Teaching and Learning Strategies for Sustainable Development

Enakshi Sengupta, Patrick Blessinger, Taisir Subhi Yamin

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781789736410
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals challenges us all to promote sustainable development. Higher education is a key arena for educating students in sustainability and sustainable developments, and for producing research on these key issues.. This timely book explores the sustainable development goals, how well universities have been able to integrate them into their curriculum, and how universities can institutionalize the goals and sustainable development into their strategic plans and institutional culture. Authors from Nigeria, sub Saharan Africa, Italy and the Middle East explore how to achieve these targets in the face of shifting expectations.

PART I

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Enakshi Sengupta, Patrick Blessingers and Tasir Subhi Yamin

ABSTRACT

One of the most important issues plaguing our planet is the depletion of natural resources and climate change, creating new disasters, and global challenges. The international community has expressed its anguish and concern for these problems through several international forums and treaties. As a response, Education for Sustainable Development is a program that aims to educate students on these issues. Teaching sustainability to young graduates needs to be holistic and pluralistic in nature. Discourses and modules on sustainability help in making them sustainability conscious which will enhance the competencies of people and help them to live and act in a more sustainable way. This book has several chapters written by academics across the globe who have spoken about their experience of incorporating sustainability into their curriculum and adopting various pedagogical approach that has helped their students to learn and understand the subject. Sustainability has been part of the teaching and learning in general, and as part of management, engineering, medical, and design courses, for instance. This book helps us to understand how such teaching and learning strategies can be made more effective for students.

Keywords: Sustainability education; sustainable development; teaching strategies; curriculum strategies; citizenship education; pedagogical approach; stakeholders; social justice; awareness; sensitize; curriculum

INTRODUCTION

We hold the future in our hands. Together, we must ensure that our grandchildren will not have to ask why we failed to do the right thing and let them suffer the consequences. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (2007)

Sustainable development was defined in 1987 by Brundtland Commission Report as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The concept advocates a future in which economic, social, and environmental factors are balanced toward an all-round development agenda with a view toward improved quality of life for all. The world is moving away from its shareholder’s view of profit maximization and economic development toward one that is concerned about its stakeholders through social and environmental concerns. The major threats and damages caused to human through environmental concerns must be addressed through the sustainability paradigm. Sustainability is our focus toward future and is often considered as a long-term goal of our planet. Sustainable development is one of the various routes that one can adopt to achieve such a goal. Sustainable development affects all spheres of our lives, from our consumption pattern to good governance and includes technology transfer, teaching, training, and education in this field.

There are several underlying principles that encompass the sustainability concept in a holistic manner. These concepts range from poverty reduction, gender equality, environmental conservation, and preservation to social justice. The next generation needs to be trained and educated in sustainable development and that can only happen through a coordinated effort of both institutions of higher education and society. As Stern (2007, p. xxvi) noted,

educating those currently at school about climate change will help shape and sustain future policy making, and a broad public and international debate will support today’s policy-makers in taking strong action now.

Several studies have been conducted to measure the impact of sustainable education and the result has been very encouraging. Educating female students on sustainability has even resulted in larger impacts on carbon emissions abatement than direct low-carbon energy options (Wheeler & Hammer, 2010). Muttarak and Lutz (2014) explained that “public investment … through education can have a positive externality in reducing vulnerability and strengthening adaptive capacity amidst the challenges of a changing climate.”

Academicians are constantly striving to formulate new educational approaches to motivate the learners on sustainability, create awareness, and help achieve necessary lifestyle issues. Government and other funding agencies are mobilizing support toward institutions of higher education to develop a new ecological vision and inculcate in young students a sense of global solidarity. There lies an urgent need to reorient the current teaching abilities to a curriculum that deals with sustainability and its goals. Students need to be sensitized about the natural resources that they have and how best that can be preserved. Policies, procedures, and governmental regulations go hand in hand with such teaching and learning strategies which work toward economic prosperity of the region without comprising the natural resources. An action plan needs to be prepared along with allocation of resources by every institute of higher education which can facilitate and implement a proper educational plan promoting sustainability.

