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The question of how to embed transformative change through the implementation of sustainability principles in our education systems has become increasingly important as complex situations, like pandemics and climate change, challenge societies. Education underpinned by a sustainability paradigm requires students to develop the ability to think critically about the nature of knowledge and about the ways in which knowledge is produced and validated. Educating for these skills will require shifts in educational practice, pedagogy and new approaches to learning and teaching. As the relationship between education and sustainability has matured, there has been increasing debate around whether capability or competence frameworks best underlie the type of education we seek to embed in sustainability professionals. Within an Australian context there is a philosophical difference between these two terms and an understanding of how this relates to different typologies of sustainability and education; Education about Sustainable Development, Education for Sustainable Development or Sustainability as Education (Sustainability Education) and this has yet to be fully explored. This is increasingly important as higher education is under pressure to be efficient producers of work-ready graduates. This paper provides an overview of the context of capability and competencies in the Australian higher education context and the associated implications for education, and sustainability education. It compares a competence approach with that of a capability approach and then situates this debate within the evolution of sustainability and education. Finally, it addresses some key consequences of the contemporary approaches to sustainability and education and emphasises the role of the capability approach.

Higher Education plays an influential role in societal transformation towards sustainability. An understanding of the application of sustainability learning from degree programs in a graduate's professional practice can serve as an important feedback loop for developing and advancing sustainability in higher education. A knowledge gap exists between graduate learning outcomes and employability skills, with little exploration of the methods to collect evidence of such relationships. This paper presents the results of a study to measure the uptake and application of sustainability attributes by graduates, post degree-completion. The study developed and trialled a graduate attribute assessment tool informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The results demonstrate that the graduates sampled understood what was required for them to act sustainably and showed preparedness to act appropriately. However, these actions were moderated by the influence of key stakeholders and work-place contexts.

The development of university wide graduate attributes has become an important mechanism for setting generic learning outcomes across higher education institutions. Many universities around the world have developed sets of graduate attributes that they aim to develop through degree programs. Sustainability related attributes have been included in numerous university attribute statements, however, little research exists on methods that can be used to capture data on the application and use of these attributes by graduates. This paper evaluates an assessment tool, based on a scenario/vignette question design, which can be used to capture data on graduate attributes in context and has the potential to be used across a large graduate population which would enable comparative research of learning outcomes to be undertaken. An evaluation of the usefulness of the scenario/vignette design will be presented based on a pilot of the question design with a sample of RMIT University graduates. The results of the pilot show that scenario/vignettes address some of the limitations of existing self-assessment methods and represent a novel way to collect data on graduate sustainability attributes post-degree completion.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight both the need for measurement of graduate capabilities post-degree completion and the challenges posed by such a task. Higher education institutions provide an important site of learning that can equip future professionals with capabilities to manage and respond to complex sustainability challenges in their careers. Measurement of graduate uptake and application of sustainability capabilities is an important part of advancing sustainability curriculum and pedagogy to educate the twenty-first century sustainability capable graduates. Design/methodology/approach: This paper explores the nature of capabilities and reviews existing approaches to capability assessment. Findings: The nature of capabilities and their assessment post-degree completion pose a number of challenges for the development of assessment and measurement tools, which is why sustainability capability assessment methods are deserving of specific research attention. Research limitations/implications: The assessment and application of capability in graduates' professional contexts are an important part of closing the loop between learning and teaching in higher education and professional application of this learning. It is imperative that more research be undertaken on the methodology of graduate assessment, given the need to understand graduate learning outcomes as they apply in professional settings for graduate employability, promoting sustainability and developing effective sustainability pedagogy. Practical implications: Given that there is significant overlap between employability skills, generic graduate attributes and sustainability capabilities, this paper has relevance beyond the measurement of sustainability capability to the measurement of uptake and professional application of generic capabilities more broadly. Social implications: The measurement of graduate capability offers potential to enhance learning for sustainability. Measurement of graduate capabilities is a critical part of closing the loop between workplace expectations, graduate learning outcomes, learning and teaching and curriculum development during degree programs. Originality/value: The review provided in this paper highlights a critical gap in research on methodologies to undertake measurement of workplace application of graduate capability. The paper explores considerations for measurement of graduate learning outcomes, specifically the difference between measuring competencies, skills and capability and the necessity for the measurement of the latter in the context of sustainability education for future professionals.

