On behalf of the UN, the Brundtland Report was published in 1987, highlighting significant concerns in various environments that remain relevant today. The interactions between technology, people, indigenous communities, and their surroundings are often troubling and require critical examination to promote greater ecological ‘sustainability’.

In 2000, Crutzen & Stoermer published their essay "The Anthropocene" in the journal "Global Change Newsletter." In this essay, the two natural scientists coined the term ‘Anthropocene’ to describe the current geological epoch. They argue that human activities will have long-lasting effects on the planet. Crutzen & Stoermer also reference Sir Charles Lyell, who, as early as 1833 during the onset of the Industrial Revolution, recognized humanity’s activities as a significant geological and morphological force, comparable to natural phenomena such as the sun or gravity.

In the Anthropocene, as it relates to the social sciences, it is modelled that societies are facing increasing threats from ecologically induced crises as well as from groundbreaking and radical technological developments. On one hand, today's societies are becoming more polarized, while poverty and global inequality are simultaneously rising. On the other hand, we are confronted with a global-scale push towards depoliticization and homogenization. The digital encoding of human beings makes them accessible to unforeseen instances and actions. Unanticipated and irreversible disruptions need to be considered in developing new educational strategies (Wallenhorst & Wulf 2023). We face ruptures with human-centered agency and modernist notions of linear progress. Instead, primacy is given to the cohabitation of human and non-humans, as well as to ‘glocal’ (global + local) contexts. ‘Glocality’ embraces and demands knowledge about how all humans can cohabitate, engaging in both local and global contexts simultaneously (Roberson, 1992).

These developments are significantly challenging the pedagogy used in the classroom.As a result of the Anthropocene, teaching in the classroom is facing challenges of human impact on the Earth system. In the glocal classroom, we recognize the need to promote values of sharing, caring, and learning exchange. It is increasingly clear that recognizing each individual as a whole and fostering their sense of agency does not occur spontaneously; these qualities must be intentionally nurtured. It is essential to integrate values such as sharing, caring, and understanding the individuals as whole persons across all school subjects, a goal that is especially emphasized in arts education.

In our presentation, we will outline the role of art and aesthetic learning processes in society in the context of the Anthropocene. The focus will be on elaborating the ways in which aesthetic Bildung can contribute to the habitability of the glocal world.

Hereby, we will focus the concepts of aesthetic bildung.  These concepts have in common that they are ultimately – at least implicitly – related to specific and localized cultural form repertoires, negotiating different modes of perception and creating visions in relation to imaginaries (Jörissen 2020). Within the bildung-approach, various didactical methods have been developed to enhance students’ reflection on images and promote their agency, including exploring values and ethics closely linked to the subject matter (ibid.). In parallel with art in aesthetic practices, aesthetic objects, issues, experiences, and values will be explored in relation to comparative, cultural-historical, and philosophical-existential questions.

To clarify the knowledge and activities required from both teachers and students to foster sustainability across various aesthetic contexts, we aim to outline three key pathways that will help students engage with the challenges of the Anthropocene:

What can be considered sustainable in the field of art and arts education?

What characterizes the specific expertise within the aesthetic subject areas regarding sustainability?

How can children's contributions to the renewal of aesthetic practice be made visible?

Our paper presents a comprehensive research overview rather than an empirical study. We aim to find authors for a planned anthology. This volume seeks to emphasize three primary areas intended to equip students with an understanding of the challenges associated with sustainability in 1. Action and agency: Greta Thunberg's speech "Our House is on Fire" at the World Economic Forum in 2019 exemplifies the potential to mobilize the global public to make significant statements and take action regarding sustainability in education. This presentation will provide an example of how such activism and agency can manifest in the domains of art and arts education. 2. Vision: It is essential to comprehend the assumptions that lead humanity astray and to create new visions. International research indicates that the foundation for fostering students' capacity to actively participate in knowledge creation and ethical decision-making is established during their formative years in elementary school (Barton 2016). However, most studies primarily focus on the benefits of involving high school and university students in co-creating academic knowledge and aesthetic bildung (Maretha & Waluyo 2022). In our paper, the dynamic interaction between students' active participation and specific Bildung content will be modeled paradigmatically in relation to the provided example. 3. Custody: To effectively respond to challenges during times of crisis in the Anthropocene, children must first feel safe and perceive the world as a livable and meaningful place. By exploring the potential of art education to create these safe spaces for personal growth, we will draw on the concepts of care. This will be achieved by comparing the German term "Geborgenheit" with the Swedish term "trygghet," and relating both to the example of how sustainability activism and agency can manifest in the fields of art and arts education. All three aspects, action and agency, vision and custody, are rooted in the expertise, knowledge, and education fostered through arts education, which is conceptualized as a dynamic interaction between students' active participation and specific content related to aesthetic Bildung.

We plan to discuss three major categories for our anthology: Action and agency: 1. Explorative Arts Education: The learners are encouraged to critically examine space, materials, and emotions. Space for experimentation and personal reflection is important in the digital age and climate crisis. 2. Global Influence and Cultural Dynamics: Today's hybrid practices, identities, and governance erode traditional community structures while leading to dynamic cultural transformations. Arts education can facilitate discussions on cultural norms and values. 3. Didactics of Arts Learning in Europe: Europe has diverse traditions in arts education, often centered on didactics and on student-centered teaching and learning, especially in the arts. Visions: 1. Education for sustainable development (ESD): ESD emphasizes intergenerational justice and democracy. It focuses on reflecting on the consequences of different lifestyles and assuming responsibility for future development. This includes indigenous perspectives on cultural appropriation and nativity, as well as knowledge of interconnected systems and species (Baker, 2018; Hofvander Trulsson and Johnson, 2025). 2. Art's role: Art can illuminate aspects of material, social, and cultural existence that often go unnoticed (Paul Klee, 2016). Art and cultural practices provide insights into improving sustainability in various life areas. 3. Bildung and Arts Education: Aesthetic bildung involves local cultural forms and visions tied to comparative and philosophical-existential questions. The bildung approach uses didactical methods to enhance student reflection and agency, exploring values and ethics. Custody: 1. Tacit Knowledge: Hall’s iceberg analogy of culture (1976) shows that visible cultural aspects like behaviors are just the surface, while hidden elements like core values lie beneath and shape actions and perceptions. 2. Investigating Student Leadership: Teachers facilitate students' identification as agents, making implicit social habits visible and inspiring new worldviews. 3. Children’s Perspectives: Artistic practices are used as methodologies to investigate how social structures shape children's orientations and cultures of childhood within Children’s Studies.

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