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Education for Sustainable Development

Workshop provided by the GEES Subject Centre and the Centre for Sustainable Futures,

University of Plymouth

Jennifer Blumhof (University of Hertfordshire) James Gray-Donald (University of Plymouth)

University of Chester 26th January 2007

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OUR KEY QUESTIONS• Why should Universities engage with

ESD?

• What can Universities do?

• What are others doing?

• What are you currently doing at your university?

• What more could you consider doing?

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BUT FIRST A QUICK ATTEMPT TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE DEFINITIONAL DEBATE. WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT?

Meeting the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future

generations to meet their own needs

(WCED, 1987)

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OR…. IF YOU PREFER“The goal of sustainable development is to enable

all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life without compromising the quality of life of future generations” (Securing the Future, 2005)

Or…..A position where the earth’s resources are not used up faster than renewable substitutes are developed

Or….. Sustained economic growth! (an economist’s

view?)

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WHY IS H.E. STARTING TO TAKE ESD SERIOUSLY?

• Stronger media and public awareness/concern

• UN Decade for ESD (2005-15)• Recognition that HE has not been doing

enough• QAA Benchmarking• Growing evidence of planetary

deterioration• Evidence that others in HE are doing

something!

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WHY SHOULD CHESTER ENGAGE?

• Involvement with major global/national issue• Education of tomorrow’s leaders, citizens and

employers/employees• Growing business interest in Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) and SD• Marketing and recruitment (student interest)• Build on existing institutional expertise• Funding Council’s expectations

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BUT, REMEMBER THAT ESD IS CONTESTED

This is how Peter Knight (VC at University of Central England) described HEFCE’s SD strategy.

“It is one of the most pernicious and dangerous circulars ever to be issued. It represents the final assault on the last freedom of universities…..It is not the job of universities to promote a particular political orthodoxy”

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WHAT CAN UNIVERSITIES DO?In addition to SD research,

THE FOUR Cs?

• Curriculum: Knowledge, skills and values

• Community: Regional partnerships

• Campus: buildings, energy, waste

&

Culture

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HE has progressed more rapidly with campus and buildings than with the students’ curriculum and learning

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ESD AND CURRICULUM DESIGN• Location in the curriculum• Knowledge for S/SD eg. Life cycle analysis, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,

core concerns( climatic change, principles of equity, societal considerations, technocentric- ecocentric approaches)

• Skills for sustainability literacy• Assessment• Approaches to learning and teaching for ESD eg. Interdisciplinarity, problem-based learning, motivating&

• Examples of practice/what others are doing

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LOCATION OF S/SD IN THE CURRICULUM

• Subject of degree programme- undergraduate or Masters• Designated modules ( compulsory/optional)• Case studies/activities within modules• Cross curricula case studies • Built into fieldwork programme• Part of placement experience

(or placement training)• Addressed through the personal development planning system

(eg discussed with personal tutor bringing in values and volunteering)

• Part of the employability and careers education agenda (eg organisational awareness)

• Extra curricula activities/volunteering

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SKILLS FOR SUSTAINABILITY LITERACY Student Employability. Competencies

Sustainability within Competencies

Analysis Aware that SD requires a multidisciplinary approach to analysis looking at evidence from different sources over different time, space and systems

Judgement Aware that SD requires precaution where evidence is inconclusive. Able to judge the bias of information or views in relation to sustainability

Infuencing Influences others by participating as a responsible citizen as well as responsible employee

Organisational sensitivity

Sensitive to their effects on the local environment and community. Values the contribution that all employees can make to the organisation’s sustainability

Planning and organising

Plans for long-term environmental and social impacts as well as short-term financial gains

Working with others Aware that sustainability requires partnership and cooperation rather than just individual action

Commercial awareness

Aware of business and stakeholder benefits of environmental management and corporate social responsibility

From: Student Force for Sustainability

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SKILLS FOR SUSTAINABILITY LITERACY

Student Employability Competencies

Sustainability within Competencies

Organisational Understanding

Understands what makes a sustainable workstyle, and the place of sustainability in the organisation’s strategy and culture

Achievement orientation

Aware that the success or all results should include judgements on sustainability. Aware that environmental management and social responsibility are critical success factors for all performance in the workplace. Maintains and inspires an approach which considers long-term results, including their impacts, as well as short-term results

Creativity Able to generate best practice and new ideas by thinking holistically and systematically in the long-term, by linking global to local, and looking at the political, economic, social, technological and environmental barriers to change in a creative, positive way

