This study focus teachers’ view on dealing with 16 different sustainability-promoting actions in teaching in relation to the complexity of considerations of the teaching situation and scientific knowledge, as well as different norms at school, at homes and in society. The results are discussed in an adult development perspective, giving implications for both teacher training and in-service training.

Action is described as an important aim in learning for sustainability in Eco-Schools’, in formal curricula in Sweden, as well as in European and International policy document for ESD. From an educational perspective, a part of developing action capability is that pupils get an understanding of different action alternatives. How appropriate different action alternatives are perceived to deal with in teaching may, however, vary among teachers, due to the different ways the teachers make meaning of the situation in relation to e.g., knowledge and norms.

The focus of this study is to explore what kind of sustainability-promoting actions that Eco-school teachers find appropriate, or inappropriate, to include in teaching, and from which perspectives they justify the rating. The first objective is to describe how Eco-School teachers rate different sustainability-promoting actions regarding appropriateness to deal with them in teaching. The second, and main objective, is to describe and discuss the informants’ reasoning in relation to the rating from the question: what do they refer to when they justify their ratings?

Data has been gathered in one-hour interviews guided by a structured questionnaire combined with open-ended questions in which 24 informants have been encouraged to explain their ratings of 16 sustainability-promoting actions. Data treatment include both quantitative and qualitative analyses.

The majority of actions received high ratings in appropriateness, but there are some actions that stand out as being perceived more or less appropriate. Explanations reflect a diversity in responses and the preliminary results from the qualitative analysis show 15 categories that can be sorted into three groups: teaching considerations, sustainability consequences and social and cultural aspects. There is a correspondence between an action’s explained appropriateness  and justifications that it is easy and fun to deal with in teaching, as well as not being in conflict with norms at schools and in homes, and vice versa. This will be discussed from an adult developmental perspective.