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This paper explores a new integrative approach to climate change education at Masters level. Drawing on the authors| involvement in a European Union Erasmus project, it is argued that the diversity of knowledge(s) on climate change are a source of active/social learning. The wide variety of disciplinary, sectoral and lived experiential (both individual and collective) knowledge(s) are all considered legitimate in this exercise, the aim of which is to construct new interdisciplinary knowledge from their boundary interfaces. We further argue for a corresponding pedagogy based on developing transboundary competences – the ability to engage in social learning and action through communicative engagement across knowledge boundaries. We acknowledge that the challenges for enacting transboundary competence are considerable when it requires mobility across epistemological, even ontological, boundaries. The challenges are further compounded when the communicative engagement across space and time requires virtual mobility which is ICT-enabled. Nevertheless, meeting them is a normative goal, not only for this expanded, integrative approach to climate change education, but also for a global resolution of climate change itself.

Education in sustainable development is a goal recognised by a large number of countries and a vital concept in healthcare. It is therefore important that nurse education incorporates elements of sustainable development into nursing education curricula. However, there is limited research on student nurses' attitudes towards sustainability and no comparison of attitudes towards sustainability and its inclusion in the nursing curriculum across Europe.This project aims to assess student nurses' attitudes towards sustainability, its relevance to nursing and its inclusion in the nursing curricula. 1. To assess base-line attitudes at the start of nursing and midwifery training; 2. To compare sustainability awareness between students participating in training in a number of European universities.A comparative survey design using the Sustainability Attitudes in Nursing Survey (SANS_2) questionnaire.Nursing classes of Universities and Nursing Schools in four European countries were investigated using a questionnaire consisting of five sustainability-related items.916 nursing students (UK: 450, Germany: 196, Spain: 124, Switzerland: 146).Standard descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to establish psychometric quality (Principal Components Analysis, Cronbach's alpha, Pearson correlations) and compare student nurses from the four countries.The reliability of SANS_2 was good (Cronbach's alpha=.82) and the five items loaded on a single factor which explained 58% of variance. ANOVA of the SANS_2 total score showed significant differences between countries with German nursing students showing more sustainability awareness than students from the UK and Spain.SANS_2 is a reliable instrument to assess nursing students' sustainability awareness; there are significant differences in sustainability awareness of students of different European countries. Limitations of the study include non-random sampling, possible method effects and social desirability effects.Sustainability will become increasingly important in clinical practice; greater knowledge about the attitudes of nurses towards sustainability can support the development and testing of sustainability-focused teaching and learning materials.

Unsustainable socio-economic practices manifest prominently in water crises and water-related disasters. This turns water managers into prototypical sustainability professionals, and important change agents in a broader societal transformation towards sustainability. Water education is, de facto, sustainability education. By bridging the gap between a pedagogical and a professional view on required sustainability competencies, experiences with water education offer valuable insights in the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The paper reports on recent experiences with increasing the sustainability orientation of water education programmes, and explores key issues that require attention in ESD programmes in general. The experience of three international degree and capacity development programmes at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) reveals lessons on learning environments and capacities essential to the design and implementation of training programmes in, for and about sustainable development. To guide ESD programme development in higher education, it proposes adopting a ‘learning and applying what we teach’ approach, with particular attention to: skill development for meaningful stakeholder engagement; normative and value-based aspects of sustainability education; and necessary organizational capacities and professional skills of educational providers.

In acknowledgement of the complexity of environmental challenges, research on learning in environmental policy has grown substantially over the past two decades across a range of disciplines. Despite this growth, there are few comprehensive assessments of the literature on learning in environmental policy. This article fills this gap by providing insights on the overall coherence and impact of this body of scholarship. To do so, we analyze a sample of 163 articles from 2004 to 2014 using a standardized coding framework. The results provide an in-depth assessment of the status of the literature on learning in the context of environmental policy, as well as the quality of the literature. We demonstrate that despite the diversity in research questions and goals, the literature is lacking with respect to diversity in cases and context, theoretical development, clear conceptualization and operationalization of learning, and advancements in empirical approaches to study learning. From these insights, we discuss the challenges and opportunities for scholars in studying learning and provide recommendations for building the theoretical and methodological rigor of the field.

Unlike previous generations, today’s youth is directly affected by global anthropogenic climate change (CC), and its increasing consequences throughout their lifetimes. However, both the educational strategies to prepare them for CC adaptation, and their conceptions of CC adaptation, remain insufficiently understood. This study sets out to investigate the CC adaptation conceptions of 120 students from four high-schools in Austria and Italy. The influence of a year-long research-education cooperation between students and 28 CC adaptation experts is examined. In the educational design, the focus lies on moderate-constructivist theories, and the transdisciplinary dialogue between students and experts. A mixed-methodologies approach is applied, which combines content analysis to study students’ conceptions of CC adaptation and test statistics (chi-square and t-test) to assess the impact of the educational intervention. The results show that students’ conceptions differ in degree of sophistication, and also include misconceptions. Some students relate adaptation to limiting disadvantages due to CC, others confuse adaptation with mitigation or environmental protection. After the educational intervention, most students have expanded their CC adaptation conceptions and overcome misconceptions, and their performance to differentiate between adaptation and mitigation increased significantly. This paper will be useful to researchers and teachers interested in utilizing education as a means to adapting to CC.