible pathway to accommodate ESD in a school. Guidelines were developed that can be used to drive a WSA to ESD process forward through three different school improvement phases: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization. The findings indicate that roles and processes become more open-ended in schools where there is room for collaborative and reflexive work. In schools where the culture encourages shared agency, the middle leaders point to their functions in mediating the process in terms of mobilizer, facilitator, initiator, and/or awareness raiser. When there is little room for collaborative work, or the culture impedes it, the ESD-facilitator role and approach become more instrumental and it is harder to integrate ESD and create agency. Those facilitators emphasized their functions in terms of managers, solution providers, experts, exemplars and counselors

Research on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) implementation tends to focus primarily on student and teacher outcomes, and there have been few studies on leadership practices at the school organisation level that provide information on how quality in education contributes to ESD implementation. To address this issue, we conducted an empirical mixed methods study of existing practices in 10 highly ESD-active upper secondary schools in Sweden. The schools’ principals, who were responsible for implementing ESD, were interviewed to obtain information on the quality criteria they used to guide their work. Twenty-six criteria were identified and grouped into four main principal quality criteria on the basis of statistical analysis: Collaborative interaction and school development; Student centred education; Cooperation with local society; and Proactive leadership and continuity. This categorization both supports existing research on ESD quality criteria and highlights new criteria that are important but were previously unrecognized. Trends in the identified quality criteria are discussed and related to prior research in order to identify potentially fruitful school leadership and management for implementing ESD at the school organisational level. Research on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) implementation tends to focus primarily on student and teacher outcomes, and there have been few studies on leadership practices at the school organisation level that provide information on how quality in education contributes to ESD implementation. To address this issue, we conducted an empirical mixed methods study of existing practices in 10 highly ESD-active upper secondary schools in Sweden. The schools’ principals, who were responsible for implementing ESD, were interviewed to obtain information on the quality criteria they used to guide their work. Twenty-six criteria were identified and grouped into four main principal quality criteria on the basis of statistical analysis: Collaborative interaction and school development; Student centred education; Cooperation with local society; and Proactive leadership and continuity. This categorization both supports existing research on ESD quality criteria and highlights new criteria that are important but were previously unrecognized. Trends in the identified quality criteria are discussed and related to prior research in order to identify potentially fruitful school leadership and management for implementing ESD at the school organisational level.

Previous research has suggested that adopting a transformative school organisation perspective when implementing ESD may be more productive than the previously recommended transmissive perspectives, but it is not clear how transformative perspectives could be introduced. To address this issue, we conducted an empirical mixed methods study of existing practices in 10 highly ESD-active upper secondary schools in Sweden. The schools’ leaders, who were responsible for implementing ESD, were interviewed to obtain information on the quality criteria they used to guide their work. The arguments used by the leaders to justify their criteria were analysed and categorised based on their relationships with the transmissive and transformative quality strategies. Both school organisation perspectives were found to co-exist within the schools. A detailed analysis of schools where the transformative perspective was dominant revealed three distinct quality strategies, one of which was found to embody a strong focus on a transformative approach. This specific quality strategy is discussed and suggested as a way for interested schools to implement ESD in a more transformative way at the school organisation level.

This study seeks to investigate and understand the already established anchoring structures of quality education in schools that actively implement ESD (Laurie, Nonoyama-Tarumi, Mckeown and Hopkins 2016). The anchoring structures on leadership level are criticised for building   cultures of standards and conformity (Bottery Wright and James 2012), rather than progress change and renewal in education, which is considered a way to prevent a negative societal development (Huckle and Wals 2015). Standards and conformity is found to coexist with transformative expressions of progress and change in education.  In recent research the anchoring qualities are criticised as being too structural, predefined and apart from a real school context (Scott in Jucker and Reiner 2015) and referred to as counteracting a fruitful ESD implementation (Peters, Michael and Wals 2016; Lotz-Sisitka, Wals, Kronlid and McGarry 2015).

