Keywords

FormalPara Key Message

When a whole school approach on ESD is aimed for in practice, we recommend:

  • A reflective and systematic work process

  • Daily dialogue about how we can jointly contribute to ESD

  • A shift in focus from the individual to the organizational level

  • To include the ESD work in the ordinary educational systematic quality work

  • Surveys for teachers and principals in combination with a follow-up dialogue to get an overview of ESD in practice, and as a means for inclusive developmental work

1 Introduction

The issue of sustainability is no longer seen as a matter of individual interest, but rather an unavoidable issue at all societal levels striving for a common future (Bokova, 2015; UNESCO, 2021). A general understanding of the urgency and importance of sustainable transformations is established, and therefore also included in the Swedish national curricula, which clearly states that education for sustainable development (ESD) is not only a single subject matter but should permeate all education in compulsory school. The concept of sustainability/sustainable development is, however, also interdisciplinary, complex and an object of interpretations (cf. Jickling & Wals, 2012) and therefore neither easy to operationalize in a subject-oriented school context nor systematically evaluate.

In Sweden, the state governs the school via aims and guidelines in national curricula, while the municipalities are the main organizers for compulsory basic school, upper secondary school and municipal adult education. As such, the municipality is responsible for implementing the curricula and plays a crucial role in organizing and evaluating education for sustainable development. Municipalities are often organized hierarchically, with a top-down chain of steering, with educational politicians at the top and teachers at the bottom. Although municipalities have an important role in the Swedish educational system, educational research at the municipal level is rare, both in general (Alvunger, 2022) and in the context of ESD.

There is a history of individual teaching efforts within environmental and sustainability education in Swedish schools, and many previous studies on ESD have focused on teaching approaches and educational outcomes, as well as the complexity of classroom teaching and learning (cf. Manni, 2018; Sandell et al., 2005; Sund & Gericke, 2020; Wickenberg, 2004). Over the years, researchers have argued that, beyond individual teaching efforts, there is a need for a holistic and systematic approach to successfully implement ESD into all education (Mathie & Wals, 2022; Rieckmann, 2018; Sterling, 2004). Despite the need for a widened perspective, studies on ESD have only in recent years started to integrate the specific characteristics of sustainability within whole school organization theories (cf. Holst et al., 2020; Mogren et al., 2019). Furthermore, a recent study shows that transforming educational work on sustainability issues from individual teaching efforts to include a whole school has proven to be a crucial, but not easy, task (Mathie & Wals, 2022).

Thus, due to ESD being an ambiguous curricular goal and at the same time a complex concept, with a lack of knowledge about organizational methods or tools, local school leaders at a municipality level might feel they have been left alone to perform the urgent, but somewhat vague, task.

In the study underlying this chapter, we have analysed the comprehensive processes of evaluating and improving the work with ESD in one Swedish municipality. The municipality had identified that, despite several good examples of individual work with ESD, it was hard to get it permeated within all school units. As a first step towards developing their work with ESD in the whole municipal school organization, they decided to systematically evaluate their ongoing work and to build a basis for further improvements. Critical events during the process, and unexpected dimensions within a school development model, are here described and analysed with the hope of contributing to others wanting to implement ESD in a whole school organization.

1.1 Aim of This Study

The aim of the study was to gain a rich understanding of the work in practice with ESD at a school organizational level. The questions we seek to answer are:

  • What role do different aspects of a school organization play in a successful implementation of ESD in a whole school organization?

  • What events can be critical in the process of implementing ESD in a whole school organization?

2 School Developmental Work

In Sweden, school developmental work is generally understood and referred to as ‘School improvement cycles’ (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2022), describing transformative processes as circular and systematic, where action, experience and reflection interact in the ongoing developmental work. The understanding of developmental processes stems from experiential learning theories, where learning continuously includes experiences from external events, reflections (as internal events) and actions in a transformative process for an individual or a group (Dewey, 1966; Kolb, 1984). When analysing the characteristics of such processes, critical events within the phases of the process are key to a deeper understanding of why and how things are entangled.

