99222 Sustainability Studio

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

UTS: International Studies: International Studies and Global Societies
Credit points: 12 cp

Subject level:

Undergraduate

Result type: Grade and marks

Requisite(s): ((99215 Sustainability in Context OR 99221 Sustainability in Context) AND 99223 Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning AND 99220 Planetary Decarbonisation)

Description

This final Sustainability and Environment core subject supports students to self-source a short placement of 100 hours with an external organisation, in a role that draws on their skills sets from the Bachelor of Sustainability and Environment. The organisation in which students intern also form the basis of a major course-work project. The major project that students undertake, enables them to closely study how a real-world organisation seeks to address issues related to sustainability (environmental, social, and/or economic[KY1] ). Through face to face workshops and online interactive learning modules, students are guided to draw on transdisciplinary knowledge and skills gained from preceding subjects in their substantive discipline stream and the suite of their core Sustainability and Environment subjects. The major project sharpens their capabilities to scope, research and analyse a sustainability and environment problem, and appraise policy and practice strategies to address it. Prior to the session starting, students receive academic guidance and administrative support in sourcing their work placements. The task of securing a placement helps students not only gain insights about sustainability and environment organisations and strengthen their professional networking skills, but also develop professional language and practice capabilities including: being interviewed, workplace communication, and task management.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

a.	Use ethnographic methods to examine how industries and organisations are addressing environmental, social and/or economic sustainability challenges
b.	Synthesize understandings from studies in Sustainability and Environment, studies in the Professional degree, and workplace experience, to generate arguments about the complexity of tackling sustainability from institutional/organisational contexts
c.	Draw connections between everyday work phenomena, global and local processes, and theories related to environmental, social and/or economic sustainability to develop arguments and rationales
d.	Critically reflect upon industry and workplace standards as to respecting protocols to work with and for Indigenous Australians in relation to sustainable development
e.	Prepare and deliver oral, visual and written communications that are clear, coherent and suitable for the particular professional environment

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject engages with the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs), which are tailored to the Graduate Attributes set for all graduates of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (INT = International Studies CILOs):

Employ teamwork and independent insight to understand and operationalise sustainability objectives (SE.1.1)
Evaluate and assess the impact of sustainability initiatives (SE.1.2)
Conduct multi-disciplinary research into sustainability issues� (SE.2.1)
Devise creative and evidence-based solutions to sustainability challenges (SE.2.2)
Employ knowledge from and about local and international contexts to account for the differential impacts of sustainability needs and solutions (SE.3.1)
Value indigenous knowledges as relevant precedents to understand the human-nature coexistence in Australian and international settings (SE.4.1)
Act ethically and responsibly to promote sustainability within civic and international contexts (SE.5.1)
Communicate complex concepts clearly and effectively to a variety of audiences (SE.6.1)

Teaching and learning strategies

The main learning activities in this subject are the experience of work and independent inquiry into how sustainability issues are addressed in industries of practice. You will undertake preparatory workshops focused on internship requirements and internship search strategies prior to the session commencing. Once session starts you will continue with workshops on goal setting for professional development and applying research methods for workplace observations. You will also engage in self-paced asynchronous online modules and group discussions. De-briefs with the subject coordinator will occur towards the end of the internship where you will reflect on their professional development. To maximise flexibility and to enable you to undertake your work placements when and where best suited to your interests, you will self-source your internship. You will be provided academic support including advice during the placement, provision of academic resources on reflective learning, research skills, and work in progress online discussions.

