Sustainability Sidelined: A Study of Education for Sustainability (EfS) Policy Implementation in Australian Schools

• In Event: 16.060 - Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: 16.060-9 - (Re)Considering Environmental Education: Learning From Policy and Higher Education

Abstract

In light of recent Australian policy and curriculum initiatives aimed to prioritise Education for Sustainability (EfS) practices, this study evaluates the Australian Capital Territory Education Directorate’s smart meter website, which aims to provide teachers and students from 86 primary and secondary schools access to data on energy, gas and water consumption. While sustainability, or Education for Sustainability, has been ‘prioritised’ as a cross-curriculum aim in the Australian curriculum, it has been sidelined, lost in the storm of Literacy and Numeracy outcomes and testing. With no accountability, assessment, or a specific curriculum of its own, the priority of EfS becomes tokenistic. This study seeks to explore the voices of the teachers and school leaders and the systems that influence their practices.

Authors

• Melissa Barnes, Monash University

• Sylvia Christine Almeida, Monash University

• Deborah Moore, Monash University