Creating Change for People and Planet: Education for Sustainability Approaches

and Strategies
Julie M Davis, School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology,
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction 439
Australia’s Biomes, and Landscapes Under Pressure 439
Sustainability and EfS 440
What Is ESD/EfS? 440
A Chronology of ESD/Education for Sustainability 440
ESD/EfS Across the Globe 441
EfS in Universities 441
Case Study: Australasian Campuses Toward Sustainability (ACTS) 442
EfS in Teacher Educationd“The Priority of Priorities” 442
Case Study 442
EfS in School Curriculum 443
Case Study: The Murray-Darling River Basin and AuSSI-SA 443
EfS in Early Childhood Education 444
Case Study 444
Conclusion 444
References 445
Further Reading 446
Relevant Websites 446

Glossary
Education for sustainability (EfS) Education for sustainability develops the knowledge, skills, values and worldviews
necessary for people to act in ways that contribute to more sustainable patterns of living. It enables individuals and
communities to reflect and act on ways of interpreting and engaging with the world such that social, economic and
environmental systems are not diminished for both current and future generations. This is the common form used in Australia.
Education for sustainable development (ESD) See education for sustainability above. ESD is more commonly used in
Europe, and in United Nations and UNESCO policies and documents. This terminology is not widely used in Australia.
Embedding change/sustainability In contrast to ad hoc, short-term change that does not last, embedding refers to human/
social/educational processes that seek to achieve broad and deep cultural change for sustainability.
Environmental education (EE) Environmental Education is a holistic, lifelong learning process directed at creating
responsible citizens who explore and identify environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action effectively to
improve the environment. Originally, its focus was on learning and teaching about and for the natural environment but is now
more like EfS and ESD (below).
Sustainability (see Sustainable development) This is the commonly used term for SD in Australia.
Sustainable development (SD) Sustainable development commonly refers to human development processes that
simultaneously meet human needs while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and
ecosystem services upon which economy and society depend.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) The 17 Sustainable Development Goals offer a blueprint for achieving a better, more
sustainable future for all. They address global challenges including poverty, inequality, climate change, and environmental
degradation, and how to achieve prosperity, peace and justice.
System thinking/systems change Systems thinking/systems change has emerged as the result of reductionist problem-solving
approaches failing to adequately cope with the realities of complexity and uncertainty that cause a system to behave sub-
optimally. Instead, it looks for links and synergies to find new ways of framing and overcoming problems, hence it is
multidisciplinary and calls on a multiple of agents, relationships and power structures to contribute to a change. As a way of
guiding systems change, systems thinking can address root causes of problems and issues and come up with innovative
solutions that have the capacity to break through barriers and resistance.

438 Encyclopedia of the World's Biomes, Volume 5 https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.12036-6

 Creating Change for People and Planet: Education for Sustainability Approaches and Strategies 439

Abstract

The concept of anthromes put humans firmly into “natural” systems. While human have always shaped and reshaped their
environments, recent history illustrates challenges, especially in Australia, this article’s focus. Against the backdrop of Aus-
tralia, the article calls for effective Education for Sustainability (EfS) to address these challenges. The key role of Education in
playing a significant part in the social transformations necessary is explained, along with a short history of Environmental
Education (EE), Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and Education for Sustainability (EfS), and the various
international initiativesdmainly developed through the United Nations since the 1970sdthat have shaped these sub-fields
of Education into contemporary times. Key principals of ESD/EfS include enabling learners to see issues and solutions
through the lenses of critique, particularly of our everyday ideas and practices of human development, and to develop agentic
and transformative capabilities.
The article then offers an overview of a range of educational contextsdfrom higher education through to early childhood
educationdwith commentary on how these sectors have responded to the challenges of embedding SD/EfS into their
contexts and curricula. A case study for each context is provided to illustrate ways that EfS might be embedded into teaching
and learning in order to make positive contributions towards understanding and working with biomes/bioregions for better
outcomes for future generations and, indeed, for all living things.

Introduction

There is an Australian poem, “My country” by Dorothea Mackeller (1908), written in 1908 at 19 years of age and visiting England,
while pining for Australia. The iconic second verse goes like this:

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror.
The wide brown land for me!

