The purpose of the paper is to identify the kinds of leadership that are likely to support implementing and sustaining education for sustainable development (ESD) effectively in a primary school. The paper identifies links between ESD and principal leadership literature and constructs a conceptual model of the leadership practices needed for reorienting a school to ESD/education for sustainability. Aspects of the model are explored through Cypriot principals' views on leadership and reported leadership practices. Data were obtained by a nationally administered questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Outcomes indicated some enabling factors for ESD implementation such as encouraging teachers to engage in ESD programmes, collaborate with others and other ways of support which nevertheless reflect what is generally expected of school administrators without seeking deep change. Constraining factors included principals' reported lack of confidence in administrative skills for sustainable schools, limited willingness to challenge the status quo, limited engagement in actions important for supporting ESD activities and features of the national educational policy. Constraining factors pointed towards principals' limited commitment to ESD. The practical significance of the findings is that they identify specific areas of needed professional development for principals such as empowering staff, encouraging critique of current approaches and exploring alternative possibilities for curriculum, pedagogy and policy.

The current study scrutinises issues concerning school leaders’ education and training on education for sustainable development (ESD). Particularly, it explores principals’ self-reported competence for organising and implementing ESD in schools and their needs in education and training in order to effectively lead sustainable schools. Data were obtained from a nationwide survey in 150 primary schools in Cyprus during 2005–2007. The analysis revealed that school principals in Cyprus are poorly equipped for their new role as leaders of sustainable schools and agents of change, and focused on exploring suitable forms, content and approaches for their professional development on ESD. The outcomes are discussed in a national and international context since they have implications for ESD professional development programmes. Finally we discuss the need for upgrading principals’ professional development programmes and ideas for further research in the field.

Developing sustainability competences is an important endeavor for education, as competence development can be complex and requires appropriate approaches. In the case of preparing future educators, this becomes even more important, because of their multiplier role. The current study presents how a project, based on the living-lab methodology, helped preservice preschool teachers attending a course on sustainability issues develop sustainability-specific professional action competence. Students collaborated with an organization and a school and were trained to deliver, to 6-year-old pupils, activities concerning the protection of sea turtles. The process included reflection based on a given template. After the intervention, the preservice preschool teachers reflected upon their role and professional performance and discussed how they benefited from this project. They further analyzed, through a group interview, how the living-lab methodology raised their professional confidence and self-efficacy and helped them develop content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and a sense of purpose and motivation for teaching about sustainability. Outcomes indicate that participants felt confident and efficacious to teach about sustainability and developed their content knowledge, pedagogy content knowledge, motivation, and volition due to a strong sense of purpose and responsibility. The overall process facilitated the development of critical thinking, systemic thinking, reflection, and collaboration.

This research is based on the rationale that the well-defined framework of education for sustainable development (ESD), its connection with real life and its specific integration in the educational policies and curricula can help to enhance quality education (QE) in a meaningful and identifiable way. In a first step, the common ground of ESD and QE was explored in different areas: common dimensions, future-oriented objectives, commonly targeted skills, value orientation, teaching and learning approaches. In a second step, this information was taken as a base to investigate how well twelve lesson units for primary school reflect the common ground of ESD and QE. The units were specifically developed for this research, in which ESD experienced teachers (mentors) supported inexperienced ones (mentees). Results indicate that ESD can reinforce QE, but that teachers need support with regard to the political and cultural dimensions of SD issues, collaborations with local communities and assessments.