Step up for active travel with Feet First

There are a range of prizes available for schools that participate, some of which are linked to collecting walking numbers, but others are judged on creative input.  In the first term there will be an optional website participation project for each school to submit one illustrated story about ‘How we used to walk to school ‘.  Each participating school will be given a book voucher to present to their winning student. 

Every culture has used stories and storytelling not only as a means of entertainment, but also for educational purposes. With this in mind, one school in Term Four will get the chance to publish their own picture book on active travel working alongside a professional author, illustrator and editor. The book will also have a professional launch and be distributed to every school library in New Zealand.

For further information on Feet First Walk to School Every Week or to register there is an interim website www.feetfirst.govt.nz or you can email feetfirst@nzta.govt.nz.

A new interactive schools website (same web address) featuring the curriculum resources will be launched in late January 2009. The site will showcase articles, case studies and links to class blog sites so participating schools can compare and share information.

What is NZAEE Foundation Member Pam Williams PhD Research all about?

NZAEE invites Pam to share her research with us.

University Leadership for Sustainability:

UNESCO (1997) notes that “Education, in short, is humanity’s best hope and most effective means to the quest to achieve sustainable development” and there are increasing calls for both formal and informal education sectors to take a leading role in education for sustainability - to help citizens learn how to manage change and make transitions in practice away from unsustainable practices. Yet, as a part-time member of the national team of Education for Sustainability Facilitators, regionally based within Aotearoa New Zealand universities, I was astonished to find (in 2002) very  little learning for and action for sustainability among tertiary students in our universities.

I wondered why this was so, and when I realised how complex the reasons may be, decided to enrol part-time for a PhD, knowing that a research enquiry would provide easier access to a range of academics and policy makers involved in sustainability initiatives. At that time I knew of several international universities that were involved in learning programmes for a sustainable future, many linked to the operational sustainable management practices of their institution and I wondered how they had managed to establish their courses and whether our national universities could be encouraged to follow suit. In addition there are growing societal expectations that universities will undertake a leadership role in facilitating learning that enables current and future generations to re-design their personal and professional activities, for creating a more sustainable future.

Twenty lecturers teaching in integrated sustainability learning programmes, including eight in Australia, six in Canada and two each in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom were interviewed. The interviewees had experience in developing sustainability learning programmes and represented a range of different schools within university faculties. Initially I hoped that finding out what sustainability learning initiatives were being developed and implemented in universities and then seeking how they were developed would provide a platform for Aotearoa New Zealand universities from which to adapt or create successful sustainable learning initiatives for their students.

Interviews were also conducted with ten lecturers involved in the development and teaching of courses or papers with a sustainability focus, in four of the eight universities in Aotearoa New Zealand. I planned to compare their experiences with those of the international interviewees and decided, when faced with an extensive range and overwhelming quantity of interview data, to use grounded theory methodology to analyse the results. As often happens with research, I ended up in a slightly different ‘space’ than I had anticipated.

Extensive analysis of my research findings revealed that much more than ‘process’ was involved in developing tertiary learning for sustainability initiatives. There were key themes underlying the differences in sustainability learning programmes between international universities and those in Aotearoa New Zealand and the role of university leadership for sustainability emerged as an important factor that helps explain these differences.

In my thesis I discuss these leadership themes, relate them to academic leadership theory (an interesting new academic learning area for me!) and describe how this led to gaining fresh insights into the importance of effective ‘positional’ university leadership supporting cross-university ‘distributed’ leadership, for enabling the implementation of sustainability initiatives. Eventually this led to generating a theoretical model: an active dendritic framework for university leadership for sustainability, that may be useful for connecting and enabling collaboration between university leaders for sustainability.

I can hear those who never took human biology asking the question … “what is dendritic”? Well, dendrites are those microscopic filaments (for want of a better word) that send chemically activated messsages back and forth from one nerve cell to the other. There is constant active feed-back and feed-forward to keep the body working normally and lots of rapid response when circumstances change. You will get the picture.

There are many challenges facing university teachers who wish to include authentic learning for sustainability in their programmes, some are similar to those challenges facing teachers in primary and secondary teaching. However, when I used the theoretical model and evaluated reasons for the relative lack of comprehensive education for sustainability in our universities ……… the key theme remained ‘leadership’. This led to examining the roles of government, the Tertiary Education Commission and university policies for teaching and learning for sustainability/sustainable development and finding them inadequate, or largely rhetoric. While the research findings and the theoretical framework may apply to many other institutions, because I was limited by the requirements of a PhD thesis, I remained focused on universities, leading to recommendations for;  

To paraphrase Martin Luther King’s words, we face the fact that ‘tomorrow is today’ and we face the ‘fierce urgency of now’ and consequently, in the concluding thoughts of my thesis, I suggested that for universities to further delay embarking on learning and teaching for sustainability is to shirk their professional and personal adult responsibilities for current and future generations of students. Additionally, if universities fail to engage in education for sustainability, then they may encounter genuine antipathy from a society wishing to move beyond rhetoric and academic debate, to learning how to manage current and predicted challenges to a sustainable future.

