Sustainability Curriculum Framework – A Guide for Curriculum Developers and Policy Makers

The purpose of the document is to provide information and guidance to curriculum developers and policy makers on how education for sustainability may be effectively incorporated into curriculum. It achieves this through a framework that describes what students may need to learn to live sustainably, and considers the most appropriate times and environments in which these learnings should occur. The framework has been structured into three broad year groupings (K–2, 3–6 and 7–10).

The framework’s content has been structured into three organisers that apply at each of the three broad year groupings:

• Sustainability action process
• Knowledge of ecological and human systems
• Repertoires of practice.

Learning to take action that will result in people living more sustainably is the central learning goal of the framework, as the acquisition of knowledge and skill has little meaning if it does not lead to effective action. The central organiser for the framework’s content is thus the sustainability action process. 

This organiser includes the knowledge and practices involved in addressing and taking action for sustainability. It provides a process for students to develop understandings and apply them with increasing levels of sophistication as they take sustainability action from Kindergarten to Year 10.

The sustainability action process involves:

• making a case for change—exploring a sustainability issue, assessing the current situation, investigating sustainability concepts and ideas, and stating a case for change;
• defining the scope for action—exploring options for making a change, identifying available resources and constraints, seeking consensus, and developing a statement of the agreed direction for action;
• developing a proposal for action—generating and selecting ideas, developing and modifying these to make them ready for implementation, and preparing, communicating and agreeing upon the proposal;
• implementing the proposal—turning the proposal into action;
• evaluating and reflecting—assessing the degree of success of the action and the efficiency of the processes used, identifying possible future directions and the learning that has resulted from the action.