Mentoring local government in education for sustainability

Mentoring is increasingly being recognised as a useful tool to support the shift towards learning for sustainability.

ARIES was funded by the Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts to undertake a mentoring program with selected local governments across Australia to build their capacity to use education and learning-based strategies for change towards sustainability.

The project was designed to examine whether mentoring and facilitation is an effective method for local governments to:

• develop understanding and skills in Education for Sustainability
   
• develop their capacity to use these skills to improve the effectiveness of their own projects
   
• generate long-term organisational change for sustainability within their councils.
   

The following design features contributed to the success of the project:

• Local government staff were able to consider how education and learning can assist in the planning and implementation of sustainability policies and programs.
   
• The project used a mixture of group mentoring seminars and individual council workplace mentoring.
   
• Workplace action plans were developed.
   
• Prior support for the project was gained from council management.
   
• Journals were used as tools for critical reflection.

Online handbook

In addition to improving practice in Education for Sustainability in the participating local governments, the project also developed an online handbook comprising a set of resources for local governments encompassing learning-based strategies for change and community engagement processes.

You can access the online handbook here.