Earth citizenship
A conceptual framework for
learning for sustainability
Draft working paper
30 October 2009

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Acknowledgements
The Learning for Sustainability K–12 Curriculum Framework project is an action of the NSW
Environmental Education Plan Learning for Sustainability 2007–2010. It is being managed by
Curriculum K-12 Directorate of the NSW Department of Education and Training. Funding for the
project has been provided by the NSW Environmental Trust, the NSW Department of Education
and Training, the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, and the
Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
Project team
Kevin Butler, Mark Caddey, Lyndall Foster, Michelle Lindsay, Robyn Mamouney, David Smith,
Lianne Singleton
Project consultants
Concept development: Associate Professor James Ladwig, Dr Nicole Mockler
Literature review: Associate Professor Keith Skamp
Student focus group research: Professor Susan Groundwater-Smith
Environmental, sustainability and education advice
Peter Cosier, Professor Alastair Gilmour, Dr Judi Hansen, Professor Stuart Hill, Associate Professor
Paul Kelly, Professor Stephen Kemmis, Larraine Larri, Dr Lynne McLaughlin, Professor A.J.
McMichael, Dr Cynthia Mitchell, Dr Chris Riedy, Mary White, Dr Stuart White
Curriculum advice
John Atkins, Mark Attwooll, Sally Bannerman, Rochelle Bishop, Nikki Bodel, Allan Booth, Gai
Braiding, Rodney Cheal, Keith Collin, Sharyn Cullis, Rosemary Davis, Stuart De Landre, Paulene
Dowd, Owen Dunlop, Mark Edwards, Brian Elliott, Steve Etheridge, Cyrelle Field, Julie Flynn,
Colleen Foley, Bruce Foott, Christine Freeman, Julie Gallan, Caroline Gillard, Peter Gould, Paul
Greenwood, Debra Haesler, Garth Jones, David Kennelly, Julie Kennelly, Julie King, Meg Leathart,
Kerry Long, Paul Maguire, Greg Manning, John McQueen, Nathan Matthews, Matt McKenzie,
Pam Melrose, Richard Morante, Michael Murray, Bob Newton, Trevor Nixon, John O’Brien,
Steve Papp, Christine Prietto, Kath Puddey, Robert Randall, Doug Reckord, Elisabeth Robertson,
Lorraine Rowles, Sue Saxby, Glen Sawle, Paulene Sheppard, Jane Smith, Rob Staples, Caroline
Tebbetts, Joanne Tola, Brian Trench, Corina Walker, Deidhre Wauchop, Vicki Whitehead, Stephen
Wright, Anna Yerbury, Geoff Young
Author
Kevin Butler
Editor
Carol Thomas
Artwork/publishing Dianne McKinnon, Joanne Garment-Debbs
© State of New South Wales through the Department of Education and Training, 2009. This
working document is made available to you for review and comment as part of the consultative
process for developing a Learning for Sustainability K-12 Curriculum Framework. It is not for
reproduction or further distribution. Permission must be received from the Department for all
uses other than the consultative process.


Day–night image - Illuminated human footprint on earth1
Earth citizenship
A conceptual framework for
2
learning for sustainability
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009
Draft working paper, 30 October 2009

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Contents
Acknowledgements
2
Acronyms
4
Introduction
5
Conceptual framework
6
Circle 1 Wellbeing
8
What foundation do I need for contributing to sustainability?
8
Circle 2 Dimensions of Earth citizenship
8
What kind of citizen should I be?
8
Circle 3 Capability for sustainability
9
What do I need to be able to do?
9
Capability area 1: World viewing and valuing
10
Capability area 2: Systems seeking and testing
11
Capability area 3: Futures thinking and designing 30
17
Circle 4 Knowledge for sustainability
20
What do I need to know?
20
Knowledge 1: Ecological systems and processes
21
Knowledge 2: Social systems and technologies
22
1. Social organisation for sustainability37
23
2. Technologies for sustainability
23
Relating capability for sustainability to knowledge for sustainability
24
Bibliography
25
Appendix 1:
Skamp 2009: s2.24
27
Summary of Scott & Vale typology of sustainability learning
27
Appendix 2:
A case for an authentic pedagogy for sustainability learning that
values learning outside the classroom
30
Endnotes
32
Earth citizenship
A conceptual framework for
© State of New South Wales through the
learning for sustainability
3
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009
Draft working paper, 30 October 2009

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Acronyms
DET
NSW Department of Education and Training
HSIE Human Society & its Environment
K-12 Kindergarten to Year 12
KLA
Key learning area
PDHPE Personal Development, Health and Physical Education
Earth citizenship
A conceptual framework for
4
learning for sustainability
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009
Draft working paper, 30 October 2009

