Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-w5vf4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-03T01:56:50.754Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Education for sustainable development in the senior Earth and Environmental Science syllabus in Queensland, Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2020

Louisa Tomas Open the ORCID record for Louisa Tomas [Opens in a new window] ,
Reece Mills Open the ORCID record for Reece Mills [Opens in a new window] ,
Donna Rigano  and
Maryam Sandhu
Louisa Tomas*
Affiliation:
College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Reece Mills
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Donna Rigano
Affiliation:
College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Maryam Sandhu
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: Louisa.Tomas@jcu.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Queensland, Australia, a new senior Earth and Environmental Science (EES) syllabus has been approved for first implementation in 2019. Given the natural alignment between EES and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), this study employs document analysis to investigate the extent to which the intended curriculum reflects the tenets of ESD. An exploratory content analysis examined the frequency of keywords to identify any prominent sustainability themes that might underpin the syllabus, while a curriculum key guided a deeper analysis according to four tenets of ESD: Learning content; Pedagogy and learning environments; Societal transformation; and Learning outcomes. These analyses found that the ESD tenets reflected in the syllabus is limited chiefly to sustainability learning content, while broader notions of ESD, like the promotion of transformative learning, are marginalised or absent. Instead, the syllabus reflects a technical orientation to curriculum, underpinned by a neoliberal agenda. It is argued that the Queensland EES syllabus represents a missed opportunity to engage students with ESD. In a policy climate where achievement and accountability dominate educational discourse, there is an inherent risk that ESD will fall by the wayside, given it is not prioritised in the intended curriculum. Implications for curriculum development are also discussed.

Keywords

education for sustainable developmentEarth and environmental sciencecurriculum analysissenior schooling

