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This article is a condensed analysis of the developing sustainability crisis of Australian universities. It is based on an address to National Council of the National Tertiary Education Union, Melbourne, 3 October 2014. Thanks to all my fellow-members, who have kept my hopes for the modern university alive.

For many years, activists in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) have called for the sector to engage closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities. However, less is documented on how mainstream services might achieve authentic, sustained engagement at a local service level. This paper showcases educators who connect with local Aboriginal community members/Elders as a central plank of their ECEC practice. In sharing their account, we examine what engagement looks like and what makes it possible. We have used Indigenous methodologies and the Theory of Practice Architecture (TPA) as theoretical lenses for exploring the policy, and organisational arrangements that sustained their engagement practices. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the research.

This paper focuses on a document analysis for an Australian case study, which contributes to a larger international study on teacher leadership. The aim of this paper is to ascertain how teacher leadership is understood and conceptualised from an Australian documentary perspective spanning the national, state, regional, and local education administrative levels. A document analysis framework stipulated by the larger study identified the attributes of teacher leadership. Twenty-one documents were analysed and the attributes in relation to five considerations impacting teacher leadership are discussed. Results indicated differences of dominant attributes across each of the levels: however, accountability and advocacy are consistently represented. Accountability filters through all four levels. The system is beginning to advocate and acknowledge pathways to leadership. At the state level, teacher leadership is strengthened through professional and collaborative practices. However, this paper suggests this is not consistently evident at the regional and local levels due to a number of pertinent organisational issues.

There are many documented barriers to implementing school-based sustainability. This article examines a) the barriers faced by principals and staff in two regional primary schools in Far North Queensland, Australia, well known for their exemplary practice, and b) ways the barriers were overcome. Through interviews conducted with principals and key staff, the authors found lack of time, direct funding for innovation, teacher conceptual understanding, resistance from some fellow staff to sustainability education, and being positioned as a "greenie" were presented as barriers to effective practice. The research reveals how innovation, determination, trust, and active principal support enabled the teachers to push ahead. Other educators experiencing difficulties with implementing sustainability education will likely find the discussion useful.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) clubs are gaining momentum as a means for engaging students in STEM-related activities. Despite this growth, there have been limited attempts to examine the conditions that inform practice in these informal educational spaces. This paper addresses that gap through a comprehensive literature review of empirical and practitioner publications, with a focus on synthesising the approaches that support STEM clubs to be effective learning environments. In total, 33 papers were included in this review. Through a rigorous literature review process, the research team identified a number of key focus areas that support the achievement of learning outcomes and programme sustainability. These focus areas are grouped into three key themes -- club management, environment, and program evaluation -- that STEM club practitioners should attend to in order to ensure a well-informed approach. Within in each theme a number of sub-dimensions were identified, which provide practical insights and lived examples of how these conditions can be enacted within STEM clubs in ways that speak to quality. The evidence-based findings presented in this paper can be used by practitioners to guide STEM club practice. Further, the paper identifies where research is required to explore contemporary practice in informal education settings.

This paper is an exploration of evolving ideas, urgencies, and actions that we have experimented with in our teaching of an environmental sustainability subject with pre-service teachers at an Australian university. It is a work in progress. Through this shared educator-student teaching and learning process we feel the tensions of contradictory forces that disrupt the flow of prior teaching as we all become unsettled by hope and reality, grief, and loss, all mixed in with a sense of urgency and tempered by a set of often unimaginative contemporary pedagogical practices. These tensions often resort educators like us, to perpetuate well-worn and critiqued tropes such as how to 'care for the planet' through 'greening' practices in schools such as recycling and energy conservation. Always inadequate and limited we are experimenting in our pedagogical repertoire with new ways to teach as we could no longer keep up the charade of agitating for change in the same way. In this paper we explore some of the opening and closures that effect environmental sustainability teaching. We consider how through a reimagining of sustainability education with new pedagogical openings of 'making kin' we first attend to these emotional tensions as a means of waking up to who we are in the Anthropocene and then find ways to identify relational ethico-onto-epistemologies in our teaching. By disrupting humanist paradigms and embracing critical posthumanist sensitivities the educators and students nuzzle into new ways of knowing and being in the world.

In this position paper we consider the significance of global climate activism by children and young people in the light of ongoing western adult-centric policies and educational practices that largely continue to exclude Indigenous perspectives. Reflecting on the implications of this hegemony in the face of the convergent crises of climate and COVID-19 and concomitant exacerbations of social inequities, we acknowledge the impact of this reality on the emotional wellbeing of children, young people and Indigenous peoples, many of whom may be encountering an overwhelming sense of existential trauma and ecological grief. Drawing on our previous research we provide examples of early childhood pedagogies which resonate Indigenous values of relationality. These include trust in children's judgement in managing risks, fostering a sense of collective pride and identity, and affirming accountability to the wider collectivity of humans and more-than-human entities. We suggest that such grounding in local Indigenous onto-epistemologies can provide inspiration for educational programmes, including environmental education and education for sustainability, as well as for local governance.

Across Australia many young people are taking action to address the issue of climate change and educating others through leading grassroots activism on local and global issues of sustainability. This paper discusses findings from an online document analysis that investigated three case studies of how youth-led organisations in Australia are leading and developing human rights-based education for sustainability (EfS) to empower others to enjoy and exercise their rights in keeping with the guidance of the 2011 UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training. This paper discusses how these organisations represent their activism online to empower young people to lead democratic action to achieve climate crisis justice. Drawing on a conceptual framework developed by Jensen & Schnack, the authors argue that the data suggests that the young activists in these case studies demonstrate high levels of 'social action competence' through raising awareness and taking action.

