Ecological crises are the defining issue of our time and we are at a defining moment (UNESCO, 2019). They encompass issues that we must tackle from a wide range of angles as a global society. Aligning education policies and practices with sustainability objectives is paramount. Educating our youth to lead more sustainable lifestyles and in harmony with nature must be a pillar for the social and economic changes we must undergo in the next 30 years. The 1977 Tbilisi UN conference focused on environmental issues and education and it was stated that human activities may have ‘detrimental and possibly irreversible consequences’ on the environment (UNESCO, 1997). It was also determined that education would have to play a crucial role in the face of environmental issues (UNESCO, 1997).

Climate change is not a scientific problem, but rather a social and economic one. Teaching students about such a complex and politicized topic, how to be critical thinkers or life-long learners is not neutral nor it is context neutral (Perkins et al., 2018). The fact that Education for Sustainability (EfS) is fundamental to redirecting teaching and learning upon our climate emergency has been widely accepted in academy and in the international organisations’ arena. However, there seems to be little consensus about what EfS should look like, who and how it should be provided and how to adapt pedagogical practices to ensure its effectiveness (Reid, 2019).

The relationship between human development and environmental impact is complex. People with high educational achievements living in the Global North are more likely to have a larger carbon footprint, which is harmful to local and global ecosystems. This is often due to an overall higher consumption of goods, food and water waste, as well as high CO2 emissions as a result of regular use of cars and aeroplanes(Wals and Benavot, 2017) Conversely, access to environmental education and knowledge about climate change and ecology has promoted behavioural change towards recycling, reducing waste and energy use and selecting less carbon-intensive methods of transport if possible. This implies that some types of education prove to be effective in increasing care for the environment at the local and global levels (Wals and Benavot, 2017). 

Education for Sustainability (EfS) -or Transformative Education for Sustainability- (Laininen, 2019) can be both instrumental and emancipatory. It can help to create citizens who are aware of environmental issues and provide them with tools to act. It investigates ways of living in a more sustainable manner with the environment and with the rest of society. This type of education tends to promote learning by doing, collaboration, participation and transformation in nature. In some cases, it involves questioning not only how we live but also production and consumption systems, local eco-social problems and how they relate to global issues, as well as carrying out action and awareness campaigns. One of the main objectives of this type of education is to promote more just and environmentally sustainable societies.   

This research has the following central questions:

• How can we educate our youth (11-15) towards more sustainable lifestyles? 

• What are the main characteristics of projects that focus on transformative education towards sustainability in three school projects that claim to focus on EfS? How can we evaluate and monitor them?

• What policies and practices have been adopted by the educational community? How have the different actors across the educational community interpreted the schools’ policies and practices? 

• What is the relationship between the context in which the project is immersed and its EfS proposal? 

These research questions will be answered through a comparative study of renowned EfS projects in three public schools in Italy, Argentina and Uruguay. One educational project is selected in each country. The selection criteria is based on the consolidation of the project, local (or international) recognition of the project, duration (minimum 5 years) and relevance of the educational proposal. Diversity is sought in terms of types of projects and the socio-economic context in which they are immersed. The activities carried out in each centre are observations, questionnaires, interviews and workshops. Observations of a minimum of 20 hours of classes and/or daily routine in each educational centre will be conducted. These observations will be the first step in approaching the projects once they confirm their interest in participating in this study. The aim is to analyse the context and create the social connections and relationships necessary to enhance the quality of in-depth interviews. Moreover, they will serve to identify potential candidates for interviews. Questionnaires will be sent to all participating students in each school. These questionnaires aim at obtaining a ‘general gist’ of their perspective on key research topics such as: their relation to nature, to their environment and their everyday decisions which might have an impact on their ecological footprint. Between five and seven semi-structured interviews will be conducted in each school, with representation from different adult stakeholders: management, teachers, general staff and parents. In addition, a limited number of education authorities and national public education experts will be interviewed. The purpose of interviewing experts is to frame each project within the education system in which it is located. All interviews will be conducted in the mother tongue of the interviewee Spanish or Italian, and will last approximately 40 minutes. Five workshops are conducted with students in each educational community. The aim of these workshops is to provide a safe space for students, who might otherwise feel pressured in a one-to-one interview to discuss nature, climate change, and the environment. The topics of the workshops are: Are we all connected in sustainability? How? How does (un)sustainability impact different social groups? Is sustainability an individual or collective issue? why? What is sustainability for us? The aim of these workshops is to provide students with safe space to reflect on what they understand by sustainability, diverse forms of injustices (economic, climate, social), cultural diversity, and the relevance of collective and political action.

This study presents four expected outcomes: 1) Creating a theoretical framework to evaluate and monitor EfS projects. 2) Establishing a theoretical framework to compare the inputs, processes and outputs of each project with regards to EfS. It can also serve as a reference for other schools that want to reflect on and evaluate their own practices and policies. 3) Generating exchange opportunities between schools. The aim is to create a space to discuss the opportunities, tensions and difficulties in developing each project within their contexts. 4) Generating a network between projects, promoting webinars and exchange of information and experiences at the managerial, teaching and student level.

Laininen, E. (2019) ‘Transforming our worldview towards a sustainable future’, in Sustainability, Human Well-Being, and the Future of Education. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-78580-6_5. Perkins, K. M. et al. (2018) ‘International perspectives on the pedagogy of climate change’, Journal of Cleaner Production. Elsevier Ltd, 200, pp. 1043–1052. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.296. Reid, A. (2019) ‘Climate change education and research: possibilities and potentials versus problems and perils?’, Environmental Education Research. Routledge, 25(6), pp. 767–790. doi: 10.1080/13504622.2019.1664075. UNESCO (1997) ‘International Conference on Environment and Society: Education and Public Awareness for Sustainability; Declaration of Thessaloniki; 1997’, in International Conference Environment and Society: Education and Public Awareness for Sustainability. UNESCO (2019) ‘Country progress on Climate Change Education, Training and Public Awareness’. Available at: http://www.unesco.org/open-access/terms-use-ccbysa-en Wals, A. E. J. and Benavot, A. (2017) ‘Can we meet the sustainability challenges? The role of education and lifelong learning’, European Journal of Education, 52(4). doi: 10.1111/ejed.12250.