This poem has meaning because it so aptly sums up the Australian continent with its diverse and contrasting landscapesdlarge
inland plains and deserts cut by huge river systems, mountains that are just smallish bumps to snowcapped peaks, over 5000 km of
coastline, with hundreds of islands. In this land of extremes, we have regular droughts, wild cyclones with flooding rains that bring
heartache and joy in equal measure. On this land live 25 million humans, mostly hugging the coast.
Nevertheless, we need more than love for Australia. The Earth’s ecosystems on which we all depend, are under severe distress,
facing unparalleled challenges brought about by disruptions to ecological, social, and economic systems. Recent reports from the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2018) and the World Wildlife Fund (Grooten and Almond, 2018), the Million
Species Loss report, confirm that “unsustainable human activity is pushing the planet’s natural systems that support life on Earth to
the edge” (2018, para 1).
Pierrehumbert (2006) considers climate change a “catastrophe in slow motion”; we are witnessing the effects of a 1
C rise in
global temperatures through more extreme weather events, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice (IPCC, 2018) with global
temperatures expected to rise by a further 0.5
C to a total warming of 1.5
C above pre-industrial levels by 2050.

Australia’s Biomes, and Landscapes Under Pressure

The consequences of global warming, especially in Australia, are grave. A temperature rise of 1.5
C will decimate ecosystems, exac-
erbating social and economic disruptions and forced migration (IPCC, 2018; McLeman, 2018). A recent Lancet report (Watts et al.,
2018) predicts a complex and worsening array of climate change health impacts.
Climate disruptions in Australia are already sharply felt. However, it needs to be noted that there has been at least 60,000 years of
continuous human settlement in Australia, so ecological change is not new, perhaps better reflecting anthromes (Ellis and Raman-
kutty, 2008) vs. biomes. The first Australians, multiple tribes with distinct nations, territories, languages and cultures, have reshaped
landscapes through fire and other farming methods (Pascoe, 2014) and should be recognized as the first people to reshape its
ecological processes and patternsdAustralia is not a land of untamed wilderness prior to white colonization. In recent times there
has been growing appreciation of and respect for the knowledges, ethics and spiritualties of Indigenous peoples in Australia, who
see the world differently to a Western binary between people and place. In Aboriginal and Torres Straits world views, knowledge
lives in country and has agency; Indigenous people carry place within themselves; identities are bound to place. Such a fundamen-
tally different worldview has meant very different ways of living on/with the Earth (even though we now know that Indigenous
people in Australia were also agriculturists and aquaculturalists, not merely “hapless wanderers across the soil, mere hunter-
gathers” (p. 229).
440 Creating Change for People and Planet: Education for Sustainability Approaches and Strategies

It cannot be disputed that white colonial “settlement/invasion” over the past 220 years has been formidable, deeply reshaping
the continent, with increasingly distressing impacts at a rate of change that seems unrelenting. Here, I spell out just two of the
anthropogenic challenges arising from human influence on natural ecosystems in Australia in our short 220-year history since
colonization.

Sustainability and EfS

Given these challenges to our landscapes and ecosystems, serious questions arise “What is to be done”? Do we give up and leave
matters in the hands of our children and grandchildren? What are our responsibilities to future generations and non-human life
forms? Ignoring such questions is not an option, A starting point is how we see “development” into the future. Many are critical
of the anthropocentric focus of human development especially since the industrial revolutiondreferred to as the Anthropocene,
a proposed epoch when the human species has become dominant, having vastly reshaped the Earth on which we and all other
species depend for healthy, vibrant futures. This time is precarious where children are most vulnerable to degrading social,
economic and ecological conditions directly impacting their development, wellbeing and even their right to stay alive. The UNICEF
report (2015) comments, for example, that “there may be no greater, growing threat facing the world’s childrendand their child-
rendthan climate change” (p. 7). The dangers from severe weather events, increased risk of disease in unstable environments, water
and food insecurities, disrupted livelihood and family displacement, as well as existing inequalities made worse where there are
overlaps of high poverty with low access to essential services, become much more pronounced for children than adults.
This contrasts with Sustainability, a multidimensional concept that presents sustainability, not as environment versus people or
economy, but as a mix of social, economic and environmental dimensions. Climate change, for example, impacts are environ-
mental i.e. the adverse weather effects such as increased storms and droughts. It is social, in that people are being displaced
from their homes leading to short-term disruptions and as well as longer-term effects of climate refugees. It is also economic,
causing infrastructure damage and huge insurance payouts.
There are increasingly desperate appeals for radical shifts across all aspects of human development, in particular to Education, to
take a more decisive role in transitions to greener, healthier and more just futures. My specific appeal is for greater understanding
and implementation of EfS, a sub-field of Education, that has been around for over 40 years but needs far greater attention than is
currently the case. Here, I offer a short history and discussion of EfS and its earlier iteration, environmental education. Note, in
Europe and some other parts of the world, this is referred to as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD); in Australia, this
field is referred to as Education for Sustainability (EfS).

