To successfully cope with global challenges such as climate change or loss of biodiversity, it will require a substantial change in the ways societies make use of the natural resources of our planet. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is expected to support the transformation of societies towards more sustainable ways of thinking, working, and living. Although there is a broad range of literature on ESD, little is known about the role of school leadership in ESD. However, leadership is crucial for the implementation of ESD in schools. This article gives a short overview of the status of ESD within Germany, Macau, and the United States and a literature review on leadership for ESD in schools. It reports on a study that seeks to investigate what principals do in Germany, Macau, and the United States; specifically, what management strategies they use and which competences they need to successfully establish ESD in their schools.

Education is expected to support the development of a more sustainable way of thinking, working, and living. Although there is a broad range of literature on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), the role of principals in the implementation of sustainability and ESD in schools has rarely been taken into consideration. However, based on the results of school effectiveness research, one can assume that school principals exert a significant influence on ESD. Sustainability is a leadership issue. When a school aims at integrating sustainability and ESD, the principal plays a pivotal role. She or he has to support the endeavor wholeheartedly and credibly, organize a participative process of school development, emphasize sustainability and ESD in the daily life of the school, support teaching staff in the application of ESD, and offer students opportunities to launch their own initiatives. This article for the special issue on “Sustainability in leadership and education” is a theoretical concept paper based on a literature review and the authors’ conceptual work. It offers a model and seeks to support principals in leading their schools towards sustainability. Therefore, a framework of four stages of the integration of sustainability and ESD in a school is defined. For each of these stages, a number of practical actions and management strategies are suggested and explained in detail.

We live in times of multiple crises. Climate change, degradation of soils, loss of biodiversity, COVID-19, and the war in Ukraine, to name but a few. School leaders are challenged in many ways to tackle the consequences of these crises, to prepare students for a future that will foreseeably be full of crises too, and to just do their “normal” daily work: to make sure that the school is running successfully in order to help students learn how to read, write, calculate, etc. Education for sustainable development (ESD) is a concept that aims at empowering learners with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to address the interconnected global challenges we are facing. This article reports on a study that seeks to investigate what principals in Germany, China, and the United States do to integrate sustainability and ESD in their schools. It specifically addresses the issue of COVID-19 and its impact on the establishment of ESD.

School principals play a pivotal role in establishing the direction for successful schools. Unfortunately, significant challenges to recruiting and retaining highly qualified school leaders exist in many regions of the world. Extending the findings of a recent quantitative study comparing the influence of motivators and inhibitors that impact German and US teachers' decisions to become principals, researchers in the current study interviewed selected teachers to determine the reasons for their responses. Similarities and differences in the respondents' perceptions of factors that influenced their desire to become school leaders are reported. The findings offer important ways in which Germany and the USA may learn from each other's practices.

Societies need to develop more sustainable ways of living, working, and doing business. Education for sustainable development (ESD) plays a pivotal role in this endeavor. The aim is to provide people with the necessary knowledge, values, and skills for the needed transformation. Therefore, organizations of adult and continuing education must address issues of climate protection and sustainability in their programs and act accordingly in the way the organization is managed. This article reports on a qualitative study that involves leaders of adult education institutions in China, Germany, and the USA. This study seeks to investigate what these leaders do and how they act to implement ESD in their organizations. It specifically looks at current challenges, management strategies, beliefs, and values of the leaders. The results of this study show that leaders of adult and continuing education organizations recognize the need to address sustainability in adult education. However, they face many challenges in implementing ESD, including a lack of resources (e.g., finances and staff), structural barriers, and difficulties in reaching new target groups. Despite these challenges, many participants strive to develop their organizations in a more sustainable way, such as through curriculum design and campus management. Some leaders take a comprehensive approach, guided by the Whole Institution Approach, by integrating ESD into their institution’s vision and mission, establishing dedicated working groups, and forming new partnerships with external stakeholders. Overall, this study highlights the crucial role of leadership in advancing sustainability efforts.