Doing the right thing.
"Otago Polytechnic is an institute of learning determined to provide life-long learning opportunities relevant to our community. We are not only becoming an important provider of core and specialised education and research in New Zealand, but also one of the largest employers, service providers and consumers in the Otago region.
We understand that what we teach, how we behave as an organisation and how we extend our influence into the community has an impact socially, environmentally and economically. We seek to address our responsibility to our stakeholders both through the education that we offer and our business operations.
In respect of this understanding, Otago Polytechnic has adopted a commitment to ‘doing the right thing’ as one of our key organisational values. We are determined to provide our students with learning opportunities that hold sustainable practice amongst their key values and to become sustainable practitioners in our own right.
In this book we celebrate what we have been able to achieve so far, and look forward to the long path that is still ahead of us.
"
A number of initiatives have been developed at Otago Polytechnic to further its core values of sustainable practice and creating sustainable practitioners in its graduates. Some examples of these initiatives are:-
A number of initiatives have been developed at Otago Polytechnic to further its core values of sustainable practice and creating sustainable practitioners in its graduates. Some examples of these initiatives are:-Otago Polytechnic’s Living Campus
Living Campus, (see the website here) located at Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin, New Zealand celebrates a sustainable model of urban agriculture for the ownership and benefit of the Dunedin community. The aim of the Living Campus is to inspire curiosity and capability in sustainability to change attitudes to how we use land. This will be achieved through the development of an interactive sustainability museum and education programmes within a productive garden integrating sustainability into individual and community practice.
The SHAC project) Sustainable Habitat Challenge
Education for
Sustainability Champions Blog at Otago Polytechnic
Welcome to the blog of Otago Polytechnic's Sustainable practice departmental Champions
The purpose of this blog is to share stories, resources, teaching and learning, examples of sustainable practice happening in Otago Polytechnic's academic departments.
Champions will post 3-5 examples per year of what is happening in the classrooms of their departments.
These posts will share teaching resources, students response, projects and assignments, examples of how it fits into the curriculum etc.
These quality examples may also be used by the Otago Polytechnic marketing department to share these stories with the community.
Centre for Sustainable Practice
The Centre is the newest school at the
Otago Polytechnic created to meet the growing need for sustainable practice
implementation. The aim of the Centre is to build into a nationwide HUB for
business, industry groups and government agencies alike.
Mission
To
lead as a collaborative hub for enabling and implementing sustainable practice
in Otago, New Zealand and internationally.
Vision The future vision of the
Centre is to be a reputable centre for accessing expertise in sustainable
practice. This will be achieved through:
* Local, regional, national
and international collaborations
* Development and delivery
of educational programmes
* Modelling sustainable
practice - walking the talk
The Green
graduate:- Educating Every Student as a Sustainable Practitioner
The challenge: every student graduates able to think and act as a sustainable practitioner, whatever their field .See website here.
This is the goal Otago Polytechnic set itself and, as one of the main proponents, Samuel Mann became the go-to guy. Here he takes the reader on that journey and in doing so provides the framework for making sustainability a core competency for graduates across every kind of tertiary education and training. The book will give practitioners the tools to integrate sustainability into their programmes in ways that work for them and are directly relevant to their discipline. The book also tackles common barriers to sustainability education, from “Do we need to tackle this right now?”’ to “Is it even our problem?”Samuel Mann is an Associate Professor in Information Technology at Otago Polytechnic and also holds a portfolio in Education for Sustainability. In 2009 he was awarded a Beeby Fellowship from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research and UNESCO to write this book drawing on his experience and research into Education for Sustainability initiatives at Otago Polytechnic.
Sustainable Operations at Otago Polytechnic
Otago Polytechnic is continuing to 'put our own house in order' by implementing policies and procedures that reflect our goal of becoming a sustainable operation. See web page here.
Our priorities
To
achieve our strategic goal we will pursue the following priorities:
Priority 1
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Create an outstanding experience for learners in a supportive, inspiring and stimulating environment.
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Priority 2
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Develop more flexible pathways and learning opportunities for learners, including learning in the workplace.
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Priority 3
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Strengthen our relationships with all of our stakeholders, building partnerships which will benefit our learners and communities, and build our sustainability.
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Priority 4
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Implement the Memorandum of Understanding with our Rūnaka, incorporating a Treaty framework into the fabric of Otago Polytechnic life.
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Priority 5
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Develop focused areas of excellence in applied teaching, research, consultancy and services.
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Priority 6
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Attract, develop and retain capable staff who are passionate, creative and future focused and who are committed to meeting the needs of our learners and partners.
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Priority 7
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Develop facilities and systems which support flexible teaching, learning and work practices, and which enable excellence in the services we provide.
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Priority 8
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Develop a sustainable platform to achieve our goals, encompassing financial and organisational sustainability and world class organisation and management.
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Otago Polytechnic Strategy 2008-2012
Education for
Sustainability at Otago Polytechnic
The skills and values of Otago Polytechnic
graduates contribute to every sector of society. Our curriculum, teaching and
learning therefore is pervasive and influential with global impact. The Otago
Polytechnic sustainability vision is that our graduates, our practitioners and
our academics understand the concepts of social, environmental and economic
sustainability in order for them to evaluate, question and discuss their role
in the world and to enable them to make changes where and when appropriate. Our
goal is that every graduate may think and act as a “sustainable practitioner”.
What a sustainable
practitioner looks like within
The School of Foundation
Studies
Within my school a sustainable practitioner seeks
to adopt the following characteristics:-
In carrying out our core business (education) we
share a common values base that involves caring, responsibility, partnership,
learning and excellence. We seek to
inspire learning as we develop capable practitioners for Otago and New Zealand.
Through our innovation in education and the outstanding experiences our
learners enjoy we will be recognised as New Zealand’s leading Polytechnic.
We see ourselves as functioning at the highest
possible levels as educators and individuals to bring credit to ourselves and our
organisation. We concern ourselves with
student retention and success.
As individual educational practitioners we strive
to maintain currency through:-
* On-going
professional development,
* Collaboration
with other educational experts at conferences (to align ourselves with current
educational trends and considered best practise methods), also collaboration
with colleagues to pool ideas.
* Regular
performance reviews from students, peers and managers.
* Internal
and external moderation of course assessment materials.
* We are team players and move toward collective
goals with a united front. We set goals,
commit to decisions and plans of action with accountability tagged to
appropriate individuals. We trust one
another. We are outcome focussed and
achieve the goals we set for our team.
We are highly functional. We are
able to operate as self-managing teams made up of high performing individuals
who exercise personal accountability and leadership. We deal with issues within the team in a
timely manner and with sensitivity. We jointly
share decision making and recognise when we need help. We are future focussed and able to maintain
momentum even when designated leaders are absent. We are able to share leadership and manage
work collectively and co-operatively. We
have a strong culture of self-responsibility.
And last but not least, we draw on the diverse strengths of individual
members (both skills and personal attributes).
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