Education for Sustainability and the Australian Curriculum

Abstract

A national curriculum is presently being developed in Australia with implementation due during 2014. Associated standards for the accreditation of teachers and for teacher education providers have been prepared with the standards describing skills and attributes that teachers are expected to attain. The developing Australian Curriculum, along with the teacher accreditation and initial teacher education program standards, claim to support guiding statements that describe aspirations for all young Australians. Those guiding statements acknowledge that ‘sustainability’ is an essential element of education for young people in Australia. However ‘sustainability’ is unconvincingly represented in the curriculum and is not visible in the standards. This could potentially result in its omission from teacher education and qualification at all levels. A similar situation already exists in New South Wales (NSW). This article illustrates the positioning of five freshly graduated primary teachers within the context of their five NSW schools and from this distils implications for teaching ‘sustainability’ within the developing national proposals.

Where Western Australian Graduate Diploma of Education Primary Students Source their Information on Sustainability

“…In Australia, ARIES had been one source of funding to encourage research in this area; however, this was subject to government backing (ARIES, 2015). Other universities have independently tried to integrate EfS and EfS research to support teachers (Dyment & Hill, 2015;Kennelly et al, 2011;Mills & Tomas, 2013). These researchers have found varying degrees of pre-service teacher knowledge on sustainability (Dyment & Hill, 2015;Kennelly et al, 2011), and teacher educators' integration of EfS within teacher education courses (Mills & Tomas, 2013).…”

“…Other universities have independently tried to integrate EfS and EfS research to support teachers (Dyment & Hill, 2015;Kennelly et al, 2011;Mills & Tomas, 2013). These researchers have found varying degrees of pre-service teacher knowledge on sustainability (Dyment & Hill, 2015;Kennelly et al, 2011), and teacher educators' integration of EfS within teacher education courses (Mills & Tomas, 2013). Given the pre-service teachers' desire and reliance on education as quality source of information regarding sustainability, it is imperative that teacher education addresses the issue sustainability literacy.…”

“…As expected, engaging in specific education related to sustainability and EfS improved teachers' self-efficacy to embed this learning in their practice. Kennelly, Taylor, and Serow (2011) commented on the success of EfS in teacher education, as explicit EfS at university supported teachers' ability to integrate sustainability in primary learning despite other challenges arising within some primary schools. Effeney and Davis (2013) found that pre-service teachers who engaged in a specific Education for Sustainability (EfS) unit at university had more general knowledge across the interrelated pillars of sustainability, and higher self-efficacy to teach sustainability.…”

Backyard Perspectives: Considering a biogeographical, sociocultural and socioecological framing of environmental education in Australasia and Asia

“…In addition, both countries have in-school programmes that have been supported by a range of governmental and non-governmental partners (Smith 2006, Eames et al, 2016, in which more than 1000 schools participate annually in Aotearoa New Zealand (Enviroschool 2016) and more than 1000 schools in the ResourceSmart programme in Victoria, Australia alone (ResourceSmart Schools, 2016). Despite these excellent initiatives, the support for both school and community environmental education though has been subject to political power changes (Chapman, 2011, Kennelly et al 2011, O'Connor 2014, Hoepper et al 2014.…”

Telling Reflections: Teaching Sustainably in a Complex Learning Environment

“…Despite the welcome inclusion of Sustainability as a cross-curriculum priority in the Australian Curriculum since its 2014 national implementation, the content and skills that could be part of environmental sustainability are ‘unconvincingly represented’, ‘oblique’ and ‘fall short of the promise’ of policy documents that do indeed represent the desirability of the pervasiveness of Sustainability in the curriculum (Kennelly, Taylor, & Serow, 2011, p. 211). Neither does the Australian Curriculum use language foregrounding responsiveness or proactivity to community needs.…”