Mike Taylor

Sustainability champions?: Academic identities and sustainability curricula in higher education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of academic staff who are committed to embedding sustainability within tertiary curricula and pedagogy. Design/methodology/approach The focus of this paper is on a New Zealand university. A survey of staff was undertaken and in-depth interviews conducted with 11 sustainability “champions”. A narrative variant of thematic analysis was used to examine the ways these sustainability “champions” made sense of the work they do. Through an analysis of their metaphors and metaphorical language, a sense of the identities that they held as educators of sustainability was gained. Findings Three types of identities emerged – the sustainability “saviour”, “nurturer” and “struggler”. These identities reflected the champion’s experiences, disciplinary affiliations and pedagogical approaches. Interdisciplinarity emerged as a key tenet and challenge for such sustainability champions. Originality/value This paper provides rare insights into the experiences, identities and teaching approaches of sustainability champions within higher education. It highlights the need for university-wide conversations and cross-discipline support for such academics.

The 2010 Canterbury earthquake: curriculum shockwaves

This paper reports data from an exploratory questionnaire designed to capture “curriculum P-waves” – those curriculum responses that were the fastest and therefore measured first – following a significant earthquake in New Zealand. As well as taking a professional interest in a major disaster in their backyard, it is assumed that social science and science teachers’ curricula responses are also influenced by the educational environments in which they work. Thus, it was of interest to chart the curriculum P-wave response to the Canterbury earthquake by teachers whose subject specialism is closely aligned to the study of extreme natural events. Analysis of data offered empirical support for curriculum P-waves across the country, with some evidence of refraction as the backwash effect of high-stakes assessment simultaneously constrained and facilitated teachers’ curriculum response. Overall, the findings indicate curriculum enactment commensurate with policy that encourages teachers to be responsive to student needs and interests.