Sustainability education is not only meant for students but also for the faculty. Capacity building programs should be in place so that the teachers are aware of the subject and have adequate knowledge to teach students. Teaching and learning strategies have undergone several changes in the past from nature and non-human environment to that of human welfare and health environment. The approach needs to be holistic in nature and not confined to undergraduate students but can even start from a basic education level. The strategy mainly focuses on: delivering basic education to students; re-orienting the existing education program with a focus toward sustainability; creating a general awareness among public and training in sustainability with a goal toward achieving lifestyle changes and consumption patterns; and improved public policies and decision-making to create a more sustainable society.

To attain a transition toward a sustainable society one needs a better understanding of the subject and a more positive attitude toward the concept. Yet the fundamental question remains as to how best this can be accomplished and what path one needs to charter in future? Academics delving into sustainability found that the only answer to their question is education. Education is the main solution that can empower individuals with the competence to deal with such critical ingredients for change.

Educating citizens starts with schools by training young generations which will help them learn as to how to address the issues in an effective manner. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was an effort that was overseen by UNESCO. In the last decade ESD was launched to help chalk out an approach to teaching and learning that promotes sustainable development in educational institutions. Since then it has become a global movement and the understanding of the concept of sustainability has evolved. UNESCO (2005) defined it as:

Education for Sustainable Development means including key sustainable development issues into teaching and learning; for example, climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption. It also requires participatory teaching and learning methods that motivate and empower learners to change their behavior and take action for sustainable development. Education for Sustainable Development consequently promotes competencies like critical thinking, imagining future scenarios and making decisions in a collaborative way.

LITERATURE REVIEW

ESD advocates a holistic perspective both toward content and the pedagogical approach. This holistic perspective recognizes that behind inculcating a sustainable viewpoint lies several socio-cultural factors and a conflict of interest between socioeconomic goals of society. These conflicts not only span over various disciplines but also tied to local and global perspectives with the present and future generations. Öhman (2008) identified three important aspects concerning holism: the first one being a connection between environmental, social, and economic dimensions leading to sustainable development issues; and the next being integration of the past, present, and future and a focus toward local, regional, and global issues.

While dealing with the issues of teaching and learning in ESD it focuses on developing skills and competence for sustainability. The approach is generally pluralistic in nature imbibing knowledge, views, and perspectives from different disciplines while dealing with sustainable issues. The thought behind incorporating various disciplines is that complexity of the issues and conflict of interest makes it impossible to teach a preconceived, pre-defined solution for every complex issue faced by the learners. This progressive and transformational approach develops the student’s ability of critical thinking, enhancing their decision-making process through value-based and service learning. With the help of this approach students learn about the world based on their own understanding and develop competencies, which are needed to create a sustainable world. Holistic and pluralistic concept of sustainable education is intertwined and takes places through various interpretations of socio-economic and environmental perspectives.

According to Kopnina (2012) the concept of pluralism and holistic nature of teaching sustainability may be confusing as the subject has contradictions and paradoxes inherent in it. Kopnina (2012, p. 700) states that: “plural perspectives on ESD can lead practitioners into an essentially anthropocentric paradigm which can be counter-productive to the effort of fostering environmentally concerned citizenry.” Wals (2010) also speaks about using deliberative method of holism and pluralism to solve the normative problems of teaching sustainability as no evidence has been gathered to reveal that simply teaching the concept of sustainability has resulted in changing human attitude and creating willingness among people to solve the sustainability issues plaguing our planet. Research on effects of teaching sustainability is rare and UNESCO (2014) in its recommendation has stated the need for more research, innovation, and monitoring needed to effectively develop the subject and the good practices of teaching sustainability.

A curriculum in sustainability requires faculty to identify issues, skills, and values essential to address the sustainability challenges and needs to integrate them in one unified course module as well as integrating it across courses and programs. Higher education institution (HEI) needs to identify which are the issues that need prioritization and reorient education toward achieving its sustainability goals. A reoriented curriculum helps to address the local issues and find a solution toward solving them. The curriculum is then culturally relevant and appropriate for the students. Certain facult...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Part I Pedagogical Approaches
• Part II Innovative Case Studies
• About the Contributors
• Name Index
• Subject Index