Dr Stephen Sterling

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Sustainability in the curriculum a view from
the Higher Education Academy Subject Centres
Dr Stephen Sterling Senior Advisor for ESD
Project, HE Academy Schumacher Reader in
Education for Sustainability, Centre for
Sustainable Futures, University of
Plymouth Heather Witham, ESD Project Coordinator,
HE Academy
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Key questions

• Why bother with sustainability issues?
• Whats the broader position on ESD?
• What is the HE Academy ESD Project doing?
• What is CSF at the U of Plymouth doing?

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Sustainability

• The universitys focus is on
• Acknowledging the threats posed by human actions
  to life-sustaining natural environments and
  developing an understanding of and commitment to
  actions directed to diminishing or removing those
  threats and so ensuring a legacy for future
  generations, human and other-than-human
• Enabling individuals and communities to achieve
  their potential in ways which protect their
  futures as well as enhance the well-being and
  resilience of the planets life-support systems
• Developing an understanding that cultural,
  economic, social, environmental and technological
  change processes are dynamically interconnected
  and mutually impacting.
• Sustainability Policy,
  University of Plymouth, March 2008

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Embedding sustainable development why?

• Contemporary socio-economic/environmental
  conditions and challenges graduates need to be
  aware, informed and competent
• Evidence of increasing employer/professions
  interest in sustainability literacy
• Increasingly apparent relevance and links to
  other HE agendas, particularly employability and
  internationalisation
• Increasing expectations from funding councils on
  the sector
• Provides relevant teaching and learning context
  to most disciplines, potential for pedaogical
  innovation, real world research, case studies,
  community links etc.

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HE response whats the position?

• Relatively small but growing number of courses
  focused on SD
• Education for sustainable development (ESD) quite
  strong in a few disciplines
• Most QAA Benchmarks are silent
• ESD is absent from most LT strategies
• Most UK graduates are not sustainability
  literate
• But new surge of interest and activity
  corresponding with rising political/public debate

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Barriers

• Cited factors
• Crowded curriculum
• Perceived irrelevance
• Limited staff awareness and/or expertise
• Limited institutional commitment
• Limited commitment from external stakeholders
• Too demanding

• Types of barriers
• Paradigmatic/psychological
• Policy/purpose related
• Structural (governance, compartmentalisation etc)
• Resource/information deficiency

Sustainable Development in HE, HE Academy 2005
(Dawe report)
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Drivers

• Rising public interest and concern
• Shifting views of employers
• Professions requirements
• (eg Engineering Council, RICS and Sector
  Skills Councils)
• Student demand
• CSR SD links
• Financial savings
• Marketing and recruitment advantage

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Education as answer or the problem?

• The destruction of the planet
• is not the work of ignorant
• people. Rather it is largely
• the result of work by people
• with BAs, BScs, LLBs, and PhDs.

• Prof David Orr (1994)
• What is education for?
• Earth in Mind, Island Press

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HEFCES sustainable development ambition

• Our vision is that within the next ten
• years, the higher education sector
• will be recognised as a major
• contributor to societys efforts to
• achieve sustainability.

Sustainable Development in Higher Education
http//www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2005/05_28/
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Two arenas of learning

• Structured learning
• - learning by design amongst students in formal
  education which arises from educational policies
  and practices

• Organisational learning
• - the social learning response to sustainability
  in organisations, institutions and
• their actors

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HE Academy Education for Sustainable Development
(ESD) Project

• Purpose to help institutions and subject
  communities develop curricula and pedagogy that
  will give students the skills and knowledge to
  live and work sustainably.

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Aims

• 1 To research and support the development of ESD
  in the HE sector, particularly within subject
  communities.
• 2 To build capacity amongst individuals, subject
  communities and institutions to embed ESD in
  curricula and pedagogy.
• 3 To assist the coordination and dissemination
  of policy, research and practice relating to ESD
  in institutions, the HE Academy and the wider
  field.

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Sustainability Literacy Skills, Knowledge
Attributes

• Understand environmental, social economic
  contexts of each discipline
• Understand key principles of sustainable
  development
• Develop non-reductionist (systemic)
  problem-solving skills
• Develop creative holistic thinking
• Exercise personal professional self-reflection

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Sustainability Literacy Skills, Knowledge
Attributes

• Understand, critically evaluate and adopt values
  conducive to sustainability
• Initiate and manage change which supports
  sustainable development in personal,
  institutional and social contexts
• Work collaboratively and participate in
  interdisciplinary teams
• - Based on SD in HE Current practice and future
  developments, Higher Education Academy 2005

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• Skills for
• Sustainability and
• Employability
• Employable Graduates for Responsible Employers
  www.heacademy.ac.uk/esd

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Research and support

• Findings of Student Force report
• The trend to more responsible employers is
  affecting the graduate job market and the demand
  for more particular competencies from recent
  graduate recruits.
• The graduate employability agenda is becoming
  more closely linked to the employer
  sustainability agenda.
• There is mounting evidence that students want to
  work for ethical employers who are
  environmentally and socially responsible.
• Many HEIs are responding to the challenges of ESD
  through institutional changes in terms of
  Campus, Curriculum and Community, but not so
  much in terms of competencies or careers.

