SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT THE
HEART OF QUALITY EDUCATION:
bringing sustainability ideals
face to face with new HE realities
DPR10 Conference: Changing Education
15th April 2011
Daniella Tilbury, University of Gloucestershire
Alex Ryan, University of Gloucestershire
John Blewitt, Aston University
Where are the tensions in trying to support
innovation for sustainability in HE T&L?
• Shifting conceptual ground around sustainability definitions
• Different disciplinary self-perceptions of their links with sustainability
• Multiple delivery pathways for ESD in HEIs - formal and hidden
• Research-Teaching interplay yet prioritisation of research agendas
• Thematic overlaps between ESD and other organisational priorities
• Need to integrate learning aims/ambitions – personal and professional
• Structural challenges in creating inter-disciplinary learning opportunities
(ESD: Education for Sustainable Development/EfS: Education for Sustainability)
What are the tactics needed to address ESD
through the core functions of HEIs?
- Regardless of profile or mission, HEIs use common mechanisms to maintain
quality of provision. These processes are a consistent point of focus for
encouraging and supporting ESD curriculum development sector-wide
- The project sees quality assurance and enhancement as critically important
for exploring ESD in organisational leadership and educational innovation
- The project intersects institutional and sector level changes:
i) Seeking systemic change, initiating dialogue and eliciting contributions
from national agencies as well as professional stakeholders and experts.
ii) Seeking to connect institutional setting with sector context – changing
thinking, culture and practice across fiver partner institutions and within
the academic infrastructure in terms of QAA procedures and practices.
But what are the drivers for this –
now the sector is in quicksand?
• The HE Funding Council for England sets out its rationale and expectations in its 2008
Sustainable Development in Higher Education strategy and action plan. The Scottish
Funding Council and HEFCW have linked their strategies and support for ESD at HE
level to governmental education and sustainable development initiatives.
• 80% of a sample of 5,763 students nationally and across subject areas think
sustainability skills will be important to future employers – and 65% want to see this
handled through reframing the curriculum rather than stand-alone modules.
(First-year attitudes towards, and skills in, Sustainable Development, 2011, HE Academy/NUS)
• 93% of 700 organisations across different industry sectors stated their business is likely
to do more in the next five years to incorporate sustainability into their strategies –
this points to the need for higher level applied skills and capabilities in this area.
(Leadership Skills for a Sustainable Economy, 2010, Business In The Community/EDF Energy)
After the storm: re-imagining HE
with sustainability at its heart
‘Ecology of learning’ and shifting educational paradigms – creating
holistic learning environments, allowing depth as well as breadth,
using engaged pedagogies and attention to learning relationships
Integrative pedagogic ethos - realising human capabilities and
countering disaggregated views of the person, supporting active
learning relationships and space for discussion in teaching teams
‘Sustainability Literacy’ as a meta-capability across curriculum
development practice and educational principles – informing the
development of graduate attributes and educator competencies
Enfolding sustainability issues and concerns within the emerging
discourses of our academic communities of practice, to ensure
credibility, relevance and connectivity of innovation in this area
Pathways for Quality Enhancement:
1. Academic Infrastructure
QAA Institutional Review – new guidelines March 2011 – annual choice of thematic
element (akin to ELIR in Scotland – to be addressed cross-institutionally, for
commentary not judgement) - ‘issues that are attracting legitimate public interest or
concern’ such as sustainability would need to be presented as a sufficiently credible in
conceptualisation, and as well supported by the sector, in order to be selected
QAA Subject Benchmarks – several mention sustainability issues and considerations –
encouragement could be given for more widespread attention in benchmarking
committees, which would also advance debate across communities of practice
Underpinning definitions of Quality and Standards – rather static and passive concepts in
recent academic infrastructure consultation 2010-11 – ‘management of learning
opportunities’ – foundations of future T&L quality should be far more ambitious?
Pathways for Quality Enhancement:
2. Working with Business and Industry
Issues are varied, complex and sometimes contradictory:
•
‘Business’ generally recognises the need for green skills but does
not understand what a greener economy might mean or look like.
•
‘Bottom line’ & ‘business case’ mentality dominates in periods of
economic recession.
•
Professional associations vary in level and degree of commitment
to sustainability (often interpreted in different ways): UG/PG programmes
often built around professional/charter requirements.
•
Partnership work essential: low carbon agenda often common
ground because of its potential for quantification, monetarisation and
management oversight.
•
CPD: mosaic of focussed learning opportunities, accredited &/or
non accredited, impacting positively on business and environmental
performance.
Discussions: Sustainability in teaching
and learning at the Institutional Level
SCENARIO 1: THE NEW QAA INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW
Q: The QAA reviewer:
What would you expect to see at an institution that claims to be
tackling sustainability coherently as a cross-curricular issue?
Q: Respondent to a QAA reviewer:
How might you articulate a sound enhancement approach that
tackles sustainability and is embedded in institutional processes?
SCENARIO 2: THE COURSE VALIDATION PROCESS
Q: The validation panel Chair:
What types of questions would you ask of a course team, to
explore their level of academic engagement with sustainability?
Q: The course development team:
How might you plan ways to engage the teaching team and
student cohort with sustainability issues at programme level?