Transcript Document

Working the system: Educating
environmental and
sustainability educators
Dr Jo-Anne Ferreira, Prof. Julie Davis & Ms Lisa Ryan
Rationale for project
•International trend in EfS
towards a whole-school
approach to sustainability (AuSSI;
EcoSchools; Green Schools).
•Teacher education long
recognised but little utilised as a
tool for EfS.
•Need for new models of achieving change
in pre-service teacher education to provide
opportunities for all teachers to gain skills in
EfS.
Background (Stage 1 - 2006)
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Review of initiatives used to bring about
change in teacher education (particularly
EE/EFS)
3 ‘models’ identified, each with benefits and
limitations:
• Resource development and adaptation
(sometimes collaborative)
• Action research
• Whole of system
New model proposed - to concurrently
develop shared understanding and change
across a range of sub-systems within a
system
Taking a systems approach
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Holistic focus
• Identifiable elements and
the relationships
between them
• System boundary and
environment (limits and
exchanges)
• Dynamic not static
because self-identified
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Hierarchical levels
• Systems and subsystems
• Ability to influence and/or
control
Systemic thinking and action research
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Interactions between elements
• Understanding the role of the parts
• Focus on relationships between parts rather than parts
themselves
• Top down (supportive policy environment) and bottom up
(capacity building)
• Understanding complexity - not linear cause and effect;
‘delays’ in seeing outcomes
•
Hubs
• Nodes or connectors in a system (key agents of changes/six
degrees of separation/ Kevin Bacon)
• Leverage points in a system
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Participatory action research
• Active, joint examination
• Seeking deep engagement and change
Stage 2: Pilot of whole-of-system change model
2007-2009
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Model sought to engage ‘hubs’ within and across
a teacher education system
Pilot in two States in Australia - Queensland and
Northern Territory
• Very different contextual factors (large and
small populations, indigenous perspectives,
different stakeholders, leaders with different
levels of experience, etc.)
Seeking change
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3 ‘sub-systems’ all seeking to change
• National system through ARIES
• State systems through team leaders
• Individual subsystems through subsystem leaders
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3 ‘sub-systems’ working ‘across’,‘up’ and ‘down’
and engaging with each other through:
• workshops (systems mapping; change
management; systemic thinking; mapping lessons
learnt)
• community of inquiry
• monitoring and evaluation process
The Queensland/iQuest Experience
Context
• Environmental education centres
• 1992 P-12 Environmental Education
Curriculum Guide
• 1993 Environmental Education: An agenda
for pre-service teacher education in
Queensland
• 2002 Queensland Sustainable Schools
Initiative
• 2006 MACER report on Education for
Sustainable Futures
iQuest Aims
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Build on and support what was already happening across
Queensland
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Formalise already existing networks and integrate these
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Build communication channels across the system and out from
the system
What was done?
Curriculum support, teacher
support, access to resource
Schools
Teacher
education
institution
Curriculum to teach opportunity to influence curriculum
Teachers trained in curriculum. Other experts to advise on educ theory
Queensland
studies
authority
Professional
associations
NGOs
Advocacy
Expert advice
Education
Queensland
DNRW/
EPA
- Trained teachers
- Standards
- Accreditation of courses
- Registration
BTR
Critical systems mapping
What was done?
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Visioning a better system
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Networking, partnership building and resource sharing
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Stakeholder workshops (PD, mentoring, action research,
organisational change and systems thinking)
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Unifying disparate projects and initiatives and capitalising on existing
ones
• Leveraging influence (hubs; status of project; media)
• Collaborative development of Student Teacher Charter
using Facebook; presentation to Minister for Education
at Student Forum
Benefits and surprises
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Increased contact with other related community groups
Events lead to good publicity
Provided an opportunity to meet with staff and have
professional conversations about their roles, their
understandings -shared pedagogy;
Facilitated the building of a support team from faculty
Approach was contextually flexible and participatory not a
prescribed recipe
Pre-service teachers enjoyed the sense of community
developed cross-institutionally through the Facebook site
Green is the new black so iQuEST members could capitalise
on broader community interest in sustainability.
Getting people on board is easier when you have something
to offer and a way to reduce people’s workload
Three universities (will) have EfS as an interdisciplinary
theme
Provided an opportunity to share ideas and have a team to
provide advice and support
Achievements
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Supported key agents of change through network
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EFS has been included in a range of additional courses not
previously associated with EfS
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Built capacity of teacher educators more broadly
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Small policy changes have occurred within individual subsystems
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Improved communication across the system
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Used media to build profile for EfS in sub-systems and system
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Opened lines of communication with additional systemic
partners
Lessons
Agents of change
• Are they the hubs in the network or system (check with
others/triangulate)?
• What are their specific connections?
• Do they have power to influence change?
• Do they see themselves as having this power and are they willing to
use it (building capacity and expertise)?
• What is their accountability to the project?
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Systems mapping
Vitally important - to do and redo as the project proceeds
Can be used to build a shared vision for change
Some participants - identified as key agents of change and or
stakeholders - saw no links or no common ground with the aim of
the research and were difficult to engage
Others had common ground and saw links but saw themselves as
‘critical friends’ - no accountability to funding agency/ the project
Need to be clear about the system and its boundaries - what can
and cannot be influenced and changed
Systemic networking
• Incentives
• Point of engagement - top down and bottom up important
• Communications to build profile and potential for change
• Need shared vision
• May need to build expertise
• Funding (short vs longer term)
• Autonomy seen as as positive to participants but not to
funders
• Monitoring and evaluation needs to be a learning exercise
and not become onerous
• Mismatch between paradigms
• Respect
• Trust
Theory and change
• Participants understood action research theory but doing it was too
messy and time consuming for some participants
• Systemic theory is complex - many levels of intersection and
interaction. Need to focus on a bounded system and keep it - and
ones expectations - small
• Be realistic about what can be influenced within and outside of a
system
• Whatever one does will have an impact on the system as it is part of
the system
Key insights
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Capacity for change
• Conceptual
• Personal
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Working systemically
• Takes time
• Relationship building
• Need a shared vision jointly developed
• Organisational change
Next stages
Stage 3 project undertaken in two other States, New South
Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Five actions enabling
change were identified:
• Collaboration
• Development of a shared vision and ethos of sustainability
and sustainable practice
• Connecting existing EfS content and practices
• Using experiential and active learning processes
• Creating opportunities for integrated programs
‘Stage 4’ – beginning in 2012 is an Australian
Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) funded
project developing a systems network of all
institutions in one State and setting up systems
networks within and between all States and
Territories across Australia.
Also a concurrent ALTC Turnaround Leadership for
Sustainability in Higher Education project
What does your system look like – what
is the system and context? What are the
sub-systems? What are the relationships
between the sub-systems? Is there a
shared vision/goals?
Wombat – Everything is connected