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Introduction
This paper presents a conceptual framework for sustainability education in schools. It
is designed to answer the question: what should a citizen in our society know and be
able and motivated to do if we are to create an ecologically sustainable society?1 The
conceptual framework is outlined on the following page, presented in diagrammatic
form on the subsequent page, and elaborated in the remainder of this paper.
It is intended that this framework will provide a basis for scoping and sequencing
learning for sustainability from Kindergarten to Year 12. It is proposed as a potentially
integrating vision for the currently disparate field of environmental and sustainability
education in schools.
The paper is a product of a range of processes undertaken during 2008 and 2009,
including a global literature search (Appendix 1, Skamp 2008), expert forums, student
focus groups, workshops at a range of environmental and curriculum conferences, and a
series of writing workshops in which the project consultants and project team unpacked
these inputs and collaboratively developed the approach proposed in this paper.
Earth citizenship
A conceptual framework for
© State of New South Wales through the
learning for sustainability
5
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009
Draft working paper, 30 October 2009

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Conceptual framework
1. What foundation do I need for contributing to sustainability?
Wellbeing – personal, family and community wellbeing is a foundation and
aspiration of sustainability
2. What kind of citizen should I be if I am to contribute to sustainability?
Global citizen – with a sense of belonging to and having responsibility
within local, national and global communities
Biosphere custodian – with a sense of stewardship or custodianship for the
biosphere (natural environment)
Change agent – with the capacity and motivation to be an agent of change towards
sustainability
3. What do I need to be able to do if I am to contribute to sustainability?
World viewing and valuing – having repertoires of practice for becoming aware of,
developing and discussing my beliefs, perceptions, values and ethical principles, and
those of others
Systems seeking and testing – having repertoires of practice for understanding
and working with complexity, uncertainty and risk (including scientific method,
systems thinking and modelling, game scenarios and role-playing, probability and
risk assessment)
Futures thinking and designing – having repertoires of practice for influencing the
future, and designing and creating sustainable communities
4. What do I need to know if I am to contribute to sustainability?
Ecological systems and processes – recognising that life is a function of ecosystems;
understanding and being able to monitor ecosystem functions and major biosphere
processes and their interactions, over various scales of space and time
Social systems and technologies – recognising that human society is a part of the
biosphere and that there are limits to the demands we place upon it; understanding
how communities, practices and products can be assessed for and changed towards
sustainability
The conceptual framework is presented diagrammatically in Figure 1 on the next
page, and further described in the pages that follow.
Earth citizenship
A conceptual framework for
6
learning for sustainability
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009
Draft working paper, 30 October 2009

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Figure 2
Earth citizenship
A conceptual framework for
© State of New South Wales through the
learning for sustainability
7
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009
Draft working paper, 30 October 2009

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Circle 1 Wellbeing
What foundation do I need for contributing to sustainability?
Wellbeing is taken to include health, happiness, quality of life and a sense of meaning,
purpose and interconnectedness within one’s physical and social environment. Self-
knowledge is a component of, or precondition for, enduring personal wellbeing.
Wellbeing is at the heart of sustainable communities, and the concepts of health
and wellbeing are related to the concept of sustainability.2 Principle 1 of the 1992 Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development states:
Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are
entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.
(United Nations 1992)
The concepts of health and wellbeing also apply to whole communities and to the
natural environment,3 making these concepts integral to sustainability education.
Personal wellbeing for all implies respect for the rights and responsibilities of all.4
Defining and identifying wellbeing and related concepts such as health and
sustainability, is contentious and should be seen as an opportunity for sharing and
comparing diverse perspectives in sustainability education.
Including wellbeing in school sustainability programs, for example in canteen policies,
assists in giving sustainability a central place in school practices.
Circle 2 Dimensions of Earth citizenship
What kind of citizen should I be?
The term Earth citizen is used to encapsulate the type of active citizenship that is needed
for the human community to become sustainable. The following three dimensions or
aspects are proposed as essential for Earth citizenship in the 21st century. Each has
curricular and pedagogical implications.
Global citizen
Sustainability is only possible if it occurs across a range of scales, from local to global.
This requires a multi-scale sense of citizenship, whereby individuals recognise their rights
and take responsibility for their personal life choices and their membership of a range of
organisations and levels of government from local to global.
The expression think global, act local has been a central idea of environmental education
since the 1970s. For contemporary Earth citizenship it needs to be extended to think and
act local to global and global to local.
Custodian or steward of the biosphere
Ecological sustainability is the material foundation for all other concepts of sustainability.
This requires that people have a sense of custodianship or stewardship for the natural
environment, actively caring for it as individuals and ensuring that it is a priority in
community decision-making and action.
Earth citizenship
A conceptual framework for
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learning for sustainability
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009
Draft working paper, 30 October 2009

