This proposed symposium builds on research projects in three countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) which are essentially connected by a common central issue: they all refer to the concept “Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)”. This concept has recently been internationally recognised. It became the name giver of the Decade “Education for Sustainable Development” which the United Nations have called for the years 2005 to 2014. The Decade aims to support implementing ESD into the respective national education systems. Apart from their common central issue, the papers share their main research focus: ESD is considered an object of educational policy processes which refer to both national and international implementation as well as measurement and evaluation in conjunction with monitoring activities in the educational system. From diverse perspectives, session participants analyse the implementation processes of the aforementioned educational policy and how this can be operationalized in terms of indicators. The connective research questions are: How is the policy issue ESD perceived by different social actors, and how does a shift in agency of the innovative policy happen? This process is considered in different contexts (educational authorities and operative units) on the one hand. On the other hand, it is thought of as being crucial for a shift concerning the agency of the educational policy. The arrangement of the papers to be presented here take up these levels: - The first paper (Germany) examines comparatively how German schools manage to become deeply engaged with the concept ESD. It analyses factors influencing the commitment of schools commitment. Thus, this paper refers to the meso-level. - The second paper (Germany) relates to the development of indicators for the national evaluation and monitoring of ESD. It discusses the expectations of actors from diverse contexts (such as civic organisations, educational authorities, social science) concerning the performance of ESD indicators. This paper is located at the interface of the meso- and the macro-level. - The third paper (Austria) discusses the potential of ESD indicators concerning their integration into existing schemes for educational reportings. This paper refers to the macro-level. - The fourth paper (Switzerland) introduces a heuristic framework and a theoretical approach which may guide the selection as well as the development of ESD indicators. This paper outlines a meta-level and is informed by educational theory as well as by sustainability theories. The papers will be reflected on by a discussant from Lithuania.

The projects presented here are in line with their intention to identify factors influencing the shifting agency of an educational policy and how this can be fixed empirically. Because they refer to different levels of the education system and particularly because they address various aspects of the main research question, the methodological approaches used here are different, too. Concerning data-mining these methods enclose problem-focussed qualitative interviews and standardized questionnaires. With regard to the evaluation of data the methods used range from qualitative content analysis and hermeneutic text analysis as well as complex multi-variate statistical procedures.

Each paper will show selected preliminary results of projects in progress. They aim to contribute to the question of how the agency shift of an educational policy considered here takes place and might be grasped. While the paper which addresses the meso-level is able to offer empirically founded insights into the impeding and enabling factors of school commitment to ESD, the second paper describes that ESD indicators are supposed to meet paradoxical expectations in conjunction with the action co-ordination in educational governance. These are linked with the complex processes which lead to commitment themselves. The third paper suggests an approach how to make ESD indicators part of the monitoring policy. Finally, the theoretical and heuristic raster of the fourth paper is meant to deliver a guiding tool for the selection and construction of indicators which cover the diverse functions of education being part of the policy issue ESD.