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Grassroots Cross-boundary Innovation in Higher Education: Lessons from the Process of Designing Transformative Sustainability Education
The Initiative for Transformative Sustainability Education (ITSE) at Wageningen University is a grassroots working group of academics, teachers, and students who have developed a framework for cross-boundary sustainability education that addresses not only theoretical knowledge and practical skills, but also guides students to question their values, attitudes and behaviour, develop leadership skills, learn to empower themselves and others, and learn to facilitate social and collaborative learning among a great diversity of stakeholders. Currently, ITSE is applying this framework to the design of a BSc Minor program in Sustainable Development: Empowerment for Action. ITSE’s contribution to the conference is to highlight the importance of a process-oriented perspective for improving our awareness of challenges and opportunities for higher education innovation. ITSE claims that in order to work towards continuous integration across (educational, institutional, scientific, and professional) boundaries, we need to re-frame our initiatives as networks for social learning and continuous reflexive practice.
The realisation that humanity is facing significant challenges to ensuring the liveability of our planet and society has led to a global call for Education for Sustainability, as education is the primary agent of transformation, increasing people’s capacities to transform their visions into reality. This call has also been heard at Wageningen University, one of the leading institutions of research and education on sustainable development. Here, the Initiative for Transformative Sustainability Education (ITSE) grew out of several gatherings between February and May 2009, which were organised by a former member of the Wageningen University Student Council. The aim of these gatherings was to bring together academics, teachers, and students to talk about innovative ways of educating for sustainability. The core group of staff and students that emerged from these gatherings to form ITSE represents several departments of Wageningen University and is able to draw upon a range of scientific and professional backgrounds, including environmental sciences (biology, alternative energy), life sciences (food sciences, health sciences, animal and plant sciences), and social sciences (environmental education and communication, integral communication and leadership, human geography, organisational psychology, cultural studies), as well as interdisciplinary subjects (sustainable development, agro-industrial sciences, systems analysis, international development, tourism studies). This ‘grassroots’ initiative has developed ‘its own’ shared framework for action through a process of brainstorming elements, practices and principles of transformative sustainability education. ITSE began by defining transformative sustainability education as education that engages students on a theoretical, personal, collaborative, and experiential level in sustainability, and that aims to inspire students to become active participants in the societal shift towards sustainability. Since May 2009, ITSE has been developing a framework for designing transformative sustainability education in higher education. Based on this framework, ITSE is currently designing a BSc Minor program (24 ECTS) in Sustainable Development: Empowerment for Action.
The objectives of ITSE are to:
Facilitate collaborative interaction between University staff and students from a diverse range of backgrounds.
Develop a shared vision and approach towards transformative sustainability education at Wageningen University.
Implement the shared approach in a transdisciplinary education program on sustainability.
Engage in reflexive practice while designing and implementing the approach.
Share the approach with other education innovators and integrate their feedback.
Engage in constant collaborative learning around the initiative, in order to promote continuous deepening of integration across disciplines and dimensions of sustainability education.
In my contribution to the 5th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education, I will employ a process oriented perspective to uncover several elements that drive or hinder grassroots innovation initiatives in higher education, using the ITSE group as an example. Via the metaphor of a flower coming into bloom, I will firstly explore the process the ITSE group engaged in to develop a cross-boundary framework for transformative sustainability education. From our story, I will distil several elements that are needed for developing a shared framework for action, and that may be applicable to other initiatives for innovation in education. These elements include (a) the healthy seed of a common interest, aspirations, and perspectives on innovative education; (b) nurturing the plant by creating a learning community to openly discuss disciplinary knowledge, interpretations of the concept of sustainability, styles of teaching, and students’ needs; (c) growing strong by creating a supportive environment amongst university stakeholders and students; and (d) the blossoming flower of expressing the bridges built between diverse perspectives competences and values in a shared framework for designing educational programs. Furthermore, I will present the framework for transformative sustainability education developed by ITSE, which aims to integrate three dimensions of sustainability education in a way that encourages students to take initiative for sustainability within their sphere of influence. Firstly, the IT Dimension objectifies sustainability by emphasising a critical and reflexive approach to a broad range of theoretical models, paradigms, and practical techniques for sustainable development. This dimension contains what is often already taught in higher education programs on sustainability. Secondly, the I Dimension subjectifies sustainability by focusing on uncovering values, paradigms, perspectives, and personal passion for being a change maker for a more sustainable world. This dimension recognises the importance of personal empowerment if education is to support students to become agents of change. Thirdly, the WE Dimension inter-subjectifies sustainability by highlighting the change potential of diversity and conveying design and facilitation principles for collaborative learning processes in the context of sustainable development. This dimension acknowledges that an individual’s contribution to sustainable development most often occurs in interactive settings, which demand high facilitation and collaboration skills. Most importantly, the framework for transformative sustainability education emphasises the need for Cross-boundary Integration, which can be facilitated by providing students with opportunities to experience the interconnectedness of the I, WE & IT Dimensions through active engagement in experiential learning. Finally, I will elaborate on the process the group is currently engaged in to work towards applying the framework in the design of a BSc Minor program in Sustainable Development: Empowerment for Action. Looking at a range of institutional, personal, and practical challenges to achieving genuine cross-boundary integration, I will make a call for re-framing higher education innovation initiatives as spirals of learning that require continuous planning, reflexive experimental practice, and adaptation of the shared framework for action.
So far, the ITSE group has achieved the following outcomes:
Hosting an open debate for University administrators, academics, teachers, and students on the Challenges for Higher Education in the 21st Century (June 2nd 2009).
Developing a framework for Transformative Sustainability Education that can be applied to program and course design in higher education (September - December 2009).
Creating a design and layout for a BSc Minor in Sustainable Development: Empowerment for Action, which is to be proposed to the Education Board in autumn 2010 (October 2009 - ongoing)
Coordinating a student-run consultancy project to investigate student support for the minor and willingness to enrol (January & February 2010).
Running a pilot course of 1.5 ECTS entitled Integral Leadership for Sustainability (January - February & May - June 2010).
Gaining university approval to create two new courses of 6ECTS. The first course, which employs a non-exclusive focus on the I Dimension of Transformative Sustainability Education is in development and will be given for the first time in February 2011. The second course focuses non-exclusively on the WE Dimension of Transformative Sustainability Education and will be implemented initially from March to April 2011.
ITSE employs a lifelong learning framework that guides students to question their own values, attitudes and behaviour; develop leadership skills; learn to empower themselves and others; and learn to facilitate social and collaborative learning among a great diversity of stakeholders. ITSE places great emphasis on experiential learning, and wants to encourage students to identify local sustainability concerns and design and implement strategies to address them, thereby bridging the gap between the university and its communities. ITSE is a social learning network that facilitates cross-boundary interaction and collaboration between members of different University departments and scientific backgrounds.
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