Plausible, Persistent, Unfounded: Myths in and about Sustainability Education (MYTHSE)

“Sustainability education is just environmental education.” “Only those who live sustainably should teach it.” “Sustainability education alone will save the planet.” You may have heard sentences like these in a staff room. You may even have said one. I have. They sound plausible, prove remarkably durable and quietly decide who feels entitled to teach sustainability.

The costs are real. A business lecturer may leave the topic to the geography department. A colleague who flies to conferences may feel like a hypocrite and stay silent. A teacher who expects education alone to save the planet carries a burden no classroom can bear. Education is one lever among several; political and economic change must accompany it.

The research and practice project MYTHSE (Myths in and about Sustainability Education) at the University of St.Gallen examines more than twenty such claims through an autoethnography, a scoping review and interviews with international scholars.

Myths fulfill psychological, cultural and institutional functions, so mythbusting has to respect the people who hold them. The project also builds on misinformation research: corrections reduce false beliefs, yet a myth’s influence lingers when nothing better-supported fills the gap (Lewandowsky et al., 2020). Each refutation in the MYTHSE Navigator therefore acknowledges a claim’s kernel of truth before offering an alternative.

The project has a growing track record. As of September 2026, it has produced 15 publications, 16 conference contributions, 20 workshops and talks and 27 blog posts.

What can you do with it?

• If you teach, work through a myth with your students using the Educational Myths Refutation Canvas, or adapt the other mythbusting tools to your own courses.
• If you research, build on these findings and analyse questionable claims across countries, disciplines and institutions.

If you support educators, integrate the online courses SE101 and EMD101, already used in Switzerland, Germany and the United States, or share episodes of the Sustainability Education Podcast.

These and other resources are available on the science blog EvSusEd.

Thank you, EAPRIL, for nominating MYTHSE for the EAPRIL Best Practice-Based Research Award 2026. I am grateful for this recognition of the work and of everyone who has contributed to it, from experts to lecturers and students, and I look forward to presenting the project at the Award Session in Cork.

Until then, feel free to watch the video pitch, to scan the flyer below, and to send me the stubborn myth you keep meeting in your own teaching.

Let’s bust myths together!