Content (topics)

The core topics for the subject are case-studies and theory that draw out the standards, approaches, and practices to addressing sustainability challenges in real-world institutional/organisational contexts. You will connect this course-work with your experience in the work placement where you observe and reflect on everyday practices and cultural norms in the workplace around sustainability, and organisational approaches and industry standards on sustainability initiatives and policies. The session begins with briefing workshops to prepare you for your internship experience including developing learning goals around your professional development and developing your skills in navigating the professional workplace. The workshops then move to focus on reflective practice and workplace learning approaches, and learning research methods for organisational settings, specifically, organizational ethnography. Once you commence your internship, you will engage in interactive self-paced online modules in Canvas of pre-recorded mini lectures and curated audio-visual/digital material (eg. relevant TED Talks, academic lectures, podcasts, news features, public data sets, scholarly research, etc.) that will act as starting points to critically reflect on your workplace learning about the complexity of tackling sustainability issues in real-world institutional/organisational settings. You will also be expected to do independent scholarly research to support your reflections. By learning through work, ultimately, you are given the opportunity to reflect on what positive change you can contribute in the future industries/professions in which you will one day work. The placement will be of no less than 100 hours and you will undertake assessments which help you critically evaluate your workplace learning experience in relation to the themes from Sustainability and Environment studies.

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Work Observation Protocol

Objective(s):

a, c, d and e

Weight:

40%

Length:

1,200 words

Criteria linkages:

Criteria	Weight (%)	SLOs	CILOs
Depth of engagement with relevant references to justify the use of methodology in workplace learning	20	a	SE.2.1
Quality of reflection on ethical dimensions and protocols in working with and for Indigenous Australians, supported by relevant references	30	d	SE.4.1
Appropriateness of topics identified that will generate learnings of organisation/industry approaches to addressing sustainable development , justified by relevant references	30	a, c, d	SE.1.2, SE.3.1, SE.4.1
Clarity of arguments expressed throughwritten communication	20	e	SE.6.1

SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Assessment task 2: Work Experience Reflection

Objective(s):

a, b, c, d and e

Weight:

60%

Length:

3,000 words (including references)

Criteria linkages:

Criteria	Weight (%)	SLOs	CILOs
Appropriateness of application of ethnographic observations and interview material in reflection	20	a	SE.2.1, SE.5.1
Depth of critically analysis of the complexity of addressing sustainability challenges from institutional/organisational contexts, justified by relevant references	30	b, c, d	SE.1.1, SE.2.2, SE.3.1, SE.4.1
Depth of critical discussion of workplace practices on protocols for working with and for Indigenous Australians, and propose improvements or strategies for furthering positive communications and engagements, justified by relevant readings	30	d	SE.4.1
Clarity of arguments expressed through written communication and coherent analysis	20	e	SE.6.1

SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Assessment task 3: Minimum requirement assessment tasks

Objective(s):

c, d and e

Weight:

Mandatory task that does not contribute to subject mark

Length:

1,000 words for part 1

15 minute de-brief for part 2

100 hour internship for part 3

Criteria linkages:

Criteria	SLOs	CILOs
Learning Plan: Suitability of learning goals, justified by an authentic self-assessment of development needs	d	SE.3.1
Learning Plan: Depth of integration of theory learnt in in-class workshop and subject references	c	SE.2.1
Learning Plan: Clarity and coherence of expression of ideas and goals through written communication	e	SE.6.1
Internship De-Brief: Timely correspondence with Subject Coordinator	e	SE.6.1
Internship De-Brief: Depth of critical reflection on skills development	d	SE.2.2, SE.4.1
Internship De-Brief: Confirmed attendance from internship supervisor	e	SE.6.1

SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Minimum requirements

It is a requirement of this subject that students complete an Internship Learning Plan; participate in an Internship De-Brief of 15 minutes with Subject Coordinator/Instructor; and undertake 100 hours of internship work by Week 12, confirmed by the internship host via a Host Evaluation Form. Students who do not complete these task components will receive a Fail X grade.

Required texts

This subject draws on a wide array of academic literature and digital media reports. Relevant chapters and other essential readings will be indicated for corresponding weeks and listed in the weekly program in the Canvas Modules. Readings are available to download from the UTS Library Subject Resources eReadings for the subject, or are available freely on the web via the URL given in the weekly program section. Where possible, print copies will be placed on Short Loan and open Reserve in the UTS Library. The following books are also recommended for seminar and essay preparation reading.

