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Education needs a holistic approach which would enable each learner to develop their individual capacities and talents at personally suitable time and pace, support learners’ growth and accomplishments, nurture their inquisitiveness, encourage a lasting questioning attitude to the world and foster individual and cultural sensitivity. The present study aims to elucidate the theoretical and conceptual dimension of a holistic approach to primary education. The latter is construed as a methodology for overcoming isolation between discrete subjects in primary school and enabling learners not only to comprehend but also to apply new information. In the present paper, making sense of the holistic approach involves revising relevant contexts, conceptions and paradigms by drawing from germane philosophies and scientific disciplines with a view to substantiating the expediency of the holistic approach to shaping the content of primary education.The paper also draws on data from a survey that was administered to primary school teachers in different regions of Latvia with a view to pinpointing the essence of the holistic approach and appraising the opportunities it affords for shaping the content of primary education.A careful blend of quantitative methods enabled conducting a unique empirical study about the views of primary school teachers on the holistic approach and generated empirical evidence that corroborates the viability of using the latter for shaping the content of primary education. In addition, the findings from this empirical study allowed for drawing a typology of primary school teachers according to their preference of the formal or the holistic approach.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the current debate on efforts of teacher trainers in re - orienting education towards the aim of sustainable education. This is a new challenge for teacher training institutions in Latvia that is being discussed and evaluated in depth and in detail in the context of global challenges in education. The examination of educational standards and programs for the primary school level teachers makes one to conclude that teachers who are not aware of the deeper meaning and the essence of sustainability perspective, encounter major difficulties in implementing pre-school curriculum since it does not offer ready-made answers to the current educational challenges and the debate, neither it offers a sample or a set of methodological handouts for teachers in regards to sustainable education. Therefore, teachers need to become agents and creators of their own materials grounded in the idea of sustainable education. The article comprises the results gained from the semi - structured interviews with the primary school teachers and the data gained from the questionnaires on teachers’ perception of reorienting teaching towards the aim of sustainable education. For the conclusions and recommendations, the authors highlight the major challenges and struggles of integrating sustainability perspective in teacher training programs as viewed from the primary school teachers’ perspective as well as offer the guidelines for a more efficient ways of reorienting teachers’ thinking and acting towards the aim of sustainable education.

Substantial changes in the Latvian education system have meant a shift from the traditional to the humanistic paradigm. This fundamental transformation notwithstanding, the learner's experience still tends to be undervalued, hence the need to re-examine the value placed on an individual learner in the context of sustainable development. The present article aims to reflect on university students’ views about their core life values from a temporal perspective. This qualitative study draws on content analysis of fifty-six essays on the perception of family by bachelor programme students in a regional university of Latvia. Insights from these data are supported by findings from focus group interviews with full-time students taking the courses “Family Pedagogy” and “Social Pedagogy” (N=111). The conclusions highlight the importance of evaluating each learner's knowledge, skills and experience which transforms into self-experience and ultimately enables individuals to set more sustainable aims for their own learning.