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David Sadler Director (Networks) Higher Education Academy. The Higher Education Academy’s Education for Sustainable Development Programme The Sustainability of Sustainability: Developing the Leaders of Tomorrow. A growing movement. UN Decade for ESD (2005-15)
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David Sadler Director (Networks) Higher Education Academy The Higher Education Academy’s Education for Sustainable Development ProgrammeThe Sustainability of Sustainability: Developing the Leaders of Tomorrow
A growing movement... • UN Decade for ESD (2005-15) • DIUS Sustainable Development Action Plan • HEFCE’s Strategic Review of SD in HE and SD Action Plan (2009) • HEFCE’s Carbon Reduction Target and Strategy for HE (2010) • HEFCW Corporate Strategy and Plan • HE Academy ESD Project - recognised as a priority • Sustainability CETLs and a growing number of leader HEIs • People and Planet ‘Green League’ • Future Leaders Survey • Green Gown Awards • Rise of Regional Centres of Expertise • Universities UK SD Group and Statement of Intent • 2008 Review of ESD in HE in Scotland
Tensions: ESD =add-on or transformation? • Technical issue relating mainly to estates and resource use • Principally an environmental issue • Requires add-on, or reformative approach • Involves a few disciplines only • Is an additional agenda, easily accommodated • Has clear goals, measurable • Broad relevance to all aspects of HE operation and provision • Also encompasses social relations, justice, ethics, economic viability etc • Requires holistic and transformative approach • Interdisciplinarity across curriculum • Is an overarching agenda and challenges existing policy and practice and involves organisational change • Emerging and contested area
Cited factors Limited institutional commitment Crowded curriculum Perceived irrelevance Limited staff awareness and/or expertise Limited commitment from external stakeholders Perceived as separate and/or too demanding Types of barriers Paradigmatic/psychological Policy/purpose related Structural (governance, compartmentalisation etc) Resource/information deficiency Barriers based on Sustainable Development in HE, HE Academy 2005 (Dawe report)
Some challenges for the ‘sustainable university’, how to... • bring together and reconcile agendas coherently: e.g. employment, internationalisation, enterprise and sustainability • spearhead sustainable development regionally with stakeholders, and support healthy and sustainable economies and communities • model sustainability on campus, procurement, food and resource use etc • anticipate social, economic and ecological change, particularly related to climate change • ensure ‘sustainability literacy’ of staff and students • get all this to be a central part of the HEI’s culture
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.’
HE Academy ESD (Project) Aims • ‘To research and support the development of ESD in the HE sector, particularly within subject communities’. • ‘To build capacity amongst individuals, subject communities and institutions to embed ESD in curricula and pedagogy’. • ‘To assist the coordination and dissemination of policy, research and practice relating to ESD in institutions, the HEA and the wider field’.
‘Sustainability literacy’: the ability.. • SD in HE: Current practice and future developments, Higher Education Academy 2005
Plan of Work 2009-10 (highlights) • Student engagement research • Student engagement event • Produce a Learning and Teaching Framework for ESD • Two single institutional strategy and change events in Scotland • Coordination of Sustainability in Higher Education Developers (SHED Act) network (with EAUC) • Fund a number of small curriculum development grants around interdisciplinarity • Subject Centre interdisciplinary research grants
Thanks for listening • Bi-monthly e-newsletter • Weekly e-bulletin (to subscribe to both/ either email: sustainability@heacademy.ac.uk) • Academy ESD website (www.heacademy.ac.uk/esd)