Symposium on Education for Sustainable Development and the Core Curriculum - Rewriting Learning for an Interconnected World

The symposium is needed to fill the void between theory and practice of sustainable development. We need to move beyond simply adding "sustainability" to the curriculum and instead fundamentally rewrite learning from the ground up. The event is a great opportunity to accelerate change in education so that we can better develop the systems thinking, ethical reasoning and collaborative action among young people, prepare them to live in – and shape - a more connected world.

The vision of the symposium will be towards a common understanding of what this "rewritten" education should look like. This means we need to develop and champion an aspirational graduate profile that goes beyond academic attainment, and focuses on ecological literacy, ethical reasoning, futures thinking, action competence and rooted global citizenship in order to reshape what educational success looks like. 

The Symposium pursues five main objectives:    

a) To catalyse a paradigm shift in curriculum design    
b) To bridge critical implementation gaps
c) To foster a collaborative ecosystem for change
d) To define and champion a new profile of the graduate
e) To articulate and gain consensus on the knowledge, skills, and values needed for a complex, interconnected world.

Some of the key themes to be discussed during the Symposium are:

1.    Designing Interdisciplinary Curriculum Frameworks
2.    New Metrics for Evaluating Systems Thinking, Ethics, and Action Competence
3.    The Pedagogies of Connection: Experiental and Place-Based Learning for a Global World
4.    Leveraging AI and EdTech for Sustainable Futures
5.    Embedding Climate Justice, Equity, and Anti-Oppressive Practices in ESD
6.    The Regenerative School: Modelling Sustainability through Campus Operations and Culture
7.    Professional Development for the ESD Transition 
8.    Futures Literacy and Adaptive Resilience: Educating for Uncertainty and Complexity 
9.    From Policy to Practice: Building Coherent National and Local Implementation Pathways
10.    Community engagement to create a supportive ecosystem for a ESD-integrated curriculum

Other themes may also be considered, please contact the organising committee if you have any additional ideas.    

In order to enable the publication of best practices and possible recommendations, the Book "Education for Sustainable Development and the Core Curriculum - Rewriting Learning for an Interconnected World" will be produced. It will be part of the  World Sustainability Series published by Springer Nature. This is, with over 90 books published to date, the world’s leading peer-reviewed book series on matters related to sustainable development: www.springer.com/series/13384. 

Over 3.500 scientists and former doctoral students have published their work in the series. The peer-reviewed nature of the series means that publications produced as part of it have been officially accepted for promotion and tenure purposes over the years, and as validated outputs as part of PhD Programmes. The chapter submission is not mandatory, only suggested.

Delegates come from a cross-sectoral range of areas. This includes:

• Education Policymakers and Government Officials
• Senior School Leadership and Curriculum Designers
• Teacher Training Providers and University Education Departments
• EdTech Innovators and Learning Solution Providers
• NGO and Third Sector Leaders in Development and Environment
• Student Leaders

as well as other people interested in the field.

The Symposium is organised and hosted by the University of Westminster in London, UK, in partnership with the Research and Transfer Centre Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), the UK Consortium on Sustainability Research (UK-CSR), European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR), and the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP).

There are two possibilities for attending the symposium:

• 1. By only attending the symposium (without a paper presentation): please register on the following form: https://forms.office.com/e/gESyG4Xa0y 
• 2. By delivering an oral presentation: Researchers may submit any complete, original, and unpublished research papers, either conceptual or empirical. To participate, participants need to submit an abstract of 200 to 300 words, along with the authors' names and full contact details, before 15th May 2026. Abstracts should be submitted by using the following form: https://forms.office.com/e/2M2f2nghWm 

For those who submitted an abstract, the authors will receive an email with the registration and payment details. In case you already want to proceed with it, please register here: https://forms.office.com/e/gESyG4Xa0y

• Abstract Submission: 15th May 2026
• Registration Deadline: 30th June 2026
• Full Paper Submission for the Book (after the symposium): 30th August 2026

To offset some of the costs of the event organisation, a registration fee of € 275 (plus taxes) will be charged to delegates (€ 100, plus taxes, for students). The fee includes the coffee breaks and lunches on the two days, and a PDF of the book to those who contributed to it. Information on how to register will be sent to the delegates whose contributions have been accepted.

• Prof. Walter Leal, UK-CSR and HAW Hamburg, Germany
• Andy Pitchford, Head of the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation, University of Westminster
• Morgan Lirette, Sustainable Development Advisor, University of Westminster
• James Moran, Senior Lecturer in Curriculum Design and Development Lead in the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation, University of Westminster

Dr. Laís Trevisan, HAW Hamburg, Germany
 

Enquiries regarding submissions of abstracts should be sent to the Organising Team at:  FTZ-NK-Events (at) haw-hamburg (dot) de