Conference Agenda

In this symposium we focus on empirical studies which share light on internal school perspectives or, using the words of Clarke (2015; 16), “the internal world of the school”. In more detail we share findings on the processes of initiation, implementation and institutionalisation change in schools who want to work practically according to a whole school approach (WSA) toward education for sustainable development (ESD). There has been much emphasis on improving the theoretical basis for implementing in a WSA or Whole Institution Approach (WIA) in recent years (see Wals & Mathie, 2022; Holst, 2022; Sarid et al. 2025). Notably there are also increasingly more empirical studies on the effects of WSA on students learning (see Boeve-de Pauw & van Petegem, 2018; Holst, Grund & Brock, 2024; Olsson et al. 2020) addressing overall questions such as: To what extend do schools achieve their own or pre-defined goals? When, how and whereby is a school effective? What makes a school in pedagogic terms effective? In this symposium we take a school improvement perspective by addressing overall questions such as: What makes school develop or alternate and how does a school move from one state to another? Whereby does change in schools happen? How is it possible that school change?

Despite an increased theory borrowing from the school improvement field into the ESD field to increase our understanding on the schools’ implementation process towards ESD in a WSA (see Gericke, et al. 2024: 66 on emphasising schools’ change capacity, skilled shared leadership), there remains a wide range of unlocked potential for gaining a more complex picture.

We propose two assumptions to the presenters and audience to be challenged, confirmed, discussed or extended. First, we consider school improvement processes requesting changes in three phases (see Fullan, 2007): The aim of any change is to achieve institutionalisation, but this will not happen unless the change has been successfully initiated and fully implemented. We think it is important to investigate how change in schools happens towards WSA by looking at these different phases. It appears crucial to explore how transformation occurs within schools towards the establishment of WSA by examining the distinct phases involved. The three subprocesses identified are intricately interconnected and frequently overlap, however, each remains unique characteristics due to their different purpose (Gericke et al. 2024). Second, we take inspiration from the work of Clarke (2015) and imagine the school work related to the WSA as an inner school change process that enfolds on the school community (e.g. school leaders, teachers) as follows: “Intentional change is anticipated (with excitement, anxiety or dread); work in relation to achieving the goal is conducted interpersonally and interactively (in particular styles of engagement); and they produce both formal outcomes and affective effects (from satisfaction to frustration; from elation to exhaustion)” (see Clarke , 2015, 12).

The symposium consists of four contributions with each introducing a study that investigates change processes in a small number of schools in their respective countries. The studies draw on theories and work from school improvement and taking on the perspectives: Conceptual work in ESD (Nikel & Carrapatoso), communication (Mogren, Forssten & Berglund), Vision (Raphael Rathje) and school culture (Schlieszus & Holst). While presenting their findings, the authors locate their study and findings with respect to change occurring in three phases and the perspective of anticipation, conduction and production. The cumulated understanding on change processes in school will be praised and/or challenged by our discussant as well as by the audience.

This study focuses on the implementation phase of an innovative programme with potential for supporting change in schools towards a Whole School Approach (WSA) in ESD. In more detail the research investigates how the initial concept is locally adapted by the school and what changes are taken during the implementation phase to deal with various challenges in the process. Further, we inquire about what signposts can be found in the interviewees account on irritations and disruptions in that process that are likely to lead to change in the areas of participation, teaching and learning, self-assertion and external relations. The FREI DAY programme was developed by the German based NGO “Schule im Aufbruch” intended as a first step for schools towards a wider transformation process of schools (Rasfeld, 2021). Implementing FREI DAY means schools provide 3-4 school hours in a block during which pupils can develop and implement their own projects related to the framework of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals in small mixed aged groups. FREI DAY runs throughout an entire school year as a grade-free space. The qualitative interview study focused on four schools (2 primary and 2 secondary schools) and their school improvement in the first year of implementation. Interviews with school leaders and teachers were conducted in the beginning of the school year and at the end (n= 19 in each of the two phases). Hence the perspectives focus in the beginning on the motive, on reflections on the initiation process and on expected challenges, at the end on actual experience during implementation. The study is guided by these questions: 1. How do schools implement FREI DAY in everyday practice and what are challenges in this process? 2. What evidence is there of change in favour of democratic, ESD-related school development (how do schools use FREI DAY to shape the whole school approach)? Following a thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke (2006) we identified challenges addressed by the teachers and school leaders related to cooperation, structural constraints, role understanding and learning content selection. Using a structured qualitative content analysis according to (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2024) we reconstructed each school’s improvement process during the innovation and implementation of the FREI DAY programme and identified irritations and fractures which we consider as potentially relevant in the school’s change process towards WSA implementation. Initial findings suggest a pivotal role in conceptual work in the change process in schools.

