Educational Sustainable Development (ESD) is about the kinds of education, teaching and learning that appear to be required if we are concerned about ensuring social economic and ecological wellbeing, now and into the future (The Future Fit Framework, 2011) 1402802, 1307762, 1404364, 1401171
For our research project we wanted to understand ‘staffs perceptions and attitudes towards ESD at University of Chichester (UOC). The structure we created was based on three themes from the Higher education academies (HEA) ‘the future fit framework’ (FFF) which is ‘an introductory guide to teaching and learning for sustainability in higher education’ and ‘Education for sustainable development and holistic curriculum change.’ It begins by looking at staff’s attitudes towards ESD and their understanding of basic ESD principles, our responses from the survey we conducted should highlight a variable which influences attitudes and principles, and we expect this to be a subject area. From this we will analyse the barriers to understanding ESD, further from this we will discover how to guide the future development of ESD and related staff development opportunities. Our Objectives are:
To gain an understanding of variances affecting staff attitudes on ESD
To understand staffs present understanding of ESD principles
To recognise the barriers created by the variances highlighted above and how they hinder their understanding and/or engagement with ESD
To evaluate approaches the University of Chichester can implement to develop ESD
In the field of ESD, there is a broad consensus that sustainability education requires active, participative and experimental learning methods that engage the learner’ (Sterling, 2012). Consideration should be given to understand what competencies academics are engaging in to be able to adopt ESD into their learning methods for improvement. In 2005, the HEA’s ‘Dawe report’ (Dawe, et al. 2005, cited in Sterling, 2012) outlined a set of competencies that might define the skills and dispositions conductive to building more sustainable development patterns in work and personal life. Furthermore, attention must be given to the methodological approaches and values that are often associates with learning and teaching in relation to sustainability. HEA’s FFF outlines 16 approaches academics could adopt to enhance ESD in their teachings and the curriculum.
‘Whereas there are many examples of successful implementation of ESD programmes and initiatives, research and experience indicates a number of hurdles to the embedding of ESD that are often common to HEI’s’ (Sterling, 2012). ‘Higher Education Academy’s ‘Dawes report’ (Dawe et al. 2005) suggest several factors prevent academics from engaging with SD in the curriculum’ (Sterling, 2012). For the purpose of investigating ‘deep green’ candidates with ‘distanced’ staff members, we adopted these preventions into our survey, which enabled us to recognise how both segments differ from their perspectives of these as barriers. ‘In addition to barriers that obstruct or limit progress towards sustainability, some academics have outright objections to sustainability’ (Sterling, 2012). These objections allows the possibility to tackle the problem of stagnated ESD in UOC by then evaluating what opportunities can be adopted as a solution.
Focusing on the theme of those ‘distanced’ and those ‘deep green’, we have examined both the perceptions and attitudes to evaluate their understanding and their present engagement with basic principles of ESD. We have analysed the top three competencies and approaches. By understanding the difference in attitudes and adoption of approaches we hope to be able to make a distinction between what the deep green people do in comparison to what the distanced people don’t do and lead on to what opportunities the UOC can practice to develop ESD Further.
HEA ‘Future Fit Framework’ (FFF) outlines four common misconceptions academics relate to ESD. Following on with the theme of those ‘distanced’ and ‘deep green’.
This graph demonstrates those in each of the categories feelings towards these misconceptions in terms of strongly agreeing- strongly disagreeing.
The survey overview shows the generic basic questions to find out about the people who filled out our survey. The reason we asked these questions was to try and identify the difference between age, gender, the time period that the staff member has worked at the University and whether they are aware of the ‘Jump Scheme’ that is in place.
Overall Survey Responses:
In HEA’s education for sustainable development and holistic curriculum change’ they state that ‘the use of staff development events featured strongly, as did the creation of generic graduate attributes to articulate value-based educational principles and enable co-ordinated effort on these principles across diverse subject areas.’ (Education for Sustainable development and holistic change, n.d). We have looked at what enhancement mechanisms the UOC could put in place to develop ESD, in reflection with the suggested approaches from HEA’s reports, we ignored the previous theme of comparing the difference in perception and attitude between those that are ‘deep green’ and ‘distanced’. We focused primarily on ‘distanced’ people instead, so we could look for the best approaches to enhance ESD, and as these are the individuals who feel they do not understand and engage with ESD, it is best to consider what they believe will help their development.
