Creating Cultural Change in Education: A proposal for a continuum for evaluating the effectiveness of sustainable schools implementation strategies in Australia

Abstract

Networks are increasingly recognized as advantageous when creating and embedding cultural change within organisations. This paper seeks to explore and problematise ideas around networks for education for sustainability (EfS), specifically in relation to the implementation of the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI), a national, whole-school approach to EfS. In three Australian states - New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland – AuSSI has been implemented in different ways. In examining the use of products, facilitators and networks to embed initiatives such as AuSSI in Australian schools, we propose a 'continuum of cultural change strategies' as a framework for thinking about each of these approaches to creating organisational and cultural change for sustainability. We anticipate that such a framework may assist where choices need to be made in relation to the kinds of capacity building processes that might best achieve 'deep and wide' change within schools hoping to engender significant cultural change.