This paper examines the different approaches within ESE teaching based on the entangled trajectories of Anglo-Saxon curriculum research positions and European continental didactic tradition (Buckler & Creech, 2014; Scott & Gough, 2003; Vare & Scott, 2007). Through a tracing of the positions within ESE and their epistemological, historical and regional influences, it is argued that these differences show up as a multifaceted landscape, more that as bi-polar positions. This both influence specific current conceptualizations of what can be considered quality in ESE teaching, but also highlights challenges in changing both implicit and explicit trajectories of thought and practice (Brückner, Lysgaard, & Elf, Forthcoming). By pointing towards the tensions between subject specificity, general ambitions and systemic ambitions of within and across different approaches to ESE education it is argued that there is more linking the different traditions than what separates them, but that tropes, blind spots and bald spots also develop according to the foundational approaches and that this can be seen as underlying factors in the rapid development of new concepts and understandings of quality in ESE research and practice.

Brückner, M., Lysgaard, J. A., & Elf, N. (Forthcoming). Dimensions of Quality in Environmental and Sustainability education research Environmental Education Research. Buckler, C., & Creech, H. (2014). Shaping the future we want: UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development; final report. Paris: UNESCO. Scott, W., & Gough, S. (2003). Sustainable development and learning - Framing the issues: RoutledgeFarmer. Vare, P., & Scott, B. (2007). Learning for a Change: Exploring the Relationship Between Education and Sustainable Development. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 1(2).