Differing interpretations for integrating whole-school approaches for sustainability: A horizontal comparison of three Norwegian school cases

Within the context of the Norwegian curriculum, the recent curriculum reform - The Knowledge Promotion Reform 2020, incorporates the “interdisciplinary themes” – public health and life skills, democracy and citizenship, and sustainable development. This article seeks firstly, to gain insights into how three exemplary case studies promote Education Sustainable Development (ESD) adopting a Whole School Approach (WSA) and secondly, what the perceptions of school stakeholders are on both enabling factors and challenges to this WSA. These aims are explored using a qualitative approach, and through the purposeful selection of three case-study schools that offer different approaches towards implementing ESD. Findings suggest that school leaders consider ESD to be important, however understandings of ESD still largely lean towards the environmental and social dimensions. Within each school, there is some clarity over the purpose, value, and implementation of ESD, but this is not necessarily shared by all, and each school has a different entry point to a WSA to ESD. The institutional structures and norms of the school still appear to be a challenge in the work towards a WSA. The authors recommend further professional development for in-service teachers/leaders.