Purpose: This study aims to explore barriers and pathways to a whole-institution governance of sustainability within the working structures of universities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws on multi-year interviews and hierarchical structure analysis of ten universities in Canada, the USA, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Brazil, the UK and The Netherlands. The paper addresses existing literature that championed further integration between the two organizational sides of universities (academic and operations) and suggests approaches for better embedding sustainability into four primary domains of activity (education, research, campus operations and community engagement). Findings: This research found that effective sustainability governance needs to recognise and reconcile distinct cultures, diverging accountability structures and contrasting manifestations of central-coordination and distributed-agency approaches characteristic of the university's operational and academic activities. The positionality of actors appointed to lead institution-wide embedding influenced which domain received most attention. The paper concludes that a whole-institution approach would require significant tailoring and adjustments on both the operational and academic sides to be successful. Originality/value: Based on a review of sustainability activities at ten universities around the world, this paper provides a detailed analysis of the governance implications of integrating sustainability into the four domains of university activity. It discusses how best to work across the operational/academic divide and suggests principles for adopting a whole institution approach to sustainability.

Key international and Australasian bodies have reported research suggesting the accounting profession is one of the most vulnerable to disruption through automation and changed business models. But research discussed in this paper confirms that while component parts of an accounting 'job' will be replaced by technology, the capabilities required to perform remaining accounting and finance activities would not only endure, they would spread across many non-accounting roles. This report presents the findings from the final stage of a validation process that was conducted by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) across Australia and New Zealand. The report confirms 24 capabilities, including six considered essential requirements for every professional seeking to work in accounting, finance, and related work roles. The findings provide evidence that these capabilities, in contrast to recent reports suggesting employment opportunities for accounting graduates are in decline, can create opportunities for sustainable careers. The validation project and survey results provide unexpected insight into the capabilities of different age groups and professionals at different career stages that are considered important. The research outlined in this paper will not only inform continuing professional education for members but also help refine the design of post-graduate curriculum and continuing professional development.

What is regenerative learning in Australian higher education? This paper addresses the intersecting crises of climate, species loss and injustice; often called a conceptual emergency. We tackle the problem of disciplinary compartmentalisation, preventing integration of important related concepts. The particular case is separation of the Australian Curriculum Cross-curriculum Priorities at school and university for teaching, learning and research purposes. We are concerned with two of the three: sustainability, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. The project generates significant conceptual linkages, which strengthen sustainability with Indigenous histories and cultures. The linked concepts have the potential to re-centre Indigenous knowledge systems and knowledge holders in Australian higher education for sustainability. The interconnectedness facilitates learning of, for and through regenerative cultures, which are healing and wellbeing-oriented. Centring Indigenous histories, concepts and wisdom in sustainability education will reveal deeper meanings such as communicative ways of understanding worlds. These have multiple applications in teaching and learning, and improved outcomes in practice. Each case study presented in this paper utilises a decolonising, regenerative research method for answering research questions. The methods challenge Western, colonising power relationships that continue to act upon Indigenous lived experience; enable communicative relations with more than human worlds and are transformative. Together, they value experience, the collective, being creative, narrative, justice, ways of knowing and responding to sentient, animate places. In this paper, decolonising ways of working towards regenerative futures foreground Indigenous ways of knowing, being, valuing and doing, revealing Indigenous knowledge making for contemporary contexts.

Healthcare contributes to environmental harm. Trainee-led Research and Audit in Anaesthesia for Sustainable Healthcare (TRA2SH) is an Australasian network focused on sustainable anaesthesia practice. TRA2SH hypothesised that trainee-led audits alongside education presented on a scheduled national day, called Operation Clean Up, can improve engagement with sustainability initiatives. This paper aims to describe the first two years of Operation Clean Up in terms of goals, achievements and data collected so far. Environmental themes for Operation Clean Up were chosen based on available evidence (life cycle analyses and observational studies). The first Operation Clean Up (OCU 2020) focused on reducing the unnecessary use of single-use disposable absorbent pads (known as 'blueys' in Australia, 'greenies' in New Zealand). OCU 2021 included: refuse desflurane, reduce bluey use, reuse drug trays, and recycle paper and cardboard. TRA2SH provided an information pack to trainees who presented educational material to their department and fed back procurement figures to quantify each item. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse de-identified pooled data submitted to a centralised database. Eight departments submitted data for OCU 2020 and six provided follow-up data. Bluey use was reduced from a median of 37 to 34 blueys per ten surgical encounters. Fifteen departments submitted pre-campaign data for OCU 2021 with follow-up data to be collected during OCU 2022. Baseline data showed a median bluey use of 31 per ten surgical encounters. Volatile-related emissions were calculated; desflurane's proportion was 70% of these emissions yet was 11% of volatile procurement. Two participating departments removed desflurane from their formulary following OCU 2021. Operation Clean Up is a practical model for implementing sustainability initiatives using trainees as eco-leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on research conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the Certification Modular Model 2.0 (CMM 2.0) offered by the Teacher Quality Institute of the Australian Capital Territory. The research evaluated the extent to which the CMM 2.0 was attractive, sustainable and developmental. The data was collected via two surveys conducted with, teachers who were prospective applicants to the CMM 2.0 and current and former certification participants. A case study method was used to conduct this research. Coding and systematic analysis were applied to the data by using the three selected categories attractive, developmental and sustainable. Most participants appreciated the developmental nature of the Modular Model and saw this approach as affording them with opportunities to gain professional recognition. This study contributes to knowledge about modular approaches to teacher certification and has potential to have influence on certification design and implementation in the Australian context and internationally.

