SDinthecurriculum-UniversityofBrighton.pptVIP

Sustainable Development in the Curriculum Pauline Ridley Centre for Learning Teaching Barriers Kingston University enquiry (Dawe et al 2003) into Sustainability in the Curriculum: Two-thirds of staff identified barriers to inclusion of more sustainability-related teaching. Five main reasons (interviewees were allowed to choose more than one): existing curriculum overload (16%) perceived irrelevance of sustainability issues to focus of curriculum (16%) benchmark requirements of accreditation bodies (12%) lack of immediate staff expertise (11%) anticipated irrelevance by students/ inability of students to grasp issues (10%). ... the crucial lesson about how we have ended up with unsustainable development [is that] it is pursuing our economic, social and environmental goals separately that has resulted in repeated trade offs between goals. Sustainable development is about progressing them together. We are not in the habit of thinking about the economy, the sort of society we would like, or the sort of environment we would like to live in at the same time. In higher education institutions, each is taught as different subjects, in different departments. (emphasis added) (Forum for the Future: Learning and skills for sustainable development: developing a sustainability literate society) Education for SD Not just about adding in some appropriate topics about one or other aspect of SD Addressing the economic/ social/ environmental domains ‘at the same time’ is tougher than engaging with single issue campaigns – need to think in complex, multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary ways But challenging problems and complex thinking skills are what we want for our students Need for interdisciplinary projects based on real world (local) problems – starting with the UoB’s own environmental, social and economic impact..... HEA Subject Centres 18 SCs took part in pilot review of SD in the curriculum, to identify relevant work, share ideas and plans (For links, see CLT webs