In practice, school developmental cycles of work start with the question ‘Where do we stand?’, followed by ‘Where do we want to go?’ and ‘How do we go there?’, ending with a reflective question on the activities of choice, ‘How did it work out?’. It is common for practitioners to structure and manage their professional tasks this way, often referred to as systematic qualitative work. Furthermore, these circular processes at a school organization level emphasize a dialogic and collaborative approach between all actors in practice, like the idea of professional learning communities (cf. Stoll et al., 2006).

In other words, there is a common understanding of developmental processes continuously going on at individual as well as collective levels in all areas of education. In this study, we focus mainly on the collective level; educational actors in a whole municipality, and in their work with ESD, which will be further described below.

2.1 The Whole School Approach and Education for Sustainable Development

In our study, we acknowledge the importance that all staff, all students and all activities are involved in the work with ESD. This is also how we understand the concept of a whole school approach (WSA). Scherp and Scherp’s (2007) model for school development in general, also called the whole school approach model, is here used as an analytical framework to understand important areas involved in a school organization. Their model includes four dimensions of a school organization that influence student outcomes. The dimensions are: Holistic idea, Routines and structures, Professional knowledge creations and Pedagogical practice. The four dimensions represent a school organization’s everyday practice, jointly considered as driving forces of school improvement on a general level (2007).

Mogren et al. (2019) have worked with the Scherps’ whole school approach model in an ESD context. They define that the holistic idea refers to ‘the degree that schools have an articulated, holistic vision of their aims concerning student outcomes, and the pedagogic methods and perspectives that should be applied to realize the vision’ (p. 511). Routines and structures refer to the degree to which there are established routines and structures at the school that create stability and facilitate teachers’ teaching (ibid). Professional knowledge creations refer to whether there is an openness to changes and innovation that stimulates teachers’ professional development (ibid). Lastly, Pedagogical practice concerns what happens in the classroom, the teaching and the learning (ibid).

The results from the Mogren et al. (2019) study showed that the holistic idea is the most essential element as it influences the three other dimensions and ‘thus is the primary connection between the Scherp model and the ESD whole school approach’ (Mogren et al., 2019, p. 513). Furthermore, the character of the holistic idea of ESD differs from other areas of education in the sense that ESD explicitly aims for the common good (Lotz-Sisitka, 2017; UNESCO, 2021), while education in subject-specific areas aims for the individual’s increased learning. This is an important aspect to consider when working with ESD in a whole school organization.

In summary, we examine critical aspects in the work towards a whole school approach to ESD within a municipality school organization by considering school developmental work as circular and systematic processes (Dewey, 1966; Kolb, 1984; Swedish National Agency for Education, 2022), including educational dimensions defined in Scherp and Scherp’s (2007) model for school development.

3 Method—Narrative Case Study

This case study reports from 4 years of school developmental work in one municipality involving about 100 preschools and 50 schools, including their leisure-time centres. As a case study with qualitative features, it seeks to reach deeper understanding of a specific case through thick descriptions of the situated context (Flyvbjerg, 2011; Yin, 1994). The data material gathered and analysed is comprehensive, including formal documents, meeting notes, field notes, surveys, interviews, photos, etc. In total, more than 2000 teachers, and 100 school leaders participated through surveys, seminars and interviews. Meeting notes (n = 40) with school leaders on a monthly basis, and multiple field notes organized in chronological order, are also part of the data we have gathered and used for this case study.

Considering the long-term process of the developmental work of this case, we have chosen to analyse and report it as a narrative case study, following the principles of narrative methodology (Webster & Mertova, 2007). Within such an approach, participants’ stories are considered to contribute to valuable and relevant knowledge, forming a narrative case study over time. In particular, the analytical work and structure of reporting the results have been led by a narrative approach (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990; Sonday et al., 2020), which for this case study includes the following stages:

  1. 1.

    Setting the scene—data describing the specific context of this case were gathered and analysed in order to present a rich contextual background.

  2. 2.

    Telling the story—based on comprehensive data material, the 4-year story of the school developmental process was summed up in chronological order and critical events transforming the process in different ways were identified. Critical events are categorized as external events, reflections and actions according to experiential learning theories (Kolb, 1984).

  3. 3.