What Is ESD/EfS?

While there is considerable debate about what is ESD/EfS, nevertheless, there is some consensus that.
EfS offers a vision of education that seeks to empower people to assume responsibility for creating sustainable futures. It focuses
on interactions between people, and people and environments, requiring a “deep understanding of ourselves, our neighbors, or
societal and cultural processes, and how we are connected with ecological systems for life” (Lang, 2007). EfS is founded on prin-
ciples of both ecological and socio-political literacy that includes rich understandings of ecology, but also critical inquiry, empow-
erment, democratic decision making and action taking. It aims for social change that will contribute to sustainable patterns of living,
across and between regions, and generations, now and in the future.
According to Tilbury and Wortman (2004), key characteristics of EfS include envisioning, critical thinking and reflec-
tion, systems thinking, and building partnerships in decision making. It is futures-oriented, focusing on protecting envi-
ronments and creating a more ecologically and socially just world through informed action. Other characteristics
include inter/transdisciplinarydholistic thinking, transformation, divergent thinking, and having a proactive attitude
(Jickling and Sterling, 2017). While the concepts behind sustainability and EfS continue to evolve, it is transformative
education with a focus on ecocitizenshipda concept closely linked to democracy but enriched with an ecological dimen-
sion (Jickling and Sterling, 2017).

A Chronology of ESD/Education for Sustainability

Calls for the environment to be incorporated into education agendas can be traced back to early 1970s resulting in the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Belgrade Charter: A Framework for Environmental Education
(UNESCO, 1975). The goal for environmental education (EE) was to develop:

. a world population that is aware of, and concerned about the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills,
attitudes, motivations and commitment to work individually and collectively towards solutions to current problems, and the prevention of new ones
(p. 3).
 Creating Change for People and Planet: Education for Sustainability Approaches and Strategies 441

In 1977, UNESCO, together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNESCO-UNEP, 1977), expanded this defini-
tion through the Tbilisi Declaration in recognizing the importance of systems and attention to context as necessary components of
EE. The emphasis was on EE being embedded across the whole system of education and adopting a holistic approach to examining
social and economic issues through an environmental lens. This Declaration called for environmental educators to be the “priority
of priorities”.
Later, the United Nations (UN) World Commission on Environment and Development (UN WCED, 1987) prepared The
Brundtland Report (also referred to as Our Common Future) proposing the concept of Sustainable Development (SD). Thus, envi-
ronmental educators began exploring the implications of this for their education practice. Consequently, there was a shift from
a focus on the environment to that of sustainable development.
The United Nations later delivered its action plan for SD, Agenda 21 (United Nations, 1992), further emphasizing a key role for
education, awareness and training in sustainable development. Chapter 36 was a specific call for educators to reorient education
towards SD, not as an add-on but as a fundamental shift in the purposes and practices of Education.
The next significant development was the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN DESD), 2005 to
2014, another effort by UNESCO to encourage EfS in the face of worsening global crises (UNESCO, 2017a). The purpose
of the DESD was to further integrate the principles, values and practices of SD into all aspects of education and learning.
In Australia, for example, the Sustainable Schools movement was initiated via the DESD to enable and coordinate education
initiatives, from early childhood education through to universities, colleges and community education, to scale up their EfS
participation.
The most recent global initiative for ESD/EfS is the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD, part of a wider UNESCO education
agenda to 2030. The GAP’s broad aim is to continue to generate attention and action for ESD across all levels and areas of education
(UNESCO, 2018) with ongoing focus on reorienting education and learning to effectively contribute to SD. Action areas include the
integration of sustainability into education/training environments using whole-institution approaches and increasing the capacity
of educators/trainers. UNESCO’s 2030 agenda also includes 17 interconnected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at
securing “a sustainable, peaceful, prosperous and equitable life on Earth for everyone now and into the future”
(UNESCO, 2017b, p. 6). Particularly pertinent to educators is Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote life-
long learning opportunities for all.
While progress towards Goal 4 is yet undetermined, it is clear that the program between now and 2030 reconfirms education and
educators having a key role in the realization of sustainability (Ferreira et al., 2019). Clearly, Education is seen as a catalyst for
change towards the 17 SDGs. As the current Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, states “Education is key to the global inte-
grated framework of sustainable development goals. Education is at the heart of our efforts both to adapt to change and to transform
the world within which we live” (UNESCO, 2015, p. 3). However, this does not mean that educators are wholly responsible for such
educational transformationdthis all sectors of society must work with educators to reshape and reframe education so that it can
fulfill its goal of contributing to sustainable futures.

