Sustainable development through Transformative Education Framework

Debates around Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) often presume a shared understanding of “sustainability,” yet the concept remains contested across ecological, social, and ethical dimensions, particularly in relation to its association with development, economic growth, and anthropocentric policy frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study adopts a critical and exploratory stance to examine how school teachers in India interpret and internalise sustainability-related values and how these interpretations shape sustainable behaviour within a transformative education framework grounded in the Value–Attitude–Behaviour (VAB) model. Using data from 601 teachers, collected through a purposive sampling strategy, the study examines a set of pedagogical and contextual dimensions constituting a Transformative Education Framework and their collective influence on teachers’ attitudes toward ESD and tests the mediating role of attitudes toward ESD in shaping sustainable behaviour. Structural Equation Modelling was used to evaluate the proposed relationships. The findings indicate considerable heterogeneity in how teachers understand ESD, revealing tensions between normative and technocratic policy discourses and the realities of school practice. Several predictors significantly influence attitudes, which strongly mediate sustainable behaviour. Instead of presenting ESD as a settled paradigm, the study highlights the need for reflexive and context-sensitive transformative pedagogical approaches that emphasise ethical reasoning, reflexivity, and community interdependence. By critically engaging with the limitations of SDG-centred conceptions of sustainability, the study contributes to ongoing debates on how education can more meaningfully support socio-ecological transitions while acknowledging the theoretical and methodological constraints of large-scale empirical modelling.