Learning, Work and Education for Sustainability

Title
Learning, Work and Education for Sustainability
Publication Date
2022
Author(s)
Quinn, Frances
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3144-3416
Email: fquinn@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:fquinn
Zegwaard, Karsten
Taylor, Subhashni
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1624-0901
Email: btaylo26@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:btaylo26
Taylor, Neil
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8438-319X
Email: ntaylor6@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:ntaylor6
Editor
Editor(s): Margaret Malloch, Len Cairns, Karen Evans and Bridget N. O'Connor
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Sage Publications Ltd
Place of publication
London, United Kingdom
DOI
10.4135/9781529757217.n33
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/51505
Abstract

The genesis of this chapter is an article in the Journal of Vocational Education and Training (Coll, Taylor, & Nathan, 2003) exploring workplace-based learning as a means of developing Education for Sustainability (EfS). In the 16 years since that publication much has changed, and sadly not for the better. Climate change, which at that time was not perceptibly impacting many people’s lives, is increasingly an immediate reality, with record annual temperatures being recorded almost year on year (Lindsey & Dahlman, 2019), and global climate-related economic losses in 2019 of AU$76 billion (KPMG, 2019, cited in Snape & Ryan, 2019). While individual weather events cannot in themselves be attributed to climate change with any certainty, significant droughts worldwide, an increase in devastating fires (Yu, Xu, Abramson, Li, & Guo, 2020), and an increase in the frequency and severity of hurricanes reflect the trend that the climate is changing, and are consistent with longstanding IPCC predictions (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014). Key messages from the latest Global Environment Outlook (GEO6) (UN Environment Programme, 2019) record a grim picture of the unprecedented rate of deterioration of the global environment. The extensively documented problems in addition to climate change include: worldwide loss of biodiversity, such as the global collapse of insect populations, many of which are vital in providing ecological services such as pollination (Carrington, 2019), increasing air pollution, and degradation of land and freshwater resources including plastic pollution of the oceans (see also, Hayward, 2018).

Link
Citation
The SAGE Handbook of Learning and Work, p. 512-529
ISBN
9781529757217
9781526491114
Start page
512
End page
529

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