The theoretical part of the paper presents the implications for the notion of sustainable development and its concept that has developed intensively over the last forty years and which is a term often commonly used superficially without a deeper knowledge and possibility of application of the same; then the concept of education for sustainable development and the documents on which it is based, the role of the school as a social institution operating within the socio-cultural milieu of a given culture, i.e. within a certain value framework, the results of the research that examined the attitudes of teachers on values (Sablić, Blažević, 2015), educational needs and possible ways of implementing education and training for sustainable development in elementary schools, considering the results of the research conducted on a sample of students and teachers (Uzelac, 2002, Uzelac, 2006, Ledić, Ćulum, Pavić-Rogošić, 2007, Rončević, Ledić , Ćulum, 2008; Klapan, Vrcelj, Kušić, 2008; Borić, Jindra, Škugor, 2008; Rončević, Rafajac, 2012, Anđić, 2015) and their educational needs. In the empirical part of the paper, the results of the research concerning teachers of general clasroom and specialised classes in primary schools (N = 171) from Primorje-Gorski kotar County (33.3%) and Osijek-Baranja County (66.7%), of which 57.33 % in the specialised subject classes and 42, 67% in general classroom classes. 85.5% of female respondents and 14.5% of male respondents participated. Average age of respondents is 43.82 years. Average work experience of the respondents is 17.57 years, with most respondents having between 10-19 years of work experience (36, 97%). The aim of the research was to examine the attitudes of teachers on the knowledge of the concept of sustainable development and their attitudes towards the position and possibilities of implementation of education for sustainable development in elementary schools, in which the value orientation of teachers within the socio-cultural dimension of sustainable development was examined. The research also covered the examination of responsibilities and educational needs with respect to the area and place of work (specialised subject teaching / general classroom teaching, Primorje-Gorski kotar County / Osijek-Baranja County). The study of the concept of sustainable development has started by defining sustainable development based on the knowledge that the respondents have so far. 104 different definitions of sustainable development have been received. With the term sustainable development, the respondents link key concepts such as values, responsibility, philosophy, ecology, balance, lifestyle, progress, politics, the future and the economy. It was found that age of respondents has no significant role in understanding the concept of sustainable development. When considering the concept of sustainable development, respondents marked the highest degree of concordance with the statement that sustainable development is the ability of responsible use of natural resources to meet the needs of everyone in the present without jeopardizing the prospects of future generations (42,9 %). A group of questions pertaining to the evaluation of certain values that are considered relevant to the socio-cultural dimension within the school served to examine the attitudes of teachers according to the values contained in the National Framework Curriculum (2011), which emphasizes the value and general goals of education in the Republic of Croatia. An assessment of the importance of a particular value (knowledge, solidarity, identity and responsibility) in everyday work was carried out. In the analysis of the sub-scale knowledge, teachers best value the statement: Students develop a positive attitude towards acquiring new knowledge as the highest value supported always (60.09%). In the analysis of the sub-scale responsibility, the highest value of the arithmetic mean of the indicators is recorded for the statement: I encourage the student responsibility to themselves and responsibility for their own life and behaviour (61.2%). Analysis of the sub-scales of solidarity as a value shows that respondents show the highest degree of agreement on the statement: I encourage students to have a positive relationship with others (64.7%). The analysis of sub-scale identity shows that teachers devote the greatest attention to the development of self-confidence and security in their own personal ability and identity (54.2%) and the personal identity of the pupils while the same time correlating it to respecting diversity (45.9%). Responsibility is assessed on three levels: local, national and personal. Research results show that respondents considered local community officials and activists have the largest responsibility (39.5%). At the national level, respondents believe that the Government of the Republic of Croatia have the largest responsibility (63.7%) while 55 respondents believe that they are responsible (32.7%). Research findings show that teachers give primate to the term social responsibility (50.0%), while the least focusing on topics of rural and urban area development, consumption and consumerism. Concerning examining the practical possibilities of implementing the content of education in everyday school life, the results of the research have confirmed that teachers are interested in the extra-curricular and project form of teaching and that they consider them to be efficient for implementation of content in the area of education and training for sustainable development (63.9%). Research results show that 81, 76% of respondents have no opportunity to attend seminars related to the issue of education for sustainable development, which is an alarming result. On the other hand, 83.7% of respondents believe that upbringing and education for sustainable development should enter the higher education system. As far as implementation levels are concerned, 32.26% of respondents believe that education and training should primarily be implemented in undergraduate studies, while 31.45% in graduate studies. However, the highest percentage of respondents advocate the launch of a specialist postgraduate study (33.06%), while the smallest percentage of respondents believe that such a type of program should be implemented at the doctoral study (3.23%). Research thesis that teachers are interested in systematic education at the University level has been confirmed by research results, but there is no statistically significant difference in the answers between teachers in the Osijek-Baranja County and Primorje-Gorski kotar County on issues related to educational needs.