Effective Sustainability Education Conference
What works? Why? Where next?
Linking Research and Practice
18 - 20 February 2004, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
How can we assist communities and organisations to learn for sustainability?
What can research tell us? How can it improve our education programs and campaigns?
What are the future directions for sustainability education and research?
Help answer these questions at a unique national education conference to be held 18-20 February 2004 at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Join other social change educators, campaigners and researchers from across community, business, government and education institutions to:
- share findings from sustainability research
- assess benchmarks for effective sustainability education
- identify future research needs to enhance educational practice.
Conference aims
- Share existing environmental education research on key factors involved in effective environmental education;
- Increase the accessibility of environmental education research for practitioners in NSW and Australia;
- Improve the links between research and practice in environmental education;
- Determine strategic directions for future environmental education research.
Who should attend?
The conference is designed for all who are interested in environmental education and social change: including industry and business groups, state and local government educators and policy makers, environment and community groups and formal educators in early childhood, schools, vocational education and training, and universities.
Why hold a research conference?
In conducting a review of environmental education in NSW, Council identified the need:
- to identify and promote awareness of models of good practice and to enhance information sharing, and the use of evaluation and research
- for improved understanding of the communities that environmental educators seek to involve in programs, particularly groups that are sometimes marginalised or who have special needs, such as those from ethnic communities, indigenous people, those in rural/regional NSW, etc.
- to promote improved models for learning in environmental education
- for research into how best to develop organisational capacities and learning for education for sustainability, particularly through greater use of action research
- for a wide understanding and integration within programs of the underlying principles of education for sustainability.
Learning for Sustainability: NSW Environmental Education Plan 2002-05 identifies "Increased research and evaluation of effective environmental education" as a key Plan outcome (Outcome 6, pp 40-41). To achieve this outcome, the NSW Council on Environmental Education is taking action to enhance the availability and use of high quality environmental education research, including:
Plan Action 50: The Council will communicate with the Environmental Trust to request that research on environmental education is established as a Trust funding priority for competitive grants.
Plan Action 52: The Council will seek opportunities to promote conferences and workshops focussing on research which identify environmental education techniques that are successful in a range of situations.
In working to implement these actions, Council recieved funding from the NSW Environmental Trust to support this conference on research into effective environmental education.