    Analysing the plot—finally, the story and its critical events were analysed and interpreted in relation to the dimensions in Scherp and Scherp’s (2007) model for school development.

3.1 Ethical Considerations

Research participation in the school developmental process has undertaken ethical vetting with approval (Swedish Ethical Review Authority, Dnr: 2019–03239). Participants in the surveys, interviews and meetings have been informed in both oral and written form and agreed to be part of a research study. Ethical guidelines have been followed, paying respect to participants’ integrity and security, although no personal or sensitive data have been handled (Swedish Research Council, 2017).

4 Setting the Scene of this Case

During the last 4 years, one municipality in Sweden has been engaged in a continuous school development process, involving school leaders, teachers and researchers, to systematically strengthen the ongoing work and achieve a whole school approach to sustainability. A municipality is a geographical and administrational district, in charge of organizing public preschools, schools and leisure-time centres in accordance with national guidelines and curricula. This municipality’s developmental work stems back to many years of intense and engaged educational work regarding environmental and sustainability issues. Through the so-called Nature school, competence development in various forms has been offered, and a network of representatives from all preschools and schools has met four times a year. At an earlier stage, the academic year also began with joint conferences focusing on ESD for educators and principals. Furthermore, there was also a decision in the political mission plan of 2013 that activities should be developed in accordance with the National Agency for Education’s award ‘School for sustainable development’, and here, the municipality was at the forefront, nationally. Although the municipality had worked intensively with ESD, including many successful individual examples, a general implementation in all schools and preschools had not yet been achieved, which was the driving force of the developmental work underlying this case.

4.1 The Story of the Developmental Process for Implementing ESD as a WSA

4.1.1 Year 1

The stepping stone for the developmental work that began in January 2019 was a decision by the Municipal Educational Board that resulted in a mission plan that aimed to implement ESD in all preschools and schools between grades 1 and 9. The intention was that ESD should reach all pupils, regardless of individually engaged teachers. From this political goal, a more detailed action plan was developed and signed by the head of the municipal school department, guiding the work for 4 years (2019–2022). The Nature school together with a reference group on ESD consisting of school leaders were assigned as supporting actors and in charge of the implementation work. Through network structures, organized by the Nature school, a variety of activities were offered to teachers and individual schools on an annual basis. Two researchers were engaged in the project to follow, study and support the implementation. In the beginning, the project work was organized in a top-down network approach, with school leaders and teachers who were interested in supporting network activities (Fig. 14.1).

Fig. 14.1
A flow diagram. It starts with the issuing of a mission plan by municipal politicians, followed by school leaders and teachers with supporting actors and structures.

Initial ESD organization (illustration by Matz Glatz). Top-down structure with supporting actors acting in parallel with the ordinary steering chain

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One of the major critical events in the initial process was the decision to start the developmental work with a survey mapping the current work across the whole municipality, not just including those who had previously chosen to engage in ESD activities. During the first months of the project, the survey was developed in cooperation with researchers, school leaders and teachers. The survey construction was theoretically based on, and structured according to, the general didactic principles asking why, what and how (Uljens, 1997), and were related to descriptions of ESD in national and international steering documents (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2016, 2018, 2019; UN General Assembly, 2015; UNESCO, 2014). The survey consisted of 40 Likert scale items and seven open-ended items and took about 20 minutes to complete. The purpose of the closed questions was to get an overall picture of the teachers’ perceptions of current aims (I work with ESD because I personally find it important), content (I work with the social goals), methods (In my teaching, I use learning environments in the local community), and perceived needs (I need more knowledge about the content of the global goals) related to ESD in their daily teaching practice. Although the closed questions were grouped into three different main areas (why, what and how), the purpose was not to measure three underlying constructs; instead, each question was considered to have an individual value. The purpose of the free-response questions was to gain a deeper understanding of the educators’ perspectives, especially with regard to the need for competence development and support, and to capture aspects that may not have been included in the closed questions. For a detailed description of the survey, see Manni and Knekta (2022). The reasons for focusing on teachers in the survey were to map what kind of ESD teaching was offered to all students and children in the municipality in terms of equal ESD education, as well as aiming to direct the ESD seminars and activities towards the needs or desired content that would increase relevance for the teachers.

