The presentation will discuss the design of research methodology, as well as the process of its application. This includes both ‘cognitive’, and ‘skills and values’ content that was mapped and assessed for framing. It will also describe the process of the research. In implementation of the methodology the researchers faced numerous challenges: non-existence of defined ESD curriculum; lack of operational definition of Sustainable Development that education should provide for; fact that the research was done in 9 countries in 9 languages; the national researchers often had no ESD experience; e) education systems vary greatly and rely on different types of curriculum documents from descriptive to output based. The presentation will address how these obstacles were approached, justify the choices and describe the modalities of the team work. The basic findings of the described methodology will include the comparative analysis of the state-specific research findings from an international perspective. The significance of findings that 'gender equality', 'rural development and urbanisation', 'economy and modes of production’ and 'management of change and uncertainty’ are relatively underrepresented topics in most states will be discussed. We will also show and offer for discussion the balance of 3 conceptual segments (environment, economy, society) of SD.