R. McNae & B. Cowie (Eds.), Realising Innovative Partnerships in Educational Research, 235–244. © 2017 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved. CLAUDIO AGUAYO AND CHRIS EAMES 17. COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS IN SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION RESEARCH INTRODUCTION Sustainability education emphasises that empowerment of learners is essential to foster the transformations in ways of living that are necessary for individuals and society to move towards a more sustainable future. Empowerment has roots in the forms of democratic participation that can be embodied in community partnerships. In recent years a number of significant community-based movements have arisen that seek to guide society towards more sustainable lifestyles. Examples such as transition towns, food rescue and community gardening are forging partnerships that reconnect individuals with each other and with the planet that sustains them. These show the power and hunger of communities to work together and to have a stronger determination of their own futures. In this chapter we extend this thinking to working with communities in sustainability education research and provide an example from a project that engaged with a small community in Chile in learning about sustainability issues in a local lake. We highlight how community-based participatory research, in this case, enhanced the reciprocity of learning between researcher and the community to foster sustainability education. SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION WITH COMMUNITIES Over the last 50 years there has been a growing realisation of the degradation of our natural environment and the concomitant understanding that our social, cultural and economic systems are ultimately dependent on the integrity of that environment. Technological advances coupled with rampant population growth have combined to put pressure on the ecosystems that are the lifeblood of this planet. An economic model that emphasises growth based on the fallacy of unlimited planetary resources is exacerbating the situation (Daly, 1996). There are now an increasing number of indicators, such as loss of biodiversity, habitat change and degradation of agricultural land, pollution of water and climate change that point towards a critical need for change in ways of thinking and acting for the sustainability of our social and ecological systems. Education has been promoted as a means for change since the recognition of these sustainability challenges. It has been argued that education can create a more ecologically literate citizenry, one which understands and values their place in ecological systems, and which acts in sustainable ways (Orr, 1992). There is