Education for sustainable development in Finland

Abstract

Finland is an interesting case with regard to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) because of the high quality of Finnish Schools, their teachers and the high esteem of Finnish teacher education and educational research. The Finnish approach to ESD is very much action research led, inspired by the international ENSI network, with a strong impetus coming from the only ESD professorship in Finland at the University of Helsinki. The chapter shows how a couple of exemplary schools deal with implementing ESD in their daily practice and what role both a Regional Centre of Excellence in ESD and the Finnish National Board of Education play in supporting these endeavours. The importance of an eco–social approach to education, systems thinking and value based education is highlighted.