This paper describes a Nyungar language revitalisation project in the southern region of Western Australia conducted in partnership between a university research team and the Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation. It discusses how linguistic analysis of historical Nyungar documentation was essential to addressing community aims of re-embedding the language into the community, developing and using pedagogical resources, and exploring new domains for language use. In particular, this paper focuses on the community's desire for the reclamation of a dialectal flavour of Nyungar that is distinctive to the Esperance region, and the factors contributing to a successful partnership between the researchers and the community organisation in terms of capacity-building, leadership, and sustainability.

This article discusses the contribution of craftivism to climate justice learning through the practices of Australia's Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed (aka KNAG or the Nannas). Framing activist adult learning as social movement learning locates environmental and climate justice struggles within lifelong learning practices. Established in 2012, the Nannas are an older women's anti-coal seam gas and fossil fuel movement that has grown to encompass intergenerational ecological sustainability activism. Data presented in this paper were collected with active KNAG members in Australia as part of a PhD study using surveys, interviews, document analysis of social media (Facebook posts, digital videos, e-news bulletins) and researcher auto-ethnography. The research identified the milieu of craftivism motivated older women to collaboratively build their activist identity, ecological and environmental literacy, and non-violent direct action activist skills. The learning ecology involved a complex web of social interactions and encounters that stimulated opportunities for active listening and critical reflection, which promoted transformative and emancipatory learning dispositions. Craftivism was analysed to be the catalyst and transformative force that activated situated experiential learning and identity formation.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to outline the collaborative approach used to craft national learning standards for tertiary programs in the field of environment and sustainability in Australia. The field of environment and sustainability is broad and constituted by diverse stakeholders. As such, articulating a common set of learning standards presents challenges. Design/methodology/approach: The authors developed and used a staged collaborative curriculum design methodology to engage more than 250 stakeholders in tertiary environmental education, including discipline scholars, students, professional associations and employers and other environmental educators. The approach was adaptive, to ensure underrepresented stakeholders' perspectives were welcomed and recognised. The project was commissioned by the Australian Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (ACEDD) and funded by the Federal Government's Office for Learning and Teaching. Findings: The collaborative approach developed and used for this work facilitated an inclusive process that valued diversity of perspectives, rather than marginalise diversity in favour of a perspective representing a minimum level of agreement. This is reflected in the standards themselves, and is evidenced by participant feedback, piloting of the standards and their subsequent application at multiple universities. Achieving this required careful planning and facilitation, to ensure a democratisation of the stakeholder consultation process, and to build consensus in support of the standards. Endorsement by ACEDD formalised the standards' status. Originality/value: Collaborative curriculum design offered the opportunity to foster a shared sense of common purpose amongst diverse environmental education stakeholders. This approach to curriculum design is intensive and generative but uncommon and may be usefully adapted and applied in other contexts. The authors note one subsequent instance where the approach has been further developed and applied in transforming a generalist science program, suggesting the methodology used in this case may be applied across other contexts, albeit with appropriate adjustments: the authors offer it here in the spirit of supporting others in their own complex curriculum design challenges.

Capital and property have been combined since Karl Marx wrote "Das Kapital" in 1867. Indeed, capitalism and the housing market are interlinked because property is an asset whose indexed value upholds global markets. On the other side of property as real estate is the environmental damage and augmentation of climate change that housing represents - mostly in advanced, technological societies. This paper attends to capital investment in housing as the Capitalocene and subsequently through environmental education according to environmental and social principles (social ecology). This article examines what is offered in the Australian curriculum for pre-tertiary and university students in terms of sustainable housing and uses the latest in sustainable housing research and practice to provide a new, visionary basis for environmental education, that tackles housing through 3D printing. The current Australian curriculum on sustainable housing centers on the "Illawarra Flame" house (University of Wollongong), that presents a retrofitting solution to improve the quality of life of the occupants. Illawarra Flame house is a net-zero, energy-efficient, solar powered house which provides the tenants with thermal comfort. This article expands and updates the data on sustainable housing from the 'Illawarra Flame' house to 3D printing and applies the principles of social ecology to make a link with environmental education that deals with the Capitalocene by offering affordable and sustainable housing.

Student bullying behaviours are a significant social issue in schools worldwide. Whilst school staff have access to quality bullying prevention interventions, schools can face significant challenges implementing the whole-school approach required to address the complexity of these behaviours. This study aimed to understand how schools' capacity to implement whole-school bullying prevention interventions could be strengthened to promote sustainability and improve student outcomes. Qualitative methods were used to observe schools over time to gain insight into their implementation capacity to improve student social and emotional wellbeing and prevent and ameliorate harm from bullying. A four-year longitudinal, multi-site case study intensively followed eight schools' implementation of "Friendly Schools," an Australian evidenced-based whole-school bullying prevention intervention. Regular in-depth interviews with school leaders and implementation teams over four years led to the refinement of a staged-implementation process and capacity building tools and revealed four common drivers of implementation quality: (1) strong, committed leadership; (2) organisational structures, processes and resources; (3) staff competencies and commitment; and (4) translating evidence into local school policy and practice. This paper considers the strengths of qualitative data in understanding how and why bullying prevention interventions work as well as actions schools can take to enhance their implementation and sustainability of complex social interventions.

