Spreading the Message: departmental workshops on ESD

1
Spreading the Message departmental workshops on
ESD

• Provided by the GEES Subject Centre and the
  Centre for Sustainable Futures
• (University of Plymouth)
• Brian Chalkley and David Selby
• GEES CSF
• University of Bradford
• Tuesday 10th July 2007

2
SESSION QUESTIONS

• What is the GEES/CSF workshop programme and how
  does it operate?
• Could this model be adapted for wider use?
• How might it be improved?
• (Ideas please!)

3
THE CONTEXT

• GEES programme of departmental workshops 20-25
  pa (over 150 in total)
• GEES menu of 17 topics now includes ESD
• CSF is the ESD CETL, also based in Plymouth
• CSF is committed to national dissemination
• Seven ESD workshops have run in GEES departments
  in 06/07

4
THE AIMS OF THE ESD WORKSHOP PROGRAMME

• Raise awareness
• Provide information
• Motivate and promote
• Share practice
• Stimulate debate
• Encourage action planning and change

5
TYPICAL QUESTIONS EXPLORED

• What is (E)SD?
• Why is it of growing interest?
• Why engage with it here?
• How is it relevant to the discipline?
• What are you doing already?

6
MORE TYPICAL QUESTIONS

• What are other HEIs/departments doing?
• What more could you do?
• What are the barriers/opportunities?
• Must the staff be role models?
• Where can you get extra advice/support?

7
TYPICAL TOPICS

• Definitions and interpretations
• ESD across the disciplines
• Curricular changes to achieve the desired
  graduate attributes
• Calculating ecological footprints
• Pedagogy for ESD

8
MORE TYPICAL TOPICS

• Links with employability
• ESD and PDP volunteering etc.
• ESD and the institutional context
• HEFCEs SD strategy
• UN Decade for ESD

9
A FEW HANDY HINTS
10
RESEARCH BEFOREHAND

• Liaise with relevant local staff
• Check if there is a University Sustainability
  (Env) Policy
• Read the Learning and Teaching Policy
• Review existing curriculum in the target
  disciplines

11
STIMULATE DEBATE THROUGH PROVOCATIVE QUOTES

• the volume of education has increased, yet so
  have the dangers of ecological catastrophe. If
  still more education is to save us it will have
  to be education of a very different kind
  (Schumacher)

12

• the destruction of the planet is not the work of
  ignorant people. Rather it is the work of people
  with BAs, BScs, LLBs, MBAs and PhDs
• (David Orr)

13

• (The HEFCE SD Strategy) . Is one of the most
  pernicious and dangerous circulars ever to be
  issued . It is not the job of Universities to
  promote a particular political orthodoxy
• (Peter Knight)

14
USE SOME STRIKING IMAGES
15
USE SOME STRIKING IMAGES
16
USE THE FOUR Cs MODEL
17
CONDUCT A QUIZ/AUDIT

• For example
• Does (E)SD feature in your mission statement or
  corporate plan?
• Does the University have an SD policy?
• Does ESD feature in your Learning and Teaching
  policy?
• Where is ESD in your curriculum?

18
OTHER TOP TIPS

• Link firmly to the discipline
• Show examples of good practice
• Look for opportunities in existing curricula
• Have fun avoid doom and gloom
• Leave time for action planning
• Follow up 3-6 months later

19
DO A PUZZLE!