ESD/EfS Across the Globe

While there has been significant support for ESD/EfS over the decades at the international level through UN/UNESCO initiatives, it
is up to individual nations to develop their own responses to environmental/sustainability challenges. How it is implemented in
Australia, for example, will be very different from how it looks in China, or in Papua New Guinea, an economically-impoverished
nation struggling to emerge from its colonial past. How it is implemented in Japan or Korea where there are different historical and
cultural frames for understanding relationships between people and naturedthrough non-Christian lensesdor how Indigenous
ways of understanding human-nature relationships and how these might impact sustainability practices might be enacted, are
all aspects of the considerations of EfS in different locale.
Some countries, like Sweden have whole-of-education systems approaches to EfS curriculum and have done so for a long
time. Korea has come more recently to EE/EfS/ESD and invested in “green education” across the education spectrum. Australia
has had a patchy policy response to EfSdsometimes a leader; sometimes a laggard. Without strong policy impetus, the fortunes
of EfS wax and wane within Australian education. Nevertheless, there is a robust practitioner base in the different educational
contexts, strong professional associations and networks, and Australian educators are international leaders in EfS researching,
theorizing, and publishing, involved in and influencing local and the international efforts. In the next sections, I overview key
features of EfS across education sectors, drawing on international and Australian research, and offering some Australian
responses.

EfS in Universities
Graduates entering and leaving universities and colleges, even as little as 10 years ago, are moving into a world very different from
that encountered by previous generations. Sterling (2014) comments that the future is uncertain, complex and rapidly change man-
ifested by a bewildering array of global issues relating to economic instability, climate change, inequality, loss of biodiversity and
migration being just some of the critical changes. While there is acknowledgment of the urgency for learning and teaching about
sustainability within universities because of the relevance to students’ future lives, the general consensus is that EfS is far from being
442 Creating Change for People and Planet: Education for Sustainability Approaches and Strategies

wholly integrated into mainstream university curricula (Ferreira et al., 2019). Although there have been achievements regarding
“greening” initiatives such as improving campus transportation, reducing waste, energy and water usage, and cutting-edge “green
buildings”, as well as developing sustainability-based research profiles and capabilities, there is a disappointing focus on transform-
ing teaching and learning. I argue that such efforts, while important, fail to harness the essential power of higher education: to
inform and engage citizens in the pursuit of more sustainable modes of living.
EfS should be at the heart of higher education’s approach to the “wicked problems” of sustainability (Sterling, 2014; Leal
Filho et al., 2017) and must be embedded into every facet of a university’s operations including changes in planning and
policy, academic curricula, and research that facilitates environmental and social changes and must be embedded into every
discipline areadLaw, Engineering, Architecture, Business, Health and, importantly, Education. There is a long way to go before
higher education makes the most of its [implied] mandate to educate for societal transformation and displays the leadership in
EfS it should be offering. Nevertheless, there are exemplars in higher education leadership as the following case study
illustrates.

Case Study: Australasian Campuses Toward Sustainability (ACTS)

ACTS is an Australian and New Zealand higher education organization that “aims to inspire, promote and support change
towards best practice sustainability across all types of campuses”. It does this by “building cross-sector partnerships, bringing
together sustainability educators, practitioners and change-makers to create a community for positive engagement, capacity
building and impact” (https://www.acts.asn.au/about-us/). ACTS is focused on supporting higher education campuses to achieve
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through teaching, research and operational practices. A key tenet of ACTS is recog-
nition that education plays a critical role in delivering the global goals by providing “the knowledge, innovations and solutions
to address the complex and interconnected societal and environmental challenges that lie behind the SDGs”. It does this via activ-
ities including online forums that provide a space for members to share and discuss approaches, challenges and learnings about
SDG implementation. It runs annual conferences and the annual Green Gown Awards, an offshoot of the International Green
Gown Awards, that cover all aspects of campus lifedteaching and research, leadership, facilities and services, to how students
can benefit from the quality of life in the communities around them. In July 2019, ACTS joined leading global networks and
institutions in Higher Education in declaring a Climate Emergency in recognition of the need for drastic societal shifts to combat
the growing threat of climate change.

