Australian Journal of Environmental Education最新文献

Although individuals are exposed to a variety of pro-environmental influences in childhood, it is unclear which has the biggest impact on adult beliefs and behaviour. The aim of the current study therefore examined how formal sustainability education and childhood caregiver pro-environmental motivations, beliefs and behaviour, influence motivations and behaviours in adulthood. An Australian adult sample (n = 230) completed a survey measuring pro-environmental motivation, anthropogenic climate change beliefs and pro-environmental behaviour. Recollections of childhood caregivers’ anthropogenic climate change beliefs and pro-environmental behaviours, and formal completion of sustainability education were obtained. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis found childhood caregiver pro-environmental behaviour significantly and uniquely predicted pro-environmental behaviour. Moderation analysis found no influence from formal sustainability education on this relationship. Caregiver and individual climate change belief were associated, but caregiver belief was not associated with pro-environmental motivation. No differences in adult pro-environmental behaviour were noted when considering childhood sustainability education. Results suggest transmission of anthropogenic climate change belief and pro-environmental behaviour occurs from childhood caregivers. Comparatively, formal childhood sustainability education was not significant in establishing ongoing pro-environmental behaviour patterns. This research adds to limited existing literature demonstrating caregiver impact on sustained pro-environmental behaviour and provides possible future direction for promoting sustainable behaviour.

Emerging evidence suggests that business schools in Africa are lagging behind in promoting sustainability education. Grand challenges that point to a limited focus on transformative sustainability education such as environmental pollution, conflicts, inequalities and unemployment still persist in African economies, with the profit motive remaining central to businesses’ operating philosophy. Informed by the clarion call for business schools to be key drivers of sustainability education, this study reviews the African master of business administration (MBA) curricula with the objective of assessing the status of sustainability management education. The content of the MBA curricula of 42 African business schools accredited with the Association of African Business Schools was analysed using a web-based research approach. The findings indicate that the concept of sustainability has not been sufficiently embedded into the African MBA curricula. The values and mission statements of the majority of business schools were found not to be aligned with the principles of sustainability education. It was also found that shareholder value oriented modules constitute the core curriculum of the majority of MBA programmes reviewed. An incremental elective approach was found to be the most dominant strategy used by African business schools to incorporate sustainability education in the MBA curricula. An integrative approach of embedding sustainability education focusing on re-orientation of the business schools’ values, mission, curriculum, systems, operations and governance is recommended. The increased use of experiential learning is also recommended as an effective teaching pedagogy for equipping MBA students with practical aspects of sustainability education.

This article was prompted by a Ministerial veto (2021) of the Australian Research Council’s decision to fund a research project by the authors to explore the student-led climate movement in Australia. It was also prompted by criticism of the veto which accused the Minister of bringing “politics” into what was represented as a scholarly matter. It addresses two questions: How should we understand this idea of “politics” in the context of Australian climate politics since the 1990s? Secondly it considers dominant ways of thinking about “the political” devised by ancient Greek writers and politicians which still inform the European liberal tradition. We question how fit for purpose this approach is in the Anthropocene? Our key argument is that the western tradition of thinking about “the political” is deeply anthropocentric. Historical traditions have encouraged inegalitarian and anti-democratic accounts of who can be political by excluding different kinds of people from political life. The Anthropocene requires a new, critically reflexive account of “the political” that is inclusive of people currently marginalized and excluded as well as nonhumans and nonliving components of ecosystems on which we all depend. This extends the idea of democracy beyond the human and points to a politics of climate justice.