How can a Whole School Approach to Sustainability be Inclusive to All Learners?

Abstract

AbstractThe pedagogical concepts “Education for Sustainable Development” (ESD) and “Inclusive Education” have hitherto been discussed and promoted separately from each other. Embedding ESD effectively for all learners within formal education goes way beyond the classroom. A whole school approach (WSA) can thus assist with mainstreaming ESD inclusively in school education and beyond. However, although a WSA, in principle, should benefit all learners, it will take extra effort to do so in practice as in many schools today certain groups of students are willingly or unwillingly marginalized or even left out altogether. This contribution zooms in on the challenge of inclusion within a WSA which requires revealing the exclusion mechanisms that often are at work in schools, on the one hand, and identifying suitable pedagogical approaches that support more inclusive education, on the other. To this end, 11 experts with different backgrounds and perspectives in relation to inclusive education were interviewed. This chapter illustrates how WSAs can be designed to include all learners.