Conclusion. AVE for Social Sustainability: Where to from Here?

Abstract

The chapters in this book, many of which began at an international symposium of invited speakers in Adelaide, Australia in April 2006, represent considerable pooled knowledge in an overlapped, dialogic way. The twenty contributors, from Australia, Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa, writing from different disciplinary perspectives, have explored the notion of a sustainable society, the changing nature of work and vocation, and the need for the reorientation and reinvigoration of current technical and vocational education and training (TVET) to include what we began to refer to as “education for social sustainability.” Initially, “adult and vocational education for social sustainability” was simply a handy phrase for the group’s key interests. After three days of discussion, however, many participants felt that there was potential for “AVE for social sustainability” to become a generative concept, a rallying point for TVET workers and adult and community educators with an interest in social justice, and we therefore determined to use “AVE for social sustainability” as the main theme for the publication of this volume. The assembled chapters all touch in some way on the contribution (current or potential) of adult and vocational education to a sustainable society. It is clear from several of the papers that give an overview of the history or current state of TVET in particular nations or regions (Harris, Bagnall, Lovegrove and Morrison, dela Torre) that, at present, TVET practice is missing major opportunities to contribute to social sustainability, or is actively contributing to unsustainable practices. Hence our call for its reorientation: if sustainability is to become a reality, we must begin to educate people for the kind of employment that will develop a sustainable future, rather than continuing to train people for unsustainable work on the basis that it will guarantee them livelihood security in the short term. In the Introduction, the question was put: what other areas of activity might provide us with ideas or models for reorienting TVET? A majority of the papers here point to areas outside the TVET system and speak for the inclusion within TVET of new ideas from those areas. For example, we have seen material on individual and family therapy (West), religious and spiritual education (Foster, Crossman), the role