The document discusses learning standards developed for environment and sustainability programs in Australia. It describes the process used to develop the standards which involved collaboration between 50 higher education institutions and over 250 stakeholders. The standards focus on four domains: technical and disciplinary knowledge, systemic understanding of human-environment interactions, skills for sustainability work, and ethical practice. The standards aim to provide minimum expectations while allowing flexibility for the diverse and transdisciplinary nature of environment and sustainability fields.

1. Learning Standards for
Environment and Sustainability
Expressing leadership through defining disciplinary standards
for a more-than-disciplinary field
Liam Phelan et al.
University of Newcastle, Australia (et al.!)
AESS | San Diego | 2015

2. On the menu today…
1. Context
2. Process
3. Standards
4. Leadership

3. Context…
• 40 institutions, nationally, ~50 UG & ~150 PG programs,
more than 2,600 students graduating annually
• Australian Qualifications Framework – a standards-based
approach to higher education (hello neoliberalism!)
• Disciplinary standards (without standardisation!) for a
more-than-disciplinary field - non-prescriptive minimum
standards

4. Process…
• Commissioned by ACEDD, funded by OLT, we formed a
multi-institutional team of respected scholars
• 12 months, 7 + 2 workshops, online engagement, 250 folks
actively collaborating, 2,500 separate pieces of guidance
(What’s important for graduates? (open) What do you
think of the draft standards? (directed))
• An ‘iterative patchwork consensus’ involving the Project
Team, the Reference Group, the literature, ACEDD, diverse
stakeholders, piloting (Heaven for wordsmithers!)

5. Standards…
• Four domains: TD knowledge; systemic understanding;
skills for environment and sustainability; ethical practice
• Of note: TD, systemic understanding, Indigenous peoples
and their knowledges
• Alignment with international best practices (Delors’ Four
Pillars, Revised Bloom’s, Dublin Descriptors, UK Framework)

6. Leadership…
• Q: How is the field distinctive? A: Combination of: (i) focus
on human society-environment interactions; (ii) valuing
transdsciplinarity; (iii) focus on futures.
• What is common for us? (Bringing diverse folks together –
and through the process)
• Resolving well enough key tensions in the glorious breadth
and diversity of the field, including:
– Education about and for the environment (hello norms!)
– Disciplinary and more-than-disciplinary learning
– Diversity in epistemologies