Use of role-plays to develop deep student-learning has many advocates. Role-play is a powerful approach for learning that develops relevant skills in a range of disciplines and situations. In Higher Education, sustainability programmes role-play pedagogy appears to have great relevance for developing the competencies that these graduates will need. The ability of role-play pedagogy to develop these competencies was assessed through a case study of students in a first-year subject/course at an Australian university. Analysis of the students' written comments indicate that the students were involved in significant learning, and had made substantial progress in developing five key skills for sustainability. The enjoyment and engagement they demonstrated was an added benefit of their experience and potentially of the role-play approach. While it is acknowledged that a role-play requires careful planning and support, and may be considered resource intensive, it can be argued that the student learning achieved is worth the effort.

Education for sustainability (EfS) is widely supported and researched; however, the broad and deep implementation of EfS in universities that is needed lags behind the goals of change agents. This article reviews literature on change procedures; in particular, curriculum change in universities. Our aim was to develop insights into strategies change agents can use to bolster their efforts to implement EfS. We found that change in universities is commonly acknowledged as a complex process, and that taking account of institutional culture is an integral step in curriculum change efforts. We also explored the struggles and successes of attempts to diversify the curriculum in order to find parallels that EfS change agents can learn from. [Paper presented at the 18th AAEE Biennial Conference--Sustainability, Smart Strategies for the 21st Century.]

Academic development is one means of reorientating education within higher education (HE) to include sustainability principles. This paper identifies the requirements of academic development programmes that will provide educators with the skills to engage students in the ideas of sustainability and sustainable development. In order to determine what an ideal academic development programme for sustainability education might look like, a theoretical framework for sustainable education and academic development (SEAD framework) was constructed. This was based on an analysis of the literature in the areas of sustainability education, academic development and organisational change in HE. The aim of this paper was to present and analyse the theoretical SEAD framework against three international academic development programmes in sustainability education for HE, which utilised different approaches and delivery modes. From this analysis, it is possible to determine the elements of academic development that would most likely result in a change in educational development and delivery.

Purpose: The reported research aims to examine the extent to which sustainability capabilities have been delivered by a specific example of Education for Sustainability (EfS) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and how important the capabilities have been in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach Students who participated in an undergraduate internationally based research project were electronically surveyed. Questions sought responses related to demographics, the relevance of five "sustainability competencies" to the participant's employment, the degree to which the five competencies had been developed within the students' project and capabilities participants felt were important to their careers. Findings: Clearly supported was the relevance of all five sustainability competencies, especially that of "interpersonal competence". Practical implications: A problem-based learning (PBL) design guided the students' project and the findings indicate that these designs can be effective in delivering the five capabilities discussed. Interpersonal capability appears to be strongly developed, probably because PBL typically involves teamwork, often across disciplines. Nonetheless, those running these PBL-based subjects could note that careful design may be needed to ensure the development of systems thinking, anticipatory and normative capabilities. Also, the five competencies provide a reasonably good guide for what is important in the workplace and for designing learning experiences. Originality/value: Clarification of competencies valued in the workplace provides guidance for the design of higher education curricular so that graduates become effective sustainability professionals.

Increasingly, employers are seeing the need to have employees who have capabilities in sustainability. The hope is that there will be a sufficient number of appropriately educated people to enter the environment profession to meet the needs of these employers and the community. For some two decades a range of university programmes in Australia have been graduating a steady stream of environment professionals. However, recent data for the preferences expressed by prospective students for environment and sustainability related programmes indicates that there has not been a growth in the popularity of these programmes as might be expected from the public awareness of environmental issues. Rather, there has been a trend of reduced popularity. If the future needs of employers and the broad community for environment professionals is to be met, increased numbers of young people will have to be attracted to the university programmes. Without going into specifics, the article provides some broad suggestions for what could be done.

