Paving the way for sustainable educational change: Reconceptualizing what it means to make educational changes that last

This position paper provides an alternative theoretical framework of sustainable second-order educational change. Here, sustainability refers to: 1) substantial changes made that affect the core of educators’ everyday practice; 2) a longitudinal process that begins when educators contemplate making changes and ends when satisfactory achievement on the other characteristics is reached and overt learning efforts are stopped; 3) a process of individual and organizational learning as well as changes in behaviors; resulting in 4) significant positive effects on student outcomes. Thus, this definition focuses on educators and their schools, not on professional development programs. Methodological considerations are provided.     

Sponsors’ CSR strategies in sport: A sensemaking approach of corporations established in France

This paper explores the perceptions and strategies of corporate sponsors established in France and involved in sport-related corporate social responsibility (S-CSR). Based on the theoretical framework of strategic sensemaking, interviews were conducted with sponsorship managers from 23 corporations involved in S-CSR partnerships with various sports properties. Each phase of the strategic sensemaking process was analyzed, resulting in the identification of three levels of ambiguity in the interpretative process: namely, perceived links between sports properties and CSR, links between S-CSR and sponsors’ own CSR, and links between S-CSR actions and the main sponsorship objectives. We described and gave evidence for seven strategies, highlighting the diversity of S-CSR rationales among sponsors. Other factors were found to influence the sensemaking process, namely sponsorship managers’ knowledge of their company's own CSR, collaboration between sponsorship and CSR departments, and the role of sports properties as sensegivers in S-CSR actions. Finally, we summarize our results in a process model of S-CSR strategic sensemaking in order to provide both sponsors and sports properties with a better understanding of the multiple possibilities for CSR leverage.     

Developing sustainability-literate citizens through outdoor learning: possibilities for outdoor education in Higher Education

UNESCO's challenge to Higher Education institutions to provide educational leadership in sustainable development, provides an impetus to develop innovative, interdisciplinary curricula and pedagogy. Whereas Higher Education curricula in sustainability and sustainable development have tended to come from the environmental sciences, recent studies have highlighted the need for more holistic, experiential, interdisciplinary approaches. As a pedagogical approach, outdoor learning may have something to offer since it lends itself to holistic and experiential learning and enables integration of knowledge and skills from a range of discipline areas. Outdoor and environmental education research suggests that educational experiences in outdoor settings can be significant in developing environmental sensitivity and knowledge. Such knowledge and attitudes are components of ecological literacy and, more recently, sustainability literacy. This paper considers how outdoor experiential pedagogy might contribute to the current sustainability education agenda. It focuses on Higher Education since this sector has the obligation and the capability of instigating a ‘ripple’ effect' in developing sustainability-literate citizens. It discusses possibilities and issues arising from a review of outdoor, environmental and sustainability education literature, particularly, but not exclusively, from the UK. The paper is a precursor to an empirical study into how outdoor learning might contribute to the development of sustainability-literate graduates.     

A Competence-Based Science Learning Framework Illustrated Through the Study of Natural Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction

This article proposes a competence-based learning framework for science teaching, applied to the study of ‘big ideas’, in this case to the study of natural hazards and disaster risk reduction (NH&DRR). The framework focuses on new visions of competence, placing emphasis on nurturing connectedness and behavioral actions toward resilience and sustainability. The framework draws together competences familiarly expressed as cognitive knowledge and skills, plus dispositions and adds connectedness and action-related behaviors, and applies this by means of a progression shift associated with NH&DRR from abilities to capabilities. The target is enhanced scientific literacy approached through an education through science focus, amplified through the study of a big idea, promotion of sustained resilience in the face of disaster and the taking of responsibilities for behavioral actions. The framework is applied to a learning progression for each interrelated education dimension, thus serving as a guide for both the development of abilities and as a platform for stimulating student capabilities within instruction and assessment.     

Environmental education,national curriculum and primary school teachers. Findings of a research study in England and possible implications upon education for sustainable development

This article reports the results of a research study on the impact of environmental education (EE) upon English primary school teachers, and it then discusses the findings of the study in relation to education for sustainable development, as EE is considered one of the two precursors of education for sustainable development. The article begins by considering the development of EE in the English national curriculum of primary schools and then briefly outlines and reports two major findings of the study, comparing them against the new context of education for sustainable development. Overall, the article demonstrates how EE, the national curriculum and teachers have interacted with each other, while arguing that there seems to be a parallel course among education for sustainable development and EE in the national curriculum, with no apparent crossroad to link the two and explain how education for sustainable development is partly based on EE as well.     

Action research in Singapore education: constraints and sustainability

Action research has received increasing attention, especially by school leaders, as a result of the Singapore Ministry of Education’s push for greater autonomy, diversity and innovation at the school level. It is also perceived as a means for teacher professional development and professionalism. The Teachers Network, which has its own brand of action research called ‘Learning Circles’, is in support of such a view. Action research projects are not, however, without problems. In this paper, structures that pose constraints to successful action research endeavours will be the main focus for discussion.     

The ‘East Asian’ Olympic Games: what of sustainable legacies?

