3000 words or equivalent. This may be an individual or group task, due at the end of semester. If students take up the option of working in a group the word limit will be modified in line with the number of participants working in the group. A common mark will be given. Option 1 Design (or redesign) a professional learning module for educators on an aspect of sustainability education. The product will include a justification of the reasons for the design which is supported by relevant literature. Examples of a set of learning modules can be found at: Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future (A UNESCO site) https://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/ This is a multimedia, interactive professional development program with materials, exercises, and links that help educators deepen their understanding of education for sustainability and its importance in addressing the economic, social, and environmental issues of the world. This site presents key educational issues that form the rationale for Education for a Sustainable Future (ESF). The criteria for assessment are listed below: • The professional learning module is complete and comprehensible plan to advance sustainability education. • The professional learning module is suitable for the target learners. • The module is explicitly underpinned by comprehensive use of the existing literature including set readings, class discussions and further research. • The discussion or justification of the module articulates how theoretical knowledge has influenced the design of the module. The following questions are taken into account (i) what kinds of experiences can likely achieve particular sustainability goals in this setting? (ii) where are these experiences best located? and (iii) how are these experiences best enacted or carried out? • The paper demonstrates your capacity to express your view as informed by relevant reading. Connections can be made with other assignments as appropriate. • The paper is well presented without undue spelling, grammatical and typographical errors and it is presented in accordance with the required format, that is, it meets the required length and academic ‘rules’ and conventions, including those for citation and the bibliography. This criterion also acknowledges creative use of visual and other support materials Option 2 A case study of 3,000 words investigating selected aspects of an initiative taken under the umbrella of education or learning for sustainability. (See appendix 1 for further details) The criteria for assessment are listed below: • The paper investigates and reports selected aspects of an initiative taken under the umbrella of education or learning for sustainability. • The paper elaborates the context of the case and explores the parameters of the terms sustainability and sustainability education as they pertain to the empirical material/the case. • The paper makes comprehensive use of the existing literature including set readings, class discussions and further research. • The paper provides an analysis of the main issues emerging from the information collected. In the findings or discussion sections of the paper, the following questions are taken into account (i) what kinds of experiences can likely achieve particular sustainability goals in this setting? (ii) where are these experiences best located? and (iii) how are these experiences best enacted or carried out? • The paper demonstrates your capacity to express your view as informed by relevant reading and empirical evidence. Connections can be made with other assignments as appropriate. • The paper is well presented without undue spelling, grammatical and typographical errors and it is presented in accordance with the required format, that is, it meets the required length and academic ‘rules’ and conventions, including those for citation and the bibliography. This criterion also acknowledges creative use of visual and other support materials. Reminders: All references must be acknowledged in an acceptable way. APPENDIX 1: CASE STUDY A case study of 3,000 words investigating selected aspects of an initiative taken under the umbrella of education or learning for sustainability. Your case data may be drawn from educational programs in educational institutions (e.g. school education, higher education, vocational education and training, lifelong education) or learning as part of everyday life (the learning that occurs as we engage in activities and interactions in our homes, with friends and acquaintances, in our work, in our workplaces, and in our community engagements). A case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its reallife context. In your case study you need to: 1. Choose a particular education or learning initiative that you can collect data on. Your initiative may be: an education institutional initiative like participating in a food education program such as the Kitchen Garden Program; participating in an education for sustainability programme such as AuSSI in schools or The Globe Programme; a program or curriculum initiative like learning in the field environment (e.g. school geography); learning through environmental education programmes (see Ballantyne & Packer, 2009, here); a household, workplace or community initiative like community supported agriculture; farmers’ markets; community conservation projects; urban (roof) gardens; community development projects oriented to transformative learning such as Permaculture Out West; or a technological initiative like social networking for sustainability, Conversation Café and other forms of learning community. 2. Collect data or information from a reallife context (a community group, school, farm, garden, social networking site, etc.) using an appropriate research method e.g. interviews, small survey or questionnaire, onsite observations. This information is empirical material: material collected in the course of field work. If making interviews, 3 interviews are enough. They will be semistructured and run for no longer than 20 minutes. Choose ‘key informants’ from different classes or groups for example, a community group convenor and two group members; a mentor and two mentees; a curriculum coordinator, teacher and student. Or, an employer, employee and union representative. Or, a senior manager, middle or frontline manager and staff member. Other aspects may also be important here e.g. age, level of expertise, ethnicity, gender. Use a preprepared ‘interview protocol’ with 46 lead questions. Adapt these questions for purposes of different interviews. Questions will be framed in relation to your topic or field of enquiry. However, be guided by the following three broad questions: (i) what kinds of experiences can likely achieve particular sustainability goals in this setting? (ii) where are these experiences best located? and (iii) how are these experiences best enacted or carried out? 3. Extract the themes from the information collected & plan to write up the case study (see next page). Your case study can be written up along the following lines: a) Introduction (can be called Context): an outline of the initiative under consideration giving general information and defining any ‘tricky’ terms. In all likelihood, you will make a short history of the initiative here. Conclude this part with a statement of the purpose of the case study (say 200 words). b) Key Concepts or Review of the Literature: a selection of the ideas that you will use to explain the significance of the information collected. Ideas are the underpinning knowledge or theory; they can be understood as the research evidence. Some key concepts are: sustainability, sustainable development, education for sustainability, sustainability learning, global citizenship, formal learning, informal learning, lifelong learning, pedagogy (e.g. place pedagogy, critical pedagogy, experiential learning), curriculum. Concepts are taken largely from your reading. (Say 1000 words.) c) Data and Methods: a brief account of how you collected your data (200 words). Account will include the number of interviews conducted, the circumstances in which the interviews were made, selection criteria for interviewees (e.g. gender balance) and any other information you think is relevant. Start this section off with a sentence like: ‘Semistructured interviews were conducted … ’ or ‘a descriptive survey questionnaire was developed’. d) Analysis: an analysis of the main issues emerging from the information collected. Attempt to analyse the issues pertaining to your initiative locally and globally. You might consider breaking up the body of the writing in ways suitable to the identified issues. Thus, you might use four main sections of about 250 words each. (See Sharpe & Breunig (2009) here). Each of these sections will include quotations from your interview or other material. You may need to look at how writers quote and build primary source material (e.g. interview material) into their ongoing writing, including look at how they introduce quotations and then return the reader to the ongoing text. (Say 1000 words.) e) Discussion: discuss the themes identified from your data in relation to the key concepts or ideas emerging from the literature review (see b above). This discussion may be a subsection of (d), or, it can be threaded through (d). The thing to keep in mind is that you should connect to the concepts you identified originally to explain the significance of the information collected. Again, be guided by the following three broad questions: (i) what kinds of experiences can likely achieve particular sustainability goals in this setting? (ii) where are these experiences best located? and (iii) how are these experiences best enacted or carried out? (Say 400 words.) f) Conclusion (can be called Reflection): conclude your case study by drawing out the broad implications of the case material. Implications will need to be drawn for education (there may be a need for less formal educational provision?) and sustainability. These implications may have to do with: matters of social justice/equity e.g. address questions of who carries the cost of the initiative under consideration, distributions of authority and power; developing increased environmental/ecological awareness and activity in the community; addressing the different values and aspirations that members of different groups and generations bring to the initiative or change under consideration (200 words).