The survey was distributed and analysed for the first time in Year 1 (September 2019). Analysis of the data showed that most teachers found ESD important, but fewer regularly prioritized this in their teaching. A comparative analysis between the different educational actors, that is preschools, leisure-time centres, grades 0–6 and 7–9 showed ESD was dealt with differently by the different actors and age groups of the children. The results indicated a need for individual in-service training and a lack of routines and structures for ESD work at the individual school level. The open-ended items confirmed and nuanced the need for in-service training. They also gave a rich description of organizational obstacles. Time constraints and a lack of common understanding were two prominent examples of organizational obstacles. Furthermore, the overall organizational structure for ESD was questioned since it implicated a linear top-down structure and not a process-based structure that invited dialogue and feedback. Thus, the obstacles related to ESD were found in the organizational structures and support, not only in the individual needs concerning teachers’ knowledge and teaching skills within ESD (as had been anticipated by the Educational Board when planning the survey). Analysing these results was the major critical event derived from the survey, and reflecting on this event within the reference group resulted in several important actions. The main change involved dialogue and feedback between the teachers and the supporting actors (the Nature school and the reference group), which had not explicitly been done before. One action in practice was a change of activities offered to teachers at the ESD network seminars to meet the needs reported in the survey. Another action was a change in the character of network seminars, from lectures to discussions and collegial dialogues. The Nature school and the reference group remained as the responsible supporting actors, continuing to operate in parallel with the ordinary steering chain (Fig. 14.2).

Fig. 14.2
A flow diagram. It starts with the issuing of a mission plan by municipal politicians, followed by school leaders and teachers. The teachers integrate with supporting actors and structures.

Revised ESD organization model (illustration by Matz Glantz). Top-down structure. Increased focus on dialogue between supporting actors and teachers

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4.1.2 Year 2

As a result of the reflected results from the survey, one part of which regarded teachers asking for new ideas on how to work with ESD, documentation of ongoing activities in school practices was sampled. Besides more traditional outdoor environmental activities and artwork with recycled material, new ideas such as a second-hand market and a co-creative playing room were displayed (Manni, 2023). The examples were intended to serve as inspirational examples and to give credit to existing work. Special focus was placed on providing activities adjusted to different target groups to include and empower all actors. The network seminars during the spring of 2020 were organized in the same vein, to meet the needs of the teachers as expressed in the survey.

In the survey, teachers in leisure-time centres reported a greater need for professional development compared to the other teacher categories. This finding led to an in-depth research study focusing on teachers’ work with ESD. This external event, which was reported back to the municipality, contributed to shift in focus from routines and structures to also include the holistic idea of ESD (Manni & Knekta, 2022). It became clear that although many understood and valued sustainability as part of teaching and learning, they did not have a common understanding of ESD, and therefore could not really place it within the traditional teaching structures. Furthermore, comparing the results from teachers in leisure-time centres with other groups of teachers, many schoolteachers reported that lack of time to add sustainability to their subject-specific schedules was why they did not teach it. That might indicate a misunderstanding about ESD as a new subject or yet another content to cover in their already full curriculum, rather than an approach and a perspective within all subjects. This finding reflects Johnston’s (2009) article about the need to step out of the curriculum box when working with environmental and sustainability issues. In other words, the expressions regarding lack of time to work with ESD also indicate a lack of understanding of the holistic idea behind ESD.

One critical external event in our case that affected not only this developmental work but the entire world was the coronavirus that spread in the spring of 2020. Due to the pandemic restrictions, all planned activities within the ESD network were put on hold for one semester. Despite the obvious reasons for this pause, it was most unfortunate for the continuous process and dialogue with the participants. During this period of pandemic restrictions, a reflective report on the results from the survey and the follow-up activities was written. One major finding from the report was that the teachers needed more structural support in their ESD work. Further, the report pointed at some disadvantages in assigning two groups outside the ordinary steering chain (i.e. the Nature school and the reference group), responsibility for implementation and support. Being parallel organizations gave them less authority and less opportunity to push through changes within the organization. This event was critical and worked as a turning point for a more conscious process to revise and incorporate ESD within the ordinary steering chain of the whole municipality (Fig. 14.2).