This paper, the second in a series of three, explores the representation of Earth System Science (ESS) in the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2018a)) through the Cross Curriculum Priority area of Sustainability and the Australian Curriculum: Science (F-12), with a focus on F-10. Part I (in Teaching Science, 68.1) overviewed the current understandings of the Earth System and the relatively recent interdisciplinary field of Earth System Science (ESS). Here, in Part II, an analysis of the Cross Curriculum Priority area of Sustainability and the Australian Curriculum: Science (F-12) revealed that several key ESS understandings and system-thinking skills were present. How the most current ESS understandings and abilities could lead to a far deeper understanding of the Earth System are then considered and those that may need more attention from students and teachers are highlighted. Part III (in a forthcoming issue) outlines several research-informed pedagogies to help learners develop more scientific understandings of the Earth System, and appropriate related abilities. These Earth System goals and pedagogies needed to be considered in the ACARA review of the Australian Curriculum: Science and the Sustainability Cross Curriculum Priority area -- to that end, this paper was submitted to the appropriate committees. We believe the suggested ESS additions and emphases could comprise one pathway toward a more comprehensive and confident Earth System literacy and a stronger engagement in the Earth and other sciences at every school level, and to the curriculum as a whole. Better-informed, sustainability decision-making and actions by students as today's, and tomorrow's, citizens is the hoped-for outcome. [For Part I, see EJ1346071.]

Universities today face many challenges, brought about in part by changing needs in society, changing attitudes towards higher education, new research into adult learning and the introduction and use of new digital technologies to improve efficiencies and effectiveness in educational delivery and at the same time introducing new opportunities to change the curriculum and methods of teaching and learning. Each country and each university are seeking their own ongoing solutions though many can learn from what other universities are doing, few are able to merely adopt the same strategies. This paper, using a case study approach, explores how one university in Australia is seeking to find sustainable improvements in teaching and learning through a large-scale introduction of digital technology solutions, accompanied by a shared and aligned curriculum framework and learning design models as well as capacity building opportunities for its staff and students. This paper first aims to highlight the many changes within this single university and to show how reform has been established through the adoption of a strategic and wholistic approach to change and second through sharing key changes to identify strategies that could be adapted to suit different university needs in their search for sustainable solutions to some of the big challenges we all face.

This paper, presented in three parts, overviews the current understandings of the Earth System and the relatively recent interdisciplinary field of Earth System Science (ESS) from a school education perspective. The representation of ESS in the Australian Curriculum is explored through the Cross Curriculum Priority area of Sustainability and the Australian Curriculum: Science (F-12), although the focus is up to Year 10. Initially the most current ESS framework and concepts (Steffen et al. 2020) are introduced (Part I). In the first of two follow-up journal articles an analysis of the Sustainability Cross Curriculum Priority area and the Australian Curriculum: Science indicated that several key ESS understandings and system-thinking skills were present. How the most current ESS understandings and abilities could lead to a far deeper understanding of the Earth System are then considered and those that may need more attention from students and teachers are highlighted (Part II). The final article outlines several research-informed pedagogies to help learners develop more scientific understandings of the Earth System, and appropriate related abilities (Part III). These Earth System goals and pedagogies needed to be considered in the ACARA review of the Australian Curriculum: Science and the Sustainability Cross Curriculum Priority area -- to that end, this paper was submitted to the appropriate committees. We believe the suggested ESS additions and emphases could comprise one pathway toward a more comprehensive and confident Earth System literacy and a stronger engagement in the Earth and other sciences at every school level, and to the curriculum as a whole. Better-informed, sustainability decision-making and actions by students as today's, and tomorrow's, citizens is the hoped-for outcome.

Purpose: Universities have recognized their rich endowments in research, academic skills and facilities, as uniquely suited to finding "green" solutions. Moreover, the campus setting itself presents as a microcosm of greater society through which to investigate and test innovations. Thus, the "living lab" was born, a means of coupling sufficient resources and active stakeholders in the pursuit of practical, sustainable solutions. Much of the work to date, however, remains piecemeal, small-scale and disparate. This study aims to propose that the work of such labs must ultimately be directed, coordinated and integrated under a "university sustainability office," if they are to be ultimately effective. Design/methodology/approach: The research approach is twofold. In the first instance, a literature review charting the history and progress of living labs is reported, with emphasis of the university context. Second, a case study appraisal of Deakin University's initiatives in adopting and promoting sustainability through the living lab framework is undertaken. Findings: A main finding of this paper is that current efforts remain piecemeal and peripheral. If the apparent ambiguity regarding commitment is to be overcome, Deakin University should adopt measures as adopted by peer leaders in the field. Specifically, the setting up of a centralizing sustainability function bestowed with the capacity to coordinate university-wide living lab efforts, and at such a scale that substantial benefits transferable to greater society is generated. Originality/value: This paper stands out among previous studies in the field through facilitating a transition to living lab for other universities, where findings facilitate that progress and consider how the lessons learnt might inform the further evolution of university living lab initiatives.

Purpose: This paper aims to draw on an in-depth qualitative case study of an undergraduate sustainability education course to show the extent of pedagogical reflection and teaching capability demonstrated in lived practice to support transformative, systemic and capability building learning processes, as advocated in the literature, for effective sustainability education. Design/methodology/approach: Transformative learning and capability building are an essential part of sustainability education according to the growing body of literature. This approach to education, however, necessitates critical, learner-centred pedagogies which challenge traditional transmissive modes of teaching. Findings: This paper finds that pedagogy which supports the learning experiences and outcomes advocated in sustainability education literature requires significant reflection on behalf of the educator and also motivation, capability and experience to do this, thus more research and academic support is needed which focusses on pedagogical development within sustainability education. Originality/value: Literature on sustainability education often assumes that teachers are capable of reflecting on and transforming their pedagogical practice, and therefore, the pedagogical implications of sustainability education are often understated in research findings. This paper highlights why pedagogical reflection plays a crucial role in the effective implementation of sustainability education.