EfS in Teacher Educationd“The Priority of Priorities”

As noted, embedding EE into the teacher education was first identified as critical at the 1971 IUCN Conference on Environmental
Conservation Education, and has been reinforced ever since. In Tbilisi in 1977, Education Ministers from around the world iden-
tified initial and in-service teacher education in EE as a priority (UNESCO-UNEP, 1977). In 1990, UNESCO-UNEP declared teacher
preparation to teach environmental and sustainability education as the “the priority of priorities” (UNESCO-UNEP, 1990, p. 1).
Other important initiatives for teacher education include the UNESCO Chair on Reorienting Teacher Education for Sustainable
Development, the UN DESD, and the GAP. UNESCO has supported the integration of ESD/EfS in initial teacher education through
Priority Action Area 3: Building capacities of educators and trainers (UNESCO, 2017b). Continuing support by Ministers of Educa-
tion highlights the important role teacher educators have as powerful agents of change, capable of delivering the global educational
response needed to reorient education to achieve the SDGs (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), 2018).
While the extent to which this recent work has progressed is uncertain, and while UNESCO’s recent reporting highlights many
examples of embedding ESD/EfS in teacher education, these tend to be isolated “green patches” driven mostly by the passions and
concerns of individual teacher educators who experiment with embedding EfS within their own spheres of influence, rather than
wide-scale, systematic approaches (Ferreira et al., 2019). A recent review conducted by Australian researchers (Evans et al., 2017)
confirms that the field is characterized by arbitrary, isolated activities such as one-off curriculum development projects, stand-
alone EfS modules (UNESCO, 2017a), or mainly integrated into Science and Geography subjects (Van Petegem et al., 2005) rather
than through a consistent, more holistic approach (Ferreira et al., 2006). While such efforts are commendable, a systemic approach
to embedding sustainability in initial teacher education is called for actioned by EfS becoming an integral part of faculty/depart-
mental policies, core curriculum foci and values, and clearly evident in everyday pedagogies, practices and activities. The following
case study offers just one example of how EfS might be embedded into a teacher education program.

Case Study (for More Detail See Ferreira et al., 2019)

EfS has been a part of teacher education at this Australian university situated in tropical Queensland, for about 20 years, though
originally as an ad hoc, final-year elective, Environmental Education for the Tropics. Transition to an embedding of sustainability
approach began when the whole university underwent a “Curriculum Refresh” initiative, 2009 to 2011, aimed at repositioning itself
as a “University of the Tropics” with explicit interest in sustainability, climate change and a focus on impacts on the Great Barrier
Reef, literally this university’s backyard. A central aim of Curriculum Refresh was for the university to become a national and
 Creating Change for People and Planet: Education for Sustainability Approaches and Strategies 443

international leader in addressing the critical challenges confronting the tropics. The University employed an integrated approach to
improving environmental, cultural, economic and social sustainability via teaching, research, operations and campus management,
and community partnerships.
As part of the process, the School of Education adopted a whole-of-school approach to embedding Education for Sustainability
(EfS) into its Bachelor of Education (B.Ed). Recognition of sustainability as a cross-curriculum priority in the then newly-developed
Australian national school curriculum, helped support this. In addition to revising the original elective, Curriculum Refresh saw two
new core sustainability subjects developed as teacher education academics collaborated to embed sustainability concepts, princi-
ples, and issues, across courses in early childhood and primary majors. In 2011, at the completion of Curriculum Refresh, there
were around 1250 students enrolled in the B. Ed. across two campuses, and in various modesdon campus and off campus/online.
Subsequently, with participation in a nationally-funded Embedding Sustainability in Teacher Education Project commenced in
2009, Education staff further clarified EfS as core. This expanded efforts beyond curriculum development to also be an action
research project to document, monitor and study individual and collective efforts in embedding sustainability concepts and values
across all Bachelor of Education classes. This led to an integrated EfS-embedded program aimed at providing teaching graduates
with understandings of sustainability principles and issues and to confidently and competently engage their future students in
sustainability learning.

