Fifteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

As an emerging field in formal education Education for Sustainability needs practical tools for program co-design and evaluation of Sustainability Practitioners that are useful in a complex and multivalent understanding of sustainability. Viewed as a social movement, Education for Sustainability can be reframed as a democratic education geared towards generating active citizenship, mobilised towards the sustainability social movement. This paper explores these ideas through their application in three research projects spanning the three realms of Community Education, Higher Education, and School Education. This first explores spaces of transgression between democratic active citizenship in civil society, exemplified by Tactical Urbanism, and learning institutions. The second aims to develop a flexible Sustainability Practitioner Mapping tool for program co-design based on an open and individualised approach to attaining Key Sustainability Capabilities. The third implements a pilot CityStudio K-12 school-based program aimed at fostering active citizenship in youth through student-led local action projects in public space. Each project addresses Education for Sustainability as a Democratic Education for Active Citizenship in the Sustainability Social Movement. In these projects: sustainability is embraced as multivalent; sustainability practitioners are viewed as diverse active citizens; KSC are seen as a complex spectrum of possible capabilities; program co-design is collaborative, adaptive, and iterative; and learning outcomes are open and emergent.