Based on an ongoing qualitative case study in Costa Rica, this article presents the participatory work that the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) is doing with farmers to protect watersheds from erosion and contamination. Specifically, it includes a description of ICE's Watershed Management Agricultural Programme and how farmers participate in it and a qualitative analysis of the kind of learning that participants are experiencing. ICE uses collaborative and hands-on activities to raise awareness and promote alternative environmentally sustainable farming practices and technologies. These activities result in instrumental and communicative learning as found in transformative learning theory. The instrumental learning that occursincludes acquiring skills and information, determining cause-effect relationships, and taskoriented problem solving. The communicative learning that occurs includes understanding values, concepts, and others' points of view. In conclusion, the learning that occurred resulted in transformations in the conditions of life that promoted sustainability.

Education is paramount when trying to enable a change in values and attitudes towards sustainability. Higher education in faculties of education plays an important role in working toward this change because of its impact on future and practicing teachers in the school systems. This study inquires into the current role of education for sustainable development (ESD) in undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs at Canadian universities, with a particular focus on promising practices and initiatives toward a reorientation of teacher education for sustainability. A qualitative case study approach was used identifying promising initiatives as well as challenges and enablers of reorienting teacher education toward sustainability at four Canadian universities. The discussion of results is framed by how identified initiatives relate to the development of core ESD competences for educators as established by UNECE (2012). The results of the study suggest the importance of experiential, inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional learning, of problem-based learning around real-life issues with community and the natural environment, and of building partnerships with colleagues, students, and community organizations.

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This paper describes an innovative approach to environmental assessment that built local capacity enabling a more sustainable management of natural resources. It presents learning outcomes from a community-based strategic environmental assessment (CBSEA) involving communities from two Costa Rican watersheds who assessed the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad's (ICE) proposed agro-conservation programme. Participants were engaged throughout the CBSEA process, from planning to the implementation of four highly interactive workshops representing steps in a strategic environmental assessment. Instrumental learning results included: learning about CBSEA and its role in programme planning; developing problem-solving skills related to assessing impacts and creating mitigation strategies; effective groupworking strategies; and technical information. Communicative learning outcomes included becoming more self-aware, and appreciating environmental conservation and collaboration. ICE learnt a participatory methodology and reconsidered communities' role in programme planning. Findings contribute to understanding the process of adult learning in crosscultural contexts and the link between individual learning and social action.

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