Towards a 'leaderful' sustainable development: An interpretive phenomenological analysis of Japanese education

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) represents a key feature of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Indeed, Japan, ESD's country of origin, positions itself as a forerunner for embedding sustainability within peda-gogy; yet, these efforts remain stifled by a cultural adherence to 'transmissive' hierar-chical practice. Against this background, leaderful classroom pedagogy's emphasis on collaboration shared responsibility, and empathy emerges as a viable alternative to top-down leadership models, particularly within the context of ESD. Accordingly, an interpretative phenomenological analysis was undertaken with Japanese univer-sity students attending a global studies program. Through semi-structured inter-viewing, participants shared and reflected on their lived experiences of leadership and sustainability, with findings indicating that hierarchical leadership structures hinder the egalitarian, student-orientated approach deemed prototypical to ESD and, thus, opportunities to inhabit meaningful leadership roles. While leaderful practi-tioners face considerable challenges when attempting to uproot leadership models firmly ingrained in the teacher-leader student-follower duology, we posit that the relationship between ESD and leaderful classroom pedagogy is mutually beneficial. ESD requires the transformative essence of leaderful practice, and leaderful practice, perhaps, needs the altruism of sustainability to supplant dominant power structures.