Mapping of policies shaping the agenda within health and sustainability education in schools: Research in schools for health and sustainability working paper nr 1/2012

Health and sustainability are important issues that schools need to address in their educational practices if they are to respond to societal challenges of a global and complex nature and foster children’s competences to deal with these challenges in creative, socially responsible and productive ways.

The concepts of health and sustainability themselves, and related school practices, are value-laden and shaped by a number of policies on global, regional, national and local levels. Research points to a persistent gap between, on the one hand, political aims and objectives concerning health promotion and education for sustainable development and, on the other hand, the treatment of these topics in school educational practices - both in terms of formal teaching and learning processes as well as the everyday life or “culture” of the school.

This paper maps the key international and national policy documents influencing work with health education/promotion and education for sustainable development within primary and lower secondary education in Denmark.