Design education for sustainability: identifying opportunities in Ireland’s second level education system

Design Education for Sustainability has the potential to accelerate and encourage education that contributes to the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. (1) Arguably the potential of Design Education for Sustainability remains underutilized in Ireland’s second level education system. (2) This article reports on findings conducted as part of a research project which examines Education for Sustainable Development in Irish secondary school Design Education subjects. The research draws on data gathered through critical ethnographic interviews with teachers in practice. (3) The findings explored in this article are the barriers faced by educators in relation to the further integration of Education for Sustainable Development in Ireland’s Design Education subjects. These findings offer a unique insight into the realities of educators in progressing towards Design Education for Sustainability. (4) In identifying the challenges, this article offers a starting point to tackle the barriers associated with integrating sustainability in Design Education within the Irish second level education system. (5) The article concludes by identifying how these barriers can be tackled head on in order to progressively integrate Education for Sustainable Development in Design Education subjects.