Education for Sustainability

Høgskulen på Vestlandet has an active environment working with education for sustainable development based on the UN’s pillars: ecological sustainability, social and cultural sustainability, and economic sustainability. In line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals we have also included a fourth pillar: good governance (Sachs 2013).

Our research group consists of researchers from several disciplines and traditions who, together and in parallel, work to find good ways to give children and young people agency and participation, knowledge and belief in the future. We study how to equip our students in early childhood teacher education, primary teacher education and in continuing and further education to best provide an Education for Sustainability.

Publications

Heggen, M.P., Lynngård, A.M. Wonder and curiosity beyond the obvious—a dynamic model of bodily and verbal understandings of these phenomena. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 13, 167 (2026).
Alme, H., & Heggen, M. P. (2025). “I Sit Here Feeling the Beauty” Together withNature—Children’s
KnowledgeintheNature Kindergarten. Education Sciences, 15(10), 1373.
Henriksen, E.K., Jegstad, K.M., Pajchel, K., Mestad, I. & Eklund, G. (red.) (2024). Fra forskningsfronten til klasserommet. Perspektiver på forskningsbasert lærerutdanning i naturfag. Universitetsforlaget.
Breivik, J., Ludvigsen, K., Pilskog, I., Beisland, E. G. & Lundervold, A. S. (2024). Er universitetspedagogiske kurs relevante? Erfaringer fra et kurs om diskusjon som læringsaktivitet. I D. Husebø, L. Ferguson, O. R. Stalheim, I. C. Eriksen, R. Isaksen, A. Mavroudi og P. Wallin (Red.), Det universitets- og høgskolepedagogiske vitenskapsområdet i Norge – fremvekst, grunnlagstenkning og «state of the art» (s. 239–261). Cappelen Damm Akademisk.
Veronica Bergan, Maritha Berger Nylund, Ida Lervik Midtbø & Bård Henry Landsem Paulsen (2023): The teacher’s role for engagement in foraging and gardening activities in kindergarten, Environmental Education Research, DOI:10.1080/13504622.2023.2181271

Head of research group

Marianne Presthus Heggen

Professor

Ingjald Pilskog

Associate Professor

Remi Kaldhussæter

Modified 02.06.26