Enabling environmental education – value hierarchies of sustainability objectives for upper-secondary school

Achieving an environmentally sustainable society and meeting international obligations such as the U.N. Paris Agreement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the EU Green Deal requires all policy sectors to integrate environmental sustainability. Education, as a sector shaping our citizens of tomorrow, has a critical role in this transition. This study explored how sustainability objectives are prioritized within educational policies, using Sweden as a case study to assess the preconditions for effective environmental education in upper-secondary classrooms. Applying Environmental Policy Integration as a theoretical framework, the research employs content analysis and crisp set analysis to examine policies governing classroom practices and identify the value hierarchies embedded regarding sustainability. The analysis focuses on the national curriculum (2011) and the syllabi for the eight common subjects in two versions: the 2011 and 2025 revisions. Findings revealed that Swedish upper secondary policy predominantly favors the social dimension of sustainability. Environmental priorities present in the national curriculum do not consistently trickle down to subject syllabi, and only the subject of science displayed a principled priority of the environment; although this was only evident in earlier versions of the syllabi. This study concludes that for education to meaningfully contribute to a sustainability transition, policies need a stronger environmental emphasis, particularly policies that inform teachers’ everyday work and the exercise of public authority, such as subject grading criteria. • Swedish upper-secondary schooling vastly prioritizes the social dimension of sustainability. • No subject displays a principled priority of the environment. • Policies implement sustainability unevenly and in ways that are unlikely to result in sustainable teaching practices.