Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
This study critically examines the evolution, implementation, and ideological framing of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) policy frameworks from 2005 to 2025. It explores how global ambitions are translated into regional and national education strategies, highlighting conceptual tensions, implementation challenges, and transformative possibilities. Drawing on qualitative document analysis, the research investigates global frameworks (UNDESD, GAP, ESD for 2030), regional strategies, and national education policies using a critical policy analysis lens informed by transformative learning theory, critical pedagogy, and epistemic justice. The analysis reveals a persistent gap between ESD policy rhetoric and practice. Global frameworks often lack implementation clarity, resulting in fragmented or superficial national integration. Nevertheless, grassroots initiatives in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe offer counter-narratives that reinterpret ESD through culturally embedded, socially just pedagogies. The findings call for a “transformative policy scaffolding” model that connects global goals with localized knowledge and agency. This study contributes a comparative, and theoretically grounded critique of ESD discourse. It foregrounds the importance of epistemological plurality, contextual responsiveness, and power-sensitive implementation in reimagining ESD as a genuinely transformative educational paradigm.
Hastangka et al. (Thu,) studied this question.