Sustainable Education and Perspectives
Overview
The unit provides pre-service teachers with an understanding of the concepts of environmental sustainability and the ability to apply these concepts to teaching and learning in education. An additional aim is to empower pre-service teachers to integrate effective advocacy for sustainability in their professional teaching role. This unit focuses on educating with sustainable futures, questioning the kind of world we want and how teachers influence the futures-oriented understandings of children and young people. Environmental and global complexities are explored through the lens of relatedness and shifting perspectives.
Requisites
Rule
150 credit points
AND
EDU10004 Theories of Teaching and Learning
08-June-2025
02-November-2025
08-February-2026
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Summarise the scope and purpose of educating for a sustainable future
- Critically reflect upon their own attitudes and values in relation to sustainability perspectives and how these effect their teaching and professional role
- Consider concepts and themes related to environmental sustainability and describe how they can be integrated into learning in an education setting
- Analyse the concept of ecological literacy and articulate the benefits and limitations of becoming eco-literate
- Create a school profile with a holistic range of teaching and learning strategies to integrate sustainable perspectives, critical thinking, values and citizenship objectives implicit in reorienting education towards sustainable futures
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live Online Lecture |
1.00 | 12 weeks | 12 |
| On-campus Class |
3.00 | 8 weeks | 24 |
| Specified Activities Various |
6.00 | 8 weeks | 48 |
| Unspecified Activities Various |
5.50 | 12 weeks | 66 |
| TOTAL | 150 |
Swinburne Online
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning | 12.50 | 12 weeks | 150 |
| TOTAL | 150 |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Individual/Group | 40% | 1,2 |
| Report | Individual | 60% | 1,3,4,5 |
Content
- Defining the concepts, themes and terminology
- Articulate the complex issue of sustainability between and within communities, societies and cultures at local and global levels
- Recognise the historically and culturally situated concept of environmental change in the Anthropocene
- Different sustainability philosophies, perspectives and approaches including Indigenous and relational perspectives
- Four pillars of sustainability: social, economic, political and environmental
- Systems of relatedness with self, communities, environment, and Earth species
- The role of education to teach understandings of sustainability for positive change
- Teachers’ roles as advocates for social inclusion, justice and sustainable futures
- Curriculum and government policies
- Eco-biographical narratives
- Ecological literacy and ecologising education
- Designing sustainable and environmental curricula
- Case studies of sustainable practice, pedagogy and initiatives
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.