Social-Ecological Resilience through Education for Sustainability: a case study of community scale resilience

Abstract

The intersection of education for sustainability and social-ecological resilience has received little attention to date, as an an area of research. Education for sustainability is an educational approach which promotes change towards sustainability. Resilience builds capacity to mitigate disruptions, self-organise, learn and adapt. The premise of this book is that successful education for sustainability provides the skills, knowledge and understandings of students, staff and others in the school community to build capacity to manage change in ways that open rather than limit future options. This book adopts a social-ecological perspective to investigate social resilience through education for sustainability. To do this, the author investigates ways four Far North Queensland schools, in Australia, renown for prioritising sustainability education, organise teaching and learning practices and enact the everyday management of the school. In so doing, the author produces a set of propositions about social-ecological resilience at school community level. The book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners interested in sustainability education and resilience.