The aim of the research is to examine how technology is communicated in technology education in relation to humans, society and nature in preschool class. According to the Swedish curriculum for preschool class, pupils should be given the opportunity to explore, ask questions and discuss technology and how the choices of people affect sustainable…

UNESCO has identified education for sustainable development (ESD) as a key factor in the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Education is important in developing awareness of how to preserve natural ecosystems and promote the uptake of renewable energy sources. Ecology education in primary school aims to give students a scientific…

There are many ways in which scientists can engage in entrepreneurial activities. The context of this article is a Swedish research group in marine ecology, which became increasingly involved in entrepreneurial activities. This article focuses on the what, why and how of entrepreneurship as part of an academic role. The study was conducted as an…

This article will discuss social, environmental, and ecological justice in education for sustainable development (ESD) and Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG). The concept of sustainable development and, by extension, the ESD, places heavy emphasis on the economic and social aspects of sustainability. However, the ESD falls short of…

This article uses vignettes and photographs taken from ethnographic research to reframe the methodological assumptions within school garden research. New theoretical perspectives are applied to previous empirical school garden research that provides deeper understandings of both the teaching and the learning of ecoliteracy in such material…

This article examines the affordances and limitations of textbooks for promoting action competence for sustainable development. Based on a content analysis of Swedish lower secondary level textbooks in geography and biology, we investigated how content about sustainable development is organised and formulated, the ways its multidimensional…

This study explored Swedish preschool children's knowledge about the environmental impact of various transport modes, and investigated whether or not eco-certification has any role to play in relation to this knowledge. Additionally, this study examined children's perceived sources of knowledge. Using illustrations and semi-structured questions,…

This study was carried out within a project to promote health and ecosystem services, 'the benefits people obtain from ecosystems', in preschools in Sweden. The paper applies the concept 'affordance' to capture the functional meaning that children assign to different material aspects of their schoolyards before and after the installation of…

Purpose: Preserving and caring for nature in a sustainable way has long been part of Swedish preschool practice. However, recently has it been explicitly referenced in the Swedish preschool curriculum with the goal of incorporating sustainability holistically and coherently in all areas of children's daily preschool experiences through play, care,…

Research on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) implementation tends to focus primarily on student and teacher outcomes, and there have been few studies on leadership practices at the school organisation level that provide information on how quality in education contributes to ESD implementation. To address this issue, we conducted an…

This article describes the results of a nationwide questionnaire study of 3229 Swedish upper secondary school teachers' conceptual understanding of sustainable development in relation to their subject discipline and teaching experience. Previous research has shown that teachers have difficulties understanding the complex concept of sustainable…

With the development of science and technology, a basically optimistic ideology of progress has emerged. This deterministic attitude has been challenged in recent decades as a result of harmful side-effects generated by the way technology and science have been approached and used. The study presented here is a part of a larger international and…

Sustainability as a concept, though well understood in general terms, is often politically captured by interest groups and as such expressed through issues like concern for global climate change or the need to develop more efficient energy sources, to address regional, national or international priorities. Education for sustainability as a concept…

Direct encounters with the natural environment have a long tradition in environmental education. Given that the role and character of these encounters are shaped by the approach taken to environmental or sustainability education, there is a risk that a shift towards pluralistic and political approaches will lead to a neglect of nature encounters.…

This response article written from "outside" the Swedish-Danish contexts of this special issue considers how we might highlight and make additional ecocentric meaning of some of the terms most frequently used in this collection. In the first instance my focus is on "meaning" but this is expanded to include other terms such as…