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Sustainability Education
Perspectives and Practice across Higher Education
Edited by:
Paula Jones
University of Plymouth, UK
David Selby
Sustainability Frontiers
Stephen Sterling
University of Plymouth, UK
336 pages, 234 x 156 mm
Publisher:
Earthscan
How do we equip learners with the values, knowledge, skills, and motivation to help achieve economic, social and ecological well-being? How can universities make a major contribution towards a more sustainable future? Amid rising expectations on higher education from professional associations, funders, policy makers, and undergraduates, and increasing interest amongst academics and senior management, a growing number of higher education institutions are taking the lead in embracing sustainability. This response does not only include greening the campus but also transforming curricula and teaching and learning.
This book explains why this is necessary and – crucially – how to do it. Bringing together the experience of the HEFCE funded Centre for Sustainable Futures (CSF) at the University of Plymouth and the Higher Education Academy's Education for Sustainable Development Project, the book distills out the curriculum contributions of a wide range of disciplinary areas to sustainability.
The first part of the book provides background on the current status of sustainability within higher education, including chapters discussing interdisciplinarity, international perspectives and pedagogy. The second part features 13 chapter case studies from teachers and lecturers in diverse disciplines, describing what has worked, how and why – and what hasn't. Whilst the book is organised by traditional disciplines, the authors and editors emphasise transferable lessons and interdisciplinarity so that readers can learn from examples outside their own area to embed sustainability within their own curricula and teaching.
Subject areas covered include:
Geography, environmental and earth sciences, nursing/health, law, dance, drama, music, engineering, media and cultural studies, art and design, theology, social work, economics, languages, education, business and built environment.
1. Introduction
2. More Than the Sum of Its Parts? Interdisciplinarity in Relation to Sustainability
3. 'It's Not Just Bits of Paper and Light Bulbs': A Review of Sustainability Pedagogies and their Potential for use in Higher Education
4. Third Wave Sustainability in Higher Education: Some (Inter)national Trends and Developments
5. Education for Sustainability in the Business Studies Curriculum – Ideological Struggle
6. Education for Sustainable Development in Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
7. Climate Change, Sustainability and Health in United Kingdom Higher Education: The Challenges for Nursing
8. Sustainability – Is It Legal? The Benefits and Challenges of Introducing Sustainability into the Law Curriculum.
9. Staging Sustainability: Making Sense of Sustainability in HE Dance, Drama and Music
10. Engineering our World Toward a Sustainable Future
11. Developing Critical Faculties: Environmental Sustainability in Media, Communication and Cultural Studies in Higher Education
12. Sustainability in the Theology Curriculum
13. Sustaining Communities: Sustainability in the Social Work Curriculum
14. Sustainability and the Built Environment Professional: A Shifting Paradigm
15. Costing the Earth: The Economics of Sustainability in the Curriculum
16. Translating Words into Action and Actions into Words: Sustainability in Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies Curricula
17. If Sustainability Needs New Values: Whose Values? Initial Teacher Training and the Transition to Sustainability
18. Conclusion
"Higher education has a critically important role in orienting teaching and learning towards ensuring a sustainable future for all, and producing graduates who can make a positive difference. Yet, to date, substantial challenges remain with regard to rethinking and renewing curricula and pedagogies in many universities. This book addresses this problem – and opportunity – and in turn, challenges, guides and inspires its readers. We are very happy to commend it as a significant and timely contribution to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development." UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Secretariat, UNESCO
Paula Jones is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Plymouth, UK.
David Selby is Founding Director of Sustainability Frontiers, a not-for-profit international organisation concerned with sustainability and global education; he is also Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education, Mount St. Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Stephen Sterling is Professor of Sustainability Education at the Centre for Sustainable Futures, University of Plymouth, and Senior Advisor to the Higher Education Academy ESD Project, UK.
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