Creating Cultural Change in Education: A proposal for a continuum for evaluating the effectiveness of sustainable schools implementation strategies in Australia

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Author(s)
Davis, JM
Ferreira, JA
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2009
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Networks are increasingly recognized as advantageous when creating and embedding cultural change within organisations. This paper seeks to explore and problematise 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 ...
View more >Networks are increasingly recognized as advantageous when creating and embedding cultural change within organisations. This paper seeks to explore and problematise 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.
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View more >Networks are increasingly recognized as advantageous when creating and embedding cultural change within organisations. This paper seeks to explore and problematise 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.
View less >
Journal Title
Australian Journal of Environmental Education
Volume
25
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
© 2009 Australian Association of Environmental Education (AAEE). This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Environmental sciences
Education
Other education not elsewhere classified
Human society