To achieve sustainable development where humanity can continue to live on a planet with the ecological systems we have today, social, environmental, and economic aspects must be considered. This means that sustainability issues are characterized by high complexity and involve partially unpredictable consequences. In primary school, there is a subject known as sustainable development, which is both complex and multifaceted, yet is grounded in a clear ethical foundation. The Curriculum for Compulsory School, Preschool Class, and School-Age Educare underscores the importance of grounding the education system in democratic principles. It emphasizes that the primary purpose of education is to facilitate pupils’ acquisition and development of both knowledge and values that are essential for participation in a democratic society. In accordance with the Education Act, education for sustainable development should involve pupil influence.

Previous research highlights the importance of relating the teaching to pupils’ everyday lives. This implies advocating for pupil-centered teaching where pupils’ critical thinking, influence, and collaboration are central. For teachers, it can be challenging to teach for sustainable development from a pupil-centered perspective, as the content is complex and highlights different perspectives, conflicting interests, and moral dilemmas. Previous research has largely focused on pupils’ learning related to their ability to take action for sustainable development through active participation. The significanceof context and direct learning experiences, the concept of action competence, as well as teachers’ understanding of sustainable development and education for sustainable development have also been central themes in previous studies.

In contrast, this study will focus on how education for sustainable development is enacted with particular emphasis on pupils’ influence. The purpose of this study is to contribute to knowledge of the ways teachers carry out and reflect on their teaching for sustainable development when actively focusing on pupils’ influence in the classroom. The study was conducted with two teachers and one researcherduring the latter part of the spring term 2023. The teacher and the researcher jointly developed lessons based on methods for pupil influence. Three lessons taught by the teacher were filmed in the classroom, and audio was recorded using a Dictaphone placed near the teacher. Following these lessons, the teacher engaged in written reflections and participated in audio-recorded oral reflections with the researcher about the teaching. These discussions were based on sequences selected by the teacher from the filmed lessons. The study’s results from the observations demonstrate that teachers support pupils by creating a supportive learning environment that promotes agency, where pupils are given the opportunity to influence and actively participate in their learning process. This is achieved by enabling democratic participation in complex topics such as the production of pollinated crops, the use of natural resources, and environmental issues.

The results from the reflections indicate that when teachers reflect on their teaching for sustainable development and apply forms of democratic participation, they emphasize the importance of strengthening pupils’ agency and increasing their engagement in the learning process. Furthermore, the results reveal that the teachers’ reflective practice, with its strong focus on agency, leads to other democratic forms of participation, identified by Lundegård and Caiman (2019) - deliberation, critical thinking, authenticity, and creativity - being less prominently addressed. The findings of the study contribute to knowledge about pupil influence in education for sustainable development and are intended for teachers, principals, teacher trainees, and others interested in research on education for sustainable development in primary education.