The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) is yet to feature in major government initiatives in New Zealand. Many opportunities for deriving maximum benefit from the DESD, however, may be noted. These opportunities are based around four key areas: (1) government policy and national reports; (2) formal education initiatives; (3)…

Background: Implicitly, innovative schools have historically contained some (but not usually all) of the properties of learning organizations and professional learning communities but have a weak record of sustaining success over time. Can innovative schools that self-consciously establish themselves as learning organizations and professional…

This article takes the view that in a globalizing context the concept of "sustainable development" should not be assumed uncritically. Further, tensions arise when education is constructed as an instrument for the implementation of this concept, as manifest in the term "education for sustainable development". With critical concern about…

In Canada education for sustainable development is not flourishing. This may seem curious as The Decade of Education For Sustainable Development is now well underway. But this isn't a bad news story. There are interesting dynamics at play and many great initiatives are emerging. This assessment is a story too. There are many ways of interpreting…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe experiences with the initiation of transdisciplinarity in academic case study teaching with special reference to regional planning, based on the case study "Leben 2014 (Life 2014)--perspectives for regional development in the national park region Ober-pinz-gau, Salzburg".…

Purpose: To describe how the teaching and learning approach of a new MBA distance learning program helps to produce promoters and ecopreneurs of sustainable development and entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach: The chosen MBA program is analyzed based on the principles of time flexibility, promotion of initiative, team capability, staff…

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have a major advantage over larger organisations in regard to addressing sustainability issues--their size means they are able to react very quickly to changes in the business environment. They are disadvantaged, however, by lack of information on marketplace changes that make sustainability an opportunity…

Community gardens fulfil many roles, including the reclamation of public space, community building, and the facilitation of social and cultural expression. This paper discusses a nexus between research and education for sustainability that evolved out of an examination of the role of community gardens in fostering community development and…

This article is about using research from a practitioner perspective. It tells the stories of four teachers and a researcher, who were part of a collaborative project focused on connecting research and practice in relation to Education for Sustainable Development. The project started with a small advertisement placed in a practitioner newsletter,…

This paper attempts to examine the trajectory of environmental education, discussing the context of its public appearance, together with the social movements of the 1960s; its gradual consolidation as an interdisciplinary educational field, and some of its perspectives, in the light of contemporary socio-environmental problems. Focusing on the…

The pathway for achieving sustainability outcomes in environmental education is littered with difficulty. The experience in this particular case study provides insight into the difficulties of sustainability education and the need for effective formal and informal delivery at various places in the society. Schools and universities are key…

Like their baby-boomer parents, the echo-boom generation is reshaping the college and university landscape. At 80 million strong, this group of children and young adults born between 1980 and 1995 now is flooding the college and university system, spurring a college building boom. According to Campus Space Crunch, a Hillier Architecture survey of…

This article focuses on the need for universities as teaching and research organisations, to recognise and act upon a more culturally inclusive interpretation of "sustainable development" and "sustainability". It argues for the valuing of indigenous worldviews as a means of achieving a more holistic and interdisciplinary way of thinking about the…

This paper will address the challenge of how strategic leadership can be defined and articulated to provide a framework for developing a strategically focused school drawing on a NCSL research project. The paper is structured into three main parts. Part one outlines the elements that comprise a strategically focused school, develops an…

How much does a school cost? It's a straightforward question, but the answer for many education administrators is a frustrating, "It depends." The cost of a school facility surely includes what an education institution pays for the building site, design plans, construction materials, workers who assemble the building, and furniture and equipment…