Sustainability teaching: Toward an empirically grounded model

Abstract

The chapter uses findings from the research project Green Transition in Lower-Secondary Education (2021–2025) to examine opportunities and challenges for genuinely cross- and transcurricular teaching related to sustainability and the green transition. Sustainability teaching has historically been dominated by natural science and, to some extent, social science teachers, while many teachers across the curriculum report being asked to teach sustainability without sufficient support, guidelines, or practical experience. This demonstrates the need for a sustainability didactics for mono- as well as cross- and transcurricular teaching. Based on an empirical study of qualitatively different ways of teaching the United Nation’s sustainable development goals in Danish schools, the chapter analyses the difficulties posed by complex and dilemma-ridden topics like sustainability and green transition and concludes by giving some practical advice for how to teach them.