In the autumn of 2020, the pandemic still restricted staff from meeting and working as usual, and new digital forms of meetings and seminars were established, providing space for joint reflective analyses between researchers, the reference group and teachers. At this point, the developmental work was explicitly articulated as a systematic circular process (cf. Swedish National Agency for Education, 2022), not as a linear top-down project. This internal reflection and transformation of how the work was framed and communicated was another of the major critical events in our case, as the new communication process opened doors to communicate with school leaders in general, not only within the established ‘ESD-family’. One might say that this critical event was a game changer to addressing ESD as a whole school approach within the general educational organization of this municipality.

At the end of year two, as part of the shift of focus from individual teachers’ work to the whole school organization, we decided to develop a new survey directed at school leaders, with the same areas of questioning as in the teacher survey. We will return to the results of this activity as an event in the developmental process.

4.1.3 Year 3

After 2 years of developmental work, where the survey mapping had played a significant part in understanding the ongoing work among teachers and the existing school structures, an additional focus was set. This entailed using the survey as a tool not only to provide informative overviews at a municipality level but also for inclusive developmental work at each school unit. Through collaborative work between researchers and the ESD reference group, a ‘Support for ESD dialogue’ tool for teachers and school leaders was developed. The dialogue tool mirrors the structure of the surveys and provides a simple guide for analysing the survey results and identifying future ESD development.

The developmental processes hence moved between micro and macro levels within the municipality, showing how to pay attention to all levels in an inclusive whole school approach, but also how these levels are aligned. Finally, after some delays due to the pandemic, in May 2021, the ‘Support for ESD dialogue’ tool was used for the first time in schools with guidance from a researcher and the head of Nature school. This event was critical, as the municipality work was now finally reaching individual schools in the implementation work, i.e. increased agency in the processes, shifting the ownership down from the top (Stoll et al., 2006).

In the autumn of 2021, a new leader in the municipality educational organization, with responsibility for assessing quality, was hired. This turned out to be a door-opener for the school development process, bringing increased engagement from an actor representing the top of the municipality educational organization, who also began to join the ESD reference group meetings.

4.1.4 Year 4

At the start of year 4, the developmental process had revealed and resolved several critical aspects in striving for a whole school approach to ESD; the educational organization had improved, and teachers’ in-service training was more tuned to their needs, as well as emphasizing dialogue.

But more improvements were yet to come; the results from the survey of the school leaders, developed in late 2020, were analysed and showed that the leaders also needed support in ESD work. The kind of support asked for was on an organizational level but also regarding how to understand the very idea of ESD as a whole school approach. Intensified collaboration and dialogue between the school leaders and supporting actors, an acknowledgement of ESD as important for all, and a need for organizational support were agreed. This event involved discussions regarding supporting school structures, including an emphasis on ESD as a mandatory educational task, instead of optional as before. This change of view was seen in practice when ESD was put on the monthly agendas for principals and ESD seminars to raise competence, specifically among the main school leaders, were asked for. In this situation, the top-down approach was helpful and necessary to engage all levels of the school organization in ESD, not only teachers.

Furthermore, this awareness among the main school leaders included a reorganizational proposal for ESD, now as a task within the ordinary steering chain and not merely reliant on support from external actors (Fig. 14.3). This new structure thus included a shift of responsibility for ESD from the head of the Nature school to the school leaders of the four educational areas within the municipality, that is a shift from a voluntary task to mandatory and participatory-led work. Moreover, the school leaders were also introduced to how to work with ESD as a circular, systematic and dialogic approach to school development (Stoll et al., 2006), with them taking responsibility for the implementation of ESD as a whole school approach.

Fig. 14.3
A flow diagram. It starts with the issuing of a mission plan by municipal politicians that leads to supporting actors and structures that integrate with school leaders. These integrate with supporting actors and structures, which further integrate with teachers.

