Stefan Bengtsson
Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Department of Education
- Telephone:
- +46 18 471 62 62
- E-mail:
- stefan.bengtsson@edu.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Von Kraemers allé 1 A
752 37 Uppsala - Postal address:
- Box 2136
750 02 Uppsala
Download contact information for Stefan Bengtsson at Department of Education
Keywords
- learning
- education
- sustainable development
- esdeve007
Biography
Stefan Bengtsson (associate professor) is a senior lecturer of didactics at the department of education (Uppsala University) and his research is focusing on issues of sustainability in education, didactics (curriculum theory), comparative education, and analysis of teaching and instruction. During the period 2015-2018 he has been national coordinator for ESD in Sweden and link convenor (chair) for the Environmental and Sustainability Education network of the European Education Research Association during the period 2018 to 2023. In parallel to his academic work, he has been providing technical assistance to international efforts to address sustainability and gender issues in education, in particular in the East and South-East Asian context.
Research
My work is focused on understanding the conditions of possibility of change in and through education and learning. In efforts to give meaning to these conditions, I have been drawing on critical curriculum studies (Englund, Popkewitz), political theory (Laclau), and especially continental philosophy (Derrida, Foucault). In my latest work, I focus on reconceiving the conditions of learning and education in the context of the Anthropocene, aiming to translate the realist ontology of Object-oriented Ontology (Harman, Morton) into an educational context. My analytical work is focused on a qualitative analysis of educational processes as well as education policy. In particular, I have worked with post-foundational comparative education research policy analysis.
Current and past research projects:
International-
- The Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education Project 2019- (MECCE): https://mecce.ca/
- SUSTEMO (2024-2027) - Generating or restricting change for sustainability transitions: A didactic study of the effects of emotions in sustainability-related learning processes: https://cdo.ugent.be/project/generating-or-restricting-change-sustainability-transitions-didactic-study-effects-emotions
- Science Education for Action and Engagement toward Sustainability 2019-2022 (SEAS): https://www.seas.uio.no/
- Towards Climate Friendly Vacation Practices 2021-2023 (CliFVac): https://projects.au.dk/clifvac/
- The t-learning transformative knowledge network 2016-2019 (Social Science Council): https://transgressivelearning.org/
- Mapping Education for Sustainability in the Nordic Countries 2018-2019 (MESIN): https://pub.norden.org/temanord2021-511/#
National -
- Sedvänjor i undervisning om kontroversiella hållbarhetsfrågor 2018-2022 (VR): https://www.facebook.com/edukontrovers
- Open schooling for sustainable cities and communities 2018-2021 (FORMAS)
Media
Dark Pedagogy Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/39lfOPicYvGzvHWUaFr1rI

Publications
Selection of publications
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Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1177-1187, 2024
- DOI for Report on the symposium “speculative realism in environmental education and the philosophy of education”
- Download full text (pdf) of Report on the symposium “speculative realism in environmental education and the philosophy of education”
-
Positioning controversy in environmental and sustainability education
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1405-1431, 2024
- DOI for Positioning controversy in environmental and sustainability education
- Download full text (pdf) of Positioning controversy in environmental and sustainability education
-
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 659-674, 2023
- DOI for Irony and environmental education: on the ultimate question of environmental education, the universe and everything
- Download full text (pdf) of Irony and environmental education: on the ultimate question of environmental education, the universe and everything
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Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1659-1677, 2023
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Fiction Science and the Role of Theory in ESE
2023
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Action Incontinence: Action and Competence in Dark Pedagogy
Part of Pedagogy in the Anthropocene, p. 107-128, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022
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Didaktiken efter idealismen: Undervisningsobjektets återkomst i antropocen
Part of Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, p. 32-53, 2022
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What can we learn from COVID-19 as a form of public pedagogy?
Part of European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, p. 281-293, 2021
- DOI for What can we learn from COVID-19 as a form of public pedagogy?
- Download full text (pdf) of What can we learn from COVID-19 as a form of public pedagogy?
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Mapping Education for Sustainability in the Nordic Countries
2021
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Care ethics to develop computing and engineering education for sustainability
Part of 2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2020
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Engaging with the Beyond-Diffracting Conceptions of T-Learning
Part of Sustainability, 2019
- DOI for Engaging with the Beyond-Diffracting Conceptions of T-Learning
- Download full text (pdf) of Engaging with the Beyond-Diffracting Conceptions of T-Learning
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Outlining an Education Without Nature and Object-Oriented Learning
Part of Research Handbook on Childhoodnature, p. 1-22, Springer, 2018
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Globalisation and Education for Sustainable Development: Exploring the global in motion
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1-20, 2016
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Part of The Journal of Environmental Education, p. 77-90, 2016
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Aporias, politics of ontology, ethics, and “we”?