Education for Sustainability (EfS) has an intimate relationship with professional employment as we seek to develop graduates who will take EfS values and understanding into their workplaces to build a sustainable future. The connection is through the capabilities that employers are wanting in the people they employ, and they are the outcomes of the educational experiences that we educators provide for the graduates. This article discusses the role of capabilities and their articulation in universities, particularly the types of capabilities sought by employers, both in Australia and more generally. We discuss similarities and differences articulated by academics and industry, and the implications for curriculum design and outcomes. In parallel, we note the discussion of capabilities associated with EfS and identify similarities with more broadly defined graduate capabilities. Research associated with the exploration of the breadth of the environment profession provides examples of the connections. These insights combine to highlight tension between what is sought by industry and what is needed to embed sustainable development actions into industry through the change agents graduated from our universities.

Professional associations have a strong influence on what is covered in the curricula of universities, especially that of professional degrees. They also provide members with professional development throughout their careers. Professional associations have the potential to facilitate development of sustainability competency in the workforce in many professions. A survey of professional associations in Australia indicated that by the end of the 2000s, few were facilitating sustainability, either through their input to university curricula, or through professional development. The experiences of a few associations that do facilitate sustainability can be used to build a strategy for enlisting other professional associations to facilitate sustainability competency amongst their members. (Contains 4 tables and 1 note.)

Within the emerging field of research on education for sustainability (EfS), case studies are an important if not the predominant research approach, although often criticised for its lack of internal and external validity and a tendency to draw conclusions with insufficient rigour. While, basic concerns have been expressed and discussed in an early issue of this journal, main assumption still hold true after more than 10 years of research in the field. Only a few approaches so far have tackled the challenge to provide cross-case comparison and the synthesis of case-study results still remains a research desideratum. In this paper, we argue that developments in the field of qualitative and quantitative meta-analysis in educational science offer a framework, which can be used to overcome that shortcoming. After describing the idea of research synthesis, different types of such a meta-analysis are identified and their potential is discussed for existing case studies in higher EfS. This paper concludes with recommendations for further case-study research in the field. (Contains 1 figure.)

The evolution of universities in Australia is nothing new; however, a range of social and economic pressures have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These pressures are leading to changes, for example greater use of electronic media for teaching, which will affect the delivery of teaching programs. Effects on those programs providing education for environmental professionals could well impact whether the graduates achieve the capabilities expected by the profession, and needed by society. These capabilities have much in common with those sought by a range of professions and disciplines, and the employability agenda promoted by universities. Hence, promotion of learning approaches associated with educating environmental professionals could be of value to universities generally. The review of these aspects indicates the need for the profession to formulate approaches to ensure that education of environmental professionals in Australia continues to achieve those capabilities that have been identified. Effort directed this way could assist in maintaining or enhancing, achieving capabilities of the graduates of environmental and sustainability programs. Such effort would also facilitate all graduates to develop the generic capabilities expected by employers and infuse sustainability across all disciplines with a sustainability leaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of how to embed transformative change through the implementation of sustainability principles in our education systems has become increasingly important as complex situations, like pandemics and climate change, challenge societies. Education underpinned by a sustainability paradigm requires students to develop the ability to think critically about the nature of knowledge and about the ways in which knowledge is produced and validated. Educating for these skills will require shifts in educational practice, pedagogy and new approaches to learning and teaching. As the relationship between education and sustainability has matured, there has been increasing debate around whether capability or competence frameworks best underlie the type of education we seek to embed in sustainability professionals. Within an Australian context there is a philosophical difference between these two terms and an understanding of how this relates to different typologies of sustainability and education; Education about Sustainable Development, Education for Sustainable Development or Sustainability as Education (Sustainability Education) and this has yet to be fully explored. This is increasingly important as higher education is under pressure to be efficient producers of work-ready graduates. This paper provides an overview of the context of capability and competencies in the Australian higher education context and the associated implications for education, and sustainability education. It compares a competence approach with that of a capability approach and then situates this debate within the evolution of sustainability and education. Finally, it addresses some key consequences of the contemporary approaches to sustainability and education and emphasises the role of the capability approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on importance of sustainability, climate change, and the impact of environmental degradation. Topics include showing the link between polices for food, climate, the environment and the health, of humans, animals, and the planet; and addressing other human factors such as the challenges of rural isolation and mental health.

