Education for sustainable development between main–streaming and systemic change: Switzerland as a case study

Abstract

As in many other countries the transformation of the Swiss education system into one that is conducive to a sustainable society is difficult. The chapter will look at what has been achieved since the beginning of the UN Decade of ESD in the context of the Swiss School System, what is planned for the next years and how these activities relate to the systemic change needed to achieve the transition to a sustainable future, addressing the difficult relationship between limited manoeuvre for change within the education system, and actors outside the system who try to get a step further. The chapter will finish with a set of proposals on how to induce and initiate educational reform which goes beyond the tinkering at the edges witnessed today.