EfS in School Curriculum

Parallel to what has happened in teacher education around the world, sustainability is also recognized in many school curricula
(Buckler and Creech, 2014). For example, it is a requirement in Norway and Sweden that sustainable development be incorporated
into education curricula at all levels of schooling as well as in teacher education. In China, the 15th National Congress of the
Chinese Communist Party advanced sustainable development as a national strategy with ESD incorporated into China’s macro-
education policy agenda. China has also explored ESD/EfS practice for more than 10 years including uptake of its Green Schools
program. This mirrors the history of such whole-school approaches to EE/ESD/EfS that go back to the 1970s, such as Green Schools,
Eco-Schools, and Enviroschools with such movements gaining impetus with the UN Decade of ESD.
In Australia, Sustainability is a cross-curriculum priority (ACARA) and seeks to address the ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain
all life. It is recognized that all learning areas such as English, Science, The Arts, Health, and Humanities, have the potential to
contribute to the Sustainability priority. As such, Sustainability is included in each learning area in ways consistent with the content
and purpose of the study area. Nevertheless, despite this national “mandate”, Sustainability is patchily embedded into teaching and
learning in schools in Australia. The demise of the national Sustainable Schools initiative, Australia’s response to the UNDESD, with
loss of personnel, funding and policy push, has meant that contributions to sustainability have been less than satisfactory, though
there are some excellent lighthouse schools and committed teachers continuing this good work.

Case Study: The Murray-Darling River Basin and AuSSI-SA

The climate range across the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) reflects it size, 14% of Australia’s land area, and its diverse geographyd-
from rugged mountains to flat semi-arid plains. The Basin is in the south-east of Australia and includes the Australian Capital Terri-
tory, parts of Queensland (15%), New South Wales (75%), Victoria (60%) and South Australia (7%). As Australia’s most important
agricultural region, it produces one third of Australia’s food supply and supports over a third of the country’s total gross value of
agricultural production. Irrigation is the largest user of water from the River Murray system.
Water use is controlled by the MDB Authority with the aim of balancing diverse and multiple demands for water including
agriculture, water supply to towns, and ensuring environmental flows for ecosystem services. Little or no flow in the Darling River
due to drought and overuse of water has led to fresh water levels falling drastically. In December 2018 and January 2019, massive
fish kills occurred in an area called the Menindee lakes where over 1,000,000 fish died. Species affected were predominantly bony
herring, but included hundreds of golden and silver perch, as well as dozens of Murray cod, mostly large adults. The largest was
127 cm long.
Towns and cities in South Australia are at the tail end of the problems of the Murray-Darling River system, a source of great
contention with severe impacts on water supply and water quality over decades, for drinking, farming and industry in this
state.
Supported by the State Education Department and Department of Natural Resources Management (NRM), the South Australian
Sustainable School Initiative (AuSSI-SA) provides a framework for schools and preschools to develop a culture of sustainability with
their communities, with a focus on water issues. Underpinned by the principles of Education for Sustainability (EfS) discussed
earlier, learning for change and developing the knowledge, values and skills needed for leading sustainable lives dover 350 schools
and preschools are members of AuSSI-SA. Educational settings sign up and are then supported to plan and manage sustainability
initiatives. They are offered technical advice and tailored training sessions for teachers on topics ranging from engaging with nature,
food gardens for a dry climate, climate change, air quality, waste and energy matters, mentoring and support for student environ-
ment groups, and help in developing site environment management plans, setting sustainability goals and working effectively with
the local community.
444 Creating Change for People and Planet: Education for Sustainability Approaches and Strategies

