Conference Program

The integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Civic Citizenship Education (CCE) is increasingly proposed as a response to the “post‑truth” crisis (Farkas & Schou, 2024) and the weakening of democratic resilience (European Council, 2023). Contemporary approaches to CCE (e.g., Biesta, 2021; Westheimer & Kahne, 2022) and ESD (e.g., UNESCO, 2020; Macintyre et al., 2025) treat democracy not merely as a subject to be taught but as an active learning principle embedded in school practice. This shift moves the focus from “learning about democracy” to “democracy as a learning principle” (Fielding, 2012; Cook‑Sather, 2020), positioning schools as spaces for epistemic agency (Nieminen & Ketonen, 2019). Nevertheless, despite the need for these two agendas to work synergistically such integration remains insufficiently realized in everyday school practice (Macintyre et al., 2025).

In the German context in particular, it can be observed that schools are difficult to change (Buchna, 2019). Efforts to substantially embed CCE and ESD in the curriculum often remain at the project level, running alongside regular lessons rather than being fully integrated. One way to overcome this issue is to develop the profile of entire year groups in which a transformative approach is consistently implemented.

This contribution presents research in which we examine this approach in more detail through a case study. The Futur-3 profile of a Berlin grammar school systematically embeds elements of transformative education, such as self-directed learning, extracurricular cooperation and a focus on sustainability issues, throughout the entire secondary school period. Our research explores how this profiling helps to prevent 'hollow participation' and establish democratic as well as sustainable practices. Thus, our research contributes to addressing the question of which specific school conditions must be met to enable democratic renewal (European Council, 2023).

We examined which levers are pushing transformative learning by combining CCE and ESD using a triangulated approach involving: a quantitative baseline study of the entire Year 10 cohort (n = 120), qualitative interviews with pupils in the Futur-3 profile (n = 32), and narrative interviews with the teachers who developed the Futur-3 profile. Our data allowed us to identify three levers: pedagogical, organisational and relational conditions. Project-based learning and interdisciplinary problem solving (e.g. climate justice) are particularly effective in strengthening political self-efficacy and resistance to populism when designed to be deliberative (cf. Ahmed, 2004). This fosters learners' ability to analyse complex problems, think critically and develop collective solutions — key competencies for democratic participation and sustainable development. The second lever is organisational in nature. Structurally embedded co-determination can foster democratic attitudes and transformative agency (Lund & Vestøl, 2021). This enables pupils to exert influence both formally and practically, thereby enhancing the quality of the democratic experience in everyday school life. The third lever concerns the relational level. A teaching culture that is relationally anchored fosters a sense of belonging and efficacy, ideally strengthening the willingness to engage in democratic participation and sustainable action (Biesta, 2021).