Natural resource conflicts are major societal challenges. Transnational educational policies such as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) stress the role of education for critical environmental consciousness, sustainable environmental action, and societal participation. Approaches such as the promotion of critical thinking and argumentation skill development on controversial human-environment relations are relevant to participate in decision-making on sustainable development. The transformative potential of ESD is based on these approaches. This thesis empirically examines the following research question: “Which challenges exist for the translation of the transnational educational policy Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in pedagogic practice in geography teaching at English-medium secondary schools in Pune, India?” This study investigates pedagogic practice and the transformative potential of ESD within the setting of India’s heterogeneous educational system. The analysis at five English-medium secondary schools in the emerging megacity of Pune focuses on the institutional regulations, power relations and cultural values that structure Indian geography education on the topic of water. To analyze the challenges that exist for the implementation of ESD in pedagogic practice, the study follows a theoretically anchored and didactically oriented analysis. At the conceptual level, this study pursues an interdisciplinary synthesis with elements of geographical developmental research, geographical education research, and sociology of education research. The theoretical framework for transformative pedagogic practice links concepts of BASIL BERNSTEIN’s Sociological Theory of Education (1975-1990), PAOLO FREIRE’s Critical Pedagogy (1996) and the didactic approach of argumentation skill development (BUDKE 2010, 2012). This conceptual approach offers an integrative multi-level analysis, which reflects the status quo of pedagogic relations and shows opportunities to prepare and encourage students to become vanguards for social and environmental transformation. The study is based on nine months of fieldwork at five English-medium secondary schools in Pune between 2011 and 2013. The methodological framework combines qualitative social science methods such as qualitative interviews, document analyses and classroom observations with an intervention study in geography lessons. The analysis of transformative pedagogic practice is differentiated into three interrelated levels: document analyses, field work and action research. Firstly, the thematic and methodological analysis of educational policies, curricula, syllabi and geography textbooks examines how institutional regulations for formal school education in India relate to the principles of ESD. In contrast to the National Curriculum Framework (2005), which promotes pedagogic principles similar to ESD, the contents and methods in geography syllabi and textbooks display a fragmented, fact-oriented and definition-oriented approach to the topic of water. The resource of water is presented as a fixed commodity, and the access to water is not depicted as socially constructed. The controversy of differing perspectives on water access in the students’ urban environment is not presented. This contradicts ESD principles, which favor an integrated, skill-oriented and problem-based approach to topics at the human-environment interface. Secondly, the study examines how power relations and cultural values of teaching and learning shape pedagogic practice, and how these link to ESD principles. Teaching methodology in observed geography lessons depicts students as reproducers of knowledge, as they are expected to repeat teaching contents spelled out by the teacher and in textbooks. Strong framing and classification of classroom communication shape the teacher-student interaction. Current pedagogic practice in India transmits norms and values of respect and authority, rather than promoting questioning and critical thinking. The textbook governs classroom interaction, as the role of the teacher is to transmit a pre-structured selection of knowledge as depicted in the textbooks. The prescriptions in syllabi and textbooks barely leave enough time and space for students to develop skills in geography lessons, and constrain teacher’s agency and control over the selection, sequence, pacing and evaluation of knowledge and skills. These norms represent a performance mode of pedagogy, which contrasts with the competence mode of pedagogic practice in ESD. As a democratizing teaching approach, ESD principles are in strong juxtaposition to the traditional hierarchical structures that occur and are reproduced in the country’s myriad of educational contexts. Lastly, an intervention study identifies institutional, structural, and socio-cultural challenges and opportunities to translate ESD principles into geography teaching in India. To examine how ESD principles can be interpreted through argumentation on urban water conflicts, three ESD teaching modules “Visual Network”, “Position Bar” (MAYENFELS & LÜCKE 2012), and “Rainbow Discussion” (KREUZBERGER 2012) were adapted to the topic and context of this study. The implementation process demonstrates how strong classification and strong framing in Indian geography education can be weakened. While the use of classroom space and teaching resources is changing and students actively participate, the focus on presentation, sequence and formal teacher-student interaction is sustained. The latter shapes teachers and students’ re-interpretation of the ESD teaching modules. This implies that ESD and the promotion of argumentation skills only partly intervene in prevalent principles of pedagogic practice. The results demonstrate how the educational discourse of ESD fundamentally challenges the reproductive mode of pedagogic practice in the case of geography education in India, as it subverts cultural values, norms and constructions of teaching and learning. Despite this, ESD as a transformative pedagogic practice can contribute to gradually revising current geography teaching contents and methods towards promoting learner-centered teaching, critical thinking, and argumentation skill development. A contextualized understanding of how power relations shape and are reproduced in pedagogic practice can better link educational reforms to social reality. The study emphasizes the need for researchers and policy makers to demonstrate how principles of schooling can be altered for empowering students to obtain skills and gain knowledge to participate in decision-making, for example, concerning water resource conflicts, and to espouse sustainable development as conscious and critical citizens.