Education for Sustainability
Dr Rehema White
Learn more about Sustainability in the Curriculum at the University of St Andrews with this brief guide:
Why do we need it?
Global challenges such as the climate and nature crises, social inequalities, persistent poverty and food system failure need to be addressed via creative, critical and collaborative approaches. There is an exciting opportunity for universities to facilitate transformative learning and to nurture graduates for sustainable futures.
What is it?
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is an exploration of potential futures through critical debate, empirical enquiry, experiential learning and creative reflection. It is thus relevant to all disciplines. ESD is not only about environmental issues. ESD has been defined in many ways; it “empowers learners to take informed decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society, for present and future generations, while respecting cultural diversity. It is about lifelong learning, and is an integral part of quality education” (UNESCO 2019).
Whose responsibility is it?
A whole institution approach involves teaching in all academic disciplines, but also research, university operations (energy, travel, waste management etc), community engagement and the ethos of the institution. Everyone in a sustainable university thus has a role in exploring these issues in professional and personal capacities.
How do we do it?
Topics: ESD is implemented through teaching and learning across different topics (relevant to module, programme and discipline). The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Figure 1), literature or real world examples can provide appropriate information and inspiration. The SDGs outline current policy framing and can link academia to private sector and civil society initiatives. Whilst being topic and time limited, and at risk of reinforcing neoliberal approaches in some areas, they do demonstrate the broad scope of sustainability issues, a required system approach and an attempt to take aspiration to practical action. However, sustainability can be interpreted in various ways in different disciplines.
How do we do it?
Topics: ESD is implemented through teaching and learning across different topics (relevant to module, programme and discipline). The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Figure 1), literature or real world examples can provide appropriate information and inspiration. The SDGs outline current policy framing and can link academia to private sector and civil society initiatives. Whilst being topic and time limited, and at risk of reinforcing neoliberal approaches in some areas, they do demonstrate the broad scope of sustainability issues, a required system approach and an attempt to take aspiration to practical action. However, sustainability can be interpreted in various ways in different disciplines.
Competencies: Rather than focusing merely on provision of information, ESD supports development of generic and specific knowledge, skills and capacities for sustainability (see Table 1 for commonly agreed suites of key sustainability competencies).
Pedagogies: In order to develop competencies, innovative ways of teaching are required. These are likely to include creative assessments supporting different competencies, independent and group projects, reflection and critical analysis, student centred learning, outdoor learning, real world problem solving, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity (probably not all in the same module!).
What is ‘quality ESD’?
Quality ESD efforts critically interrogate concepts and examples of sustainability; for example, they do not only cover information regarding one SDG. Quality ESD includes student engagement, innovative pedagogies and often pushing disciplinary boundaries and the purpose of education. Monitoring and evaluation can support deeper engagement.
Further resources
QAA/ Advance HE (2021) Guidance for ESD in Higher Education https://www.qaa.ac.uk/the-quality-code/education-for-sustainable-development