The focus of this study is to outline which role the qualities that constitute structures and conformity (in this study called transmissive) play in schools, and what specific quality criteria the empirics underpin as necessary structures that anchor quality at ESD active schools? Qualities in transformative ESD implementation distinguish from qualities in transmissive ESD implementation. The gap between these two ESD implementation strategies can be described by qualities related to improve schools in transmissive ESD implementation to qualities used to develop schools in transformative ESD implementation (Hargreaves 2008).    

The term ESDquality criteria is a specific term used in studies that directly inquired about the qualities related to ESD settings in education (Breiting, Mayer and Mogensen 2005). The study investigates the school leaders understanding of transmissive quality criteria at ESD active schools and especially those appointed high importance in the school organisation.

The authors have in earlier studies investigated ESD implementation at school organisation level with the focus of qualities that are process orientated (transformative). It was found that the school organisations most frequently based on transformative qualities in education also displayed the highest degrees of transmissive qualities (Mogren and Gericke a, b). The result of high levels of transmissive qualities in schools with a successful ESD implementation created research interest for their role. The study also intends to indicate transmissive quality criteria that seems to threatens a sound ESD implementation in that they display a vague anchoring function or hinder the transformative ESD implementation. 

The study will answer the questions:

1, What characterizes the transmissive weighted quality criteria that ESD active schools use (as anchoring) in governing a school organisation of high quality?

2, Can the realization of ESD WSA at teacher level indicate which transmissive weighted quality criteria (anchors in quality criteria) that is important for a school organisation to consider?

The experience of schools with an active ESD implementation is informative and crucial in breaking new ground for ESD of a high quality (Jucker and Reiner2015). Research based on school leadership within such schools is accounted for in the study.  Temporarily ´role model-schools´ are used to stand model and learn from for schools seeking information and proof on the power of a transformative ESD implementation as to redirect education to a higher quality in accordance to the local and global sustainability problems (Hargreaves 2008; Laurie, Robert, et al. 2016).The attention given to the transmissive quality criteria in this study is an attempt to find the anchoring structures  that not previously  has been the central interest for researchers  studying ESD implementation (Schwarzin 2012). Rickinson, Hall and Reid (2016) urge the need to be more curious to which factors that do make implementation programmes to work overtime beyond the fact that they are present as a tool within educational settings.

In this study two different datasets are used that relates to two levels of the same school organisations. One dataset is collected at the school leader level by interviews with principals. The other dataset is based on a questionnaire study with teachers. ESD schools from a Swedish nationwide sample are identified. This is done by investigating the schools ESD activity in national ESD award systems and national databases on ESD schools. The 10 most active ESD schools are selected and validated by interviewing local school personal and ESD stakeholders. In the first data collection semi structured interviews were conducted with the principals. The main objective for the interviews was to collect data about the way principals choose to organize their schools in relation to their perception of high quality in education. During the interviews concept maps were constructed by the researcher based on the interviewees’ statements. The concept maps hold information of which quality criteria that were highlighted by different schools, and the argumentation for those choices. The trustworthiness of the concept map is confirmed by each principal. Qualitative data in the form of concept maps are translated into quantitative data by using an assessment system in which each quality criteria were given a score depending on the emphasis given by the principal. The scores separate transmissive and transformative statements. The statements formed 26 quality criteria. In this study, we compare the ranking of single quality criteria to their ranking as transmissive weighted. We identify in that way the transmissive quality criteria that is used to anchor ESD. Excerpts by school leaders help us to interpret quantitative data. The datasets on teacher level at selected ESD schools consist of a survey about school development measuring the teacher’s opinion on quality in school development. This survey was developed and used within a larger school development project in Sweden (Scherp 2013). It is an operationalisation of a school organisation model. The model is used to understand high quality in ESD active schools in an earlier study by the Authors. This study assumes the use of the model one step further; as a tool to define ESD Whole School Approach, WSA. We define what is meant by WSA and explain how the model can be used to judge the realisation of WSA at ESD active schools. This allows an identification of transmissive qualities used in schools realising ESD.

