LoLE | Leaders of Learner Empowerment

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is regarded as a key concept for the societal transformation towards sustainability. School leaders play a key role in integrating ESD across the whole school (Whole School Approach, WSA), because they create the conditions that enable young people to act as change agents. Yet school leaders have so far been a neglected target group, and empirical studies show that many of them report a lack of knowledge and experience for initiating transformative change at the systemic level. How can school leaders be supported to take on this role?

• Pilot a training programme for school leaders
• Support participants in developing and implementing their own transformative, community-based change projects
• Turn the participants' case studies into practical learning materials, including guidelines for implementing the WSA in everyday school life
• Establish an international ESD network of school leaders that continues beyond the project

Participants from Germany, Canada, the USA, South Africa, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Japan and Saudi Arabia take part in the training programme. Each of them develops and implements a change project in their own school and community, on topics such as sustainable nutrition or consumption. The findings and experiences from these case studies feed into the learning materials. The network formed by all participants is meant to support the implementation of sustainability projects and the WSA at the participating schools and beyond.