Sustainability Teaching Network

Both academic and professional staff are welcome to join the new Sustainability Teaching Network (STN), a community of staff who are intrigued to learn more about what is going on in this space and what might be possible in the future.

Seminars will be held online. Each meeting will feature staff members sharing their teaching practice, breakout group discussions, and updates on any relevant opportunities.

* To subscribe, staff should be connected to the campus network or through VPN from home. On the subscription page, look for the ‘UoA Single Sign-On’ button at the top-right.

Next seminar

Friday 3 October 2025, 1–2pm

Online via MS Teams

If you haven’t already subscribed to the STN and wish to join the presentation, please email the secretary.

Margaret Stanley: Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in biosecurity and conservation: creating opportunities for students

The University of Auckland’s graduate profile provides aspirational capabilities that we want to foster in our graduates. Students who embrace these capabilities are likely to make a difference to society and the environment in their future lives and careers. But how do we best align our assessment with these capabilities? Margaret will use this seminar to discuss how she integrates Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) into assessment tasks. She will talk about how she interacts with various agencies to bring current real-world biosecurity and conservation problems into the classroom and how she sets assessment tasks that mimic, but extend, the tasks that Ministry, council and environmental consultancy staff would undertake. The opportunity students have to contribute to solution-seeking in a tangible way encourages agentic learning.

 

Margaret Stanley is a Professor of Ecology in the School of Biological Sciences. She developed a new PGDipSci and Masters in Biosecurity in Conservation and has created several new courses. One of her primary aims in teaching is to engage students in critical thinking through real-world examples and place-based scenarios.

Joe Fagan: Seeds of change: Using optional assessments to foster student growth in sustainability

In this talk Joe will discuss how in teaching sustainability, what we emphasise, or the seeds we plant and nurture, are critically important, and how we should consider the role assessments play in supporting this growth. Joe will share his experience of introducing optional low-stake participation exercises into a first-year sustainability course. Here the aim was not to assess students’ academic abilities but to encourage them to feel something and hopefully find the motivation to act and think differently.

 

Joe Fagan is a Senior Tutor in the School of Environment at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland where he teaches geography and sustainability. His current research interests include recreational interactions on backcountry, dual purpose, hiking and biking tracks, and the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills/values in group-based assignments to encourage learning as sustainability. Joe is also currently undertaking an EdD (part-time) exploring the importance of nature in fostering pro-environmental behaviour in sustainability education.