Our research contributes to an empirically based understanding on the impact of the transmissive quality criteria at school organization level in schools with an active ESD implementation. This gives new arguments and input to the design of implementation programmes on ESD that holds the ambition to scale up ESD. Universally the study also contributes to the definition on quality education related to actual policy documents on ESD realisation, Global Action Programme on ESD (UN 2014). The concept of Whole School Approach, WSA is introduced as the benchmark for high quality in education. Finally, the study is designed with an interdisciplinary approach where the ESD research field rapproach the research field of educational organisation and leadership, which contributes to a modest field of research. Our first results indicate that political support is an important transmissive weighted quality criterion that leads to ESD WSA implementation. I Hence, the sharing of ideological ideas within the school or networks to measure one owns practice and organisation against seems to be an important anchoring for ESD implementation. School organisation with a lower realization of ESD WSA search their legitimization of school organisation in evidence by external actors but seems less successful in their strategy. At time for the ECER conference we foresee that we will have even more detailed results to share.

In this article, we consider the problem of ensuring that Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is firmly embedded in a school through appropriate management and planning of the school’s activities (or characteristics of the school organization). To this end, we identify the domains of school organization that would benefit from particular structures and routines in order to embed ESD. We identify these domains by thematically analyzing responses of interviewed leaders of schools employing a transformative approach to ESD. We divided the leaders into two groups, based on the extent to which their respective schools employed a transformative approach to ESD. We analyzed the differences in responses of the two groups, enabling us to identify and compare the structures that school leaders in the respective groups believe to be important. In addition to reporting the results, we discuss their implications. We focus particularly on how structures identified by leaders of highly transformative schools could contribute to long-lasting transformative implementation of ESD, and how structures identified by leaders of the other group could be used to circumvent barriers to such implementation.

This study applies a model of school organisation developed by one of the authors to investigate school improvement processes leading to a whole school approach in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) literature. The model is operationalized to a survey instrument and distributed to Swedish upper secondary teachers. The instrument provides empirical indications of teachers’ perceptions of their schools in terms of four major dimensions of an ESD whole school approach, the importance assigned to a holistic vision, routines and structures, professional knowledge creation, and practical pedagogical work. The aims of the study are to compare the teachers’ perception of their school organisation. We compare perceptions of teachers working in schools actively implementing ESD and teachers in comparable reference schools. Comparisons are also made between teachers from schools applying different strategies and quality approaches in implementing ESD. The results indicate that, relative to teachers in ordinary schools, those in ESD schools perceive their school organisations to have higher quality and coherence, with greater potential to support teaching and pedagogical work in practice. However, there is substantial variation in perceptions of teachers from different ESD schools. The model’s robustness is validated by coherence of earlier results in the same schools.

Chair: Anna Mogren, PhD, Karlstad University Sweden

Discussant: Professor Arjen Wals, Wageningen University, The Netherlands & Gothenburg University,

Sweden

This symposium places Education for Sustainable Development ( ESD) within the field of school improvement

theory and research. In a number of studies, the Whole school approach in ESD is suggested and referred to

as the work of embedding ESD into existing school visions and action plans (Breiting, Mayer & Mogensen

2005 “Quality Criteria for ESD-schools”; Hargreaves 2008; Scott 2013.) The symposium therefore focuses on

how the research field of school improvement – which investigates, how efforts to help schools become

increasingly effective learning environments for the full range of their students have been more or less

successful – might inform and challenge ESD and the ESD the Whole school approach.

If ESD is to be framed and studied from a “within perspective” as an ongoing school improvement process

rather than as an add-on activity to existing organisational arrangements and educational practices, it is

necessary to discuss models of school improvement in terms of their contribution to ESD. It is also important

to identify models of school improvement that can identify drivers and barriers for ESD implementation at

organisational level as well as on teaching and learning level (see Scherp 2013; Reezigt & Creemers 2005

“Comprehensive framework for effective school improvement” ; Rolff 2010 “Trias of school development”;

Rolff 2002 “P.dagogische Qualit.tsmanagement (PQM)”.