Current ESD organization structure, after 4 years of work (illustration by Matz Glantz). Top-down structure is replaced with dialogue between all actors in the educational organization, and supporting actors are included in the ordinary steering chain

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In this process of change, one critical event proved to be the continuous discussions with the municipal heads of education, school leaders and the supporting actors from the Nature school on what ESD implies as a holistic idea. The opportunity to discuss this issue with colleagues at the same organizational level and other school leaders, as preparation before leading teachers and staff in the ongoing work, was appreciated.

Besides the developmental processes at the school organizational level, seminars and workshops with teachers were also held during this period, mainly with preschools, asking for new ideas and perspectives on ESD and outdoor teaching, and with staff from leisure-time centres wanting to meet colleagues and share ideas about how to work with ESD in their specific practice.

At the end of our 4-year story of ESD development, we conclude that the work in practice has not ended but re-started on a new cycle of improvement. A new survey to teachers and school leaders was administered during late spring of 2022. The tentative results suggest continuous work to deepen the understanding of ESD as a holistic idea and what that might mean as a whole school approach, for teachers as well as for school leaders. Results from the survey will be brought back into the new organizational structure and be part of the future ESD work. School leaders and teachers will also take a more active part in analysing and reflecting on their own results to strengthen the ownership of their developmental work. The next step of further improvements will also include the pupils and their opinions on ESD, in accordance with the initial political mission plan.

5 Analysing the Plot and Its Critical Events Using Scherp’s Model of School Improvement

In order to analyse the story of this case, we combined its critical events with the dimensions of Scherp’s model of school improvement: Holistic idea, Routines and structures, Professional knowledge creation and Pedagogical practice (Mogren et al., 2019; Scherp & Scherp, 2007). We differentiated the critical events as either external events, reflections or actions, in line with experiential learning theories (cf. Kolb, 1984). Figure 14.4 displays the critical events in chronological order and how different dimensions of the Scherp model have been uncovered in different stages of the process of our case. Below, we will sum up Fig. 14.4 in words.

Fig. 14.4
An illustrated timeline presents the external events, reflections, and actions over 4 years with 8 sets of Venn diagrams of 3 overlapping sets. The sets are labeled holistic ideas, routines and structures, and professional knowledge creation, with pedagogical practice representing intersection.

Schematic illustration of the critical events (external event, reflections and actions) in chronological order during the school developmental process (left side), combined with theoretical analysis based on dimensions of Scherp’s model of school improvement: holistic idea, routines and structures, professional knowledge creation and pedagogical practice (right side). Filled forms indicate where the focus was at the moment

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When the task of implementing ESD was given in the mission plan issued by the municipal politicians, the formulation in the document had a clear whole school approach as a holistic idea—that all units should contribute to all pupils’ learning and meaning-making within ESD, although this was not established as a concrete concept. The critical event following the plan was to distribute the survey. Although all areas of the school development model were represented in the survey, the focus came to be on teachers’ current work with ESD as well as their need for support or in-service training. Further, as it was only the teachers who were asked to answer the survey, this indicated that they were responsible for conducting ESD. Thus, although the holistic idea was prominent in the mission plan, aspects of professional knowledge creation and pedagogical practice were unconsciously focused on in the beginning of the school developmental process. After analysing the results from the survey, a shift in understanding important factors for successfully reaching a WSA on ESD was seen. The results put focus on professional knowledge creation and pedagogical practice of professionals, but also on routines and structures. The teachers found ESD important but mentioned a lack of routines and structures as a main obstacle to its implementation, a result that changed the game of the developmental processes. A new organization model was implemented, and professional development organizations were restructured. In the process of improving professional development for teachers, and in particular for teachers in leisure-time centres, the focus turned back to the holistic idea. A holistic idea of what ESD is and how it can be implemented, shared by teachers and school leaders, was found to be fundamental to successfully working with the three other WSA dimensions. At this stage of the process, we also put the spotlight on the linearity of the process and how the supporting structures were operating outside of the main organization. These two aspects of routines and structures seemed to hamper the possibility of developing a common holistic idea and again showed the interconnectedness of the four dimensions of the WSA. Implementation of ESD instead became communicated as a circular process, and the first step towards including ESD in the ordinary quality work in the municipality was taken. The support for dialogue for school leaders and teachers was developed as a tool to include all actors in the development work. It aimed to serve as a means for professional knowledge creation as well as creating a shared holistic idea. This (we believe) will in turn, together with changed routines and structures, lay a solid foundation for future pedagogical practices of ESD.

