CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

In European contexts, ESD has focused on mitigation for a long time: making consumers aware of the impact of their consumption choices, encouraging decrease of energy consumption of mobility and productive processes and, more generally, raising awareness of resource constraints at a global level, and of the unsustainability of our lifestyles. More recently, adaptation has become an additional key issue (UNFCCC, 2024), also because mitigation measures have been too timid to have decisive effects (though some measures – like better insulation of houses – follow both goals: reducing energy consumption and keeping the inside of buildings cool during heatwaves). All in all, European ESD has focused on the importance of reducing the consumption of valuable natural resources and on "making our economy green".

In the Global South, sustainable development is often associated with the devastating effects of climate change, such as reoccurring drought, disturbed weather patterns and increasing frequency of extreme weather events (like typhoons). Agroecology has become an important focus, as food-production and consumption are very critical in both the Global South and Global North. On the consumption side, fighting poverty is more at the centre of concern than overconsumption, even though consumption patterns are very variable across socio-economic categories and waste management is also an important challenge. The regional impact of climate change is definitely not proportional to their carbon footprint (Blot, 2005). What does transformative ESD look like in such extra-European contexts? Can it foster resilience and engagement at individual, collective and institutional levels?

Despite its monolithic appearance, the concept of sustainable development has different meanings in different cultural areas (Missener, 2021). To reflect this diversity, at the end of the 1980s the Brundtland Commission was composed of prominent figures from around the world, with a majority of members from countries in the Global South (Bayon et al., 2012, pp. 83-84), to avoid a Western-centred vision of the future of societies. This wish has remained a pipe dream, even though cultural reality calls for a more accurate consideration of local needs, be it economically, ecologically or socially (Missener, 2021). For example, some populations might associate sociocultural representations with climate change (Attané, 2017) and not everyone attaches the same importance to economic growth in the development process (Jollivet 1998). In some European countries, the post-growth era seems to impose itself as an obvious pathway, while most "emerging" countries believe they need growth to "catch up" on "development".

Although sustainable development presents itself as a major global ecological cause, it is based on understandings of the world and nature that are not universally shared (Esoh Elame, 2004). The concepts of natural resources and biodiversity, for example, are completely absent from discursive representations of certain populations who nevertheless have a role to play in preserving these resources. In certain regions of sub-Saharan Africa, plant diversity is a cultural resource that is essential for rituals, and therefore far more than a natural resource to be tapped for economic purposes (Esoh Elame 2004, p. 58).

How is transformative ESD taking into account such cultural differences? What view do migrant populations in Europe have of ESD? How can multicultural groups be engaged in transformative ESD? And from a larger perspective, how can intersectionality be taken into account, considering the articulation of diverse factors of marginalisation and discrimination in transformative ESD (Root, 2022)?

In the higher education sector, transformative ESD was for a long time reserved to Honour courses, or to elite schools, mostly attracting students who are already interested in and aware of sustainability challenges through voluntary courses (LERU, 2021, p. 29). Attempts to overcome this and mainstream sustainability have flourished; for example, in France, it has recently become compulsory to provide 30 hours of ESD to all Bachelor students, but the ways in which the course is taught (often provided online) is rarely transformative and such a generalisation of ESD in the curriculum is still a European exception. Further ventures that go beyond this welcome but slightly limited curriculum mainstreaming approach are being explored, e.g. in Germany, with the HE partnership project "Culture of Sustainability in Higher Education" (KuNaH).

Considering that today's university students are tomorrow's professionals and consumers, how can the students that are the furthest away from awareness of planetary limits be reached (for example in the disciplines rooted in technological progress and unlimited economic growth); or those that have to make a living to sustain their studies and have no time for extracurricular engagement? And how can we effectively apply a Whole Institution Approach where all members of the HEI community are contributing to transforming their institution into an agent for making our future more thriveable?

Leaving no one behind inside university is already a challenge, but what about those outside? In the European Union, more than two fifths of young people have a tertiary level education, whereas on the African continent, for example, it is less than 10 % on average, with still an important gender gap. Can universities reach out to the rest of society, or strengthen civil society actors that are multipliers? How can they also learn from these communities and modify their success criteria to match less colonially inspired ones?

Universities are seeing a rise in climate‑related worry among students. Research shows that climate anxiety is common, linked to mental‑health symptoms, and shaped by lived exposure to extreme weather – yet it is not a disorder to be "fixed" (Vercammen et al., 2023). Eco-anxiety (and its synonyms) is best documented in the Global North, mostly among people who are better educated and whose reasons for concern are both altruistic and self-interested. However, the populations most vulnerable to climate change are disproportionately poor and live in the Global South, where evidence of eco-anxiety is limited (Butler, 2025). Some research does show clear evidence of the global dimension of eco-anxiety amongst children and young adults (Hickman, 2021). In many parts of the world, particularly in the Global South, people may be unable to engage in climate action due to facing financial or political barriers, having insufficient knowledge, or simply lacking opportunities, irrespective of how they feel about climate change (Ogunbode, 2022).

The 2026 Higher Education Summit summit can explore how to validate climate emotions, care for wellbeing, and convert worry into shared capacity to act, also in extra-European contexts. We can look into how to embed climate‑emotion literacy into teaching and assessment; how to strengthen tiered support (peer spaces, counselling, crisis response); how to build agency and collective efficacy through living‑lab projects and partnerships; and how to measure what matters (climate‑emotion scales, hope/agency, and equity impacts), anything that can help to move from paralysis to practice, with tangible tools campuses can adopt.

