ABSTRACT
In an attempt to provide more national consistency, there have been a number of educational policy reforms which have resulted in more national control over Australia’s education system. Many of these national policy reforms have prioritised literacy and numeracy skills as they have been positioned as foundational building blocks for students’ learning as well as key indicators of student achievement and overall school success. Given the prioritisation of literacy and numeracy skills, other learning areas, such as Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE), have been given less attention. This chapter retells the stories of four early career teachers as they negotiate what a ‘good’ education looks like by addressing the tensions that exist when they attempt to implement ESE in a school that does not prioritise it. This chapter argues that early career teachers can, over time, take agentic steps to identify physical spaces and create curriculum connections that allow for furthering ESE ideas and practices within their classrooms and broader school community, despite being in schools that struggle to acknowledge its importance.
