Professor Julia Myatt, Academic Director for Sustainability Education, introduces a new MicroCPD series featuring examples of education for sustainability.
Education for sustainability, EfS, also referred to as ESD (or Education for Sustainable Development) is an approach to teaching and learning that highlights the principles and practices of sustainability. The focus of EfS is the development of the skills, knowledge and motivation to engage with sustainability and importantly, to understand the interconnections between the three pillars of environmental, social and economic systems through the development of eight core competencies, endorsed by UNESCO. These competencies were recently introduced in the third Education Excellence newsletter here.
The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a widely recognised avenue to introduce and highlight key themes within the curriculum. They have the benefit of being a shared, global language and provide a structured framework. However, there is a risk of the oversimplification of complex issues and individual SDGs being considered in isolation, rather than recognising their interconnected nature which is essential to effectively tackle the multifaceted challenges. The use of the SDGs should therefore be carefully considered when utilising them in our teaching.
At Birmingham we are developing several initiatives to support Education for Sustainability throughout our teaching and learning. As one of the pillars of our 2030 strategy, it is vital that we enable students to engage with sustainability both within and alongside the curriculum. Embedding sustainability cultivates awareness, responsibility and action towards the challenges we are facing today, fostering a climate-aware generation equipped to address these global issues in a holistic way. As one of the refreshed graduate attributes, our goal at Birmingham is to ensure all students can become ‘sustainability-focused’ and to achieve this all students should have the opportunity to engage with relevant aspects through their learning.
Over the coming months there will be more ways for staff to engage with EfS. There will be a series of new principles in the Teaching and Learning handbook, the development of a community of practice and provision of additional resources. There is already a wealth of fantastic practice taking place, this series will only be able to share a small snapshot but there will be more to come later in the year and I am always keen to hear more about how staff are engaging with sustainability in their practice.
Resources
Vogel, M. et al (2022). Education for Sustainable Development: a review of the literature 2015-2022. Education for Sustainable Development: a review of the literature 2015-2022 | Advance HE (advance-he.ac.uk)