English teachers have long stood at the intersection of helping young people to read the 'word' and read the 'world' through rich learning experiences that tap into diverse literature, literacy and language practices with purpose, creativity and flair. However, given the complex set of crises facing young people, English curriculum and pedagogy need to actively support them in understanding their engagements with the world through close examination of texts in their contexts, and exploring the effects of those texts on themselves and others. As such, this conceptual paper argues for the central role of English teaching and learning in the project of reimagining schooling and society in more democratic, inclusive and sustainable ways. This paper was developed from invited presentations delivered to the 2022 English Teachers Association of Queensland State Conference and the 2022 Victorian Association for the Teaching of English State Conference.

Purpose: The purpose of this practitioner paper is to explore whether the principles of Design Thinking and the Lean Startup could be employed in developing a disruptive model for delivering educational programs within higher education in a way that attempts to eliminate the multitude of problems facing this industry, while simultaneously adhering to the principles of frugal innovation and meeting relevant sustainability goals. Design/methodology/approach: The authors followed a design thinking approach, employing tools such as empathy mapping, customer journey, value proposition and semi-structured interviews to obtain a deep level of understanding of the problems educators and students within the context of entrepreneurship education are facing. Throughout the process they drew on the practice of emergent inquiry and customer co-creation to help guide decision making. Findings: The authors successfully derived a conceptual solution in the form of a Minimum Viable Product of which the features were tested against the multitude of user needs and requirements. It was possible to demonstrate how the solution meets all nine of the requirements for frugal innovations while simultaneously adhering to applicable sustainability principles. Practical implications: The proposed solution offers a potential opportunity to first-movers in chosen academic disciplines to become leaders in online education. Originality/value: Even in an industry such as higher education there is a dire need for frugality and finding sustainable solutions for educators and students in both developed and developing markets. With this paper the authors succeed in presenting innovative combinations of digital artefacts, platforms and infrastructure to arrive at a novel crowd-sourced solution that is unique in its design.

The expansion of tertiary education, an intensity of focus on accountability and performance, and the emergence of new governance and management structures drives an economic fiscal perspective of the value of learning and teaching. Accurate and meaningful models defining financial sustainability are therefore proposed as an imperative for tertiary institutions in order to determine the long-term feasibility of learning programs. "When there's only so much sunshine each day--where should the light be shone?" Well, at risk of allowing pure economic rationalism dictate which learning programs thrive and survive in the "winter sun", institutions should understand that an adjustment to classic models of financial sustainability are necessary by acknowledging educational value. That is, these kinds of adjusted models require methods for quantifying three main elements in the learning production environment--educational value, costs, and revenue. There is an inevitable complexity in describing and quantifying all three of these elements in the context of a university learning environment. This paper introduces the concept of a learning program financial sustainability model (suggested by Bill Massy), an outline of possible approaches to quantifying its three essential elements (educational value, cost, and revenue), and some of the challenges confronting planners with responsibility for its form and operationalisation. For the particular interest of those staff involved in student load modelling, finance, teaching and learning quality, pedagogy, and performance management. [This paper was first presented at the Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Institutional Research, "Let the sunshine in," Gold Coast, 9-11 November 2011.]

Circular-economy-based sustainability approaches in construction are gaining wide acceptance due to the volume of waste generation and increasing demand for natural materials. Propelled by the recent timber shortage in Australia and the issues of waste management of cardboard, this study aims to analyse the possibilities of using cardboard as a construction material, based on its initial strength and multiple recycling options. A systematic review of research papers published in the last 40 years has been undertaken using a single keyword search to select the database. The review is presented in terms of the characteristics of the cardboard, dimensional stability, durability, structural strength, design, and analysis of cardboard. Recurring themes are evaluated using a latent Dirichlet allocation approach to identify the factors that ascertain the suitability of cardboard. Analysis reveals that despite certain constraints, such as water absorption and fire resistance, cardboard can be used as a replacement for timber by overcoming such limitations. This observation has benefits for the construction industry and the recycling industry. This study found that cardboard adheres to the circular economy principles, which should inspire policymakers. The paper concludes by highlighting the current circumstances and scientific challenges that impede the usage of cardboard in construction and recommends potential works needed to address these challenges for the benefit of practitioners and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to review the scientific papers on Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) published between 2008 and 2020 and reveal changes in the area. This systematic review was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, a systematic review of papers on ECEfS was conducted according to the specified criteria, and all identified studies were evaluated descriptively. In the second stage, interventional research was evaluated, and their results were reviewed. It was seen that qualitative research methods were mostly preferred in the reviewed studies and most of them were conducted with children. It was determined that the most frequently discussed pillar is environmental. Moreover, the number of interventional research studies is limited. The research findings, it is thought that there is a need for future studies that use interventional, experimental and action research methods, holistically addressing pillars of sustainability

There has been a recent surge in the popularity of school gardening programmes with different models claiming to address learning outcomes within the curriculum. For example, the 'kitchen garden' concept has had a rapid uptake across many Australian schools, promoted by both government curriculum support documents, and private organisations. Research points to the 'use' of school gardens as an initiative that predominantly draws on discourses of health, wellbeing and sustainability -- sometimes together but also often quite separately. Despite the rapid uptake of gardening initiatives in schools, and the explicit mention of 'gardening' in State based variations of the Australian National Curriculum, we know very little about how school gardens are being conceptualised by Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers as part of their teaching -- either in primary or secondary contexts. This paper utilises data from a larger study which investigated how 24 generalist primary and secondary specialist HPE teachers talked about 'environmental health' within Health and Physical Education. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first it examines the range of discourses, that is, the different meanings and values, the teachers in the study associated with gardening as a practice expected of environmentally healthy citizens. Second, we draw on material and embodied knowledge to demonstrate how the very diverse ways the teachers talked about gardening, provide 'conditions of possibility' for thinking critically about gardening, and how school gardens might be positioned within the context of HPE.

