Most reports, articles and chapters, written by our students or peers, and, indeed, by ourselves, start by pointing at the dismal state people and the entire planet Earth are in. Three of the four editors of this book are more or less of the same ‘post-midlife’ generation. We were high school students in the seventies and eighties of the last century, around 40 years ago in the Global North, in Norway and the Netherlands to be more specific. Back then there were also researchers and policymakers, writing alarming texts but they were often marginalized and not taken too seriously. As environmental and science educators in our early careers, we were part of a growing group of concerned scientists who felt it was important that our schools engaged young people in environmental issues, connected them to nature and the outdoors, and even made them more ‘action competent’ (Jensen & Schnack, 1997). Most schools, Ministries and Departments of Education, were not so inclined to create space for this, pointing at an overcrowded curriculum and many other competing topics that other interest groups felt were important enough to be taken up by general education (e.g. citizenship, health, human rights, peacebuilding, biodiversity, water, food security). Sure, there were some visionary school leaders and teachers who saw both the importance and the benefits of making education more enriching, engaging and empowering by connecting more to existential issues (see, for instance, Greig et al., 1987, 1989). Indeed, there were schools, around the world, that were at the forefront of environmental education already in the seventies and eighties, even before ‘sustainable development’ as a concept existed.

It’s now 2023, more than 50 years after the infamous Stockholm conference on the Human Environment (United Nations, 1972) and the Limits-to-Growth report of the Club of Rome (Meadows et al., 1972). Since those early years we have participated in numerous professional networks of environmental education, STEM education and sustainability education, and dialogued with researchers and practitioners from all over the world, although mainly from countries from the so-called ‘Global North’. Together we have written, literally, hundreds of papers, and attended a similar number of meetings, conferences, symposia and workshops. So where are we now? What has changed? Has education found a way to enrich, engage and empower? As always, the answer is not that simple.

On the one hand, one could say ‘no’! Schools, more than ever, have become an extension of the globalizing economy with a focus on efficiency, accountability, skills for employability, cognition and disciplinary understanding. Schools are nowadays, mostly unintentionally and in subliminal ways, mainly preparing young people for a life of work and consumerism (Nussbaum, 2012; Biesta, 2023). This is the bleak and sobering analysis that does not do justice to the many teachers and school leaders who, often against the grain, try to pay attention to the whole child and the unfolding of children’s own identity and potential not just in the context of work. But still, many are unable to due to constraints imposed upon them.

On the other hand, one could say: ‘yes’! Schools, more than during the times of our early careers, are looking to re-orient themselves to the time humanity finds itself, referred to sometimes as the Anthropocene (Crutzen, 2006) or the Capitolocene (Pedersen et al., 2023). They want to be relevant and responsive to what young people need but also to what the Earth needs. Rather than the question of ‘what does the economy demand from education,’ the question is slowly but surely becoming: ‘what does the Earth demand from education?’ Engaging in the latter question opens other perspectives and pathways for education.

Mind you, that first question was not always what education was about. Depending on how far back one goes, historically education was essentially about being guided into the world with the qualities and abilities needed to unfold one’s potential and to live a dignified and meaningful life. That original intent needs to be revived at this time of systemic global dysfunction and ecological collapse. What is the mission of education in, the Anthropocene or Capitolocene? According to the British economist Kate Raworth, the existential challenge facing us as a species is learning to live within ecological limits (climate, biodiversity, ozone layer, water, soil, air, etc.) in a humane way with a strong social foundation (e.g. good and accessible education, justice, fair distribution, good governance, attention to democracy, human rights). She uses the metaphor of the doughnut to describe this safe space for humanity (Raworth, 2017).

Education can make an excellent contribution to learning to live within the doughnut. Not by dogmatically, indoctrinating and teaching with a raised finger towards children and conditioning them to show certain behaviour, but by actively involving them in the search for a sustainable world for humans and other species, and by equipping them with the qualities and competencies they need. Think of a caring and critical attitude, empathy, solidarity with people far away, future generations, other species and so-called ‘sustainability competencies’ (Brundiers et al., 2021), think of dealing with complexity, ambiguity, uncertainty, learning to think in relationships and systems, imagining alternative more hopeful futures, thinking creatively about and working on local solutions that are mindful of the wider world.