EfS in Early Childhood Education

As noted, the history of EE/ESD/EfS dates back to the 1970s. However, early education (Birth to the early years of school) efforts
were largely missing (Davis and Elliott, 2003) though this is rapidly changing. In Australia, aligned with the more visible school-
based initiatives such as the UNDESD and Sustainable Schools, a handful of pioneering practitioners and a number of state-based
professional networks were established to fill the void and have pushed for recognition and advocacy for ECEfS with the mantra
“mainstream not marginal”. Additionally, Australian government early childhood education policy directives launched from
2008 and set against the backdrop of UN DESD initiatives have been instrumental in guiding systemic change across the early child-
hood education field in relation to EfS. In particular, the national early childhood curriculum guidelines (EYLF) (ACECQA, 2009)
emphasizes that “children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment” (p. 32) and that educators “embed
sustainability in daily routines and practices” (p. 32).
Internationally, ECEfS was first highlighted by Pramling Samuellson and Kaga, 2008 in The Contribution of Early Childhood
Education to a Sustainable Society (2008), and The Gothenburg Recommendations on Education for Sustainable Development
(2008). This latter noted that “early childhood is a natural starting point for Education for SD” (p. 7) and that young children
are both “affected by, and capable of, engaging with complex environmental and social issues” (p. 7). The UN Decade of Education
for Sustainable Development (UN DESD 2005–2014) (UNESCO, 2017a) final report further reinforced the unique role of early
childhood education in creating sustainable futures for all and outlined the expanding uptake of ECEfS across the globe over
the past 15 years or so.
As a result of such state, national and international initiatives, in Australia today, ECEfS is readily visible in programs in childcare
services, kindergartens, and preschools. Further, there is renewed focus on outdoor play and nature education that have been an inte-
gral part of ECE for well over 150 years. Movements such as Nature Play Australia, and growing interest in forest schools/preschools
and their Australian iterations known as bush kindies/beach preschools (see for example, http://bushkindyexplorers.com.au) are
expanding rapidly. However, while such environmental learning opportunities are to be applauded, I and others assert (and have
written elsewhere) that children playing in nature is not enough to combat the unsustainable ideas and practices that reinforce unsus-
tainability. This requires much more ambitious forms of early education. Accordingly, there are a number of ECE services that
embrace whole-of-center sustainability and where children’s activist learning for sustainability lies at the heart of the curriculum.
In tandem with Sustainability in the curriculum guidelines for schools and ECE in Australia, another significant impetus for EfS
lies with efforts supporting Indigenous Reconciliation and Embedding Indigenous Perspectives into curriculum. Currently EfS and
Embedding Indigenous Perspectives have run in parallel rather than being enmeshed; however, this split is changing as both fields
begin to appreciate their commonalities. The case study below exemplifies this emerging synergy.

Case Study (See Zerella & Thorpe, 2019 for Further Details)

An example of an ECE service bringing EfS and Indigenous education together is the Bubup Wilam Aboriginal Child and Family
Centre in Victoria catering for the education, health and wellbeing of Aboriginal children aged 6 months to 6 years and their fami-
lies. Here, I have drawn from the center’s website and information provided in a recent “Every Child” article. The Centre’s purpose
and philosophy was developed by the local Aboriginal community, for Aboriginal people. Underpinned by Aboriginal, social
justice and rights-based pedagogies, the center aims to support children to build strong and proud Aboriginal identities as their
foundation for life-long learning, health and wellbeing.
With inequities in health, wellbeing and educational outcomes for Aboriginal people in Australia, Bubup Wilam requires a holistic
pedagogical approach, underpinned by Aboriginal perspectives. The Centre recognizes Aboriginal people as the first owners of the
land on which they live and learn, and acknowledges and pays respect to the rich history and spiritual connection of their Aboriginal
ancestors. In particular, the community recognizes the importance of ongoing learning by respecting the knowledge of Aboriginal
people in caring for country for over 1,000,000 years. Likewise, the community acknowledges and mourns the impact of coloniza-
tion, past and present, on the destruction of the landscapes of the country and the spiritual and scared sites of Aboriginal peoples.
Of central importance, the center is committed to supporting children in developing skills and knowledge to fight for a more
sustainable and respectful future for themselves and future generations, in addressing the environmental challenges and destruction
of their land and acknowledges the importance of the children’s voices in fighting for these rights. This unique “connection to country”
program supports children’s spiritual connection to their world and respects the interdependence between human, animal and nature.
It challenges the children to critically reflect on their custodianship rights and responsibilities. In summary, the center embraces a custo-
dian approach to Sustainability through an Aboriginal lens, underpinned by a pedagogical that challenges Western educational theo-
ries and pedagogical approaches, and is in harmony with Indigenous beliefs and practices, and contemporary aspirations.

