Topic 5a. Sustainability framework for higher education

Topic 5. Table of contents Transforming education for sustainability Overview [+] a. Sustainability framework for higher education b. Educating for living with the earth [+] c. Learning for change [+] d. Knowledge for a new paradigm [+] e. Research and teaching for sustainable livelihoods [+] f. Open to society: building sustainability together [+] g. Universities in transition [+]

In order to orient higher education to a committed contribution of knowledge towards a sustainable world, most of the aspects of the current educational system, including its values and its norms, must be reconsidered. The real transformation and most essential one for higher education is the change from quantitative assessment to a qualitative one.

We need to share how to integrate the fragmented areas of knowledge and to find proper methodologies to connect thinking and action. It is time to ask: How can we teach a holistic vision of reality? How can we learn to work in a transversal manner? What new competencies are needed for future citizens? What do we research and how do we research it? How can the collective consciousness, democratic processes and the citizenry be reinforced? How to foment cooperation and working in group networks? All these questions form part of the challenge of sustainability and it is necessary to clarify them in order to have a clear vision about the direction of where we are headed as a planetary society.

The following are the challenges faced by universities and other organizations of higher education at institutional level:

• Changes in internal organisation: Universities are increasingly recognising and asking for the establishment of a new typology of structure where the university can become a living example of SD incorporation. There is a strong request to work on clarifying, defining, and agreeing the shifting of worldviews and values, both those possessed by individuals on the SD principles and future perspective agreement; as well as those that underline existing cultures and structures and thereby provide lock-in mechanisms that stop people from living and acting more sustainably. The changes of internal organisation should aim to improve the management of resources (human, economic, etc.) and be restructured to improve internal democracy. Universities must continue their mission to educate, train and carry out research through an approach characterised by ethics, autonomy, responsibility and anticipation.
• Changes in knowledge creation: Its rigid, compartmentalized, and fragmented structure causes faculties, programs, and even students to fail to collaborate and participate in joint projects. The critical barriers for change and decisive solutions discussed indicate that universities need to integrate sustainability within their mission, vision and values and be consistent and coherent with them. The importance of inter-relating the reflection of sustainable development in all educational programmes, research, projects, operations and assessments was pointed out. Additionally, there is a need for holistic and systemic approaches, where defining what can be done and by whom is sine qua non, with the caveat that ESD is not a discipline but it is ‘everyone’s business’. So, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches should be taken and non-scientific forms of knowledge should be explored. HEIs have an important role in helping people within (students, teachers and staff) and outside (society, governments) the institution to understand their own worldviews and how they relate to the possibilities to create a more sustainable society. Universities have the duty to present future scenarios and their complexity as part of their research by aligning different perspectives, knowledge, and realities.
• Changes in the educational model: There is a need for a paradigm shift in higher education. New teaching/learning approaches that enable the development of critical and creative thinking should be integrated. The competencies common to all higher-education graduates should be determined and the corresponding expectations should be defined. In a knowledge society, higher education should transform us from disoriented projectiles into guided missiles: rockets capable of changing direction in flight, adapting to variable circumstances, and constantly course-correcting. The idea is to teach people to learn quickly as they go along, with the capacity to change their mind and even renounce previous decisions if necessary, without over thinking or having regrets. Teaching and learning must be more active, connected to real life, and designed with students and their peculiarities in mind. Therefore, universities must ensure the quality of their experts’ knowledge by adding value to research and the implementation of sustainability in educational programs at the University. New professional competences, such as critical, future and systemic thinking combined with social values, are needed among individuals so that we can re-imagine our practices, and change them into action competences.
• Changes aimed at tapping the potential of information and communication technologies in the creation and dissemination of knowledge. The goal of such changes is to create what Prensky (2009) calls digital wisdom.
• Changes for social responsibility and knowledge transfer. The work of higher-education institutions must be relevant. What they do, and what is expected of them, must be seen as a service to society; their research must anticipate social needs; and the products of their research must be shared effectively with society through appropriate knowledge-transfer mechanisms. Universities, as part of the society, can fill the gap between research and society. They have to open themselves to society, contextualize themselves not only by the employment and industrial market but also, on the societal perspective. To educate in SD, the university itself must become a sustainable organization where society is another stakeholder of the system. It is increasingly necessary that universities create participatory spaces to help explain to decision-makers how different strategies can be aligned to SD, and provide guidance to how policy instruments can support, or discourage sustainable actions.

If there is a convergence on the challenges, the questions that remain are: What is limiting HEI from overcoming them? Which barriers preventing change, of the current system, are avoiding HEI from transforming themselves for the achievement of their commitment to sustainability?

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