Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T03:46:41.219Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Creating Cultural Change in Education: A Proposal for a Continuum for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Sustainable Schools Implementation Strategies in Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Julie M. Davis  and
Jo-Anne Ferreira
Julie M. Davis*
Affiliation:
Queensland University of Technology
Jo-Anne Ferreira
Affiliation:
Griffith University
*
†Senior Lecturer, School of Early Childhood Researcher, Centre for Learning Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4059, Australia. Email: j.davis@qut.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Networks are increasingly recognised as advantageous when creating and embedding cultural change within organisations. This paper explores and problematises ideas around networks for education for sustainability (EfS), specifically in relation to the implementation of the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI), a national, whole-school approach to EfS. In three Australian states - New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland – AuSSI has been implemented in different ways. In examining the use of products, facilitators and networks to embed initiatives such as AuSSI in Australian schools, we propose a “continuum of cultural change strategies” as a framework for thinking about each of these approaches to creating organisational and cultural change for sustainability. We anticipate that such a framework may assist where choices need to be made in relation to the kinds of capacity building processes that might best achieve “deep and wide” change within schools hoping to engender significant cultural change.

Keywords

Sustainable schoolswhole schoolnetworkscultural changecapacity buildingparticipation
Type
Research Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 25 , 2009 , pp. 59 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Australian Government. (2006). Australian sustainable initiative framework 2006-2009. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Australian Government. (2008). About AuSSI. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www.environment.gov.au/education/aussi/about.html#what Google Scholar
Davis, J., & Ferreira, J. (2006). Evaluating the Queensland environmentally sustainable schools initiative (QESSI) alliance model: Research findings from an evaluation of the QESSI Steering Committee. Unpublished report.Google Scholar
Department of Education and the Arts, & Sustainable Futures Australia. (2005). Queensland environmentally sustainable schools initiative alliance strategic plan 2005-2007. Brisbane: Education Queensland.Google Scholar
Ferreira, J., Ryan, L., & Tilbury, D. (2007). Mainstreaming education for sustainable development in preservice teacher education: A review of existing professional development models. Journal of Education for Teaching, 33(2), 225–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fien, J. (2001). Education for sustainability: Reorienting Australian schools for a sustainable future. Paper 3, Tela Series. Melbourne: Australian Conservation Foundation.Google Scholar
Fien, J. (2003). Learning to care: Education and compassion. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 19, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fien, J., & Maclean, R. (2000). Teacher education for sustainability. II. Two teacher education projects from Asia and the Pacific. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 9(1), 37–48.Google Scholar
Fullan, M. (1999). Change forces: The sequel. London: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Gough, A. (2004). Evaluation of the sustainable schools stormwater action project 2003/2004. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www.gould.edu.au/downloads/institute/StormwaterEvaluation.pdf Google Scholar
Gough, A. (2005). Sustainable schools: Renovating educational processes. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 4, 339–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gough, A., & Sharpley, B. (2005). Educating for a sustainable future: A national environmental education statement for Australian schools. Carlton South, Vic: Curriculum Corporation for the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage.Google Scholar
Hargreaves, A. (1997). Rethinking educational change: Going deeper and wider in the quest for success. In Hargreaves, A. (Ed.), Rethinking educational change with heart and mind: 1997 ASCD Yearbook (pp. 1–26). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.Google Scholar
Henderson, K., & Tilbury, D. (2004). Whole-schools approaches to sustainability: An international review. Canberra: Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability.Google Scholar
James, M. (2006). Educating for a sustainable future in Victorian schools. Eingana, Journal of the Victorian Association for Environmental Education, 29(1), 26–28.Google Scholar
Larri, L. (2006). Comparative assessment: Australian sustainable schools initiative pilot programme in NSW and Victoria. Canberra: Dept of Environment and Heritage.Google Scholar
Mackenzie, C. (2005, Autumn). Queensland environmentally sustainable schools initiative (QESSI). Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/environment/outdoor/pdfs/qessi-overview.pdf Google Scholar
McLaughlin, M., & Mitra, D. (2001). Theory-based change and change-based theory: Going deeper, going broader. Journal of Educational Change, 2, 301–323.Google Scholar
Posch, P. (1994). Networking in environmental education. In Somekh, B. & Pettigrew, M. (Eds.), Evaluating innovation in environmental education (pp. 61–87). Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Shallcross, T. (2004). School development through whole school approaches to sustainability education: The SEEPS (Sustainable Education in European Primary Schools) project. Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University.Google Scholar
Tilbury, D., Podger, P., & Reid, A. (2004). Action research for change towards sustainability: Change in curricula and graduate skills towards sustainability: Final Report prepared for the Department of the Environment and Heritage and Macquarie University.Google Scholar
Tyack, D., & Cuban, L. (1995). Tinkering towards Utopia: A century of public school reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
UNESCO. (2005). United Nations decade of education for sustainable development. Executive Board Report by the Director General on the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 172 EX/11. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar