Amy Huang

2023 Learning & Teaching Seed Funding, AUD5,000, College of Business.

Higher education plays an important role in supporting sustainability through teaching, research, key projects and initiatives. One of the innovative ways to achieve this is using an intercultural approach to work-integrated learning (WIL). This research attempts to explore how an award-winning WIL program, “Eco-economy project: improving livelihoods above and below the surface” empowers domestic Australian students with real-world experiences in an international context (Indonesia) to achieve affective outcomes of sustainability learning. This core highly aligns with the University’s strategic themes and Business School’s priorities of “Sustainability” and “Globalisation and Cross-Cultural Competence”.The proposed research aims to analyse three years’ qualitative data from multiple sources of the program including teaching and learning materials, the partner NGO’s documents and websites, and student reflective learning journals. The research is expected to provide profound pedagogical implications by integrating key components from the current sustainability learning/teaching literature into a composite conceptual framework and verifying the framework with empirical evidence from the program. This research is also expected to provide practical suggestions for how to extend sustainability education beyond classroom theory-based teaching and stimulate the genuine motivation of students to become active change agents for the betterment of our world.