In this contribution we present on-going research that aims at developing the principles of an art education which fosters the capacities for resonance, responsiveness and responsibility and thereby also contributes to nurturing sustainable ways of being-in-the-world, which might offer a response to dealing with the ecological crisis in education. Conducted in collaboration with an international consortium of European universities, elementary schools and educational-artistic NGOs, this study further examines how educators can bring their pedagogical interactions into closer alignment with values of sustainability and inclusion, and how arts-based didactic models may support this alignment within concrete educational practices.

The project starts from the observation that too often contemporary education for sustainable development continues to emphasise solutions, skills, and competencies, commonly framed within technocratic or instrumental paradigms.. Against this background, the present study positions arts education as a particularly fertile domain for engaging with these dimensions, given its potential to cultivate imagination, sensibility, and embodied forms of knowing. Rather than approaching the environment as an object to be analysed or managed, sustainability is understood here as a relational question: how humans encounter, respond to, and care for a shared world.

The theoretical framework is grounded in contemporary educational philosophy and social theory that foreground relationality and world-centredness. A central point of reference is Hartmut Rosa’s concept of resonance (Rosa, 2016; Lijster & Celikates, 2019)which describes a mode of relating to the world characterised by openness, responsiveness, and the possibility of mutual transformation, in contrast to relations based on control or domination. From this perspective, sustainability is not primarily about mastering nature, but about cultivating the capacity to listen and respond to what the world addresses to us (Brosette & Bieling, 2025) Education, in turn, is understood as a practice of presenting the world as meaningful and addressable, inviting learners into forms of responsible participation rather than extractive engagement.

This orientation dovetails with broader critiques of strongly student-centred or outcome-driven educational models, which often privilege efficiency, individual achievement, and measurable outputs. Drawing on the work of educational theorists such as Gert Biesta (2017;2022) the study adopts a world-centred educational perspective in which the guiding question shifts from “What does the learner want or need?” to “What is the world asking of us?” (Vansieleghem, 2021). Within arts education, this shift has far-reaching didactic consequences: materials, artistic processes, and pedagogical gestures function as implicit carriers of values and worldviews. The research therefore pays close attention to the tension between educators’ espoused theories and their theories-in-use, following Argyris and Schön (1978) highlighting how commitments to sustainability may be articulated at the level of discourse while remaining insufficiently realised in everyday practice.

Methodologically and conceptually, the study is further informed by arts-based and practice-oriented research traditions (cf. Manning, 2017; cf. Jamouchi, 2024). Didactic design is not approached as the linear application of predefined principles, but as a creative, situated, and reflexive process. The resulting ART-ECO didactic model is deliberately non-prescriptive and exploratory. Conceived as a cartographic tool, it is intended to support educators in critically reflecting on and reconfiguring their practices. By engaging with local materials, ecological contexts, and collaborative artistic processes, the research investigates how arts education can enact sustainability as a lived and relational experience, rather than as an abstract or external theme.

In doing so, the study contributes to ongoing debates on education for sustainable development by articulating and empirically exploring a world-centred, arts-based theoretical framework. It argues that meaningful responses to the climate crisis require not only new forms of knowledge and skill, but also transformed relationships to the world—relationships that arts education is particularly well positioned to cultivate.

The research is situated within a qualitative, practice-oriented methodological tradition that combines arts-based research, design-based research, and collaborative inquiry. Methodology is not treated as a fixed toolkit applied to a stable object of study, but as a set of situated practices that emerge through sustained engagement with educational and artistic work. Methodological decisions are therefore inseparable from the pedagogical processes they seek to understand, and they evolve in response to the concrete contexts in which the research is carried out. Empirically, the project unfolds within an international consortium of universities, teacher education institutes, schools, and educational-artistic organisations across several European countries. These contexts are not framed as directly comparable case studies, but as interconnected sites where diverse traditions, practices, and sensitivities concerning arts education and sustainability enter into dialogue. The methodological backbone of the project consists of an iterative movement between three closely related phases, referred to as sourcing, weaving, and enacting. Rather than forming a linear sequence, these phases constitute a recurring rhythm that structures both the research process and pedagogical development over time. The phase of sourcing centres on careful attention to existing practices. Educators and artists are invited to articulate, document, and share materials, pedagogical gestures, and working methods embedded in their everyday work. Sourcing does not aim to identify exemplary models or transferable best practices. Instead, it seeks to make visible the often implicit assumptions, values, and relations to the world that shape concrete educational situations. This phase involves slowing down, listening attentively, and allowing local and situated forms of knowledge to surface, even when they appear fragmentary or unsystematic. In the subsequent phase of weaving, these diverse materials and experiences are brought together in collective settings. Weaving is understood as a dialogical and creative process in which practices from different contexts are placed alongside one another, discussed, and tentatively reconfigured. Differences and frictions are not resolved prematurely, but treated as productive moments that invite reflection on what a world-centred orientation in arts education might entail. Through this process, shared concepts and didactic orientations begin to emerge without becoming fully fixed or stabilised. The phase of enacting involves experimenting with emerging orientations in concrete educational situations. Art lessons, workshops, and didactic materials are co-designed and tested in practice, allowing ideas to encounter classroom realities. Enactment exposes tensions and unintended effects, prompting reflection and adaptation. Artistic processes generate relational knowledge while sustaining coherence between theory and pedagogy.

As the research is ongoing, the outcomes presented here should be understood as provisional and indicative rather than as final conclusions. The study does not aim to provide clear-cut answers or ready-made solutions, but seeks to cultivate a nuanced understanding of how arts education can engage sustainability as a question of relating to the world. One anticipated outcome is deeper insight into how everyday pedagogical practices in arts education carry implicit assumptions about the world, and how these assumptions may support, challenge, or complicate efforts toward ecological and social sustainability. A further line of findings concerns the notion of resonance in educational practice. Across diverse contexts, arts-based activities that foreground attentiveness, material engagement, and collective making appear to create conditions in which learners relate differently to their surroundings. In such moments, sustainability is not treated as a topic to be explained or mastered, but as something lived and experienced through practice. At the same time, the research highlights the fragility of these moments, which are easily disrupted by institutional constraints such as time limitations, curricular demands, and pressures for measurable outcomes. Another expected outcome relates to the ART-ECO didactic model developed within the project. Rather than functioning as a method to be applied, the model serves as a reflective support for educators. Early experiences suggest that its open, non-prescriptive character is both demanding and productive. Educators are invited to assume responsibility for their pedagogical choices instead of relying on predefined guidelines, a process that can feel challenging while also enabling professional agency. More broadly, the research contributes to debates on education for sustainable development by questioning instrumental and competency-based approaches, foregrounding relationality, imagination, and embodied experience, and inviting educators and learners to remain with ecological difficulty and shared responsibility together.

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