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Research and support

• Advice from the Student Force report a need to
• Raise academic staff awareness about SD and CSR
• Relate student and staff volunteering to academic
  learning around SD
• Link universities and employers on SD themes
• Link SD and CSR on campus with teaching and
  learning
• Build on student behaviour/interest

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Research and support

• Small Grant Funding
• 15 projects from 11 HEIs and/or Subject Centres
• 13 disciplines
• Mini Grant Funding
• 8 projects from 9 HEIs
• covering all disciplines
• around theme of sustainability, skills and
  employability

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New mini-grants funded

• Are Employers Seeking Sustainability-Literate
  Graduates?
• Developing Participative ESD to Enhance the Links
  between Sustainability Literacy, Sustainability
  Competencies, and Employability
• Green Collar Graduates for the Future of the
  Fashion Industry
• Greening Business Employability and
  Sustainability
• Improving Student Awareness of SD and Related
  Employability Issues through Embedded Course
  Content
• Regional Reflection Sustainable Career Guidance
• Soundings in Sustainability Literacy

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Capacity building and networking

• Solo HEI Events
• University of East Anglia
• University of Gloucestershire and Harper Adams
  College
• One planned for Scotland soon
• A Three-Day Interdisciplinary Seminar Series
• 3 universities, 15 disciplines represented,
  report produced

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Capacity building and networking

• Regional ESD Networking Events
• East Midlands, November 2006
• South West, Bristol, March 2007
• Scotland, Dundee, June 2007
• Wales, Cardiff, 21 May 2008 (all are welcome)
• Community Project
• Thornbury involving University of Cardiff,
  University of the West of England, University of
  Gloucestershire, Leeds University
• Conference
• 10-11 July 2007 Sustainability and the
  Curriculum
• Presentations available
• http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/esd under Events
  (Past)

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Coordination and dissemination

• Subject Centre Activity
• Projects
• Workshops
• Joint events
• Publications
• Module Guidance Document, and Learning and
  Teaching Framework
• Sustainability Policy
• (joint post with Centre for Sustainable Futures
  - Plymouth)

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Coordination and dissemination The Academy ESD
Website

• http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/esd
• Our strategy
• Publications
• Latest news on ESD in the HE sector
• Information on all of our projects
• Regional networking lists for the South West,
  Scotland and Wales
• ESD events, past (including presentations) and
  future
• Links to disciplinary-specific ESD resources via
  Subject Centres
• Quarterly e-Newsletter (sign up on the site)
• Links to relevant policy documents/web pages and
  partners

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Curriculum policy

• The university
•          Recognises the importance of developing
  sustainability-literate graduates possessing the
  skills and dispositions necessary for engagement
  with the sustainability agenda as professionals,
  citizens and in their personal lives
•          Commits to engaging all students with
  sustainability concepts and issues in an
  appropriate context through learning
•          Recognises the need for students to
  appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of the
  sustainability agenda
•          Invites all disciplines to consider how
  they might best embed sustainability within their
  curricula and utilise the learning and research
  opportunities provided by campus and community
  sustainability initiatives.
• University of Plymouth Sustainability
  Policy March 2008

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CSFs curriculum-related work includes

• UP Sustainability Policy and Action Plan
• Sustainability module guidance
• Building in sustainability dimension to Skills
  Plus
• Building into LTHE
• Staff wiki site on ESD resources and practice
• Professional Support Programme (PSP)

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Possible curriculum responses

• Minor modifications
• ESD in PDP
• New podules
• New modules
• New programmes
• Generic or common modules
• Cross-disciplinary and extra-curricular events
• Dissertations, projects and work place learning
  placements
• SD infusion in assessment

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Indicative module guidance aims- egs.

• To encourage critical reflection on
  sustainability issues in the context of xxxx
  (this subject). (Level I/H)
• To encourage students to critically evaluate
  their own and others values and attitudes and
  behaviours in relation to sustainability issues
  and determine what constitutes ethical
  responsibility in relation to such issues.(Level
  H/M)
• To develop a critical appreciation of and ability
  to identify differences and common ground between
  different viewpoints and key terms in the
  sustainability debate. (Level H/M)
• U of Plymouth Sustainability Module Guidance
  document 08

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Todays Swap Shop

• Find a couple of other people
• Spend a minute or so briefly outlining one idea
  for embedding sustainability into the curriculum
  EITHER which you have used, OR which you would
  like to use OR which you have observed in use.
  (It does not have to be particularly well
  developed or innovative!)
• Allow a couple of minutes for questioning and
  observation from the others
• Move on to the next persons offering
• After everyone has swapped, briefly explore the
  elements which make for successful embedding of
  ESD into the curriculum.
• Also what policy/resource changes would help you
  take it further? We will feed this back to WAG,
  HEFCW and our own HE Academy ESD Project.

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Reflections from Our Swap Shop
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Some key sites

• HEFCEs online resource for sustainable
  development in HE http//www.hefce.ac.uk/susdevres
  ources/
• Higher Education Academy ESD Project
  http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/esd
• Environmental Association for Universities and
  Colleges (EAUC) http//www.eauc.org.uk
• Student Force for Sustainability
  www.studentforce.org.uk/ 
• Centre for Sustainable Futures (CSF) at UP
  www.csf.plymouth.ac.uk
• Higher Education Environmental Performance
  Improvement (Green Gown Awards)
  http//www.heepi.org.uk
• Forum for the Future http//www.forumforthefuture
  .org.uk
• People and Planet Green League 2007
• http//peopleandplanet.org/greenleague2007
• Ecocampus project http//www.ecocampus.co.uk/