Fostering EfS Connections
for Community Wellbeing: Working
Meaningfully with What We’ve Got
Sherridan Emery, Kim Beasy and Bianca Coleman
Abstract The Sustainable Development Goals compel universities to engage in
locally relevant Education for Sustainability (EfS) partnerships with communities.
In Tasmania, student researchers in education are engaging with schools to support
sustainability collaborations in communities. This paper showcases a collaborative
community platform that has enabled EfS projects to be co-delivered by the university and local community partners. We theorise the student researcher community interactions from two case studies and offer insights into the ways that student
researchers employ cultural capital in efforts to build local momentum for EfS and
enhance community wellbeing. The first case study explores a student researcher’s
entanglements with a school’s cultural arts class which took its weekly rug-making
sessions into the local community centre. Students taught others how to latch hook
a rug, positioning students in a different light—as cultural producers and contributors to their community. The second case study investigates a student researcher led
community engagement event, ‘Don’t Mess with Burnie’, which was designed to
involve students in taking action to address marine litter. Activities included a beach
clean-up, explorations of the water cycle, and found-object art. Through this event
school students were empowered to make a difference to the local beach foreshore
where they play. Through a discussion of student researcher cultural capital, this
paper offers theoretical insights into the ‘living laboratory possibilities’ of university
research and community collaborations more generally.
Keywords Education · Sustainability · Community wellbeing
S. Emery (B) · K. Beasy · B. Coleman
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Newnham Drive, Newnham 7250, Australia
e-mail: sherridan.emery@utas.edu.au
K. Beasy
e-mail: kim.beasy@utas.edu.au
B. Coleman
e-mail: bianca.coleman@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_27
435
for Community Wellbeing: Working
Meaningfully with What We’ve Got
Sherridan Emery, Kim Beasy and Bianca Coleman
Abstract The Sustainable Development Goals compel universities to engage in
locally relevant Education for Sustainability (EfS) partnerships with communities.
In Tasmania, student researchers in education are engaging with schools to support
sustainability collaborations in communities. This paper showcases a collaborative
community platform that has enabled EfS projects to be co-delivered by the university and local community partners. We theorise the student researcher community interactions from two case studies and offer insights into the ways that student
researchers employ cultural capital in efforts to build local momentum for EfS and
enhance community wellbeing. The first case study explores a student researcher’s
entanglements with a school’s cultural arts class which took its weekly rug-making
sessions into the local community centre. Students taught others how to latch hook
a rug, positioning students in a different light—as cultural producers and contributors to their community. The second case study investigates a student researcher led
community engagement event, ‘Don’t Mess with Burnie’, which was designed to
involve students in taking action to address marine litter. Activities included a beach
clean-up, explorations of the water cycle, and found-object art. Through this event
school students were empowered to make a difference to the local beach foreshore
where they play. Through a discussion of student researcher cultural capital, this
paper offers theoretical insights into the ‘living laboratory possibilities’ of university
research and community collaborations more generally.
Keywords Education · Sustainability · Community wellbeing
S. Emery (B) · K. Beasy · B. Coleman
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Newnham Drive, Newnham 7250, Australia
e-mail: sherridan.emery@utas.edu.au
K. Beasy
e-mail: kim.beasy@utas.edu.au
B. Coleman
e-mail: bianca.coleman@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_27
435