Cross-Sectorial Relationships for Education for Sustainability: Exploring Innovative Partnerships Between Formal Education and Tourism: Frameworks, Curriculum and Action

Abstract

The concept of the finite planet underpins all education for sustainability in its current and future forms and iterations. This chapter describes the opportunities available across the formal school and tourism sectors to educate together for a more sustainable means of organizing our lives. International frameworks for environmental education and education for sustainability are described and the Australian frameworks developed in response to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) are explained. Education for sustainability “promotes learning beyond the boundaries of educational institutions” to equip people “with the knowledge, skills and values to address [the] social, environmental and economic challenges of the 21st century” including preparing for jobs that “preserve or restore the quality of the environment” (UNESCO. Five reasons to support ESD—education for sustainable development. http://www.unesco.org/new/index.php?id=96295, 2013). Educators, interpreters and communicators can create networks and relationships for action and learning. There are many variations on this theme of cooperation and accommodation. The formal education sector is porous. The tourism enterprise sector has a huge impact to make in terms of educating and interpreting for sustainability. Aspects of the sustainability cross curriculum priority in the new Australian Curriculum support recalibrating learning practices that enhance sustainability through building partnerships between tourism enterprises and schools. Contemporary policy and curriculum support education for sustainability and the challenge for tourism is to innovate new ways of organizing educational practice. Increasingly we know that cross-sector partnerships can be a highly productive means for learning sustainability. Three examples of practice from far north Queensland reveal how tourism partnerships can be successfully developed with the formal school sector.