This study analyses attempts to renew apprenticeship over the last three decades in three liberal market economies -- US, England and Australia. We conceptualise institutional renewal as entailing both revival, or growth in apprentice starts, "and" extension, or widening its occupational base. The paper contributes to the literature by considering reasons for the attempted renewal and offering an assessment of the outcomes of renewal. It also contributes to research at the intersection of institutional and comparative training literature by developing the concept of institutional renewal and applying it to apprenticeship. It is concluded that in quantitative terms renewal had some success in England and Australia, but the effect of intervention is more uncertain in the US. The paper also identifies a paradox that policies to promote apprenticeships have undermined the quality of training in England and Australia, leading to questions about the sustainability of renewal.

Purpose: The achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) for all communities and jurisdictions require a comprehensive roadmap that encompasses all dimensions of data infrastructure, social, economic, environmental and governance ecosystems. With this in mind, this paper aims to establish the link between the curriculum and intended learning outcomes of undergraduate and postgraduate subjects offered by the University and sustainability. This study is a part of a wider university strategy to embed sustainability knowledge and values in the university curricula. The 17 SDGs developed as a part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainability Development was used as tool to measure and map how the subjects are linked with sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: To incorporate sustainability into the curriculum, this paper developed an interdisciplinary approach for analysing the interconnection between the SDGs, the expected subject learning points and the relevant aspects of sustainability (geospatial information, the legal, policies and institutional components). As part of the approach, in the first phase of the study, qualitative data were collected through a review of published information on the SDGs and the content of the subjects available in the subject handbook. Subject codes were assigned to the keywords and key phrases extracted from the SDGs and the subject content, and then compared and matched to establish the link between the subjects and the SDGs. Six university schools offering over 2,157 subjects were investigated. In the second phase, a survey was conducted involving subject coordinators with the purpose of validating the findings of the first phase and determining the strength of the linkages between the subjects and the SDGs. In the third phase, a plugin was designed to be used in the digital twin platform developed in the UoM, allowing visualisation of the research outcomes. Findings: Based on the interim findings, it was found that some subjects within the schools are linked to more than one SDG. However, not all of the subjects within the schools can be linked to the SDGs. There is a scope of improvement for embedding sustainability in more subjects within the schools. Some of the schools were also found to have weak linkages with sustainability, which demonstrate the challenge in technical subjects in linking their subject contents with sustainability. Originality/value: This study provides a methodology which enables the integration of sustainability into current state of the curricula at the university to be established. Further, with the advancement of geospatial technology and new visualisation opportunities through the use of the digital twin platform provides capabilities to communicate the outcomes of sustainability and involvement of each faculties and departments more effectively to the university community and wider stakeholders.

As long as literature has been specifically aimed at children questions have been raised about ideological representations in children's literature. Award-winning children's literature generally upholds contemporary standards of moral ideologies in the text. Ideological representations of sustainability and justice are yet to be fully accommodated in the judging criteria of children's literary awards. The Earth Charter proposes a framework of responsibility for 'a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice and a culture of peace'. This paper proposes an argument for adopting the sixteen principles of the Earth Charter as an ideological framework for selecting award-winning children's books. The 2018 Australian Children's Book Council Award for Early Childhood is used as the case for analysis. The award-winning book is analysed using an Ideological Framework for Earth Charter Principles. This framework is adapted from McCallum and Stephens' (2011) model of Ideological Framing in Children's Literature. Our analysis revealed that this award-winning book both upholds and violates Earth Charter principles. This paper provides an argument for excluding books from award honours if they violate the principles of the Earth Charter without redefining or resolving the violations. For award-winning children's literature to stand the test of time, the selection of texts could be referenced to an aspirational document like the Earth Charter that advocates justice for a sustainable future.

Mature-age postgraduate students are those who are late to higher education or have returned to postgraduate study after an educational hiatus in industry. While some mature-age students seek a postgraduate qualification out of extrinsic motivations such as for vocational reasons, there are older non-traditional students who seek higher status; cultural, social, financial, or symbolic. However, some undertake doctoral study with intrinsic motives (based on an intrinsic desire or love of learning) which may have an extrinsic outcome. Mature-age students, who are a subgroup of non-traditional students are categorized demographically by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as being over the age of 35 years. This paper analyses empirical and peer reviewed journal and book research with additional secondary data collected from contemporary sources to inform the literature of the aspirations, motives, and outcomes of mature-age doctoral students.

For those receiving funding from the UK HEFCE-funded Open Educational Resource Programme (2009-2012), the sustainability of project outputs was one of a number of essential goals. Our approach for the hosting and distribution of health and life science open educational resources (OER) was based on the utilisation of the WordPress.org blogging platform and search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to curate content and widen discovery. This paper outlines the approaches taken and tools used at the time, and reflects upon the effectiveness of web strategies several years post-funding. The paper concludes that using WordPress.org as a platform for sharing and curating OER, and the adoption of a pragmatic approach to SEO, offers cheap and simple ways for small-scale open education projects to be effective and sustainable.

The importance of imagination in understanding sustainability has often been overlooked. This paper examines acts of imagining in teaching and learning that elicit and enable the emotive experience of empathy. I frame ways of thinking about imagination and empathy through theoretical perspectives of otherness. I report on research findings into the nature of imagination in environmental education contexts in Australia, explored through interviews with educators and participant observation. Analysis pays attention to how teachers and students imagine and empathize in order to more fully understand. The importance of being able to imagine other places, times, and perspectives in environmental education emerged strongly. In this paper I highlight how feeling empathy involves actively imagining the other, and how the relations between self and others can become contiguous through empathic and imaginative ways of understanding.

