This Symposium builds on the initial findings presented and discussed at ECER 2023 NW30  (Lysgaard & Elf, 2023). It is based on a large Danish research project and co-lab between different Danish educational institutions focusing on concepts of quality in sustainability education in primary and lower secondary education. The Symposium draws on international perspectives on quality to embed the findings within the larger field covered by NW30 and ensure that it adds to the body of knowledge within ESE research.

The papers presented at this symposium draw on qualitative and quantitative inquiries into how concepts of quality are expressed and experienced within Danish primary schools in relationship to sustainability education. The aim of the symposium is motivated by what we identify as a potential to develop further and discuss conceptual challenges relating to the often very conflicting nature of how we can understand quality in ESE. We want to contribute further to discussions of ongoing theoretical and methodological challenges relating to how we can conceptualise quality and whose quality we are interested in.

The symposium is guided by an interest in pragmatism (Dewey, 1913) that emphasizes the experiential and communicative nature of quality in education and teaching: Quality is experienced and appraised in specific communicative settings (e.g. problem-based teaching) by someone (e.g. student, teacher) about something (e.g. subject matter) in order to be the quality that it is; quality is thus not considered to be existing objectively, in itself (Wittek & Kvernbekk, 2011). Further, quality eludes satisfactory measurement by singular quantitative or qualitative processes (Berliner, 2005; Dahler-Larsen, 2019). Rather, quality must be inferred interpretatively and complementarily from qualitative and quantitative data analyses drawing on multiple and mixed methods (Stake, 1995).

At the outset, the conceptual paper 1 situates the discussion of concepts of quality within the ESE field in relationship to the diverging but also overlapping traditions of Anglo-Saxon-inspired curriculum research and European continental notions of didactics. The paper serves to underline the need for empirical and conceptual critical examinations of how concepts of quality are leveraged within ESE research and practice.

Paper 2 presents a qualitative approach that explores the perspectives of primary and secondary school students and how more knowledge about their experiences with sustainability education can inform and qualify a better understanding of what we call experienced quality. The ambition is to explore how investigating the students' perspectives and experiences can inform discussions of different qualities in sustainability education and the potential in how this can qualify the generation of knowledge about teaching green transition.

Paper 3 builds on the discussions of quality by drawing on a quantitative data on Danish youth and their perceptions and understanding of sustainability issues and their own position in relation to these challenges. A specific focus is the relation, or lack of relation, between acquired knowledge and engagement in sustainability issues.

The final paper presents a specific case for teaching on sustainability issues: the case of waste in teaching in lower secondary education. An important emphasis of this paper is the dilemmas that often show up in teaching. Here as part of relationship between the teachers’ efforts to develop interesting and engaging teaching focusing on waste and the formation of the pupils understanding of their own action and possibilities for partaking in wider sustainability practices.

Berliner, D. C. (2005). The Near Impossibility of Testing for Teacher Quality. Journal of Teacher Education, 56, 205-213. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022487105275904 Dahler-Larsen, P. (2019). Quality: from plato to performance. Springer. Dewey, J. (1913). Interest and Effort in Education. Houghton Mifflin. Lysgaard, J. A. & Elf, N. (2023 August 25). Symposium; Approaches to ‘Quality’ in Environmental and Sustainability Education and Teaching. ECER 2023. Glasgow, Scotland. Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Sage Publications, Inc. Wittek, A. & Kvernbekk, T. (2011) On the Problems of Asking for a Definition of Quality in Education, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 55:6, 671-684, DOI: 10.1080/00313831.2011.594618