The Higher Education Academys Education for Sustainable Development Project

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The Higher Education Academys Education for
Sustainable Development Project

• Higher Education and SustainableDevelopment in
  Scotland

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The Higher Education Academy

• Our mission is to help institutions, discipline
  groups and all staff to provide the best possible
  learning experience for their students
• We provide discipline-based support through our
  Subject Network of 24 Subject Centres. These are
  a mix of single-site and consortium-based centres
  located within relevant subject departments and
  hosted by higher education institutions.

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Goal of UN DESD

• to integrate the values inherent in sustainable
  development into all aspects of learning.
• This involves learning
• the values, behaviour and lifestyles required
  for a sustainable future and for positive
  societal transformation.

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• Is this the HE response?

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Students as active, engaged, and effective
citizens

• People who are
• Comfortable dealing with ambiguity
• Willing to take a risk to make a difference
• More interested in solving problems than taking
  credit
• Both effective advocates and listeners
• Eager to imagine and implement daring multifacted
  solutions together
• Lawrence Bacow, President of Tufts University,
  2007
• in Rappaport and Creighton, Degrees that matter,
  MIT Press.

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The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
Project

• Initiated in early 2005 with the support of Forum
  for the Future
• First stage audit of subject communities carried
  out by 18 of the 24 Subject Centres
• Culminated in the Dawe Report, available from
  our website http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/esd

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Our Strategy

• Purpose to help institutions and subject
  communities develop curricula and pedagogy that
  will give students the skills and knowledge to
  live and work sustainably.

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Our Strategy, continued

• Programme Areas
• 1 Research and development
• 2 Capacity building
• 3 Coordination and dissemination

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Our Strategy, continued

• Aims
• 1 To research and support the development of ESD
  in the HE sector, particularly within subject
  communities.
• 2 To build capacity amongst individuals, subject
  communities and institutions to embed ESD in
  curricula and pedagogy.
• 3 To assist the coordination and dissemination
  of policy, research and practice relating to ESD
  in institutions, the HEA and the wider field.

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Our Current Work

• Research into the UK Policy Context
• Forum for the Future
• England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales
• Available July
• Action Research on Labour Market Evidence for
  Sustainable Careers Advice
• StudentForce for Sustainability
• Surveyed students, employers, careers advisors
• Available July

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Our Current Work, continued

• Solo HEI Events
• Alex Ryan and Colin Brooks
• University of East Anglia
• University of Gloucestershire soon
• Report on our website
• Three-Day Interdisciplinary Seminar Series
• Alex Ryan and Colin Brooks
• 3 universities, 15 disciplines represented
• Report on our website

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Our Current Work, continued

• Regional ESD Networking Events
• East Midlands
• South West on 28th March in Bristol
• Scotland on 13th June in Dundee
• Reports on our website
• Community Projects
• Heather Witham
• Thornbury Cardiff, UWE, Gloucestershire, Leeds
  writing up
• U of Gloucestershire projects Arran Stibbe
• More information available on the web

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Our Current Work, continued

• Small Grant Funding
• 12 projects from 8 HEIs and/or Subject Centres
• 13 disciplines
• Results available in July
• Listing of projects on our website
• 3 new projects funded in Scotland
• Conference
• 10-11 July 2007 Sustainability and the
  Curriculum
• Ecoversity Bradford University
• Special issue of Environmental Education Research
• More information on our website

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Scottish Small Grants projects

• Sustainability in Practice St Andrews
• Developing e-learning materials for sustainable
  construction management Dundee
• Welcome to the Sahel an interdisciplinary
  resource-bank of sustainable development -
  Stirling

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Working with other leading HEIs

• developing a Plymouth
• whole-university
• approach to SD
• involving all students
• and staff and all areas
• of the Institutions work.
• They may provide
• models for other
• universities to follow
• Kingston

Bradfords Ecoversity
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Our Current Work, continued

• Joined Up Thinking
• Key actors meetings Kingston, Gloucestershire,
  Plymouth, Bournemouth, Leadership Foundation,
  EAUC, Forum for the Future, others
• Joint strategies on communicating to the sector
• Next meeting in July
• Resource Development
• Our website
• Our pages on EAUC new website
• Subject Centres websites

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Our Current Work, continued

• Subject Centre Activity
• Projects
• Workshops
• Joint events
• Publications
• Generic Module, and Learning and Teaching
  Framework Sustainability policy
• Stephen Sterling (joint post with Centre for
  Sustainable Futures - Plymouth)

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• Sixteen Subject Centres are currently actively
  working on ESD issues. Examples of past and
  recent work by Centres include
•          Bioscience survey of subject community
  on ESD issues, and ethics/sustainability
  curriculum audit tool
•          Engineering working with the
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the
  development of ESD resources
•          Education developing a
  subject-specific pedagogical strategy for ESD
•          Geography, Earth and Environmental
  Sciences survey of employability skills for
  environmental scientists, and Skills for
  Sustainable Futures event
•          Law Project entitled Developing
  global citizens through legal education
•          Materials ESD-themed annual conference
• Philosophy and Religious Studies workshop on
  religion and the environment

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Possible new directions include.

• Support materials on developing ESD in
  disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts
• Discipline specific indicative modules
• Student conference
• Guideline materials on HEI sustainability policy
• Guidelines on whole institutional responses
• Further solo HEI events
• More regional and networking events

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Any Questions?

• Our website http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/esd
• Our e-mail sustainability_at_heacademy.ac.uk
• Project Co-ordinator Heather Witham