Teachers@Sustainability: A Participatory Action Research Study in Place and Sustainability Education

The Teachers@Sustainability project is a pilot study of professional learning, developed as a collaborative project between the Centre for Educational Research, University of Western Sydney, Brewongle Environmental Education Centre, Department of Education and Communities and the ‘Alive!’ project sponsored by the Hawkesbury Environment Network. The ‘Alive!’ project, funded through a NSW Environment Trust Grant, was designed to involve young people in environmental action. This pilot study was conducted in relation to the ‘Alive!’ project, so the overall model of professional learning involved teachers and school students coming together in an initial conference to plan school-based sustainability activities and again at a final conference 12 months later to present an overview of their progress. The initial conference involved the teachers from the participating schools and girl guide groups and approximately 300 school students coming together at the Hawkesbury campus of UWS. The focus of this planning day was the education of the young people and the educators on a range of environmental issues by a variety of local presenters and workshop facilitators from the university and community. In addition, the aim was to inspire them with examples of environmental action currently underway and provide them with time to discuss and plan a project which would address a local environmental issue which was of importance to them. The final conference was held approximately 12 months later. This was an opportunity for the educators and young people involved to present back to the groups, through interactive workshops, the work they had undertaken in their environmental projects and to showcase their documentaries, which were made by the students of UWS School of Media and Communication Studies.