Altrichter, H. & Helm, C. (2011). Schulentwicklung und Systemreform. In H. Altrichter & C. Helm (Hrsg.), Akteure & Instrumente der Schulentwicklung. Baltmannsweiler, 13–35 Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research Psychology 3 (2) (2006), pp. 77-101, 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa Gericke, N. et al (2024). How to Institutionalize a Whole School Approach to ESD, in: A. E. J. Wals et al. (eds.), Whole School Approaches to Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56172-6_4 Gloe, M & Morasch, M. (2022). Demokratische Schulen. In: Beutel, W. u.a. (Hrsg.) Handbuch Demokratiepädagogik. debus pädagogik, S. 566-577. Kuckartz, U. & Rädiker, S. (2024). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Methoden, Praxis, Umsetzung mit Software und künstlicher Intelligenz. 6. Auflage. Weinheim: Juventa Verlag. Online verfügbar unter https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:31-epflicht-3155932. Rasfeld, M. (2021). FREI DAY. Die Welt verändern lernen! Für eine Schule im Aufbruch. München. Wals, A. E. J., & Mathie, R. G. (2022). Whole school responses to climate urgency and related sustainability challenges. In M. A. Peters & R. Heraud (Eds.),Encyclopedia of educational innovation. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978- 981- 13- 2262- 4_263- 1

This study examines how communication is formalised and enacted in two Swedish schools that have successfully implemented Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Communication is analysed as a function for change across different communicative arenas and organisational levels within education. The study asks: What characterises successful communicative practices that support a whole-school approach to ESD? The paper reports on a sub-study within a larger empirical research project conducted in a Swedish municipality. ESD was introduced in the municipality in 2016, and its implementation was supported for three years through a partnership between researchers and the local school administration. The present study draws on a secondary analysis of data from follow up studies: (Forssten Seiser et al., 2023; Mogren et al., 2024; Berglund et al., 2025). The research adopts a middle-leading perspective, focusing on teachers appointed as ESD facilitators. These facilitators were responsible for leading school development processes related to ESD and for organising communicative spaces. Their work was situated within a whole-school approach, where ESD was fully integrated into the local curriculum and functioned as an overarching pedagogical framework. Positioned between school leadership and teaching staff, the ESD facilitators navigated both student learning and the professional learning of colleagues (Edwards-Groves, et al., 2025; Grootenboer et al., 2015). The school leaders in the studied schools demonstrated a strong understanding of how to lead and organise education in line with a whole-school approach to ESD. They created structural and cultural conditions that for example enabled cross-disciplinary collaboration and openness to cooperation with the surrounding community (Mogren, 2019). Empirical data consist of semi-structured interviews with three ESD facilitators and three school leaders, focusing on their perceptions and leadership practices. The analysis addresses both the organisation of communication and the communicative qualities that support ESD practices. Johansson-Hidén’s (2023) analytical framework on communication was used to develop a refined understanding of how professional learning was promoted in the two schools that succeeded in their ESD implementation processes. The findings indicate that successful implementation ESD is closely associated with formalised communication across multiple organisational levels and in a variety of formats. Broad and inclusive communicative practices contribute to the development of shared understanding across the school organisation, while smaller, recurring communication arenas provide conditions for deeper engagement and the transformation of teaching practices. The study highlights the critical role of communication as a dialogic process through which shared meanings and consensus about ESD are constructed.

Berglund, T., Gericke, N., Forssten Seiser, A., Mogren, A., & Olsson, D. (2025). The role of ESD facilitators in bringing about change in schools. Environmental Education Research, 1-25. Edwards-Groves, C., et al. (2025). Relational coherence in middle leading for school-based professional development. Professional development in education, 1–15. Forssten Seiser, A., Mogren, A., Gericke, N., Berglund, T., & Olsson, D. (2023). Developing school leading guidelines facilitating a whole school approach to education for sustainable development. Environmental Education Research, 29(5), 783-805. Grootenboer, P., Edwards-Groves, C., and Rönnerman, K. (2015). Leading practice development: voices from the middle. Professional development in education, 41 (3), 508–526. Johansson-Hidén, B. (2023). Hållbar kommunikation [sustainable communication]. In: Å. Söderström and A. Forssten Seiser, eds. Etiska perspektiv på skolledares arbete [Ethical perspectives on school leaders’ work], 2:1, 183–201. Studentlitteratur. Mogren, A. (2019). Guiding principles of transformative education for sustainable development in local school organisations: investigating whole school approaches through a school improvement lens. Doctoral dissertation. Karlstad University. Mogren, A., Forssten Seiser, A., Gericke, N., Berglund, T., & Olsson, D. (2024). Leadership actions that enable or constrain accommodation of education for sustainable development. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1-30.

