In educational settings, educators’ individual perceptions of theories andconcepts (e.g. about teaching and learning) are crucial for their profes-sional performance. Thus, regarding education for sustainable develop-ment (ESD), it is vital to focus on teacher educators’ (TEs’) perceptionsof this concept. As ESD is a comparatively young and dynamic field ofresearch, not all academic lecturers are familiar with it. Therefore, itcannot be assumed that they all have a well-founded or similar under-standing of it. In this study, we surveyed TEs’ perceptions of ESD andprovided further insight into the understanding and application of ESDin teacher education, thereby contributing to the professional develop-ment of TEs in the context of ESD. We characterised the presentedperceptions as subjective theories and used the research programmesubjective theories (RPST) procedure to describe them. We found thataspects of instrumental and emancipatory ESD and transformative learn-ing were mixed in the subjective theories. Moreover, the TEs in our studypresented learning objectives and methods that could be assigned tothe key competencies of ESD in higher education. Our results serve todescribe TEs more precisely and thus enrich the basis for their involve-ment in ESD implementation processes and suitable support services.