The question of what do young people need in times of high anxiety and rather bleak prospects for the future? This is a question that concerns the three ‘senior’ editors but the fourth, youngest editor, in particular. After all, she just gave birth to a beautiful daughter who still has a full life ahead of her that might take her into the year 2100 and beyond.

The current prospect for living in the twenty-second century is not good when we continue our current pathway of unsustainable development, according to the latest IPCC report. This notion and the worries it triggers invites educational policymakers, schoolteachers and leaders to look for ways to pay attention to emotional and mental well-being in difficult times. Providing hope and meaning in times of doom, gloom and despair is critical (Frumkin, 2022; Ojala, 2023). Some refer to this as nurturing inner sustainability (Woiwode et al., 2021) which calls for certain qualities like mindfulness, an ethic of care and empathy and reflexivity. In relation to what the Earth needs, education is exploring ways to help young people understand planetary boundaries and find ways to stay within them. We might call this, somewhat artificially, outer sustainability which calls for certain competencies like systems thinking, dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty, but also taking a moral position considering ethics (Brundiers et al., 2021). More and more schools, networks of schools and education-related research and professional development are looking for ways to pay attention to both inner and outer sustainability. They seem to agree, as we do, with the statement that just like business-as-usual is no longer an option, neither is education-as-usual.

Accepting this premise also implies that we cannot view emergent topics like sustainability, climate change and justice, global citizenship and inclusion as topics that can literally be taught, like mathematics, photosynthesis or Newton’s laws, topics that, when we fully understand them and ‘didacticize’ and make them ‘teachable’ can simply be added to the curriculum, possibly by taking out something else to create a bit of space.

For one, these topics have an inevitable ill-definedness that require that they be given meaning in a certain place, a certain time in a very dynamic context where new knowledge and insights unfold continuously. Secondly, these topics cannot be well understood unless we consider their connections and interdependencies and our own entanglement in them (Wessels et al., 2022). Thirdly, addressing these issues requires reflecting on ethics and values and taking on a moral position that is based on empathy and care (Noddings, 2010). Fourthly, the search for a more sustainable way of being and living requires reflexivity (Sol et al., 2018), the ability and willingness to pause and think; are we on the right pathway still or do we need to change the course? Are our new insights still helpful or are they blinding us? Are we still able to listen to others or are we locking ourselves up in echo chambers? Clearly, reorienting education towards sustainability calls for a rethinking of what we teach, how we educate, of what we (un)willingly represent—and don’t—of what we stand for and stand up for, being explicit of what we value and believe in, but also of what we do, how we behave as individuals, as a group and as a school community. This is no easy task as there is no point denying it: education all over the world is under pressure; staff/pupil ratios remain too high, the freedom to deviate from the curriculum is too limited, the administrative burden is constraining, salaries are too low, professional development is weak or absent altogether in some countries and regions.

Under such circumstances it is quite a challenge to change, especially when policymakers maintain a fixation on testing and examination in an attempt to climb a few places on the PISA rankings, and when teachers and school leaders are always being held accountable for what they do by the board, school inspectors and parents. Schools can be seen as a complex adaptive system (Koh & Askell-Williams, 2021) with its own ethos and culture, a system that can be highly resilient, not in the least because of the policy environment and the expectations, also of parents, in which they are entangled. It seems like the key to a sustainable school, one that cannot only sustain itself but can also contribute to the sustainability of people and the planet, can only be realized through a systemic, integrated and critical approach. Such a system overhaul won’t be easy and will likely meet resistance. The whole school approach (WSA), central in this book, is one attempt to reorient education towards sustainability, using such a systemic, integrated and critical perspective.