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Stewardship features in the 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young
Australians, which states that young people should:
have a desire and capacity to work for the common good, including stewardship of
the natural environment
Stewardship is a contestable concept with a range of interpretations, from
anthropocentric to ecocentric, secular to spiritual. Indigenous concepts of custodianship
and belonging to country provide valuable perspectives in developing this and the other
aspects of Earth citizenship.
A need to develop environmental stewardship has implications for curriculum,
teaching practice and the culture of schools. For example, it is likely to require personal
experience in natural environments and the care of these environments, and reflection
on this experience. This links to Karen Malone’s research on the benefits of learning
outside the classroom (Appendix 2, Malone 2008).
Change agent
The scale and rate of change needed to create global sustainability this century requires
that citizens not only ‘do the right thing’ but also recognise and take responsibility
for broader societal change. In other words they need to see themselves as agents of
change.
To be effective, change agents need the capacity to distinguish between what should
and should not be changed and what can and cannot be changed. This has implications
for curriculum, pedagogy and school culture.
Creativity and capacity for innovation appear to be important characteristics for change
agents. Repertoires of practice, in the area of Futures thinking and designing, discussed
later, are linked to the development of creativity and innovation and other aspects of
change agency.
It is likely that active, project-based learning is essential for developing this aspect of
Earth citizenship.
Circle 3 Capability for sustainability
What do I need to be able to do?
Repertoires of practice for an Earth citizen
The concept of repertoires of practice for an Earth citizen is used in this framework in
preference to skills to describe combinations of knowledge, competence and values
required for assisting in the development of a sustainable society.5 In principle, each
repertoire will consist of a practice plus supporting knowledge and values.
It is a major hypothesis of this framework that the fundamental repertoires of practice
for Earth citizenship can be grouped under just three headings:
• World viewing and valuing – the area of fundamental beliefs, perceptual orientations,
ethical principles and values, and the capacity to reflect on and change these
• Systems seeking and testing – the area of methodologies for comprehending and
working rationally with complexity, uncertainty and risk
Earth citizenship
A conceptual framework for
© State of New South Wales through the
learning for sustainability
9
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009
Draft working paper, 30 October 2009

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• Futures thinking and designing – the area of visualising and choosing among
alternative futures, as well as designing, implementing and evaluating for their
realisation.
Each of the three areas covers a range of possible types and levels of practice, from
micro practices such as installing a device, to macro practices such as engaging in a
debate or creating sustainability solutions. Practices such as critical literacy either fit
within or are foundational for these three areas.
In any real-life situation, all three of the repertoires of practice apply. Developing
expertise in the integrated application of the three areas therefore requires regular
real-ife learning opportunities and reflection on them. Schooling which does not
routinely provide these opportunities is unlikely to optimise students’ potential to learn
for sustainability. If the sustainability learning goals of successive Australian national
educational statements are to be achieved, the formal curriculum has to ensure that
such opportunities are created and effectively utilised.
Capability area 1: World viewing and valuing
Repertoires for becoming aware of, and for developing and discussing our beliefs,
perceptions, values and ethical principles
Creating a more sustainable society requires change in, and negotiation of, our habitual
ways of perceiving, thinking, valuing and acting, at individual, group and community
levels.6 This requires the development of insight into our own practices of World viewing
and valuing, the ability to articulate these, and the capacity to understand and entertain
the world views and values of others.7 It includes an appreciation that the world views
of cultures other than our own provide different values and perspectives on the issue of
sustainability, while also creating challenges for reaching agreement.8
Although it is common to refer to a person’s world view and values as if they are stable
entities, it may be more accurate to describe them as practices, ways of perceiving
and thinking, hence the title ‘world viewing and valuing’. In part, this term may be
interpreted quite literally as it includes what we habitually see or notice and value (and,
by implication, ignore and not value) in the natural and cultural environment around
us. One of the best ways of becoming aware of differences in world viewing is to
collaborate with people of different cultures and environments.
It is proposed that learning for sustainability should include both a consideration
of the strengths and weaknesses of mechanistic, reductionist world views and the
development of whole systems thinking as a foundation for ecological world viewing.9
Most curriculum areas contribute to this area of practice. The learning areas of English
(e.g. via narrative but also other text types), HSIE, Creative and Performing Arts and
Languages provide windows on world viewing and valuing across cultures, and assist
students to develop and communicate their own beliefs, values and perceptions.
Indigenous, multicultural and gender perspectives are highly relevant. Philosophy
in schools can make a valuable contribution. Key scientific content for learning for
sustainability that is consistent with an ecological world view is summarised in the
Knowledge for sustainability section.Ultimately, however, this is an area of practice
of ‘learning to’ rather than ‘learning about’. For students to integrate content
from science and other disciplines into their world views and develop necessary
metacognitive capacities, they require opportunities to go beyond textbook learning, by
questioning and discussing their own and others’ beliefs and values as part of authentic
Earth citizenship
A conceptual framework for
10
learning for sustainability
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009
Draft working paper, 30 October 2009

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