The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Education and Thinking for the 21st Century

The aim of this chapter is to explore an innovative professional learning and teaching model intended to promote First Nations’ perspectives of sustainability in Australian undergraduate courses. As part of the Yarning to Learn initiative, First Nations university educators facilitate yarning circle...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fricker, Aleryk, Cooper, Grant, Kilmartin-Lynch, Shannon, Sheffield, Rachel
Other Authors: Michele John
Format: Book Chapter
Published: 2025
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97126
_version_ 1848766224211640320
author Fricker, Aleryk
Cooper, Grant
Kilmartin-Lynch, Shannon
Sheffield, Rachel
author2 Michele John
author_facet Michele John
Fricker, Aleryk
Cooper, Grant
Kilmartin-Lynch, Shannon
Sheffield, Rachel
author_sort Fricker, Aleryk
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The aim of this chapter is to explore an innovative professional learning and teaching model intended to promote First Nations’ perspectives of sustainability in Australian undergraduate courses. As part of the Yarning to Learn initiative, First Nations university educators facilitate yarning circles with non-Indigenous university educators. In these safe spaces, non-Indigenous university educators were supported to reflect on and evaluate spaces where First Nations’ voices could be heard, or amplified, through sustainability-related concepts. The program was trialled across three Australian universities: Wurundjeri (Naarm/Melbourne), Wadawurrung (Waurn Ponds) and Nyungar Countries (Boorloo/Perth). To the best of our knowledge, this model of professional learning is a first-of-a kind design, embracing yarning and yarning circles as spaces for sharing and reflecting on how to promote First Nations’ perspectives in our teaching. We draw on autoethnographic methodologies to explore both the experiences of the participating First Nations and non-Indigenous university educators. In this chapter, Yarning to Learn acts as a cross-cultural bridge to support decolonising knowledge and thinking relating to sustainability education, facilitating non-Indigenous university educators as they are mentored, supported, and by led by expert First Nations university educators. These initiatives support efforts to empower non-Indigenous university educators to decolonise teaching and promote undergraduates’ understandings of First Nations’ worldviews of caring for Country and associated sustainability-related concepts and practices.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T11:47:45Z
format Book Chapter
id curtin-20.500.11937-97126
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:47:45Z
publishDate 2025
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-971262025-03-04T05:43:30Z The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Education and Thinking for the 21st Century Fricker, Aleryk Cooper, Grant Kilmartin-Lynch, Shannon Sheffield, Rachel Michele John The aim of this chapter is to explore an innovative professional learning and teaching model intended to promote First Nations’ perspectives of sustainability in Australian undergraduate courses. As part of the Yarning to Learn initiative, First Nations university educators facilitate yarning circles with non-Indigenous university educators. In these safe spaces, non-Indigenous university educators were supported to reflect on and evaluate spaces where First Nations’ voices could be heard, or amplified, through sustainability-related concepts. The program was trialled across three Australian universities: Wurundjeri (Naarm/Melbourne), Wadawurrung (Waurn Ponds) and Nyungar Countries (Boorloo/Perth). To the best of our knowledge, this model of professional learning is a first-of-a kind design, embracing yarning and yarning circles as spaces for sharing and reflecting on how to promote First Nations’ perspectives in our teaching. We draw on autoethnographic methodologies to explore both the experiences of the participating First Nations and non-Indigenous university educators. In this chapter, Yarning to Learn acts as a cross-cultural bridge to support decolonising knowledge and thinking relating to sustainability education, facilitating non-Indigenous university educators as they are mentored, supported, and by led by expert First Nations university educators. These initiatives support efforts to empower non-Indigenous university educators to decolonise teaching and promote undergraduates’ understandings of First Nations’ worldviews of caring for Country and associated sustainability-related concepts and practices. 2025 Book Chapter http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97126 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ fulltext
spellingShingle Fricker, Aleryk
Cooper, Grant
Kilmartin-Lynch, Shannon
Sheffield, Rachel
The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Education and Thinking for the 21st Century
title The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Education and Thinking for the 21st Century
title_full The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Education and Thinking for the 21st Century
title_fullStr The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Education and Thinking for the 21st Century
title_full_unstemmed The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Education and Thinking for the 21st Century
title_short The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Education and Thinking for the 21st Century
title_sort routledge handbook of global sustainability education and thinking for the 21st century
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97126