Information associated with the assessment of graduate attributes, in the workplace, is limited. Yet if the many environmental and social problems that confront communities are to be managed, we need to ensure that graduates, who have been exposed to sustainability insights through their studies, are applying those insights. To contribute to information for the future this paper reports the development, and trial, of a tool for the assessment of graduates' leadership regarding the inclusion of sustainability principles in their employment. Based on assessment literature, a tool was developed and applied to a sample of graduates in the construction profession. Generally, results show that graduates have not shown leadership for sustainability in their workplaces; rather, they are prepared to be directed by managers, or be content to limit themselves to being informed. Occasionally graduates have been able to take a lead on sustainability, mainly in relation to minimising impacts on the physical and social environments. The graduates are knowledgeable and supportive of sustainability actions but are constrained in the workplace. However, the participants demonstrated a strong connection to sustainability, indicating they would be capable of promoting sustainability action to others, where they had freedom to do so. Consequently, If graduates are to be expected to act as leaders for sustainability in their workplaces, it appears that their educational institutions would need to develop curriculum to help students resist the opposing influences of the workplace (e.g. market/end-user, clients, colleagues). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher Education plays an influential role in societal transformation towards sustainability. An understanding of the application of sustainability learning from degree programs in a graduate's professional practice can serve as an important feedback loop for developing and advancing sustainability in higher education. A knowledge gap exists between graduate learning outcomes and employability skills, with little exploration of the methods to collect evidence of such relationships. This paper presents the results of a study to measure the uptake and application of sustainability attributes by graduates, post degree-completion. The study developed and trialled a graduate attribute assessment tool informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The results demonstrate that the graduates sampled understood what was required for them to act sustainably and showed preparedness to act appropriately. However, these actions were moderated by the influence of key stakeholders and work-place contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of university wide graduate attributes has become an important mechanism for setting generic learning outcomes across higher education institutions. Many universities around the world have developed sets of graduate attributes that they aim to develop through degree programs. Sustainability related attributes have been included in numerous university attribute statements, however, little research exists on methods that can be used to capture data on the application and use of these attributes by graduates. This paper evaluates an assessment tool, based on a scenario/vignette question design, which can be used to capture data on graduate attributes in context and has the potential to be used across a large graduate population which would enable comparative research of learning outcomes to be undertaken. An evaluation of the usefulness of the scenario/vignette design will be presented based on a pilot of the question design with a sample of RMIT University graduates. The results of the pilot show that scenario/vignettes address some of the limitations of existing self-assessment methods and represent a novel way to collect data on graduate sustainability attributes post-degree completion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Use of role-plays to develop deep student-learning has many advocates. Role-play is a powerful approach for learning that develops relevant skills in a range of disciplines and situations. In Higher Education, sustainability programmes role-play pedagogy appears to have great relevance for developing the competencies that these graduates will need. The ability of role-play pedagogy to develop these competencies was assessed through a case study of students in a first-year subject/course at an Australian university. Analysis of the students’ written comments indicate that the students were involved in significant learning, and had made substantial progress in developing five key skills for sustainability. The enjoyment and engagement they demonstrated was an added benefit of their experience and potentially of the role-play approach. While it is acknowledged that a role-play requires careful planning and support, and may be considered resource intensive, it can be argued that the student learning achieved is worth the effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight both the need for measurement of graduate capabilities post-degree completion and the challenges posed by such a task. Higher education institutions provide an important site of learning that can equip future professionals with capabilities to manage and respond to complex sustainability challenges in their careers. Measurement of graduate uptake and application of sustainability capabilities is an important part of advancing sustainability curriculum and pedagogy to educate the twenty-first century sustainability capable graduates.Design/methodology/approach This paper explores the nature of capabilities and reviews existing approaches to capability assessment.Findings The nature of capabilities and their assessment post-degree completion pose a number of challenges for the development of assessment and measurement tools, which is why sustainability capability assessment methods are deserving of specific research attention.Research limitations/implications The assessment and application of capability in graduates’ professional contexts are an important part of closing the loop between learning and teaching in higher education and professional application of this learning. It is imperative that more research be undertaken on the methodology of graduate assessment, given the need to understand graduate learning outcomes as they apply in professional settings for graduate employability, promoting sustainability and developing effective sustainability pedagogy.Practical implications Given that there is significant overlap between employability skills, generic graduate attributes and sustainability capabilities, this paper has relevance beyond the measurement of sustainability capability to the measurement of uptake and professional