The Global action programme (GAP) on education for sustainable development (ESD) was launched at the UNESCO World Conference on ESD in November 2014. The GAP seeks “to generate and scale-up action in all levels and areas of education and learning in order to accelerate progress towards sustainable development” (UNESCO, 2014a, 2014b, 2014c).The GAP represents a continuation of the work of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) (Hopkins, 2015). While the DESD resulted in a large number of successful pilot projects Hopkins notes that there still is a need to implement these projects in different contexts making scaling of educational projects a crucial component of the GAP (UNESCO, 2014b, 2014c).

Arguably, the GAP will shape the practice, policy and research of ESD in the coming years. Hence, Fischer et al. (Fischer & Aubrecht, 2015) states that there is a need for research on the scaling processes within the GAP based on reviews of empirical evidence and thus inform and substantiate coming assessments and decisions on ESD projects. I argue that such evidence can be found by studying projects scaled in Southern Africa during the last 25 years by the Environmental Learning Research Centre (ELRC) at Rhodes University and their partners. Studying this work performed by Rhodes and partners provides an opportunity to produce knowledge about scaling of Environment and Sustainability Education (ESE) projects both in multiple different circumstances and over an extended period of time.

In this paper I seek to explore how experiences from 25 years of ESE projects in Southern Africa can give insights relevant to assessment and scaling of projects within the GAP, relating the paper to Network 30´s special call. Research questions:

• What kind of scaling has taken place in ESE projects in Southern Africa?
• How can empirical material from the scaling of ESE projects in Southern Africa contribute to the GAP through informing and substantiating coming assessments and decisions on scaling of educational projects?

While scaling is introduced as a central component in the GAP (UNESCO, 2014c) Harwell (Harwell, 2012) notes that scaling is a relatively new phenomenon in education and there is a significant lack of educational research on scaling based on empirical material and he suggests importing theories from health and development studies. In this paper I use a theoretical framework based on Coburn and Harwell (Coburn, 2003; Harwell, 2012).They argue that scaling processes are generally motivated by the need to increase the impact of projects, which is also emphasised by other scaling researchers (Gaye & Nelson, 2009; Nair & Howlett, 2015) I base my study on a multi-dimensional perspective of scaling that includes horizontal, vertical, functional as well as temporal scaling (Coburn, 2003; Harwell, 2012). According to Coburn and others (Elmore, 1996; Hancock, 2003; Harwell, 2012; Summerville & Raley, 2009) successful scaling of projects to new contexts is dependent on project adaptability. Project adaptability is necessary to identify which “essential” (i.e. non-adaptive) elements of a project that are to be scaled and what adaptive elements that can be changed to suit the context without lessening the impact of the project.

I will use Barbara Rogoff´s (Rogoff, 2003) development and learning theory which conceptualise learning as taking place on multiple planes. These include, in addition to the personal plane of the individual, the social and interpersonal plane, where the learner interacts with teachers and other learners as well as the cultural/institutional plane, i.e. the situation where the learning process is taking place. Rogoff´s emphasis on the broad context of the learning process reflects the focus on adaptivity and context in my scaling theoretical framework.

Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method. Qualitative Research Journal. Emerald Group Coburn, C. E. (2003). Rethinking Scale: Moving beyond Numbers to Deep and Lasting Change. Educational Researcher. Sage CA: Thousand Oaks, CA: American Educational Research Elmore, R. F. (1996). Getting to scale with good educational practice. Harvard Educational Review. Harvard Fischer, D., & Aubrecht, E. L. (2015). UN Global Action Programme and Education for Sustainable Development: A Critical Appraisal of the Evidence Base. Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education. De Gruyter Open. Gaye, P. A., & Nelson, D. (2009). Effective scale-up: Avoiding the same old traps. Human Resources for Health. London. Hancock, J. (2003). Scaling Up the Impact of Good Practices in Rural Development: A Working Paper to Support Implementation of the World Bank’s Rural Development Strategy (No. 26031). Harwell, M. (2012). Multisite Studies and Scaling Up in Educational Research. Educational Research Quarterly. West Monroe: Educational Research Quarterly. Hopkins, C. (2015). Beyond the Decade: The Global Action Program for Education for Sustainable Development. Applied Environmental Education & Communication. Philadelphia: Routledge. Jordan, M. E., Kleinsasser, R. C., & Roe, M. F. (2014). Wicked problems: inescapable wickedity. Journal of Education for Teaching. Abingdon: Routledge. Muir-Cochrane, E. C., & Fereday, J. (2006). Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: a hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. Nair, S., & Howlett, M. (2015). Scaling up of Policy Experiments and Pilots: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Lessons for the Water Sector. Water Resources Management. Dordrecht: Netherlands. Owen, G. T. (2014). Qualitative Methods in Higher Education Policy Analysis: Using Interviews and Document Analysis. The Qualitative Report. Fort Lauderdale Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research & evaluation methods: integrating theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York: Oxford University Press. Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2005). Qualitative interviewing: the art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Summerville, G., & Raley, B. (2009). Laying a Solid Foundation: Strategies for Effective Program Replication. Philadelphia. UNESCO. (2014a). Aichi-Nagoya Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development. In UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (p. 2). UNESCO. (2014b). Global Action Programme on ESD. UNESCO. (2014c). UNESCO Roadmap for Implementing the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development. Paris.