Purpose: This paper aims to compare the findings from a survey of a cohort of students at an Australian regional university across two time points: immediately on commencing their first semester of study and at the end of their final semester of study to determine whether, and in what ways, these students' views concerning sustainability appear to have changed. This paper reports on a longitudinal study of the attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of undergraduate business students regarding a range of sustainability issues. Design/methodology/approach: A paper-based questionnaire was delivered to approximately 250 first year and 150 third year students. Findings A factor analysis shows small but statistically different positive differences, which indicate that the revised curriculum has been successful in raising student awareness and achieving behaviour change. Research limitations/implications: The study focussed on Australian undergraduate university business students, which reduced generalizability of the findings. Practical implications: The findings of this study can inform instructors in higher education of student attitudes towards sustainability and climate change adaption and in turn inform changes to tertiary curriculum in sustainability and climate change adaption. Originality/value: The authors confirm that the research is original and that all of the data provided in this paper is real and authentic. As the paper reports on the third phase of the longitudinal study, some parts of the methodology have been previously published but differ as they reflect the third phase of the study. The results of this study have not been previously published.

Despite the growing intersection between sustainability and organisational learning, current empirical research offers limited understanding of specific ways in which an industry learns to be sustainable. This paper explores industry sustainability from an organisational learning perspective in the Eyre Peninsula's fishing industry in Australia. Drawing on organisational learning literature, it argues that a better understanding of how an industry pursues sustainability is necessary if we explore the specific ways in which they learn. The findings from our analysis of data from interviews with 54 participants support and underscore the importance of learning through social networks and interactions, observation, experimentation, experiences and formal education in order to adopt socially, economically and environmentally sustainable practices. To develop a sustainable industry, managers and stakeholders should explore the specific ways in which they learn. This paper advances current studies that seek to understand industry commitment towards sustainability from an organisational learning perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how an action research process, centred around a professional development program for teaching critical thinking, enabled teachers in a specialised program for high-achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (Solid Pathways) to develop their pedagogical practices to support student cognition. It argues that a well-structured action research approach supports and enables teachers to link theory to practice in developing their pedagogy, especially where such development implies a shift away from content and curriculum-oriented pedagogy. Principal among these mechanisms are the grounding of practice in theory, well-designed practical activities, special materials that help bridge theory and practice, and collaboration among practitioners in undertaking transformative pedagogical change. The conclusions from this study support the claim that these four key mechanisms are crucial to the implementation of a critical thinking pedagogy and describe how action research can support the advent of such mechanisms into pedagogical development programs that have the capacity to contribute to significant and sustainable change. Overall, findings suggest that where support of student cognition is the goal, pedagogical development predicated on theory and focused on independent practice in a culture of collegial collaboration and dialogue, works best to create sustainable practices of teaching for thinking.

Preparing school teachers goes beyond equipping them with instrumental knowledge of curriculum, pedagogy, and experiences of how this can be enacted in practice. They must be prepared to understand and encompass compelling social issues of justice, equity, and sustainability. To do this they need to understand pressing environmental issues as a forerunner to incorporate sustainability into their teaching. This paper uses survey data from a sample of 136 Australian pre-service teachers to gauge their knowledge and beliefs about sustainability, as well as their level of concern and their inclination to teach about it. The results show sound levels of knowledge of the biophysical environment, knowledge about the consequences of unsustainable practices and the effects of energy use and its contribution as one cause of climate change. Some also hold misconceptions about the causes of climate change. Most prospective teachers are ready to take action to protect earth systems through personal actions, and teaching and advocating within their school community, and less likely to undertake political activities beyond the school. Results from this sample are used to set out a challenge to use the concept of powerful knowledge in tandem with everyday knowledge to improve sustainability instruction in teachers' preparation programs to capitalise on their potential to contribute to Education for Sustainable Development.

Humans are living in damaged landscapes within a new geographical epoch known as the Anthropocene. The COVID-19 outbreak fuels uncertainty, instability, and ambiguity for humans. This viral disaster has been blamed for losing and further exacerbating ecological imbalance, and prompts a need to re-examine multispecies relations and, in particular, human exceptionalism. The authors, by applying a new theoretical assemblage that brings the new materialist turn entangled with Buddhist philosophies into our stories and diffractions of child-virus bodies, have been prompted to raise two questions about how multispecies justice could disrupt environmental sustainability education. The questions we will engage with in the paper include: Can we explore these new theoretical assemblages (east-west) with child-virus relations as a means for raising multispecies justice that critiques the universalisation of human forces in the Anthropocene? What possibilities does the pandemic offer to rethink multispecies relations as an entangled ecological crisis by exploring what a 'new normal' in post-COVID-19 sustainability education could emerge?

Environmental and sustainability initiatives seek to respond to the challenges of ecological crises and ongoing environmental degradation by supporting students to develop knowledge and dispositions to respond to the challenges of and live in a climate changed world. However, these initiatives are often marginalised in curriculum and hamstrung by inherent tensions such as which worldviews should be prioritised, the incommensurability of some global and local values, and the pursuit of environmental needs in the age of neoliberalism. These challenges become more complex when considering contextual stakeholders. In this paper we focus on the ethical dilemmas associated with environmental and sustainability education in a coal town where mining company sponsorship heralds mixed community response. In doing so, we unpack the contextual and philosophical complexities which create the crucial conditions for a viable normative case study--genuine uncertainty about issues not yet at tipping point, differences of reasonable perspectives and recognisable local concerns. We argue that teacher educators, particularly those with interdisciplinary philosophical insight should look to their local contexts for pressing ethical issues and engage in the development and field testing of their own normative case studies. We make the case that the process behind developing a normative case study involves insight into the relationships between educational ethics, policy, context, and divergent community perspectives. We argue that pedagogy using normative case study to navigate these elements has the potential to develop world-reading teacher deliberation which surpasses proceduralist approaches in teacher education.

