Many teachers want to teach about sustainability but say they don't feel ready. Most training is a single workshop. In teacher preparation, sustainability often sits at the edges, usually inside science or geography courses. If you train teachers, lead a school or partner with schools, where will your effort make the biggest difference?
Ingrid Mulà and Daniella Tilbury, from the University of Girona in Spain, were asked by the European Commission to advise on teacher training policy. They reviewed more than 200 research papers, reports and policy documents, mostly from Europe and published between 2003 and 2022. They also wrote up nine case studies of real programs with the people who run them. Throughout, they tested their thinking with an advisory group of ten experienced educators from ministries, universities, schools and nonprofits.
The authors identified eight "entry points." An entry point is a place in the teacher training system where one action ripples out and changes other parts. They found the entry points work best in combination. Six matter most for educators:
- Learning together drives change. Teachers who learned with peers became more engaged and moved faster on whole-school changes, through both formal networks and informal groups.
- The International Network of Teacher Education Institutions links more than 80 teacher training colleges in over 50 countries. Over 25 years, its members have built sustainability into many courses and influenced policy beyond their own colleges.
- The Mediterranean Education Initiative on Environment and Sustainability (MEdIES), a nonprofit, has trained almost 10,000 teachers and teacher educators since 1992. It often works in countries with no national support.
- Teams of teachers who worked together on real changes in their own schools gained lasting motivation.
- The main barriers were lack of time, funding and experience with this way of working.
- Reflection works better than judgment. In Hungary, teachers can keep an online portfolio. They collect evidence of their sustainability teaching against clear indicators and reflect on it in their own time. Once they show enough evidence, it counts toward career promotion. The authors report this deepened the quality of sustainability teaching in schools. Recognition systems that grade teachers can cause stress. Portfolios, peer classroom visits and self-evaluation felt less daunting.
- Recognition and reward motivate. Celebrating good practice encouraged teachers to do more. It appealed most to mid-career and later-career teachers looking for a new challenge, whose needs are often overlooked. In the UK, some small grants gave teacher educators time to work on joint sustainability projects. These grants rewarded teamwork rather than competition.
- Presenting sustainability as better teaching wins people over. Efforts that showed how sustainability improves education overall reached teachers and leaders who were not yet committed. A European project linking 55 universities, called University Educators for Sustainable Development, spoke about better teaching, student engagement and core skills. University leaders then found it easier to connect sustainability to their existing priorities.
- Good resources are focused and tested. Free online materials are plentiful, but teachers must spend time judging which ones are good. Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future, a multimedia teacher training program published by UNESCO in 2002, succeeded for three reasons. It had clear objectives, it used active learning, and it was tested in schools and improved several times.
- Clear standards set expectations. In Scotland, every registered teacher must show sustainability in their practice, and the standards for school leaders include it too. Standards worked best when teachers helped write them and when they were flexible enough to fit different roles, such as early childhood or special needs teachers.
The authors also saw promise in two newer approaches, though both are still being tried. One is short certified courses, called micro-credentials. The other is group activities that help teachers imagine possible futures, often through the arts.
What this means for your practice:
Join or start a peer group. Peer learning was one of the strongest drivers of change in this review (finding 1). Networks also filled gaps where official support was missing. Look for a network in your region, or form a small team that meets regularly to work on one real change in your setting.
Keep a reflection portfolio. The Hungarian portfolio is reported to have improved teaching (finding 2). You can borrow the idea informally. Collect photos, student work and short notes about what you tried, and look back on them every few months. If you supervise or train others, the review found self-evaluation and peer visits less stressful than formal grading.
Recognize colleagues. Celebration motivated teachers, especially experienced ones (finding 3). Share good work at staff meetings or in newsletters, and invite veteran teachers to lead something new. The review reports recognition as motivating but does not compare specific methods.
Lead with what sustainability does for learning. When you approach principals or doubtful colleagues, start with student engagement, active learning and the school's existing goals (finding 4). The university project showed this framing helped leaders get on board.
Choose and build resources carefully. Look for materials with clear objectives and active learning that have been tested with real learners (finding 5). If you write materials, pilot them and revise them before sharing widely.
Know that nonprofits can fill gaps. If you work for a nature center or nonprofit, your training role matters (finding 1). MEdIES is one example of a nonprofit that reached thousands of teachers over three decades where official training was missing.
Help shape standards. If your district, state or organization is writing professional standards, push for teachers to help write them (finding 6). The review found that standards developed this way are taken up more readily.
The Bottom Line
Two researchers reviewed more than 200 studies and reports and nine real programs to find where action on teacher training for sustainability has the widest ripple effect. They identified eight "entry points," places in the system where one action sets off change elsewhere. For practitioners, the strongest were learning alongside peers, recognizing teachers' sustainability work, using self-reflection rather than high-stakes judgment, presenting sustainability as a way to improve teaching overall, and building well-tested resources. Networks and nonprofits played a key role where official support was thin. For educators, the message is that one-off workshops rarely change much on their own. Change lasts when shared learning, recognition, good resources and supportive leaders reinforce each other.