This investigation aims to determine the historical and pedagogical foundations of students’ sustainable development formation in Swedish primary schools during their Religious Studies (RS) as a part of social and cultural education from 1900 onwards.

The aim is to deal with important questions about the history of RS – general points of education for sustainable development; RS for implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Sweden (focusing on the history of the issue); educational RS potential in Swedish primary schools for implementation of ESD (focusing on the current stage of development); the ways to improve implementation of ESD during RS in Swedish primary school (authors’ opinions).