policy platform brochure

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The Australian Education

for Sustainability Alliance

Policy Platform

March 2012

www.educationforsustainability.org.au

Australian Education for Sustainability Alliance: Policy platform


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Sustainability education today, or asustainable Australia tomorrow

Education for sustainability provides toolsto solve environmental challenges.Australians today ace unprecedented environmental

challenges, including destabilisation o our climate

system, water shortages and resource depletion. It

has never been more important to empower Austral-

ians with an understanding o the interconnected-

ness o our environment, society, economic and

political systems. ES equips people with the skills

and knowledge to respond to challenges, create so-

lutions and build a more sustainable Australia.

Education for sustainability builds a moresustainable Australia.

Education or sustainability creates epicentres osustainability knowledge and experience in educa-

tional institutions. As best practice sustainability

values and solutions are taken home by students and

shared with the broader community, we shit Aus-

tralians attitudes and behaviours to be more sus-

tainable. Building a world-class education system

can empower a country to achieve increasing levels

o environmental, social and economic sustainabil-

ity.

Education for sustainability is globally rec-ognised as a high priority for education.We are currently in the United Nations Decade o

Education or Sustainable Development (2005-2014)

where sustainability education is widely accepted

as a prerequisite or building a sustainable uture.

Australia currently lacks a strategy to provide high

quality and integrated education or sustainability

through ormal education and lielong learning.

Our vision

Our vision is to create a more sustainable society by

allowing all Australians the opportunity to learn the

skills, practices, and values o sustainability. We be-

lieve this can be achieved by embedding education

or sustainability within ormal education systems,

rom early childhood education onwards.

Defning Education orSustainability

A sustainable world is one in which all ecological,

social and economic systems have the capacity to

renew themselves indenitely. In practice, then, sus-

tainability means reducing, reusing, conserving, and

recycling o societys use o Earths resources, so that

the ecological processes on which all lie dependscan be sustained, or us and or uture generations.

Education or sustainability (ES) encompasses a

vision or society that is not only ecologically but

also socially, economically and politically sustain-

able. ES has been adopted as a ramework in many

schools and tertiary institutions, as educators see

the importance o giving students an understanding

o the interconnectedness o the worlds systems and

skills to create sustainable solutions. ES relies onproviding teachers with the experience and support

to provide sustainability education.



Introduction


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Australian Association o

Environmental Education

Australian Campuses Towards

Sustainability

Australian Conservation

Foundation

Australian Education Union Independent Education Union Environment Institute Australia

and New Zealand

Australian Youth Climate Coali-

tion

National Tertiary Education Union


The Australian Education or Sustainability Alliance is comprised o organisations rom the education, union,

youth and environment sectors that want a higher prioritisation o sustainability in the education system.

We are achieving this by advocating or best practice education or sustainability policy to ulll our vision o

a sustainable Australia.

Members of the AESA


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The Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative:

Needs to support all students, teachers, principals

and parents to apply sustainability principles in

everyday school lie and improve the way the school

community operates.

Tertiary Sustainability:

Needs to catalyse tertiary education institutions to

better equip students with the green skills needed to

build a sustainable economy and to integrate sus-

tainability principles across all disciplines and the

practices o the institution.

Professional Development for Green Skills:

Needs to coordinate systematic development andaccreditation o green skills needed or industry in

the growing new economy across a wide range o

trades and proessions.

Education or sustainability is globally recognised as

a high priority or education. We are currently in the

United Nations Decade o Education or Sustainable

Development (2005-2014) where sustainability

education is widely accepted as a prerequisite or

building a sustainable uture.

In Australia there are a number o successul educa-tion or sustainability initiatives that already exist,

run by various ederal and state government depart-

ments. These include the Australian Sustainable

Schools Initiative (AuSSI) which provides hands-on

sustainability learning, and embedding sustainability

into areas o States school curricula. Australia has

also successully used education or sustainability

programs to shit community attitude and behaviour

to improve water conservation and waste recycling

in the last two decades.

The challenge is that Australia currently lacks the

vision and leadership to provide high quality and in-

tegrated education or sustainability through ormal

education and lielong learning.

Our policy recommendations outline how we be-

lieve the Australian Government can better support

teachers, schools and education institutions to teach

or a sustainable uture.

These recommendations ocus on the needs o our

key policy areas:

The Australian Curriculum:

Needs to support and acilitate all teachers within

schools and their communities so they can more eas-

ily and efectively oster sustainability throughout all

school education



Our policy


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2. The Australian sustainable schools initiative

1. The Australian curriculum

2.1. Increased and more reliable ederal unding

to allow the expansion o AuSSI into more schools.

The AESA recommends sucient unding to engage

all Australian schools in the program by 2015 andtransition them to the maximum sustainability rating

level by 2020.

2.2. Federal co-ordination, including a national

partnership, to ensure a national vision, direction

and regulative assessment process.

1.1 Ensuring content statements and their elabora-

tions are clearly and explicitly linked to organising

ideas and sustainability outcomes.

1.2 A more considered curriculum development

process including an efort by the Australian Curricu-

lum and Assessment Reporting Authority to develop

urther consultation and school engagement, and

greater transparency.

1.3. Ensuring that where the Australian Curriculum

is developed into state syllabuses, sustainability

content is maintained.

1.4. Federal and state allocation o unding to cur-

riculum implementation, proessional development

and resource development to allow teachers to

efectively integrate sustainability content into their

lessons.


Whole-school approaches to environmental and community outcomes

Quality sustainability curriculum content for all schools



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4. Green skills professional development

3. Tertiary education

3.1. Funding or research programs ocused on the

creation o resources to support curriculum renewal

or sustainability within universities.

3.2. Tying a percentage o existing government

unding arrangements or universities and accred-

iting bodies to the achievement o sustainabilityoutcomes in both curriculum content and campus

operations.

3.3. Establishing a requirement or tertiary institu-

tions to report to an independent and transparent

scheme rating their sustainability

perormance.

3.4. Establishing a Centre o Excellence in Learning

and Teaching, ocused on researching ES proes-

sional development in the green skills sector.

4.1. The creation o a hub or sustainability prac-

titioners to administer quality and accountability

standards and certication.

4.2. The development o classication systems or

diferent proessions and what standards must be

achieved to be considered part o the green skills

sector.

4.3. A central point o contact or practitioners, a-

cilitating communication between and within indus-

tries.

4.4. A gradated training program with necessary

support mechanisms integrated into certication

process but independent o it.


Supporting the workforce for a transition to green industry

Equipping students with skills for a sustainable economy


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