Education for sustainable development (ESD) is a cross-cutting task for all subjects taught at schools (primary, secondary, tertiary). Thus, it also poses questions for language education and its contribution to the project of sustainable living and global citizenship.
In light of such initiatives as the UN's Agenda 2030, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as well as UNESCO's ESD program, and strongly influenced by such concepts, theories, and perspectives as literary ecocriticism or ecolinguistics, there has been a growing body of work – both scholarly and in schools – dedicated to teaching and learning about, through, and for sustainability in the context of language education in recent years.
Against this background and considering the inevitable launch of an Agenda 2050 with new opportunities for the framing of educational goals and foci, this conference aims at providing spaces for scholars and practitioners to discuss the unique contributions that language education, with its focus on literatures, cultures, and languages, can make towards the aspirational project of sustainability in all its dimensions. This includes the exploration of sustainability education from inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives with regards to theories, research, and practice in language education.