Sport has proven to be an unstoppable globalising force. The Olympic Movement has come to epitomise modernisation and the extent to which Western sport has become globalised. The philosophy of Olympism, once resting upon just two pillars of Excellence in Sport and Culture has since 1994 been underpinned by a third, the Environment. All of the Olympic Games host cities now have to support a responsible concern for environmental issues and with that the very sustainability of ‘our’ culture, and sport itself. They must do so by bequeathing a holistic positive legacy from their Games. This paper will analyse the three ‘Asian’ Olympic Summer Olympic Games – Tokyo 1964, Seoul 1988 and Beijing 2008 – by looking at the cultural, sporting and environmental legacies each has left.

The discussion of the concept of sustainability as an element of culture will embrace Littig and Griessler’s idea that social sustainability is about the quality of societies expressed through the nature-society relationships and is not merely an economically based notion.1 ?1.?Littig & Griessler, ‘Social Sustainability’, 72. In this paper we consider the three Asian Summer Olympic Games. Each has been related to a specific nodal point in the host country's national history, as a means of illustrating, indeed emphasising, the always unique impacts of context on event and process. Yet we propose that, locked as they are in distinct epochs and differing cultural, political and economic contexts, they are nonetheless marked in common by an Asian discourse heavily reliant upon economic and nationalistic motivations.

The progressive analysis of each Games demonstrates that although each was unique, particularly in regards to the expectations stakeholders had of ‘their Olympics’, all three host nations represented themselves as ‘modern hybrids’ by simultaneously demonstrating their modernised characters and emphasising their ancient cultures. The analysis demonstrates the holistic impact of these events by reference to the wide range of economic, social, cultural and sporting changes that have emerged for each host from each festival. The evaluation of the nature and significance of these legacies reemphasises the impact of the Olympic Games as a vehicle for social change and illustrates the transformative power of sport at national and global levels.     

Government-affiliated intermediary organisations as actors in system-level transitions

The article draws from two theoretical fields, innovation intermediation and sustainability transitions, to examine the role of government-affiliated intermediary organisations in system-level transitions. The role of intermediaries working between actors – producers and users, entrepreneurs and adopters, idea generators and funders – has seldom been specifically addressed in the transitions literature. Thus, the role of intermediary organisations in enacting change in socio-technical regimes, particularly of intermediaries falling between traditional public sector and private sector actors, is of interest in this article. Empirical analyses of two Finnish organisations, Sitra and Motiva, show that government-affiliated intermediaries are likely to engage in strategic niche management processes in diverse ways, each organisation having its own distinct characteristics. The analysis also points out that to get from niches to transition, sustained systemic intermediaries are crucial in articulating new visions and expectations. Government-affiliated intermediaries may make an important contribution to sustainability transitions by initiating and managing new policy or market processes and by acting as an impartial contact point or voice for new networks of actors. While independence from public administration is likely to facilitate networking, too neutral a stance or limited temporal engagement may reduce the transition-facilitating effects.     

Compulsive policy-making—The evolution of the German feed-in tariff system for solar photovoltaic power

In recent years, policy approaches that build upon the notion of innovation systems have enjoyed increasing attention in science, technology and innovation policy. But while the usefulness of systemic thinking in policy-making has been demonstrated in a large number of empirical settings, we still lack a detailed understanding of the dynamics at play when policy makers address systemic problems. In this paper, we show how complex interdependencies and the uncertain nature of technological change shape the process of targeted policy interventions in socio-technical systems. Toward this end we analyzed the evolution of the German feed-in tariff (FIT) system for solar photovoltaic power, a highly effective and widely copied policy instrument targeted at fostering the diffusion and development of renewable energy technologies. We find that the policy has been subject to a considerable amount of changes, many of which are the result of policy makers addressing specific system issues and bottlenecks. Interestingly, however, often these issues themselves were driven by unforeseen technological developments induced by previous policy interventions. We argue that the pattern of policy serving as both a solution to and a driver of technological bottlenecks shows strong similarities with what Rosenberg (1969) called ‘compulsive sequences’ in the development of technical systems. By shedding more light on how the characteristics of socio-technical systems affect policy interventions, our framework represents a first step toward more closely integrating the literature on innovation systems with the work on policy learning.     

大学开放教育资源项目能否实现资金的自给自足——来自美国杨百翰大学自主学习项目的案例报告

自2001年美国麻省理工学院（MIT）对国际社会宣布推行开放课件（OCW：OpenCourseware）以来,越来越多的大学创建了开放教育资源（OER）项目,很多OER项目创立之初是受外来资金的支持,当项目周期临近或者结束的时候,大学OER是否具有长期的可持续性是很多项目也是开放教育资源运动本身发展面临的重要挑战。聚焦OER项目可持续性,主要是关注大学开放教育资源项目能否实现资金的自给自足和成本的自我补偿。美国杨百翰大学实证研究回答了三个问题：自主学习项目的课程转化为开放教育资源的成本如何？开放教育资源对付费学习项目产生怎样的影响？如果这种影响是积极的,是否足够支持在自主学习项目中维持一个开放教育资源项目？研究结果有力地说明,杨百翰大学自主学习项目转向开放共享模式后在财政上是可以实现自给的。杨百翰大学自主学习项目的OER试点课程提供了一个积极的结论,那就是开放教育资源提供机构可以实现自我的可持续发展,同时满足了向全社会免费开放课程、提供公共产品的目标。