Increasingly rapid and disruptive technological and socio-ecological changes drive contemporary discussion about the uncertainties of our presents and futures, in society and education. In education, policy makers are responding with pedagogical concepts and frameworks. For example, both the OECD (Häggström & Schmidt, 2021; OECD, 2019) and the European Commission's ‘GreenComp’, include futures literacy. (Bianchi et al., 2022).

Various megatrends drive uncertainty, e.g. pandemic, war, human catastrophes. Here, we focus on two inter-linked mega-trends, which raise questions of how we want to live in the present and future:  1) sustainable development and education for sustainable development (ESD); and 2) the rapid expansion of digital technologies. The negotiation of past, present and future has always been inscribed in pedagogy (Koller, 2020; Thompson, 2019). A struggle for futures comes to a head in pedagogical contexts such as education for sustainable development and media education, which have similarities in their premises and didactics (Grünberger, 2022; Rau & Rieckmann, 2023; Selwyn, 2023). A further commonality is the question of uncertain futures.

 This symposium explores aspects of uncertainty in a world characterised by digital technology, with regard to ESD in Europe, drawing on data and experience from Teacher Academy Project-Teaching Sustainability (TAP-TS). Our research and analysis is anchored in a shared theoretical basis in social-constructivism, and in particular critical-constructivist perspectives on social learning with a  foundation - in the broadest sense - in critical theory. For this, we draw particularly on Habermas (2021) for insights into the normative foundations of critical theory, Fuchs (2020) for insights into criticality, capitalism and media study, Vienni-Baptista et al (2023) for communication in transdisciplinary work, and Gradinaru’s (2016) revisioning of Anderson on imagined community.

The three papers presented here offer distinct and complementary perspectives on digital technology and ESD. The first, "Coping with Uncertainty in Education for Sustainable Development in a Digital World", discusses this question on a general level. PAPER 1 introduces the topic and leads on questions for  educational practice and in school. The characteristics of transdisciplinary, open learning communities for strengthening and transforming education in times of uncertainty are analysed in PAPER 2 "Digital media and open learning communities for international sustainability teacher education". Our central focus is the question of how educators’ transdisciplinary relationships across boundaries of academic disciplines, institutions (pre- and in-service teacher education, primary and secondary schools, civil society), and nations, facilitated in part through digital media, have fostered improvements and even transformations in sustainability education. The specifics of "open educational resources'' and “open educational practices” (OPAL, 2011) are examined in PAPER 3. We emphasise in particular the power of critical reflection to prompt agency for sustainability and the status of TAP-TS LTPs as Open Educational Resources (OERs). We also discuss the LTP’s inherent 'beta nature' – all are work-in-progress and are offered as proposals rather than prescribed as ‘solutions’ to teachers and other educators taking part in TAP-TS events and activities. In this way we foreground the TAP-TS aim of enabling learners to participate more fully in a post-digital society. 

Following the three contributions, the discussant will formulate a critical view and moderate the discussion with symposium participants with a view to furthering analytical insights within and between papers. In the course of the discussion, a collaborative online pinboard will be used to secure the results, allowing all participants to comment. The results will be taken into account in the further development of the TAP-TS project and will help the project to navigate its way towards the planned goals.

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