Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ understandings of ocean sustainability and the pedagogical influence of higher education on those conceptions.Design/methodology/approach: The conceptions of ocean sustainability of 54 university students of various academic disciplines enrolled in the 2014/2015 semester course “Sustainable Oceans” were assessed through use of auto-photography. Data were collected at the beginning and end of the course. Inter-rater reliability was measured by percentage of identical coding outcomes by two coders.Findings: Auto-photography is effective in assessing notions of sustainability. Social and economic dimensions were captured less frequently than environmental aspects in the students’ photographs. Overall, students demonstrated vague perceptual awareness about who should take responsibility concerning lifeworld-related issues. Also, their perceptions were affected by their choice of academic discipline. Engaging students in inter-/transdisciplinary learning, integrating the arts, science and community, helped develop a more balanced, action-motivated conception of sustainability. Post-test patterns of change in students’ vision and action were observed.Practical implications: Implementing sustainability education in a university’s coordinating bodies is effective in constructing a campus-based learning network, and participation in local community empowerment promotes a substantial and multidimensional concept of sustainability, and teaching material that includes content from the fine arts, literature or music stimulates students’ awareness of, and sensitivity to, lifeworld issues.Originality/value: This paper provides an innovative, auto-photography-based methodology, including an operational procedure, coding book and method of analysis, for assessing students’ conceptions of sustainability. It also develops an interdisciplinary course that serves a “threshold” intervention role in ocean sustainability education.

The framework of Global Education 2030 Agenda suggests 17 learning objectives for sustainability education. Restoring the human–animal relationship is a core task emphasized by Goals 14 (Life below water) and 15 (Life on land). This study investigated the effect of using storytelling, focusing on the thematic topic of wild animals, as an integrated part of learning about attitude toward wild animals. It addressed the major question: how could the students’ perceptions concerning the human–animal relationship be changed? The participants were 31 university students majoring in a variety of subjects. Qualitative inquiry using a personal meaning map (PMM) and online in-depth focus group interview explored the students’ perceptions of wild animals and their learning experience. The results showed the students’ changing attitudes toward wild animals at the end of the storytelling session. In the focus group interview students reported the process of their storytelling regarding the invention the stories. In conclusion, storytelling, featuring the adoption of multiperspectives, addressed imagination and empathy and promoted an understanding of the ethical relationship between wild animals and human beings. The educational implication of storytelling appealed to a holistic approach, engaging an interdisciplinary classroom practice in defining humanity in relation to the nonhuman world.

This study provides a practice insight into campus/community co-farming as a communication experience connecting civic participants and experts in exploring the potential applications of smart agriculture. The observation focuses on participants' perceptions of smart-agri practices. The objectives of smart-agri practices have been identified to reduce negative environmental