Part of The Journal of Environmental Education, p. 163-168, 2016
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Beyond Education and Society: On the Political Life of Education for Sustainable Development
2014
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Globalisation and Education for Sustainable Development: Emancipation from context and meaning
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 477-498, 2013
Recent publications
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Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1027-1048, 2026
- DOI for Teaching controversial sustainability issues at the junior high-school level: an explorative study of teaching traditions and associations with ways of teaching
- Download full text (pdf) of Teaching controversial sustainability issues at the junior high-school level: an explorative study of teaching traditions and associations with ways of teaching
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Against subjectification! Non-affirmative Socialization in Rituals
2025
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Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2025
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Part of World Review Environmental and Sustainability Education in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals, p. 143-155, CRC Press, 2024
-
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1177-1187, 2024
- DOI for Report on the symposium “speculative realism in environmental education and the philosophy of education”
- Download full text (pdf) of Report on the symposium “speculative realism in environmental education and the philosophy of education”
All publications
Articles in journal
-
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1027-1048, 2026
- DOI for Teaching controversial sustainability issues at the junior high-school level: an explorative study of teaching traditions and associations with ways of teaching
- Download full text (pdf) of Teaching controversial sustainability issues at the junior high-school level: an explorative study of teaching traditions and associations with ways of teaching
-
Part of Compare, p. 839-856, 2024
- DOI for Critical education for sustainable development: exploring the conception of criticality in the context of global and Vietnamese policy discourse
- Download full text (pdf) of Critical education for sustainable development: exploring the conception of criticality in the context of global and Vietnamese policy discourse
-
Positioning controversy in environmental and sustainability education
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1405-1431, 2024
- DOI for Positioning controversy in environmental and sustainability education
- Download full text (pdf) of Positioning controversy in environmental and sustainability education
-
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 659-674, 2023
- DOI for Irony and environmental education: on the ultimate question of environmental education, the universe and everything
- Download full text (pdf) of Irony and environmental education: on the ultimate question of environmental education, the universe and everything
-
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1659-1677, 2023
-
Lärarstudenters ämnesdidaktiska reflektioner i geografi, historia, religion och samhällskunskap
Part of Nordidactica, p. 122-148, 2022
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Didaktiken efter idealismen: Undervisningsobjektets återkomst i antropocen
Part of Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, p. 32-53, 2022
-
What can we learn from COVID-19 as a form of public pedagogy?
Part of European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, p. 281-293, 2021
- DOI for What can we learn from COVID-19 as a form of public pedagogy?
- Download full text (pdf) of What can we learn from COVID-19 as a form of public pedagogy?
-
Dark pedagogy: Speculative realism and environmental and sustainability education
Part of Environmental Education Research, 2020
-
Engaging with the Beyond-Diffracting Conceptions of T-Learning
Part of Sustainability, 2019
- DOI for Engaging with the Beyond-Diffracting Conceptions of T-Learning
- Download full text (pdf) of Engaging with the Beyond-Diffracting Conceptions of T-Learning
-
Globalisation and Education for Sustainable Development: Exploring the global in motion
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1-20, 2016
-
Part of The Journal of Environmental Education, p. 77-90, 2016
-
Aporias, politics of ontology, ethics, and “we”?
Part of The Journal of Environmental Education, p. 163-168, 2016
-
Globalisation and Education for Sustainable Development: Emancipation from context and meaning
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 477-498, 2013
Articles, review/survey
-
Part of Environmental Education Research, p. 1177-1187, 2024
- DOI for Report on the symposium “speculative realism in environmental education and the philosophy of education”
- Download full text (pdf) of Report on the symposium “speculative realism in environmental education and the philosophy of education”
Books
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Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2025
Chapters in book
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Part of World Review Environmental and Sustainability Education in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals, p. 143-155, CRC Press, 2024
-
Fiction Science: Educational Substance as a Technology of the Anthropocene
Part of Flashpoint Epistemology Volume 1, p. 168-189, Routledge, 2023
-
Action Incontinence: Action and Competence in Dark Pedagogy
Part of Pedagogy in the Anthropocene, p. 107-128, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022
-
Part of Dark Pedagogy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019
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Part of Dark Pedagogy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019
-
Outlining an Education Without Nature and Object-Oriented Learning
Part of Research Handbook on Childhoodnature, p. 1-22, Springer, 2018
Comprehensive doctoral thesis
Conference papers
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Against subjectification! Non-affirmative Socialization in Rituals
2025
-
Under the Influence: On the Role of the Object of Education in Bildung
2023
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Fiction Science and the Role of Theory in ESE
2023
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Locating the Controversial in Environmental and Sustainability Education
2022
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Immersion and ritual in Object-Oriented Didactics and Sensuous Learning
2021
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Care ethics to develop computing and engineering education for sustainability
Part of 2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2020
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Transgressive learning: Developing a pre-human notion of education
2019
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The Inherent Excess of Education
2019
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2019
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Dark Pedagogy, Environmental Melancholia and an Eco-social Philosophy of Education
2019