References

Agyeman, J. (2005). Sustainable Communities and the Challenge of Environmental Justice (1st ed., pp. x–x). NYU Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/9780814707746

AIATSIS (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies), (2020). AIATSIS Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research. AIATSIS.

Alvarez, A. & Rogers, J. (2006). Going “out there”: Learning about sustainability in place. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 7(2), pp.176-188.

Baker, L. (2006). Observation: A complex research method. Library trends, 55(1), 171-189.

Beck, U. (2014). The brave new world of work. John Wiley & Sons.

Brinkmann, R. (2016). Introduction to sustainability. Wiley-Blackwell

Butterfield, L.D., Borgen, W.A. &Amundson, N.E. (2009). The Impact of a Qualitative Research Interview on Workers' Views of Their Situation. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 43(2), 120-130.

Cooper, L., Orrell, J. & Bowden, M. (2010). Work integrated learning: A guide to effective practice. Routledge.

Delamont, S. (2004). Ethnography and participant observation. Qualitative research practice, 217(205-217).

DiPrete Brown, L., Atapattu, S., Stull, V. J., Calderón, C. I., Huambachano, M., Houénou, M. J. P., Snider, A., & Monzón, A. (2020). From a Three-Legged Stool to a Three-Dimensional World: Integrating Rights, Gender and Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainability Practice and Law. Sustainability, 12(22), 9521-. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229521

Fenwick, T. (2007). Developing organizational practices of ecological sustainability: A learning perspective. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 28(7), pp.632-645.

Garsten, C. & Nyqvist, A. (2013). Organisational anthropology: doing ethnography in and among complex organisations. Pluto Press.

Godemann, J., & Michelsen, G. (2011). Sustainability Communication – An Introduction. In Sustainability Communication (pp. 3–11). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1697-1_1

Janke, T. (2019). Truetracks: Indigenous cultural and intellectual property principles for putting self-determination into practice. UNSW Press.

Lozano, R. & von Haartman, R. (2018). Reinforcing the holistic perspective of sustainability: Analysis of the importance of sustainability drivers in organizations. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(4), pp.508-522.

Martin, A. & Hughes, H. (2011). How to make the most of work integrated learning. Ako Aotearoa.

Martin, K.L., 2008. Please knock before you enter: Aboriginal regulation of Outsiders and the implications for research and researchers. Post Pressed.

Mabry, S. (2011). Tackling the sustainability dilemma: A holistic approach to preparing students for the professional organization. Business Communication Quarterly, 74(2), pp.119-137.

Molnar, E. & Mulvihill, P.R. (2003). Sustainability-focused organizational learning: recent experiences and new challenges. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 46(2), pp.167-176.

Moyer, J.M. & Sinclair, A.J. (2020). Learning for sustainability: Considering pathways to transformation. Adult Education Quarterly, 70(4), pp.340-359.

Neyland, D. (2007). Organizational ethnography. Sage.

NSW Department of Community Services. (2009). Working with Aboriginal Peoples and Communities: a practice resource, NSW Department of Community Service.

NSW Department of Health (2004). Communicating positively: a guide to appropriate Aboriginal terminology, NSW Department of Health.

Smith, L. T. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Talmy, S. (2010). The Interview as Collaborative Achievement: Interaction, Identity, and Ideology in a Speech Event’, Applied Linguistics, 32 (1), 25–42.

Theis, T., Tomkin, J., Theis, T., & Tomkin, J. (2015). Sustainability?: a comprehensive foundation (T. Theis & J. Tomkin, Eds.). OpenStax CNX.

Voinov, A., & Farley, J. (2007). Reconciling sustainability, systems theory and discounting. Ecological Economics, 63 (1), 104–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.10.005

Wals, A.E. (2011). Learning our way to sustainability. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 5(2), pp.177-186.

White, M. A. (2013). Sustainability: I know it when I see it. Ecological Economics, 86, pp. 213–217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.12.020