Physical and psychological barriers make catalysing constructive change difficult – be it in relation to education or to sustainable development in general. Certain conditions and attitudes act as brakes, stopping initiatives even at the initial stage of identifying the challenge. These can be described in general while many of the barriers to educational reform stem from the complex educational landscape and the downplayed drivers and diluted processes of learning.

Habits are the antithesis of change. Habits shape a person's life and are hard to modify. Identifiable as firmly established neurological patterns in the brain, habits are, according to neuroscientists, ways for the brain to save effort. New experiences demand concentration and take energy. The effort-saving instinct in humans makes the brain more efficient and able to carry out many activities almost automatically. Habits are deeply embedded in social and institutional contexts and strongly influenced by fluctuations in nature as well as by commercially controlled algorithms that have appeared with the development of advanced data systems. Despite good intentions, individuals and systems tend to be “locked into” unsustainable, habitual behaviours (Jackson 2005).

Yet habits, whether they are personal or are ways in which education is implemented, can be changed, and fixed patterns replaced with new ones. New habits are established when a person or organization internalizes something that they have learned and repeats the associated behaviour a sufficient number of times. This involves a process requiring cues, routines, incentives, support groups, rewards and time (Duhigg 2012).

Whereas many individual teachers have already adjusted their habits and embraced the tenets of education for sustainable development, educational systems take longer to change their habits and assimilate new ways of functioning. This is not only due to operational inertia but also to the fact that educational reform must also be accepted by parents and society at large.

Some barriers to change arise from natural conditions. The environmental crisis has brought with it floods, droughts and fires that have ruined homes, schools and infrastructure. The Covid-19 pandemic unexpectedly impacted billions of lives and disrupted education around the globe.

Clashes of interest rather than awareness of mutuality of interests is, in economic terms, referred to as the tragedy of the commons and tends to serve as a major constraint on initiatives for change. Wars persist many places causing death and destruction, damaging infrastructures and economies, and disrupting education.