I argue that if universities fail to engage in learning for sustainability, society may look to leadership from government and support government intervention in education to achieve national goals of sustainable development. One possibility is to make it a legal requirement to include education-for-sustainability (as in Sweden) in all sectors of education, particularly the tertiary sector, and develop a new Tertiary Education Strategy to better reflect the sustainability context. Another intervention is to strategically re-orient funding for university teaching and research to encourage changes to learning for sustainability, as occurred in Taiwan (J. Su, personal communication, January 25, 2006).

I suggest that maintaining a ‘business as usual’ approach is the metaphorical equivalent of the behavioural challenge that humans face when attempting to alter entrenched habits, particularly addictions, to make changes that lead to a preferred, healthier lifestyle. Unfortunately, to date there is little evidence that New Zealand universities have adequately engaged with the international agenda of education for sustainable development, nor considered how best to meet the many challenges that face them when re-orienting their research, teaching and learning to address future sustainability issues. Stone and Baldoni (2006) suggest that although aspects of bio-physical resource sustainability issues are explored in some university programmes, the human factors, including values and aspirations appear to have little coverage.

Hopefully, the findings, interpretations and recommendations made in “University Leadership for Sustainability – an active dendritic framework for enabling connection and collaboration” will stimulate conversation and debate and support those in universities (and other tertiary institutions) who have begun their journey to establish comprehensive university-wide initiatives for learning for sustainability.  

The thesis will be on the website: www.futuresteps.co.nz from early November. Meanwhile, if you really ’need to read’ and can’t access the website, email Pam on pam.williams@vuw.ac.nz and she will forward you a pdf. copy (4.5 MB). Or you can read a hard copy in the VUW library.

Energy-efficiency schools: new online guide

Energy-inefficient buildings, fossil-fuel energy sources, and energy practices of an earlier era – that is the common perception of New Zealand schools.

However, many schools are reviewing their energy use. They are adopting energy-efficiency practices, often building them into the curriculum, and they have exciting success stories to tell.

Some of these stories are outlined in the Energy-efficient Schools guide, which will soon be online at www.neri.org.nz/education/energy_efficient_schools

A collaborative guide

The Energy-efficient Schools guide is a collaborative venture, initially produced by the National Energy Research Institute (NERI) in partnership with The Enviroschools Foundation, the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority (EECA), and supported by the Ministry of Education for this web development.

In addition, an advisory panel of energy and education experts contributed their expertise. The result is detailed, up-to-date information on efficient technologies in lighting, heating, equipment, hot water, and transport in schools. Based on this information, downloadable audit and planning templates are provided. Coming soon are interactive tools for inputting energy data and obtaining data for comparison and monitoring.

Learning from successful schools

The guide explores the impressive energy-efficiency efforts of two large secondary schools and two small primary schools, from Auckland to Southland. It then details how all schools can take action.

Taking action is not simply a technical matter, but first involves changing behaviours. For example, an audit conducted during the holidays by students at Northcote College found 289 items left on unnecessarily. This finding led to an important change of focus, which the Northcote case study details.

At Wallacetown Primary, an energy audit led to improved classroom lighting and heating, and a longer swimming season, yet the school’s overall energy use dropped. The Wallacetown case study explains how they achieved this happy outcome.

An action plan and templates

The guide first recommends planning as a whole school, followed by an action plan with three different areas of focus:

1.    Avoid wasting energy.

2.    Use energy more efficiently.

3.    Use energy from renewable sources.

Each of these areas is detailed in the guide, starting with simple `housekeeping’ measures to counter waste. These measures typically bring immediate savings of at least 10%, carry zero cost, and have a strong educational component for both students and their families. Students and staff can use a simple-fix template in the guide to check their school’s energy use and to prioritise change.

Once the immediate savings are gained, a longer-term planning template enables schools to tackle deep-seated issues, from energy-inefficient equipment to sustainability.

While the guide provides tools for schools to use themselves, it’s interesting to note that all four schools in the case studies used expertise outside the staff and student body to undertake energy audits. This external expertise was funded in various ways by the different schools.

Grants, loans, and further advice

The guide includes extensive contact details for funding agencies, advisory organisations, and websites.

The websites include education websites, both New Zealand-based and overseas-based. They are particularly useful to schools who are building their energy-efficiency programme into the curriculum. With New Zealand’s new energy policy and growing environmental awareness, this process has much to commend it.

Energy efficiency is a key part of the Enviroschools Programme, which supports students and their schools to plan, design, and take action for sustainability. In addition to the Enviroschools’ teaching and learning resources, two new initiatives will support schools to develop sustainable energy and environmental building projects. Available later in 2008 are:

·       Measuring Sustainable Outcomes: a tool which assists schools to audit, measure, and track their energy saving. It enables regional and national school comparisons.

·       Sustainability Directory: an online database of sustainable products and services relevant to school sustainability projects.

The Energy-efficient Schools guide supports schools to get started.

Email: National Office,

 or phone 04-973 3438 if you would

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