Mapping the sustainable development curricula

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Mapping the sustainable development curricula

• Jenny Elliott
• Principal Lecturer in Geography
• School of the Environment and Technology (from
  August 1st)

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What am I doing here?

• Chambers (1988) Pre-requisites for sustainable
  rural livelihoods
• A learning process-approach to development
  planning
• Peoples priorities are put first
• Secure rights and gains
• Sustainability through self-help
• Staff calibre, commitment and continuity

How to conserve resources and meet human
development needs?
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Education about sustainable development

• Ten years of Level 2 module Sustainable
  Development becoming harder and harder to
  teach
• What things should students know about SD?
• What weight should I be giving to the skills
  being developed through this education?
• How important is the way that students are
  learning?
• Does the module have any impact on how students
  engage in SD beyond the classroom?

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ESD Education for Sustainable Development

• Whether we view sustainable development as our
  greatest challenge or a subversive litany, every
  phase of our education system is being urged to
  declare its support for education for sustainable
  development (Vare Scott, 2007 1)
• Educational and learning processes that lead
  towards the development of,
• the values and awareness
• the knowledge and understanding and
• the skills and competencies
• required for achieving a more sustainable
  society
• Addressing the sustainability agenda through the
  curriculum the most important contribution HEIs
  can make but also the least developed? (Martin
  Jucker, 2005)

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GEES disciplines as natural home for ESD?

• Society-environment interrelationships at core
• Historically a place in which students become
  educated about the environment and develop
  graduate skills and competencies through the
  environment
• But what about education for sustainable
  development, what does this look like and how
  best to advance this agenda?

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Embedding SD in Geography and Environmental
Sciences at Brighton

• 2005-06 small research grant from Subject Centre
• 3 principal activities
• Audit of existing curricula
• Focus group work with students
• Extending work with CUPP and the Community and
  Personal Development module in particular

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The curricula audit
Economic objectives

• Key ESD terms
• Civil society
• Citizenship
• Community participation
• Corporate social responsibility
• Natural resource management
• Environmental conservation
• Environmental management
• Energy conservation
• Heritage management
• Ecosystem
• Governance
• Equity
• Social justice
• Impact assessment
• Inequality/poverty
• Green/greening
• Sustainable

SD
Ecological objectives
Social objectives
Principles of SD Living within environmental
limits Using sound science responsibly Achieving
a sustainable economy Promoting good
governance Ensuring healthy and just society
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What we were doing
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Why?
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Broad findings

• Extensive teaching related to ESD going on in the
  Faculty
• No programmes as yet that explicitly identify ESD
  in course aims
• Underplayed resource?
• New course development?
• institutional support now at highest level?
• Different areas have varied emphases
• Do we have the right fit for our disciplines,
  professions, student employment?

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Next steps in Geography Division

• How far do we want the purpose and learning
  outcomes of our courses to be about preparing
  students for tackling sustainable development?
• Time/inclination for heated debate?
• Staff development needs?
• Do we have a coherent and comprehensive programme
  for SD?
• Back to the audit
• Linkages between content, holistic
  understandings, academic rigour, progression in
  learning?
• Which skills are learnt, where that enable
  students to make use of that understanding now
  and as graduates?

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What I am learning

• Didactic approaches to teaching not best suited
  to learning about the complexities and
  uncertainties inherent in SD or for encouraging
  open-ended, reflective learning required of us
  all
• - nor will curricula change come from the
  top!
• Back to Robert Chambers
• handing over the stick
• Participatory learning and action
• Relevance to own contexts
• Real difficulties of understanding and valuing
  other peoples knowledges and views
• Choices and trade-offs required
• No blueprints! Curriculum change if it is going
  to happen, is going to be a learning process just
  like sustainable development