Equipping Students for the transition to a sustainable low Carbon society

Group Members

Principal Investigator: Dr William Young (SRI) Co-Investigator: Julia Clarke (LUBS) Postdoctoral Researchers: Claire Marsh (SRI)

Summary

In its strategy for Sustainable Development (SD) in Higher Education, HEFCE made a commitment to support Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the development of curricula which enable students to contribute to a more sustainable future. The challenges for HEIs in responding to this have been acknowledged. As summarised by Jones et al (2010)*, staff often perceive this agenda as a threat to their disciplinary specialisms, and perceive that it requires teaching skills they currently do not have. In addition they can often perceive a lack of support for this agenda from their Institutions which can themselves appear to operate unsustainably. Participation and invitational approaches, centring on the concept of organisational learning have been found to offer much scope for addressing these challenges. As opposed to top-down prescriptions of what academics must do, more scope is found in asking academics and other University staff to engage in questions of what SD means for their disciplines and their University as a whole, and participate in creative responses to these.

This project uses an Action Research approach to frame initiatives for curriculum SD at the University of Leeds. This means that the project is concerned with involving staff to make real practical changes at the University, whilst also contributing to the academic understandings of these challenges. The project centres on the development of curriculum for SD in two pilot Faculties via quantitative and qualitative assessment of the current contributions of their teaching programmes, the engagement of staff to develop understanding of how these can be enhanced, and the practical steps required to achieve this. In addition, the project also supports the development of a network of pan-University staff and students to provide leadership and shared resources for curriculum SD across all Faculties.

Jones, P., Selby, D., & Sterling, S. (2010). Sustainability Education. Perspectives and Practice across Higher Education. London: Earthscan.