The role of school partnerships in promoting education for sustainability and social capital

Abstract

State, civil society and private sector partnerships play a crucial role in fostering a sustainable society. This case study explores the role of school-state-community-civil society-business partnerships in promoting environmental citizenship as a major component of education for sustainability (EfS), and social capital as a new outcome, from a school’s perspective. The findings indicate that the school succeeded in establishing and maintaining long-term connections with diverse actors. Both the connections and the actors promoted EfS and social capital within the school and community. School-state-community partnerships cultivated the students’ and community’s environmental citizenship, and school-business partnerships improved the physical infrastructure of the School, and also assisted the promotion of EfS in the school. Additionally, school-business partnerships were hard to sustain in long term.

Keywords:

• environmental citizenship
• school partnerships
• education for sustainability (EfS
• )
• social capital
• actors in the community