Information

Type
Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 44 - 62
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.-a). Australian Curriculum: Earth & Environmental Science. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/senior-secondary-curriculum/science/earth-and-environmental-science/Google Scholar
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.-b). Senior Secondary Curriculum. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/senior-secondary-curriculum/Google Scholar
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2016). Cross-curriculum Priorities. https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/cross-curriculum-prioritiesGoogle Scholar
Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage. (2000). Environmental Education for a Sustainable Future: A national action plan. Canberra, Australia: Author.Google Scholar
Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage. (2005). Education for a Sustainable Future: A national environmental education statement for Australian schools. Canberra, Australia: AuthorGoogle Scholar
Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage. (2009). Living Sustainably: The Australian government’s national action plan for education for sustainability. Canberra, Australia: Author.Google Scholar
Barnes, M., Moore, D., & Almeida, S. (2018). Sustainability in Australian schools: A cross-curriculum priority? Prospects, 4, 377–392.Google Scholar
Bell, D.V. (2016). Twenty-first century education: Transformative education for sustainability and responsible citizenship. Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability, 18, 48–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boeve-de Pauw, J., Gericke, N., Olsson, D., & Berglund, T. (2015). The effectiveness of Education for Sustainable Development. Sustainability, 7, 15693–15717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosselmann, K. (2001). University and sustainability: Compatible agendas? Educational Philosophy and Theory, 33, 167–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, G.A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9, 27–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chalkley, B., Blumhof, J., & Ragnarsdóttir, K.V. (2010). Geography, earth and environmental sciences: A suitable home for ESD? In Jones, P., Selby, D., & Sterling, S. (Eds.), Sustainability education: Perspectives and practice across higher education (pp. 93–108). London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Cotton, D., & Winter, J. (2010). ‘It’s not just bits of paper and light bulbs’: A review of sustainability pedagogies and their potential for use in higher education. In Jones, P., Selby, D., & Sterling, S. (Eds.), Sustainability education: Perspectives and practice across higher education (pp. 39–54). London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Creswell, J. (2014). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (5th ed.). Sydney, Australia: Pearson Australia.Google Scholar
Deng, Z., & Luke, A. (2008). Subject matter: Defining and theorizing school subjects. In Connelly, F.M. (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of curriculum and instruction (pp. 66–87). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisner, E. (Ed.). (1985). Five basic orientations to the curriculum. In The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of school programs (pp. 61–86). New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing.Google Scholar
Gilbert, R., & Hoepper, B. (2004). The place of values. In Gilbert, R. (Ed.), Studying society and environment: A guide for teachers. (3rd ed., pp. 91–111). Melbourne, Australia: Thompson Learning.Google Scholar
Gough, A. (2011). The Australian-ness of curriculum jigsaws: Where does environmental education fit? Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 27, 9–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodson, D. (2003). Time for action: Science education for an alternative future. International Journal of Science Education, 25, 645–670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hursh, D., Henderson, J., & Greenwood, D. (2015). Environmental education in a neoliberal climate. Environmental Education Research, 21, 299–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jóhannesson, I. Á., Norðdahl, K., Óskarsdóttir, G., Pálsdóttir, A., & Pétursdóttir, B. (2011). Curriculum analysis and education for sustainable development in Iceland. Environmental Education Research, 17, 375–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, P., Trier, C.J., & Richards, J.P. (2008). Embedding education for sustainable development in higher education: A case study examining common challenges and opportunities for undergraduate programmes. International Journal of Education Research, 47, 341–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennelly, J., Taylor, N., & Serow, P. (2011). Education for Sustainability and the Australian curriculum. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 27, 209–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuzich, S., Taylor, E., & Taylor, P.C. (2015). When policy and infrastructure provisions are exemplary but still insufficient: Paradoxes affecting Education for Sustainability (EfS) in a custom-designed sustainability school. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 9, 179–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laszlo, E. (2001). Macroshift: Navigating the transformation to a sustainable world. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.Google Scholar
Longhurst, J. (2008) Committee Heads of Environmental Sciences Annual General Meeting and Conference Proceedings, 23 June 2008, The Committee Heads of Environmental Sciences, London.Google Scholar
Marsh, C., & Willis, G. (2007). Curriculum: Alternative approaches, ongoing issues. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
McFarlane, D.A., & Ogazon, A.G. (2011). The challenges of sustainability education. Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 3, 81–107.Google Scholar
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. (2005). Ecosystems and human well-being: Synthesis. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Paige, K., & Lloyd, D. (2016). Use of future scenarios as a pedagogical approach for science teacher education. Research in Science Education, 46, 263–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinar, W.F. (2008). What is curriculum theory? London: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Queensland Board of Senior Secondary School Studies (QBSSSS). (2000). Earth Science: Senior Syllabus. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/subjects/sciences/earth-science-2000Google Scholar
Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA). (2017). Earth and Environmental Science: General Senior Syllabus. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/new-snr-assessment-te/redev-snr-syllGoogle Scholar
Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA). (2018a). New and Redeveloped Syllabuses. Retrieved from: https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/new-snr-assessment-te/redev-snr-syllGoogle Scholar
Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA). (2018b). New Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) System. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/new-snr-assessment-teGoogle Scholar
Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA). (2018c). New Tertiary Entrance Rank. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/new-snr-assessment-te/tertiary-entranceGoogle Scholar
Quigley, C.F., & Lyons, R. (2017). The role of care in environmental education. In Bellocchi, A, Quigley, C, & Otrel-Cass, K (Eds.), Exploring Emotions, Aesthetics and Wellbeing in Science Education Research (Cultural Studies of Science Education, vol. 13, pp. 249–267). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robottom, I.M. (2014) Why not education for the environment? Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 30, 5–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schindel Dimick, A. (2015) Supporting youth to develop environmental citizenship within/against a neoliberal context. Environmental Education Research, 21, 390–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C., & Watson, J. (2019). Does the rise of STEM education mean the demise of sustainability education? Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 35, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, G., & Stevenson, R. (2017). Sustaining education for sustainability in turbulent times. The Journal of Environmental Education, 48, 79–95,CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterling, S. (2010). Learning for resilience, or the resilient learner? Towards a necessary reconciliation in a paradigm of sustainable education. Environmental Education Research, 16, 511–528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterling, S., Dawson, J., & Warwick, P. (2018). Transforming sustainability education at the creative edge of the mainstream: A case study of Schumacher College. Journal of Transformative Education, 16, 323–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, R., Ferreira, J., & Emery, S. (2016). Environmental and sustainability education research, past and future: Three perspectives from late, mid, and early career researchers. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 32, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilbury, D., & Cooke, K. (2005). A national review of environmental education and its contribution to sustainability in Australia: Frameworks for sustainability. Canberra, ACT: Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage and Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES).Google Scholar
United Nations. (1993) Agenda 21: Earth Summit: The United Nations Programme of Action from Rio. New York: United Nations. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdfGoogle Scholar
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2014). Shaping the future we want. UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) Final Report. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002301/230171e.pdfGoogle Scholar
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2017). Education for sustainable development Learning Goals. Paris: UNESCO http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002474/247444e.pdfGoogle Scholar
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2018) What is ESD? https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-sustainable-development/what-is-esdGoogle Scholar
Van den Branden, K. (2015). Sustainable education: Exploiting students’ energy for learning as a renewable resource. Sustainability, 7, 5471–5487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, C. (2017), Tomorrow’s leaders and today’s agents of change? Children, sustainability education and environmental governance. Children & Society, 31, 72–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Our common future. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htmGoogle Scholar