Civil rights and obligations are connected to environmental issues in the curricula?

The report assesses the integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in nine European countries, finding that while socio-cultural elements are prevalent, economic and environmental dimensions are underrepresented. It highlights a gap between high-level curricular goals and actual classroom materials, recommending a shift toward individual empowerment and systemic thinking.

• The majority of existing ESD knowledge in the analyzed national curricula focuses on social and cultural aspects of sustainable development, rather than environmental or economic ones.
• Gender equality is one of the least represented socio-cultural elements across the studied curricula, and it is entirely absent in some countries.
• Economic topics such as the market economy and corporate social responsibility and accountability are largely missing from compulsory schooling curricula.
• Agriculture and rural development are the least represented environmental elements in the curricula, despite their regional importance.
• While values of respect, responsibility, reflexivity, and complexity are foundational in the curricula, skills for managing change and uncertainty are often discussed as facts rather than practiced as skills.
• Community cooperation is among the least represented skill groups across all countries, with very little actual practice encouraged in curricular documents.
• Current educational documents fail to emphasize individual empowerment, personal action, or personal responsibility regarding sustainability.
• There is a disconnect between high-level framework curricula and the subsequent subject curricula and textbooks, where intended ESD principles often fade or disappear.
• Analysis of textbooks reveals that the vast majority of tasks related to sustainable development are 'process tasks' (encouraging active processing) rather than 'rote learning tasks' (memorization).
• Cultural diversity and intercultural understanding are the most frequent socio-cultural elements, often accounting for over 50% of such content in countries like Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Romania.

APA

Domazet, M., Dumitru, D., Jurko, L., & Peterson, K. (n.d.). Civil rights and obligations are connected to environmental issues in the curricula? Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Pub-2256-ENjoinED-Comparative-Report.pdf

Chicago

Domazet, Mladen, Daniela Dumitru, Lana Jurko, and Kaja Peterson. Civil rights and obligations are connected to environmental issues in the curricula? Stockholm Environment Institute, n.d. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Pub-2256-ENjoinED-Comparative-Report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Domazet |first1=Mladen |last2=Dumitru |first2=Daniela |last3=Jurko |first3=Lana |last4=Peterson |first4=Kaja |title=Civil rights and obligations are connected to environmental issues in the curricula? |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Pub-2256-ENjoinED-Comparative-Report.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{domazetndcivil, author = {Domazet, Mladen and Dumitru, Daniela and Jurko, Lana and Peterson, Kaja}, title = {{Civil rights and obligations are connected to environmental issues in the curricula?}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Pub-2256-ENjoinED-Comparative-Report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }