The Global Action Programme (GAP) priority areas two and three call for transforming learning and training environmental and capacity building of educators respectively (UNESCO, 2014). The goal of the GAP is to generate and scale up ESD action at all levels and areas of education and learning to accelerate progress towards sustainable development (ibid.). Drawing on two cases, this paper presents professional learning networks as capacity building mechanisms and within these cases present experiences of professional learning network structures as generative mecha-nisms for scaling Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in teacher and higher education. Case 1 is Fundisa for Change, a programme in South Africa (Fundisa for Change, 2013), and case 2 is Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African University Partnership (MESA) (UNEP, 2004). Drawing on these two cases this paper argues for the significance of professional learning networks as generative mechanisms for scaling ESD in teacher education at national and continen-tal level. These professional learning networks have proven to be enabling mechanisms for scaling past and current ESD actions, hence the need for continuous engagement with them and devel-opment of others for more effective scaling ESD in learning environments. Using the scaling con-ceptual framework (Mickelsson et al., in press) and Archer’s relational agency underlaboured by critical realism (Archer,…) , this paper analyses how professional learning networks have been generative mechanisms in scaling ESD in teacher and higher education.

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