Collaboratively crafting learning standards for tertiary education for environment and sustainability
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 23 August 2023
Issue publication date: 23 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to outline the collaborative approach used to craft national learning standards for tertiary programs in the field of environment and sustainability in Australia. The field of environment and sustainability is broad and constituted by diverse stakeholders. As such, articulating a common set of learning standards presents challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors developed and used a staged collaborative curriculum design methodology to engage more than 250 stakeholders in tertiary environmental education, including discipline scholars, students, professional associations and employers and other environmental educators. The approach was adaptive, to ensure underrepresented stakeholders’ perspectives were welcomed and recognised. The project was commissioned by the Australian Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (ACEDD) and funded by the Federal Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching.
Findings
The collaborative approach developed and used for this work facilitated an inclusive process that valued diversity of perspectives, rather than marginalise diversity in favour of a perspective representing a minimum level of agreement. This is reflected in the standards themselves, and is evidenced by participant feedback, piloting of the standards and their subsequent application at multiple universities. Achieving this required careful planning and facilitation, to ensure a democratisation of the stakeholder consultation process, and to build consensus in support of the standards. Endorsement by ACEDD formalised the standards’ status.
Originality/value
Collaborative curriculum design offered the opportunity to foster a shared sense of common purpose amongst diverse environmental education stakeholders. This approach to curriculum design is intensive and generative but uncommon and may be usefully adapted and applied in other contexts. The authors note one subsequent instance where the approach has been further developed and applied in transforming a generalist science program, suggesting the methodology used in this case may be applied across other contexts, albeit with appropriate adjustments: the authors offer it here in the spirit of supporting others in their own complex curriculum design challenges.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The Project Team acknowledges and thanks the Australian Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (ACEDD) for their vision in commissioning this Project and their strong support through the Project’s term. The authors give special acknowledgement to the external Reference Group for their expert contribution to developing the consultation draft of the TLOs: Professor Greg Hill, (Chair), Vice-Chancellor, University of the Sunshine Coast, Dr Aidan Davison, University of Tasmania; Dr Anna Hurlimann, The University of Melbourne; Professor Pierre Horwitz, Edith Cowan University; Dr Dimity Podger, Barasa Consulting Group; Associate Professor Michele Rosano, Curtin University; Professor Steve Turton (ACEDD President’s Nominee), James Cook University. The Project Team also thanks all colleagues across the environment and sustainability community who generously contributed their time, enthusiasm, expertise and experience towards making these TLOs both inspiring and workable. These generous contributions ensured that the project’s overall aim – to develop a Learning and Teaching Academic Standards Statement for Environment and Sustainability through a widely consultative process – was achievable. This work was supported by the Australian Government Office for Leaning and Teaching under Grant ID 13–2819. Ethics approval for this research was granted by the University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee under reference number H-2014–0180. The authors thank Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS) who acknowledged this project as a winner of a Green Gown Award in the Learning, Teaching and Skills category.
Erratum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, McBain, B., Phelan, L., Ferguson, A., Brown, P., Brown, V., Hay, I., Horsfield, R., Taplin, R. and Tilbury, D. (2023), “Collaboratively crafting learning standards for tertiary education for environment and sustainability”, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-11-2022-0363, was published with errors to the text and to the affiliation details for Ros Taplin and Daniella Tilbury. These errors were introduced in the production process and have now been corrected in the online version. The publisher sincerely apologises for this error and for any inconvenience caused.
Citation
McBain, B., Phelan, L., Ferguson, A., Brown, P., Brown, V., Hay, I., Horsfield, R., Taplin, R. and Tilbury, D. (2024), "Collaboratively crafting learning standards for tertiary education for environment and sustainability", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 338-354. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-11-2022-0363
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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