Education for sustainable development is essential for battling current challenges in the world. Sustainable development is a complex issue that should include three dimensions – social, environmental and economic. In this essay, I am analyzing middle school textbooks in civics education and I am focusing on how they are describing sustainable development. The aim for this study is to conclude whether the approach is holistic or not by investigating the content within sustainable development, considering what research and the school curriculum is presenting. To achieve the aim of this study I will be investigating what issues within sustainable development are discussed and how the content is presented.

The study’s methodological approach is qualitative text analysis and the analyzed material is three textbooks and two workbooks in civics education. The theoretical framework is based on theories on education for sustainable development along with different perspectives on development and sustainability. I’m using the theoretical terms strong and weak sustainability, interpreted by Nerdal (2012) to conclude whether the subject is approached in a holistic manner or not.

Results show that the textbooks discusses a variety of issues within the different dimensions and that all three are represented in each textbook. Examples of the three dimensions integrating are however barely existent, thus representing a weak sustainability. Despite that, the textbooks can be a great help for teaching sustainable development as long as the teacher deepens some issues.