6 Concluding Remarks

The aim of this study was to gain a rich understanding of the work in practice with ESD at a school organizational level. We searched for knowledge about what role different aspects of a school organization play in a successful implementation of ESD in a whole school organization and what events can be critical in the process of implementing ESD. What might be unique for our case within the context of a whole school approach on ESD, is that the ‘whole school’ not only includes one school unit but one municipality (the administrational district in Sweden in charge of organizing public preschools, schools and leisure centres), with all its schools, leaders and teachers. Our case should then be seen and understood as an example on a macrolevel. Summarizing the experiences from our case study of the school development work, we finally conclude on some vital and critical aspects that we think are more general, and of interest to others wanting to develop and transform their ESD work by taking a WSA. The first two conclusions regard the process of implementing ESD, while the last one regards dimensions of a WSA to ESD.

6.1 The Systematic and Reflective Process of Research-Led Developmental Work for ESD

The characteristics of the process as dialogic, reflective and systematic (cf. Kolb, 1984) have proved to be important for the changes and school development overall. Looking back, we conclude that our work can be viewed as a ‘transdisciplinary professional learning community’ (cf. Stoll et al., 2006), since we have worked together as researchers, school leaders, principals and teachers. Within the reference group, our different experiences and professional knowledge have been useful in reflecting on the critical events and actions taken in the developmental work, and have given more strength and stability to the whole process, and in learning from each other’s different professional points of views. We would also emphasize the involvement and participation of teachers in each school practice, forming their respective learning communities and strengthening their ESD work. From our experience, this is crucial in a holistic approach to ESD, or as a whole school approach, and in opposition to linear or top-down project-based developmental work (cf. Rieckmann, 2018).

6.2 The Development and Use of the Surveys, and the Support for ESD Dialogue

The development and use of the surveys, and the support for ESD dialogue have been most valuable. Despite the history and examples of good work with ESD in this municipality, the surveys provided both an overview and new knowledge beyond the established understandings of ESD in general. The comprehensive information in the teacher and principal surveys provided opportunities to analyse different dimensions of ESD in practice on a municipal level. We found educational dimensions (routines and structures) and actors (teachers in leisure-time centres, as well as principles and school leaders) that were somewhat invisible and forgotten in the previous ESD work (Manni & Knekta, 2022), which helped to direct support and change to those actors in need of improvement.

6.3 The Importance of Organizational Support

Another main conclusion from our work is the importance of the shift in focus from individual teachers to the organizational level to develop ESD as a whole school approach, engaging the entire ‘education system’ (Mathie & Wals, 2022). From a school organizational point of view, the results from the surveys, in combination with the analytical lens of the Scherp model (Scherp & Scherp, 2007), were crucial in transforming and communicating important aspects of the developmental work with all actors. We found that without the supporting structures from the very top of the organization, no lasting progress or transformation could happen. We dare to conclude this based on many years of individual engagement on ESD in this municipality without having reached a general acknowledgement of its importance. Not until ESD was properly included in the ordinary steering chain, in formal quality assessments, and in school leader agendas, was there a hope of successfully achieving the task.

6.4 The Holistic Understanding of ESD

This dimension of the school development model (Scherp & Scherp, 2007) has shown to be more important than we thought (even though previous research pointed in that direction [Mogren et al., 2019]). Scratching the surface, we have learnt that many teachers and school leaders have a shallow understanding of ESD, even less as a whole school approach with aims for the common good (UNESCO, 2021). Many are trapped in the traditional understandings of teaching and educational curricula (Johnston, 2009), where ESD is seen as something ‘extra’ and not ‘within’; furthermore, current school organizations seem to support those traditions, complicating the necessary changes to reach a whole school approach on ESD (Holst et al., 2020).

We finally conclude that it has been most valuable to follow ongoing work over a long period of time, providing opportunities for sharing thoughts, systematically reviewing critical events and, with help of the school organization model, identify dimensions of importance for successful and inclusive ESD work.