Investigating the implementation of education for sustainability through science in Australian secondary schools: Perspectives and practices of students and teachers
Principal Supervisor: Dr James Deehan
Co-Supervisor: Dr Kate Smithers
Sustainability has been included as a cross-curricular priority (CCP) in the Australian Foundation-10 curriculum and is intended to be taught through all the subjects. Scholars of science education highlight its disciplinary features and emphasize its role in the school curriculum for developing critical skills among students to promote social activism and individual and collective agency toward sustainability. Little to nothing is known about how sustainability is being implemented through science in Australian secondary schools. Therefore, the proposed study intends to explore the perceptions of science teachers and students regarding that. Further, how sustainability is reflected in the secondary science curriculum and how it is translated into classroom teaching and learning will be investigated. The proposed study will adopt a convergent mixed methods design following the pragmatic research paradigm. Data will be collected by using survey questionnaires, document analysis, semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews.
I started my professional career in academia just after I completed my Master of Education degree from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. I always had the plan of pursuing a PhD. As a mother of three young children, finally, when I decided to apply for PhD, I wanted to go to a place that would be family-friendly. Therefore, I chose to apply for the AGRTP International Scholarship at CSU. Luckily, I got the scholarship, and now I am here at Bathurst studying for my PhD. I feel extremely positive about being able to study the proposed topic at Charles Sturt University, which is Australia’s first certified carbon-neutral university under the Climate Active Program. Like CSU, my PhD study is highly inspired by the Wiradjuri phrase “Yindyamarra Winhanganha”. It means ‘the wisdom of knowing how to live well in a world worth living in’ (Charles Sturt University, n.d.).
Bangladesh Forum for Educational Development (BAFED)
Nature Study Club, Institute of Education & Research (IER), Dhaka University
