Katrien Van Poeck: "'How do we solve the traffic problems around our school?' Traffic jams, conflicts between cyclists and motorists, air pollution, a shortage of parking spaces: when pupils get to work very concretely on the mobility problem in their school neighbourhood, they really experience the complexity of that question. Very different from a paper question in a workbook. They discover that people have very different ideas about what the right approach is. That sometimes you have to look beyond facts and also take into account the values of all those involved. And that the knowledge they acquire at school matters when beliefs clash with factual truths."
"In the context of ESD, children and young people can learn a lot when teachers link their lessons to concrete, authentic challenges and address questions of sustainability, for example. Like traffic in their village, or what the school garden can do for biodiversity. But equally, ESD is about challenges in wider society that transcend the school and the local community. When we bring authentic issues of sustainability into schools, it leads to unique opportunities for strong education."