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Creating Cultural Change in Education: A Proposal for a Continuum for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Sustainable Schools Implementation Strategies in Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Julie M. Davis  and
Jo-Anne Ferreira
Julie M. Davis*
Affiliation:
Queensland University of Technology
Jo-Anne Ferreira
Affiliation:
Griffith University
*
†Senior Lecturer, School of Early Childhood Researcher, Centre for Learning Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4059, Australia. Email: j.davis@qut.edu.au
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Abstract

Networks are increasingly recognised as advantageous when creating and embedding cultural change within organisations. This paper explores and problematises ideas around networks for education for sustainability (EfS), specifically in relation to the implementation of the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI), a national, whole-school approach to EfS. In three Australian states - New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland – AuSSI has been implemented in different ways. In examining the use of products, facilitators and networks to embed initiatives such as AuSSI in Australian schools, we propose a “continuum of cultural change strategies” as a framework for thinking about each of these approaches to creating organisational and cultural change for sustainability. We anticipate that such a framework may assist where choices need to be made in relation to the kinds of capacity building processes that might best achieve “deep and wide” change within schools hoping to engender significant cultural change.

Keywords

Sustainable schoolswhole schoolnetworkscultural changecapacity buildingparticipation
Type
Research Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 25 , 2009 , pp. 59 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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