ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Teacher Education
This article is part of the Research TopicEducational Leadership and Sustainable DevelopmentView all 22 articles
Challenges and solutions to implementing education for sustainable development in geography classes: An international comparison of geography teachers' perceptions (Germany-NRW and Iran)
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- 2Qualitative, Cologne, Germany
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This study examines the challenges and solutions related to the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in geography classes in two countries with different political and educational systems, Germany (NRW) and Iran. Using a qualitative approach, 30 geography teachers from both countries were interviewed with open questions to assess their perceptions of ESD integration into teaching. This research identifies the key barriers and solutions provided by teachers to implement ESD in three main categories, including teaching practice, schools and educational organizations, and political and social framework conditions. Our findings show that German teachers emphasized the challenges and solutions that are more closely related to the lesson, class, and school, such as the curriculum, while Iranian teachers focused on the challenges and solutions for the broader education system and country issues, highlighting the centralized system of education and political and religious barriers.
Keywords: Education for sustainable development (ESD), ESD implementation, geography education, Teacher perception, Social Framework, political system
Received: 29 May 2025; Accepted: 26 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Khademi and Budke. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Somaye Khademi
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