Rashika Sharma

Education for Sustainability in Trades: a New Zealand Perspective Rashika Sharma

United Nations has declared 2005-2014 as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2002) with the anticipation that all curriculums will be modified to reflect concepts of sustainability (Parliamentary Commission for the Environment (PCE), 2004). Sustainability concepts are inconsistently incorporated into education with coverage mainly at degree level (Stone & Baldoni, 2006) and little or no implementation at vocational education (VET). Therefore a qualitative case study research was conducted to determine the reasons for the slow implementation of sustainability concepts into the VET curriculum. Academics, industry personnel and students were involved in the research. Analysis showed that academics and industry personnel considered sustainability as irrelevant to VET and demonstrated a relatively low awareness level about sustainability concepts. However, in comparison students were highly optimistic about the concept of sustainability and considered it highly relevant for VET. This book will be beneficial to academincs and curriculum developers interested in education for sustainability.