application of generic capabilities more broadly.Social implications The measurement of graduate capability offers potential to enhance learning for sustainability. Measurement of graduate capabilities is a critical part of closing the loop between workplace expectations, graduate learning outcomes, learning and teaching and curriculum development during degree programs.Originality/value The review provided in this paper highlights a critical gap in research on methodologies to undertake measurement of workplace application of graduate capability. The paper explores considerations for measurement of graduate learning outcomes, specifically the difference between measuring competencies, skills and capability and the necessity for the measurement of the latter in the context of sustainability education for future professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The reported research aims to examine the extent to which sustainability capabilities have been delivered by a specific example of Education for Sustainability (EfS) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and how important the capabilities have been in the workplace.Design/methodology/approach Students who participated in an undergraduate internationally based research project were electronically surveyed. Questions sought responses related to demographics, the relevance of five “sustainability competencies” to the participant’s employment, the degree to which the five competencies had been developed within the students’ project and capabilities participants felt were important to their careers.Findings Clearly supported was the relevance of all five sustainability competencies, especially that of “interpersonal competence”.Practical implications A problem-based learning (PBL) design guided the students’ project and the findings indicate that these designs can be effective in delivering the five capabilities discussed. Interpersonal capability appears to be strongly developed, probably because PBL typically involves teamwork, often across disciplines. Nonetheless, those running these PBL-based subjects could note that careful design may be needed to ensure the development of systems thinking, anticipatory and normative capabilities. Also, the five competencies provide a reasonably good guide for what is important in the workplace and for designing learning experiences.Originality/value Clarification of competencies valued in the workplace provides guidance for the design of higher education curricular so that graduates become effective sustainability professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic development is one means of reorientating education within higher education (HE) to include sustainability principles. This paper identifies the requirements of academic development programmes that will provide educators with the skills to engage students in the ideas of sustainability and sustainable development. In order to determine what an ideal academic development programme for sustainability education might look like, a theoretical framework for sustainable education and academic development (SEAD framework) was constructed. This was based on an analysis of the literature in the areas of sustainability education, academic development and organisational change in HE. The aim of this paper was to present and analyse the theoretical SEAD framework against three international academic development programmes in sustainability education for HE, which utilised different approaches and delivery modes. From this analysis, it is possible to determine the elements of academic development that would most likely result in a change in educational development and delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In universities, the need for education associated with sustainability is widely accepted and it is increasingly being introduced. However, the associated concepts and terms are contested—education for sustainable development and education for sustainability represent increasing levels of change required in curricula, while achieving sustainable education will require even greater change. A transformative pedagogy underlies and contributes to the extent of the change, as more argue for a range of analytical and context-related skills to be developed in students. To operationalize education associated with sustainability, teaching approaches must focus on elements relating to the processes of learning, rather than the accumulation of knowledge—to develop graduates with capabilities to improvise, adapt, innovate, and be creative. Skills such as interdisciplinary thinking, problem solving, team working, and holistic thinking are often mentioned. These skills are encompassed by the pedagogy of problem-based learning (PBL), which provides students with opportunities to learn to think, specifically ‘‘how to think’’ rather than ‘‘what to think,’’ and potentially within the framework of sustainability. Consequently, it is important to identify the commonalities of transformative learning, sustainable education and PBL. A key link here is critical thinking, and the challenge is to transform our pedagogy across all disciplines to have academics and students thinking critically. This article elaborates on these points and argues that the development of thinking is the critical element in education related to sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sustainability in higher education aims to educate learners, as both citizens and future professionals , to build capacity to bring about a more sustainable future. As such, sustainability education can be seen as part of enabling work-ready graduates. Many universities, globally, have begun to embed sustainability capabilities into their degree programs. However, there is a gap in existing methods for assessing graduate application of the associated learning outcomes, post degree-completion. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) has been suggested and applied in the development of an assessment tool to address this limitation. The TPB considers human behaviour is influenced by a number of factors, the measurement of which allows one to understand the likelihood of a person executing a particular behaviour. This paper presents an overview and explanation of how TPB could be applied to graduate sustainability capability assessment, thereby, offering insight into how graduate learning is applied in professional settings. • TPB is a valid theoretical foundation to assess graduate sustainability attributes. • Graduate attribute assessment beyond self-assessment is achieved. • Insight into the professional application of sustainability graduate learning. • TPB has the potential to provide graduate data to inform curriculum renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]