Education for sustainable society: attainments and good practices in Sweden during the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD)

Education is an indispensable social component and a powerful tool to develop a peaceful and sustainable society. Global policy frameworks are coupled with national policy frameworks to facilitate strategic use of education to promote sustainability. Sweden is one of the countries that has actively aligned with the global framework and has been successful in introducing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into formal education through its inclusion in the curricula and through new approaches toward learning and teaching. This article is based on document analysis attempting to review ESD policy implementation and to highlight Sweden's contribution to the global framework of ESD. It provides a comprehensive review of ESD discourse and its international policy framework, followed by an analysis of evolution of environmental education then ESD in Sweden. Three initiatives at the primary school level that promote ESD are presented as distinctive examples from Sweden demonstrating instrumental use of education toward sustainable development of the society while assessing the challenges and future prospects. As the United Nations Decade for Sustainable Development and Millennium Development Goals comes to an end in November 2014 and 2015, respectively, it is imperative that the concept of is revisited and good practices in the realm of ESD are identified and shared. Research of this nature locates effective practices of ESD and broadens our understanding of how ESD is implemented and adopted hybridizing with local socio-cultural tradition.