Why this study
Sustainability education (SE) does not rest on research and theory alone. Its purpose, scope and preferred pedagogies are also shaped by beliefs that circulate widely without solid empirical or theoretical grounding. In the MYTHSE project, I call these myths in and about sustainability education.
What I did
The study is pre-registered and qualitative. I interviewed seven international experts from sustainability education, cognitive psychology and misinformation research. The interviews were semi-structured and recorded in the format of my Sustainability Education Podcast, which also made them publicly available. I analysed them using qualitative content analysis, combining inductive and deductive coding. Hosting the podcast while also conducting the research creates a dual role, and the article discusses it openly in a section of its own.
What the experts said
- They describe MYTHSE as plausible claims, reinforced socially, that narrow the transformative ambitions of SE. In their view, these myths sit in the mainstream of SE discourse, not at its edges.
- They trace the causes on several levels: cognitive heuristics, cultural narratives and institutional path dependencies.
- The consequences they describe include reductive pedagogies, fragmented curricula and a retreat from complex socio-ecological problems.
- On countermeasures, they agree that correcting facts is not enough. Instead they point to prebunking, mental immunity and critical thinking.
What the article adds
The article proposes a distinction between myths and contested positions in SE. The question it addresses is when a disputed claim is unsupported, and when it reflects a legitimate tension within the field. On this basis, the article sets out MYTHSE as a research agenda of its own. The limitations are plain: a small, purposive sample and a cross-sectional design do not allow generalisation. What the study offers is conceptual and methodological groundwork for further research, for practice and for policy.
Context
The article is another building block of my habilitation project MYTHSE. Earlier this year, the analytic autoethnography Confessions of an early sustainability educator appeared in the same journal.
Feel free to read the artcile here:
Siegel, S. T. (2026). Conceptualising myths in sustainability education: A podcast-based expert interview study. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-05-2026-0801