Initiative Willing and able to have a positive, staged, solutions-based approach to sustainability

From: Student Force for Sustainability

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SKILLS FOR SUSTAINABILITY LITERACY

Student Employability

Competencies

Sustainability within Competencies

Leadership Takes responsibility for the directions and actions of a team, including stewardship, citizenship, social entrepreneurship and partnership. Aware that governance at international, national, regional and local level involves rights and responsibilities for sustainability

Lifelong learning and development

Develops the sustainability competencies of self, peers and colleagues through learning and development activities related to current and future roles

Process operation Aware that many processes are multifactorial and cyclical and can have more global reactions

Professional Expertise

Willing to network and share knowledge and ideas about sustainable development with professionals

From: Student Force for Sustainability

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MOTIVATION : QUOTE

“ The easiest way to motivate students is to say that the work will count for x% of marks to the particular course/degree that they are doing. This always seems to work, and the higher the mark% -effort ratio, the more highly motivated they are. I see this as a growing problem in higher education, and it is something that students are conditioned to from their modular courses at school. We simply reinforce the practice at University.”

lecturer - University of Southampton

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EXAMPLES FROM ELSEWHERE

• MSc in Leadership for Sustainable Development -Middlesex • A subject-based module :Sustainability policy and practice-

Plymouth• Fieldwork Module- Plymouth• MSc Module Tools for Sustainable Development –CDROM and

VLE- Glamorgan• Level 3 Module ‘Achieving a Sustainable Future’-interactive

role play games• Level 3 Module ‘Approaches to Sustainable Development’ use

of debates- Reading• What will family life look like in 2020- return to learn module-

Hertfordshire• Olympics- short pbl exercise- GEES• Broadlands- transdisciplinary pbl case study Hertfordshire• Induction Exercise – 6 Environmental Issues local/global-

interconnectivity Hertfordshire

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EXAMPLES FROM ELSEWHERE

• Bhopal- national/global issue ethics/2hour –in class activity Hertfordshire

• Channel Tunnel/local national issue role play Hertfordshire

• Fieldwork issues (sustainable skiing)• Technocentric- ecocentric continuum – classroom

activity Hertfordshire• Campus projects…eg looking at water use• Volunteering/University Environmental Groups-Local

community projects• Gaia Module-carbon neutral/ ‘Connecting with Hope’

tree planting exercise – Oxford Brookes• Living More Lightly Profile- Earth Education

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ESD- APPROACHES TO LEARNING AND TEACHING?

• Transmissive learning>>>Learning through discovery• Teacher-centred approach>>>Learner-centred approach• Individual learning>>>Collaborative learning• Learning dominated by theory>>>Praxis-oriented learning

linking theory and practice• Focus on accumulating knowledge and a content

orientation>>>Focus on self-regulative learning and a real issues orientation

• Emphasis on cognitive objectives only>>>Cognitive, affective and skills-related objectives

• Institutional, staff-based teaching/learning>>>Learning with and from outsiders

• Low-level cognitive learning>>>High-level cognitive learning

European Union Socrates Thematic Network for Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture and the Environment [AFANet]

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PROBLEM-BASED SCENARIO ‘TRIGGER’

You are a group of academic consultants invited by the Mayor of London to advise on ‘greening’ the 2012 Olympics so that they produce sustainable benefits for ‘East Enders’.

You have six weeks to submit a report and this morning your group will begin to address the task. At the end of 40 minutes, and with the aid of a flip chart, your group has two minutes to give a presentation on your preliminary ideas.

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The pbl process

brainstorming

decide what the problem/s is/are

the problem

learning needs- what you need to find out

self study

apply what you have found out

reflect

refine ideas &critique resources

Based on Charlotte Silen’s model, University of Linkoping

Offer ‘solutions’/do assignment

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WHAT/HOW ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING?& WHAT NEXT?

Audit & Action Plan

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So, in Summary

• ESD may be an idea whose time has come. • There are both opportunities and obstacles • ESD poses for us all both professional and

personal challenges

Session 6

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Timings• Why should Universities engage with

ESD? (13.00 J G-D)• What can Universities do? What are

others doing? (13.30- 14.15 curriculum design and examples JRB)

14.15-14.30 Tea• What are you currently doing at your

university? What more could you consider doing? (Audit and Action Plan 14.30-15.30/16.00 JRB and J G-D)