Mapping education for sustainable development in super-diverse urban secondary schools in Brussels

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is widely promoted through global frameworks, yet how these translate into practice in super-diverse urban secondary schools remains insufficiently understood. This study applies the ESDUC framework as an analytical lens to examine how its four building blocks: competences, teaching strategies, community engagement, and school culture are implemented in Dutch-speaking secondary schools in Brussels, and which factors influence their implementation. Drawing on a qualitative multiple-case study with interviews and focus groups involving pupils, teachers, and school leaders, the findings show that ESD implementation is partial and fragmented across schools and actor groups. Sustainability is predominantly framed in ecological terms, while transformative, culturally responsive, and community-based approaches remain weakly developed. Implementation is strongly shaped by urban realities such as multilingualism, socio-economic vulnerability, and a structural mismatch between pupils’ lived experiences and school practices. By mapping these dynamics, the study identifies facilitating and constraining factors in applying ESDUC and offers context-sensitive insights for research, policy, and practice in Brussels and other metropolitan settings.