Decolonising education is a general claim in response to the effects of the neoliberal ideology on the education system (Apple, 2013). Importantly, it is a claim from which ESD is not exempted (Nijhawan, 2024). It is grounded in the observed existence of limitations and biases of curriculum and teacher education and training, and the social, political, and environmental legacies of colonisation, which have influenced education policies.

The decolonial perspective highlights how the sustainability-through-growth paradigm increases inequalities and influences the skills which are to be learnt and taught. Following Andreotti’s (2006, p. 49) vision of global citizen education, we can consider transformative ESD as promoting "change without telling learners what they should think or do, by creating spaces where they are safe to analyse and experiment with other forms of seeing/thinking and being/relating to one another". This means that students must be empowered to form their own judgments and sketch their own solutions for achieving global justice, all strongly correlated with sustainability (Nijhawan, 2024, p. 3). If it does not deconstruct the injustices of current systems, ESD runs the risk of "being a discourse and practice of the West imposed on the rest" (Gaudelli, 2020, p. 212).

Can the Whole Institution Approach contribute to decolonising ESD? In other words, can it be grounded on a genuinely democratic ideal with an inclusive and participatory stakeholder-oriented framework that also looks beyond students, teachers, and administrators and includes the entire surrounding community? What concrete means are there to foster the decolonisation of ESD, in Global South and Global North settings?

Are you carrying out empirical research in any of the above-mentioned topics? Would you like to present a practice that has greatly benefited your institution? This presentation type is for those with data that could support the effectiveness or impact of an innovation or practice to make higher education institutions key actors for transformative ESD and inclusive sustainability. It is also possible to propose a complete panel with four paper presentations.

Duration: 15 minutes

What should the proposals look like? 800-1000 words, plus references

Papers should be based on:

• Research (e.g., quantitative or qualitativeresearch, mixed-methods research, action-research, case study, meta-analysis,
  design-based research)
• Theory (e.g., conceptual study, model ortheory development)
• Practice for sustainability (sustainablepractices in a real-world environment, proposes new actions, and practices for formal and informal setting)
• Sustainable organizations-in-action (e.g., policies, culture, behaviours in the organizations to develop a sustainable mindset)

Would you like to narrate or demonstrate your research/practice in a creative and interactive way? This kind of presentation is for those who are keen on using creative strategies such as videos, theatre, graphic arts, poetry, dance, etc., to share their sustainability-oriented practice or research. You are encouraged to weave in inquiry or dialogue to actively engage participants and get their feedback.

Duration: 60 minutes

What should the proposals look like? 800-1000 words

The lab could explore the following questions:

• What practice would you like to narrate or demonstrate?
• How did this practice come about and who is normally involved in this practice?
• What research/theory is this practice anchored on?
• How will this be presented to participants? What creative methods will you use?
• In what way can participants contribute?

If you’re engaged in sustainability-grounded research and/or practise but are still in the middle of your process, this presentation format could benefit you. Perhaps you would like to share your endeavour to get fresh ideas or a different perspective, or you could be stuck and in need of feedback. You could also be excited to share what you have so far, even if you haven’t completely analysed your data yet or the process is still underway.

Duration: 60 minutes

What should the proposals look like? 400-600 words

The proposal could address the following questions:

• What is your research, project or initiative?
• What step are you working on? What are the challenges you are facing?
• In what way can your research, action research or experiment contribute to facing sustainability challenges in one or more of the above-mentioned topics?
• In what way can participants contribute?

You have an original, exciting or playful idea that fits nowhere else? If it takes not more than 90 minutes, the floor can be yours! This open format can host contributions that do not fit elsewhere and leave space for new ways for exchanging, discovering and learning. Here are some ideas of what could fit into this category, but there are no limits, as long at it offers food for reflection, an opportunity for new insights and better ways to care:

• Climate Café + Listening Circle facilitated by trained staff/peers (with clear limits and referral protocols);
• Design charrettes to rework one high‑enrolment transformative decolonized ESD course;
• Nature‑near micro‑practicals (guided walks, campus greening tasks);
• Network corners to connect with like-minded researchers or practitioners to get tips on implementing, maintaining, or evaluating a research topic or initiative within your institution, to connect with existing communities or create a new network of individuals or organisations engaged in similar research topics or practices.

Address the following questions in your proposal (max. one A4 page):

• What would you like to propose?
• What makes it special and essential to enrich this conference?
• What will it do/bring/change in the participants?
• How will you go about it?
• What is the outcome you are hoping for? How can we be surprised?

Contributions are possible in English or French. Translation services will be offered for the plenary sessions. The other sessions will mainly be held in one "working language".

Your proposal for one of the four available formats should address one or more of the presented topics.

Guiding questions:

• In which topic(s) does your contribution fit?
• What is your specific contribution about?
• How will you engage the audience?
• What scientific basis is there for your contribution, or which theoretical frameworks inspired you?
• To what extent is your contribution the result of a collaboration between students and educators, or between researchers and practitioners?

Information to be provided:

• Names of the presenters and co-presenters / co-authors
• Short bio
• Description of your session (max. 2 pages, pdf)
• You may include pictures or other visuals
• Max. group size
• Working language of the session (English or French)
• Teaser / website promotion text (in English and French)

Your contribution will be assessed by the conference committee based on the following criteria:

• Thematic relevance (linked to one or several of the above-mentioned topics)
• Collaborative character (the proposal should (ideally) be a joint submission of students with teachers, researchers, administrative colleagues and/or practitioners)
• Potential for supporting transformation
• Academic or other relevant quality for theory, practice or policy
• Originality and level of innovativeness
• Adequateness of mode of presentation

The deadline for submission is 15 January 2026.

You will be notified whether your contribution is accepted by 15 February 2026.