What difficulties or barriers have you found when proposing or implementing sustainable development education in your University / School / Department?
a) Are the professors skeptical and convinced about Sustainable Development (SD)?
b) Are the professors willing of changing their values and learning / teaching approaches?
c) What about the new SD Curriculum?
d) What teaching approaches and learning methodologies have you adopted proposed for Sd Education (in management, and/or engineering, and/or other areas)?
Regards, Farley
Please see a few articles reflecting on my experiences (also in Researchgate):
Kopnina, H. and Meijers, F. (2014). Education for sustainable development (ESD): exploring theoretical and practical challenges. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 15(2):188-207.
Kopnina, H. (2014a). Metaphors of Nature and Economic Development: Critical education for sustainable business. Sustainability, 6: 7496-7513.
Kopnina, H. (2014b). Contesting ‘Environment’ through the lens of sustainability: Examining Implications for Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 6(52): 931–947.
Kopnina, H. (2014c). Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as if environment really mattered. Environmental Development, 12:37-46.
Kopnina, H. (2014d). If a Tree Falls: Business students’ reflections on environmentalism. International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 8(3):311-329.
Kopnina, H. (2014e). Future Scenarios and Environmental Education. The Journal of Environmental Education, 45(4):217–231.
Kopnina, H. (2014f). Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): Exploring children's moral reasoning about sustainable development and environment through vignettes. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 41:124-132.
Kopnina, H. (2014g). Environmental justice and biospheric egalitarianism: reflecting on a normative-philosophical view of human-nature relationship. Earth Perspectives, 1:8.
Kopnina, H. (2014h). Revisiting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): examining anthropocentric bias through the transition of environmental education to ESD. Sustainable Development, 22: 73–83.
Kopnina, H. (2014i). Revisiting the “trans-human” Gestalt: Discussing ‘Nature’ and ‘Development’ with Students of Sustainable Business. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 8(1),43-63.
Kopnina, H. (2013a). Schooling the World: Exploring the critical course on sustainable development through an anthropological lens. International Journal of Educational Research, 62,220–228.
Kopnina, H. (2013b). Forsaking Nature? Contesting ‘Biodiversity’ Through Competing Discourses of Sustainability. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 7(1), 47–59.
Kopnina, H. (2013c). An Exploratory Case Study of Dutch Children’s Attitudes towards Consumption: Implications for Environmental Education. The Journal of Environmental Education, 44(2),128-144.
Kopnina, H. (2013d). Evaluating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): Using Ecocentric and Anthropocentric Attitudes toward the Sustainable Development (EAATSD) scale. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 15 (3), 607-623.
Sustainable development education in HEI needs to look into the following: Global Generic skills in higher education, global qualification framework, work trajectory, and impact of political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological factors.
There is a comprehensive project going on at University of Sâo Paulo, campus of Piracicaba, for what we call "environmentalization" of the campus in four dimensions: teaching, research, community extension and management. As part of the "teaching" dimension we have interviewed 33 first-year professors and, as far as your questions are concerned, the main findings are that such professors stated that they do not know how to incorporate SD issues into their courses. They actually demonstrated that they have difficulties in the pedagogical field, as here in Brazil the process of selection for professors of public universities focuses much more on research production than on pedagogical skills. But by far the most encompassing barrier is the fact that they are assessed by funding agencies exclusively by research production parameters, so that there is little time, resources and motivation to spend time with the teaching (and community extension dimension).
Hi Daniel,
I believe CAPES and CNPq (the Brazilian Research Agencies) should include sustainable development criteria among their evaluation process (criteria) over Graduate Programs (which are still most based, if not only based, on publication scores). Regards, Farley.
Você tem o artigo completo sobre este tema ou tema relacionado sobre matrizes curriculares nas IES?
Hi Farley. They will eventually. The USP campus of Piracicaba hás adopted a environmental ethic code to which professora havê to submit their research projecta to be assessed as far as their possible environmental impactos are concerned. This must bring some attention to the issue And generate a cultura of environme tal care, which will eventually percolante to the classrooms. But teachers\ researchers' almost exclusive assessment based on research production poses an enormous obstacle to universities' environmentalisation.
This is the emerging issue that you have raised about SD and HE. Here is fine blog guided by my colleague who is pointing education as a key point regarding environment as an important part of sustainable development.
"One area where much more can be done is in education. This is a resource which, unlike oil or bauxite, will not likely fade away, but is rather consistently growing. The fact that speaks most in favor of this is that out of all scientists who have lived from the times of ancient Egypt to today, 90 percent are still alive! The first aspect of education opens up new possibilities, such as substituting current energy sources and materials, as well as increasing efficiency in using limited resources.
The second aspect of education is directed to induce a change of mindset, and through it change mankind's relationship with the environment. Just as consumerism has affected our spending and thus instigated more production and growth, it should be the role of ecologism to now establish a balance in our relationship with the environment and reduce humanity's pressure on the ecosphere permanently...
There are two ways in which we can act: first, by launching a set of public education campaigns aimed at people of all ages. Second, by incorporating the necessary elements into our education system, beginning with preschool. What we should do to tackle this is educate the “little green ones,” as opposed to letting them become another generation of profligate consumers whose success in life would be measured by their automobile engine power, the size of their swimming pools, and the amount of concrete they used to cover the lawns in front of their villas.
The above two ways of action are not mutually exclusive. In order to achieve the desired effect, it would certainly be preferable to apply both. Fortunately, such campaigns are cheaper than air or water filters. Better yet, education of the “little green ones” is virtually free of charge, but the impact it makes might have a lasting effect.
We are getting an increasing number of warnings that the turning point is fast approaching, manifesting itself in the form of rising global temperature. Let us turn to teaching the “little green ones.” After all, it is their future that is at stake."
http://www.cirsd.org/news/article/environment-and-education
What difficulties or barriers have you found... - huge overestimation of the so-called science against proper teaching.
Different barriers to SD implementation in higher education are described in the following article. Such barriers are related to the lack of awareness, the structure of higher education institutions, and the lack of resources.
Article Fostering the incorporation of sustainable development in hi...
Dear Mike, I liked very much your response. I believe National and International Institutions have the responsibility to support such an implementation, by planning, coordination, auditing and scoring the HEI based on SDG achievements. Thank you! Farley
In connection with the faster and faster global warming process and the related necessity to implement the principles of sustainable development into economic processes, an additional subject related to sustainable pro-ecological development should be introduced into schools and universities. In my opinion, many schools and universities lack the issue of sustainable pro-ecological development in curricula and study programs as a separate subject. In such a situation, a subject should be included in the curricula and study programs, which would concern the issue of sustainable pro-ecological development. In addition, the education processes should be improved and adapted to the specificity of the problem of sustainable pro-ecological development.
This is about the changes in societal expectations on academic institutions and how to identify potential new pathways to a more sustainable academia in the future...
Academic institutions today are confronted with numerous wide-ranging challenges and increased societal expectations : ensuring a steady flow of new knowledge and breakthrough innovation, providing high-quality up-to-date education to all students, attracting motivated creative talents from all over the world to renew and develop teaching and research excellence, and contributing to socio-cultural well-being. Can the academic community respond effectively to these growing (and sometimes conflicting) demands, while continuing to preserve the values of scientific freedom and independence that have characterized public research institutions and universities for decades? In short, is academia as we know it today sustainable in the mid- to long-term?
To be sustainable, academia must adapt to changing societal demands, but without losing its heart and soul...
https://www.euroscience.org/1st-euroscience-policy-forum-29th-30th-june-2021/