Conclusion

Humans have a very long history of transforming landscapes and ecosystems. Indeed, we could not have developed without
reshaping and exploiting natural elements. Nevertheless, the pace of change and the extent of human impacts on the Earth’s
biospheres are unmistakable (Ellis and Ramankutty, 2008) and becoming dangerous. It could be said that humans are “doing
 Creating Change for People and Planet: Education for Sustainability Approaches and Strategies 445

violence” to our Earth. Our current climate emergency, the potential of 1,000,000 species to become extinct, the escalation of envi-
ronmental refugees, the marginalization of first Nations peoples, and the anticipated mounting negative impacts on children and
young people into the future, are nothing short of unconscionable.
While these realities are a result of many factors, education systems are not without blame; Education has contributed to our
human failures in delivering societies that are healthy, sustainable, and just for our children and future generations. However,
the rise of movements such as “School Strikes for Climate Change” led by Greta Thunberg from Sweden, gives some optimism.
Young people are taking action, but what have we come to when it’s our school children who are calling us out? Also, I bright-
ened up recently when I realized that many of these young people have had 15 or more years of education for sustainability,
from early childhood through to high school, so perhaps our educational efforts have been more effective than I have been
thinking.
Another reason for hope in the Australian context, is that polling conducted in March just prior to the national election in
May 2019, shows that Australians see climate change as one of Australia’s most pressing issues (Slezak, 8 May 2019), confirm-
ing that Australians were more concerned about climate change at this recent election than at any time since 2007; 61% of
voters said climate change was so serious that it should be addressed now. However, responses to the climate change question
showed stark generational differences. Among Australians aged 18 to 29, 81% thought Australia should take action on
climate change, even if it was expensive. Less than half, 49% of those aged over 45 took the same view. Perhaps, then, the
impact of EfS over the past 20–30 years, even if patchy, has had a positive effect. Most of the elderly voters did not have
the benefit of EfS.
To conclude, while EfS still has a long way to go before it is universal across the globe, it is making inroads, despite political
equivocation and, in some cases, overt political undermining. However, EfS cannot be left to those who are officially recognized
as teachers or educators through their qualifications. All of society needs to contribute to EfSdecologists, botanists, social scientists,
artists, technologists, journalists and media in all its forms, medical and health workers, public servants and politicians, children,
young people, parents, grandparents and civil society. Particularly those of us living comfortably in richer economies, who have
benefited from the practices of exploitative economic growthdbe it through cheap clothes made with slave or child labor, exporting
e-waste to Vietnam, habitat destruction in the Amazon to supply beef for our middleclass dining tables, or through our everyday
contributions to global climate change, we are all in this complex of Anthropocentric-generated emergencies together. Essentially,
sustainability is a social justice issue, and EfS is a remedy to such injustices.
Time is fast running out, however, to fix the disrupted biosystems that are our legacy to our children. If we want biomes like the
Great Barrier Reef and the mighty waters of the Murray-Darling River, to be viable for all lifedhuman as well as non-human spe-
ciesdfor our children, grandchildren and into the next millennium, then EfS must, finally, become “the priority of priorities”.
Further, we need to listen to the “the wisdom of our Elders”dour First Nations peoples across the globe who have cared for
and been a part of the Earth’s biosystems for thousands of years. We all need to be educators for sustainability in whatever commu-
nities we inhabit.

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Further Reading

Davis, J., 2015. Young children and the environment: Early learning for sustainability. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Lindenmayer, D., 2008. On borrowed time: Australia’s environmental crisis and what we must do about it. CSIRO, Melbourne, Victoria.
Sterling, S., 2001. Sustainable education: Re-visioning learning and change. Schumacher College, UK.
Tilbury, D., 2004. Environmental education for sustainability: A force for change in higher education. In: Corcoran, P.B., Wals, A. (Eds.), Higher education and the challenge of
sustainability. Springer, Dordrecht.

Relevant Websites

https://www.acts.asn.au/dAustralasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS).

https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/sustainabilitydAustralian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).
http://www.environment.gov.au/water/education/dAustralian Water Education Resources.
https://bubupwilam.org.audBidup Wilam.
http://bushkindyexplorers.com.audBush Kindy Explorers.
https://www.education.sa.gov.au/sites-and-facilities/environmental-sustainability-programs/aussi-sadEducation South Australia.
http://fishcreek4061.com.audFish Creek 4061.
http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/dGreat Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
https://www.mdba.gov.au/dMurray Darling Basin Authority.
https://en.unesco.org/gapdUNESCO, Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development.
http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsfdUNESCO, Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future.
https://www.ted.com/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures?language¼endWade Davis (2003).