Block mode delivery is widely practised in higher education institutions across the world. It is popular at postgraduate level, such as in business and management fields, but is less common at undergraduate level, especially for studio design teaching. There is a lack of literature on the block mode delivery for studio design teaching. The aim of this paper is to identify the favourable attributes and challenges of the block mode delivery for studio design teaching through the analysis of three undergraduate design studio units at an Australian university as case studies. Students' written feedback of studying these three units were collected and reviewed to evaluate strategies for enhancing student engagement. Challenges of block teaching to students and staff are discussed. The findings suggest that there are various ways to engage with students for active learning in block teaching, which are valuable for curriculum design and continuous improvement.

This paper draws on interview data to explore Australian, Canadian and Scottish teacher educators' conceptions of sustainability education (SE) within initial teacher education (ITE). Findings were generated across three themes: teacher educators' (i) conceptions of SE and SE in ITE, (ii) curriculum and pedagogical practices, and (iii) barriers, challenges and opportunities to engaging with SE. Analysis revealed inconsistency amongst teacher educators' conceptualizations of SE, and significant barriers and challenges when offering SE within ITE programs. Related opportunities highlighted destabilizing established norms within ITE programs and encouraging future thinking about the wider purposes and processes of education with preservice teachers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of a learning community/city approach within Wyndham City, Victoria, Australia. The journey commences with a discussion of the demographic and economic context in which Wyndham has established its Learning Community Strategies. The development of Wyndham's Learning Community is placed in the context of a history of other learning community/city approaches within greater Melbourne, Australia and internationally. This history includes learning community and learning city frameworks such as the Australian Learning Community Framework and UNESCO's Key Features of Learning Cities, which have influenced Wyndham's Learning Community Strategies. Further, an in-depth examination of the journey of Wyndham City Council in developing successive Learning Community Strategies identifies critical incidents that have led to steady progress towards a sustainable learning community. Also, the development and evaluation of the Wyndham Learning Community are examined, including some vignettes of successful case studies. In conclusion, the implications for adult education and theory, including avoiding the use of the label 'learning city' as a marketing tool rather than a 'social process of participation and negotiation' is examined with pointers given for further research.

Previous studies have documented the personal transformation that many low literate adults undergo when they engage in literacy campaigns. In particular, research has captured how improved literacy leads to a greater willingness and capacity to speak out, or what is often referred to as voice. This paper focusses on the impact of an adult Aboriginal literacy campaign on those responsible for implementing it. Through the words of these 'maestras', we reveal how the teachers and trainers of the campaign, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, experience a similar trajectory of transformation to the literacy students. This transformation, we argue, is the result of the pedagogic relationship between students, local campaign staff and national trainers. This dialectical relationship in which teacher is learner and learner teacher is at the heart of the literacy campaign model and is part of what Giroux (1988) characterises as a radical theory of literacy and voice. We further argue that the impacts of the literacy campaign at the individual and collective levels and crucially, the sustainability of these impacts depend largely on this pedagogic relationship and the new, shared understanding of the world which results.

Global criticism on the quality of initial teacher education has led to calls for reform. One initiative that emerged in Australia was the establishment of Hub School partnerships, which facilitate collaborations between schools and universities to explore how initial teacher education could be improved. This paper reports one such partnership, which applied improvement science in its design to develop an ambitious approach to initial teacher education. A qualitative research approach aimed to uncover the outcomes of the project. The findings from the first prototype are reported herein and highlight the value in cross-faculty mentoring and in providing pre-service teachers opportunities for reflection while immersed in school settings.

At James Cook University, a core first-year subject within the Bachelor of Education, Foundations of Sustainability in Education (FSE), sees students investigate the underlying science and complexity of socioecological challenges through inquiry, place-based learning, experimentation and consideration of classroom practice. Given that this subject is delivered across modes, a blended learning approach that encompasses an innovative use of learning technologies and careful consideration of pedagogy provides opportunity for both on-campus and online students to engage in active, learner-centred, collaborative, experiential and praxis-oriented learning experiences (Wals & Jickling, 2002). In this paper, we draw upon Pittaway's (2012) engagement framework and Herrington, Herrington, Oliver, Stoney and Willis's (2001) guidelines for quality online courses to explore students' perceptions and experiences of FSE. We investigate how a blended learning design can support the development of a robust foundational knowledge base in science and sustainability education, and engagement in active, experiential and praxis-oriented learning experiences for first year online students. This paper furthers the discussion around best pedagogical practice and blended learning design for science and sustainability education in online preservice teacher education, and in other disciplines in teacher education that call for hands-on learning experiences in an online environment.

In this paper, we report on an investigation into initial teacher education students' (ITES) understandings of sustainability and the Australian National Curriculum Sustainability Cross Curricular Priority (CCP). We also explore their willingness and capacities to embed the CCP into their own teaching practices. The ITES (N = 392) completed a quantitative survey with a series of Likert Scale questions and were asked to list "5 words" when they think of sustainability. Analysis reveals that ITES have generally limited to moderate understandings of sustainability and education for sustainability, but lesser understandings of the Sustainability CCP and the 9 organising ideas. Understandings of sustainability were dominated by an environmental focus. We conclude this paper with a discussion of the implications of narrow environmental understandings of sustainability. We explore factors that limit and enable teacher educators to embed sustainability education more explicitly. We note the importance role teacher educators play in supporting ITES to better understand sustainability.