In school improvement theory, a school’s organisation is commonly understood as reflexive in relation to

context and supportive to the action of all members of the school community and their cooperation.

Further, research suggests there are basic mechanisms contributing to effective school improvement such as

goal setting for improvement, pressures to improve, cyclical improvement processes and autonomy (see

Scheerens & Demeuse 2005). Further, the school culture ought to be build up on dialogue supported by

school leadership. By this definition of school organisation, school improvement refers to collectively

supporting factors in the organisation, to the end that students’ possibilities for learning in relation to a

complex surrounding world are enhanced.

The recognition of multiple perspectives within the school organisation, e.g. cultural, structural, political and

transformational is central in investing possible models of school improvement. The search for school

improvement models that can discern those perspectives that are closely linked to ESD is crucial. Such

models of school improvement have the potential to constitute the link between the research fields of ESD

and school improvement. They could serve as a tool for further research on how the Whole school approach

is constructed in formal education, which is searched for in the practical work on ESD implementation.

In this symposium examples from ongoing research projects on ESD where models of school improvement

are used, considered or asked for in a German, Swedish and Hungarian context are presented. The

symposium will explore the potential of integrating, adapting and rejecting theoretical perspectives and

empirical evidence from school improvement into the ESD research field through intention papers with the

goal of developing knowledge about

- how selected conceptual work on the Whole school approach in ESD draw on models and

perspectives from school improvement theory,

- how in an empirical case study a school improvement model was used to measure the ESD Whole

school approach,

- how school improvement has informed efforts and plan for upscaling ESD implementation in Eco-

Schools to a larger number of public schools.

Following questions from the audience, Arjen Wals (Wageningen University, The Netherlands & Gothenburg

University, Sweden) will draw together the discussion and to explore implications for research in ESD.

In March 2016, the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) was tasked by the Swedish government to conduct an evaluation of how universities and university colleges promote sustainable development, pursuant to the provisions of the Higher Education Act (1992:1434) introduced ten years earlier, 2006. The evaluation has resulted in a unique collection of empirical material that would have been difficult for an individual researcher to collect independently. The evaluation includes an analysis, but is related to background theory not a strict scientific study.  The empirical material could, however, form a basis for numerous interesting studies on, for example, the important factors for successfully working to integrate sustainable development into higher education. A comparison between nations is also possible to conduct based on the methodology of self-reporting by Higher Education institutions, HEI:s. 

The evaluation defined sustainable development by the Bruntland detention, that the present and future generations are ensured a healthy and good environment, financial and social welfare, and justice. The evaluation was limited to the educational area of sustainable development, education for sustainable development ESD. 

The purpose of the evaluation was to contribute with knowledge and a national comparison of HEIs, work with ESD,  and also to present the results that have been achieved so far. The evaluation was further conducted to give support to the HEIs development work on ESD.

Success factors of a positive ESD implementation due to pre-defined criteria were identified in the  evaluation; the significance of management and control, building institutional support and providing support in implementation.  Apart from investigated criteria, factors that showed effects on a positive ESD implementation was also identified in the evaluation. An example is that several of the large and medium-sized HEIs referred their ESD work from teaching- and engineering programmes, which is the only two programmes where sustainable development is included in the national qualitative programme targets. Central bodies with specific responsibilities for sustainable development was also appointed an important structure in translating ESD policy document to the local context and practice. An interesting finding  was the link between HEIs rated high in this evaluation, to institutions with an environmental management system intended to improve the organisation’s environmental performance and contribute to national environmental goals and to the achievement of UN global goals for sustainable development. Such system takes a wider responsibility of sustainable development than education but seems influential and important in HEIs ESD work. A remaining challenge for a majority of HEIs in Sweden is the process of sustainable development in education where the ESD perspective is not only accounted for as a specific content in education but also a driving force to reach high quality education and society transformation.