An Evaluation of Education for Sustainable Development Interventions at a UK Higher Education Institution

Author(s):

Helen Puntha(submitting)Aldilla Dharmasasmita(presenting)Petra Molthan-hill Lina Erlandsson

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

30 SES 05 B, ESD Learning in Higher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

13:30-15:00

Room:

K6.18

Chair:

Matthias Barth

Contribution

This paper will provide a response to the following research question: what are the outputs and outcomes of institutional interventions relating to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for staff, students and the curriculum?

Sustainability literacy is an issue of growing significance for Higher Education (HE) as well as graduate employment with the vast majority of CEOs believing that sustainability issues will be critical to the success of their business (Accenture, 2016). Through education and research, Higher Education providers can contribute to change and provide solutions to many of the global issues we are facing today, as well as increasing the employability of their graduates.

The paper will present the findings of an evaluation undertaken by one UK-based HE institution of three of its Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) interventions. The institution has a background in extra-curricular sustainability activity (Molthan-Hill et al. 2017). The institution’s commitment to formal ESD was recently strengthened through the commencement of a two-year institutional Curriculum Refresh, where sustainability is one of 8 key areas which courses are now expected to be embed into the curriculum regardless of discipline area. A set of seven recommendations relating to ESD have been adapted from UK Quality Assurance Agency guidance and incorporating the United Nations ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs). As one of the leading UK institutions within the area of ESD, the institution has an opportunity to develop innovative ESD solutions and influence the discourse for the entire HE sector.

The first intervention to be evaluated is an Education for Sustainable Development - Future Thinking Learning Room, which contains several hundred resources to support teaching colleagues to embed sustainability into their curriculum. Resources are categorised according to subject area and relevance to the SDGs.

The second intervention is a Sustainability in Practice Certificate (SiP) which is a flexible, online course open to all staff and students of the institution which provides a comprehensive introduction to sustainability through the themes of food, energy or clothing; participants may enter their assessment piece of a video, mood board, poster or practical project into a competition to win prizes, the pieces are then recycled into teaching materials within the formal curriculum (Puntha et al. 2015). The research will focus on where the certificate itself has been mainstreamed into certain modules within the taught curriculum.

The third intervention is a series of ESD and Curriculum Refresh workshops for teaching staff for them to develop and share ideas for embedding sustainability into the formal curriculum. The three projects are all pioneering initiatives developed and led by the institution’s ‘Green Academy’, a team dedicated to embed sustainable development across all schools and disciplines at the university.

ESD interventions in Higher Education are seldom evaluated due to the complexity of the concept itself as well as difficulties with measuring educational development in general. With NTU’s whole-institutional approach to sustainability in the curriculum, it is of interest to the university to measure the undertaken interventions and find both the strong and weak points of the undertaken activities. The findings of the evaluation, particularly findings relating to the embedding of SDGs into curriculum should be of interest to educational researchers as well as anyone looking to introduce similar interventions.

Method

The mixed methods evaluation research will be undertaken during June and July 2017 by a research team including educational developers, academics, researchers and students of the institution. Research will involve semi-structured interviews with members of staff who have been exposed to the stated interventions as well as quantitative analysis of student course work, where available, in areas where ESD interventions have taken place in order to reach a better understanding on how students understanding of the sustainability concept have been affected by ESD interventions.

Expected Outcomes

It is anticipated that teaching staff will have experienced the workshops and learning room as beneficial to their understanding of sustainability and their subsequent embedding of sustainability into the curriculum. Findings likely to be of interest and transferability include an understanding of staff perceptions of the SDGs and the relevance of these to the taught curriculum as well as whether an increasing depth of sustainability knowledge has affected the way other elements of the course are taught. It is anticipated that staff who have mainstreamed SiP will have found the certificate to be of benefit in allowing them to address sustainability within the curriculum, however that the ‘ready-to-wear’ format of the certificate may have hindered their own understanding of sustainability when compared with the learning room and workshops which require a more active role of the participating academics.

References

Accenture, 2016. UN Global Compact—Accenture Strategy: The Path to 2030. Available online at https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-un-global-compact-ceo-study [Accessed 23rd January 2017]. Molthan-Hill, P., Puntha, H., Dharmasasmita, A., Hunter, K. and Lawe, B. 2017. Addressing food waste through university and community partnerships. In LEAL FILHO, W. et al. (eds.), Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education Vol. 1, World Sustainability Series. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. Puntha, H., Molthan-Hill, P., Dharmasasmita, A. and Simmons, E. 2015. Food for thought: a university-wide approach to stimulate curricular and extra-curricular ESD activity. In LEAL FILHO, W. et al. (eds.), Integrating Sustainability Thinking in Science and Engineering Curricula, World Sustainability Series. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

Author Information

Helen Puntha (submitting)

Nottingham Trent University

Green Academy

Kirkby in Ashfield

Aldilla Dharmasasmita (presenting)

Nottingham Trent University

Nottingham

Petra Molthan-hill

Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom

Lina Erlandsson