Transcript What on Earth is Moral Duty? RR409 Issues and Perspectives

Education for Sustainable Development:
Will it make a Difference?
ULAB International Conference on
‘Sustainability in Higher Education
24th March 2007
Russell Goodwin
BA (Open), MA (EPS) (Open), PGCert Res Meth (HG)
Postgraduate Researcher
Centre for Active Learning (CeAL)
University of Gloucestershire, UK
Doctoral Research
• Education for Sustainable Development and
Ecological Citizenship in Higher Education:
The Incidence of Transformative Learning at the
University of Gloucestershire
– Investigating whether the teaching of sustainability
issues at the University of Gloucestershire (UoG) is
effective in influencing students' attitudes and values,
to the extent that they will adopt sustainable
behaviours and actions in their future lives.
Centre for Active Learning (CeAL)
University of Gloucestershire, UK
Sustainable Development
•
“development which meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own
needs.”
(The Bruntland Report, WCED, 1987:43)
Sustainable Development
• “Anyone over the age of 50, given reasonable
good luck, can expect life to go on much as it
is now until we achieve our generous life
expectancy.
Those between 20 and 50 will need unusually
good luck for that to happen and anyone under
20 has no chance at all.
Something is going to have to change...”
George Walker, Head of the International School,
Geneva (2002) from www.cee.org.uk
Sustainable Development
•
“In economics there is no concept of
enough: just a chronic yearning for more, a
hunger that cannot be filled.”.”
(Rowe, 2000:24)
• ‘To meet these challenges (of sustainability),
we need to reinvent the way we live if we are
to pass on a better world to future
generations.’
(Welsh Assembly Government, 2004:1)
Sustainable Behaviour
•
‘Environmental literacy is considered essential
to the creation of a sustainable economy’
(Warhurst 1998:20)
• “There are a number of studies that show that
pupils' environmental attitudes tended to be
positive, except when the object of concern
impinges on their own lives. . .
It is as if one is always 'for' the environment
until one's own freedoms are impinged upon.”
(Lucas 1991: 37 cited in Dobson, 2003:204-205)
Sustainable Behaviour?
• “Rather than pay up, the public are likely to
vote with their cars and take their rubbish and
dump it on the pavement, in the countryside or
in someone else’s backyard”
(Dobson, 2003:2)
• “… people sometimes choose to do good for
other reasons than fear (of punishment or loss)
or desire (for economic rewards or social
status). People sometimes do good because they
want to be virtuous”
(Beckman, 2001:179)
Ecological Citizenship
• A citizenship of obligation
– A sense of duty and responsibility
whereby people want to adopt
sustainable behaviours and actions
The University of Gloucestershire
• Our approach to ESD
‘Developing in students an understanding of
the nature of society and its relationship
with the environment, together with the
capabilities and potential to promote justice
in the distribution of economic, social and
environmental assets, now and for the
future.’
The University of Gloucestershire
• The Centre for Active Learning
– An approach to learning that enables the
construction of theoretical understanding
through reflection on practical activities
Active Learning in ESD
• But will it change anything?
– Can we produce the kind of ‘transformative
learning’ whereby the student develops a
deep awareness of alternative worldviews
and praxis such that he/she ‘sees things
differently’
(Sterling, 2001 and Wooltorton, 2002)
Active Learning in ESD
• The aims of the study are:
– To gain an understanding of the range of current
approaches to the delivery of ESD, in English
Universities in general and specifically in the
University of Gloucestershire
– To explore whether ESD, as delivered within the
University of Gloucestershire, is effective in shaping
attitudes and beliefs in students to the extent that
they develop a sense of ecological citizenship
– To identify the influencing factors that contribute or
inhibit the development of a sense of ecological
citizenship as an inherent element of student identity
Education for Sustainable Development
• Will it make a difference?
• What sort of people will our
Graduates become?
Thank you !