This study examines shared vision-building as a central driver in schools’ development of whole-school approaches to education for sustainable development (WSA–ESD). Prior research highlights vision work as foundational for coherent and long-term WSA development because ESD’s complexity demands ongoing renegotiation of common purposes, values, and trust (Holst, 2022; Wals & Mathie, 2022). Vision-building can be understood as internal policy formation that documents, legitimises, and stabilises change processes while enabling future-oriented pedagogical development (Gericke & Torbjörnsson, 2022; Mogren, 2019). Schools often face tensions between aspirational goals and practical constraints, or between established routines and emerging hopes, and vision work can be challenged by leadership turnover and limited resources (Forssten Seiser et al., 2022). Yet, despite WSA frameworks emphasising collaboration and community engagement, the internal community-building necessary to sustain shared visions remains rather empirically underexplored. This study therefore asks: What potentials and dilemmas characterise schools’ work with vision-building in a WSA–ESD perspective? The paper draws on empirical material from a recently completed multiple case study of three Danish primary and lower secondary schools that have worked with green or sustainable school profiles for at least 4–5 years. Over one year, data was generated through interviews with a wide range of stakeholders, observations of ESE teaching and organisational practices. Future workshops (Egmose et al., 2020) with adults and students were conducted to elicit transformative and utopian visions for schooling. The analysis applies practice theory and particularly the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis et al., 2014) to explore how cultural–discursive, material–economic, and social–political arrangements shape possibilities for shared vision-building, supplemented by thematic analysis to identify cross-cutting patterns. The findings indicate, first, that the shared story of how and why the school works with ESD is vital for cultivating a common foundation and commitment narrative coherence functions as an anchor for both internal identity and external reputation. Second, vision-building requires robust support structures, yet these are difficult to maintain and risk becoming managerial artefacts unless integrated into everyday practice. Third, it is a core WSA challenge that the vision must be owned by the whole school community, including parents, students, and technical staff, linking vision-building directly to democratic participation. Finally, when working with visions in future workshops, participants’ ideas often resonate strongly with WSA thinking—even when they are unfamiliar with the approach—suggesting that democratic, imaginative processes can support whole-school–aligned orientations.

Egmose, J., Gleerup, J., & Nielsen, B. S. (2020). Critical Utopian Action Research: Methodological Inspiration for Democratization? International Review of Qualitative Research, 13(2), 233-246. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940844720933236 Forssten Seiser, A., Mogren, A., Gericke, N., Berglund, T., & Olsson, D. (2022). Developing school leading guidelines facilitating a whole school approach to education for sustainable development. Environmental Education Research, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2022.2151980 Gericke, N., & Torbjörnsson, T. (2022). Supporting local school reform toward education for sustainable development: The need for creating and continuously negotiating a shared vision and building trust. The Journal of environmental education, 53(4), 231-249. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2022.2102565 Holst, J. (2022). Towards coherence on sustainability in education: a systematic review of Whole Institution Approaches. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01226-8 Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014). Praxis, Practice and Practice Architectures. In (pp. 25-41). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-47-4_2 Mogren, A. (2019). Guiding Principles of Transformative Education for Sustainable Development in Local School Organisations: Investigating Whole School Approaches through a School Improvement Lens Wals, A. E. J., & Mathie, R. G. (2022). Whole School Responses to Climate Urgency and Related Sustainability Challenges: A Perspective from Northern Europe. In. Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2262-4_263-1

School cultures, i.e. the shared beliefs, values and rules-in-use, play a central role in sustainable school development, as different WSA conceptualisations indicate (cf. Holst, 2023; Mathie & Wals, 2022). Throughout all stages, from initiation and implementation to institutionalisation, school culture is a condition for how change processes take place, potentially being a driver or a challenge for organisational learning (Warner & Elser, 2015). Meanwhile, the realization of WSAs may transform school cultures, e.g., through processes of co-designing and co-implementing (Henderson & Tilbury, 2004). School cultures thus play an “iterative and integrating double-role” (Holst, 2023, p. 1023). From an organisational psychology perspective, they manifest on three levels: (1) visible artefacts, (2) expressed attitudes and values, (3) implicit, taken for granted assumptions (Schein, 2010, pp. 23-29). Considering that cultures are characterized by conventionality and experienced normality (Hansen, 2011), they may be analyzed by identifying “practice patterns”, i.e. typical communication and cooperation patterns that shape collective practices within a school (Göhlich, 2014, p. 232). In a multiple case study with mixed methods design, we explored the organisational cultures of three secondary schools in different socio-regional contexts in Germany. We ask: Where do elements of school cultures manifest on the visible, explicit and implicit levels? Which practice patterns hinder or support a WSA? How do these patterns vary between the schools, where can we find parallels? These questions are examined based on three data sources: (1) qualitative interviews with various school members, e.g. students, teachers, school leaders, parents, non-teaching staff and external partners, comprising expert interviews (Meuser & Nagel, 2010; n = 17, duration approx. 60–90 min) and go-along interviews (Kusenbach, 2003, 2018; n = 42, duration approx. 20–30 min), (2) a quantitative survey with teachers and students from the three schools (n ~ 300) and (3) a nationally representative assessment (n ~ 3.000). The results show that the three school cultures differ, each of them influenced by the school’s history, principal’s leading style and habitual forms of participation. While some practice patterns - often linking to general conditions in the German school system - can be found in all schools, others are highly specific to individual schools. We highlight interactions between these patterns and how they characterize specific school cultures with particular emphasis on forms of resistance and context-specific coping strategies. Based on the findings, we discuss implications for the roles of organizational cultures in sustainability transitions at and around schools.

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