The power of the WSA, as some of the contributors to this book point out, is that sustainability, health and citizenship, among other themes, are regarded as inextricably linked by the qualities and abilities learners need to survive and thrive by co-creating meaningful and fulfilling lives and more hopeful futures. The school itself determines which of these themes or labels appeals most to the imagination, and the identity it is seeking. At the same time, when considering the nature of teaching and learning, a WSA tends to favour more so-called hybrid or blended learning environments and more integrated approaches to teaching and learning. These integrated approaches seek to connect schools with their local communities, blend instructional learning with more open and participatory forms of learning and, utilize Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that helps learners develop sustainability competencies. Within these hybrid learning environments or ‘ecologies of learning’ (Wals, 2019), different forms of support and scaffolding are utilized, including peer-to-peer learning, mentoring, self-directed learning ICT-supported learning and collaborative forms of inquiry such as citizen science. The WSA is a concept that emphasizes that schools, in synergy, consider a range of aspects in addressing sustainability: curriculum integration, pedagogical and didactical arrangements, professional development of staff, school-community relations, schools’ own sustainability practices sometimes referred to as ‘walking the talk’, and, lastly, school ethos, monitoring, evaluation and assessment, as well as organization and leadership. In the chapter following this introduction, Rosalie Mathie provides an elaborate overview of the WSA, its origins and interpretations.

Internationally such a WSA is gaining traction (see for example European Commission, 2021). UNESCO’s strategy for ESD for the next 10 years has identified the WSA to SD as a more integrated systemic approach that can simultaneously lead to school improvement, educational innovation, and a meaningful contribution to sustainable development and global citizenship (UNESCO, 2021). At the UNECE (2022) but also in school practices around the world we see niches unfolding where schools are using a WSA, in different ways, to connect young people meaningfully to complex issues (Wals & Mathie, 2020). Sometimes they are supported by international networks of expertise (e.g. the FEE’s EcoSchools programme or UNESCO’s ASP Schools Network) and or of peers (e.g. The Network of IB Schools or the International Network of Montessori Schools). Recently we compiled some examples of school practices from around the world that utilize a WSA (Mathie & Wals, 2022).

With this book, we hope to expand our understanding of what a WSA as a concept entails, how the concept links to other areas of educational research, and to elaborate on the practical implementation of a WSA in praxis. In addition, we hope to reach scholars and education researchers who work in the domain of inter-related ‘planetary educations’ such as health education, sustainability education, development education, global citizenship education and climate education; international, national and regional policymakers working on the educational operationalization of the SDGs in general and SDG 4 and 4.7 specifically; school leaders and school coordinators seeking to implement the WSA in their own schools and teachers with a strong interest and commitment in strengthening sustainability in their own teaching and within their own school.

This edited volume brings together a range of scholars and reflective practitioners from across the globe, albeit mainly from the global North who are both investigating and enacting a WSA in education. The contributions span different levels of the formal educational system, with a predominance of contributions investigating the primary and secondary educational levels. The book has been organized into two sections: ‘Principles and Perspectives’ and ‘Practices’ which follow this introductory chapter, and a synthesizing closing chapter. The Principles and Perspectives section contains chapters outlining key characteristics, assumptions and principles that underly a WSA. Perspectives vary from educational philosophy to organizational change and curriculum innovation. Different contextual origins of the WSA in education are also traced including health and well-being, citizenship education, and environment and sustainability. Potential pitfalls and risks are also being presented as lessons learnt from past attempts to change school systems and cultures and the resistances encountered. The Practices section contains case studies of formal education trying to develop and enact a WSA. They show a variety of interpretations but also some of the common and special struggles to change schools in more fundamental ways. The synthesizing closing chapter is written by the editors and contains a critical reflection on both sections, highlighting some ‘bold spots’ or area’s where many seem to be treading as well as some ‘blind spots’ or missing perspectives that might be critical as well as some ‘hotspots’ referring to emerging topics and phenomena that likely will affect education in relation to sustainability in the near future.