Crowded curriculum refers to the idea that staff believe ‘there’s no space for material’ (Sterling,2012) in their teachings.
One of the top three enhancement mechanisms, suggested by overall results from those that are ‘distanced’ from ESD, included the ‘development of academic guidance frameworks’.
The graph shows many ‘distanced’ staff members believe there is a significant reason preventing them from engaging with ESD. Contradicting to this ‘deep green’ staff members disagree to strongly disagree. Had the format of our subject area question categorised responses, we would have had the capability to identify which subjects and modules codes are ‘crowded’.
The results indicate that the majority of those that responded, who are ‘distanced’ from ESD feel that a framework will encourage a moderate level of engagement & effectiveness.
However FFF suggest that, ‘ESD does not necessarily mean adding significant new content; often is a matter of modification of existing content.’ (Sterling, 2012)
The results show those who are ‘deep green’ strongly disagree to disagree with all misconceptions, while those distanced mostly disagree or are unsure. This suggests that though they realise this is just a misconception and ESD is more than that, they perhaps don’t know understand the principles of ESD.
Perceived relevance is the idea that staff believe ESD is not relevant to their subject area.
Results suggest that the majority of ‘deep green’ and ‘distanced’ both strongly disagree to disagree with this idea. However a few ‘distanced’ respondents are unsure if it is relevant.
A brief and concise statement on what it is; brief and concise list of bullet-points as to aims and hoped-for outcomes; brief and concise list of (easy) suggestions for how such aims could be accomplished in relation to teaching and research practice
This enhancement is the concept that willing and able individuals/ groups become experts of a topic or subject and then be available to assist others in their individual development with the long term aim of eventually developing others into experts and spreading the knowledge and skills that way.
‘While ESD is more obviously relevant to some subjects than others, virtually all can both relate and benefit from ESD in some way’ (sterling,2012).
HEA’S FFF suggest resources to help each subject area adopt ESD practices. Considering this and the results, it would appear that UOC doesn’t educate staff members in the relevance to their subject.
Referring back to misconceptions, the majority of ‘distanced’ staff members perceive ESD as not being ‘separate from or unrelated to other HE agendas’ as so would suggest that they do notice the relevance but perhaps how to adopt it into their teachings, as many also, referring back to principles, did not fully integrate methods of engaging with ESD into their modules.
The results from this question indicate that the majority of ‘distanced’ individuals believe this will have a moderate level of engagement and effectiveness.
The University does have a jump scheme already in place, however results from the question of participation reveals that of the five ‘distanced’ respondents, all five of them are not members of the scheme.
The results highlights how the majority of ‘deep green’ respondents feel that the ability to ‘solve real life problems through employing holistic, as well as reductionist approaches as appropriate to the issue’ is very important. Comparing this to those ‘distanced’ recognising it as only important, therefore suggesting a gap for UOC to develop.
One response we received to ‘What singular activity could university do to help enhance your understanding and engagement with ESD’ was;
If the aim is to enhance ESD at the University of Chichester, the goal is to perhaps have all competencies to be recognised as ‘very important’ because encouraging these competencies in students will create ‘citizens and leaders who have skills in critical and creative thinking.’ (UNESCO. N.d, cited in Sterling, 2012)
Median and Mode of the Age Category:
The results show that all ‘deep green’ respondents believe this competency is very important, while the majority of distanced people rate it as only important or unsure.
As mentioned before the goal is to perhaps have all competencies recognised as ‘very important’, considering this and the idea that this ability is the underpinning of ESD in higher education.
The graph suggests that ‘distanced’ staff members perhaps do not have this ability themselves and therefore a solution needs to be found to best educate and develop staffs understanding.
Median and Mode of the Years Worked at UOC:
Limited staff awareness or expertise, refers to the idea that staff members are interested and think it is important but don’t feel as though they know enough to handle this area (Sterling, 2012).
The graph shows that mostly ‘deep green’ respondents disagree with this idea, and that they know enough to handle this area. This could be down to the subject area they teach and their involvement in UOC ESD schemes. However ‘distanced’ staffs strongly agree, agree or are unsure to this as a barrier. Referring back to a question we asked in our survey, ‘from a pedagogic perspective, what does education for sustainable development mean to you’ ‘distanced’ staff responded with;
It doesn't mean anything from a pedagogic perspective. I have not read/not sought out information on how to embed ESD into my curricula. It does not feature as an agenda with the subject professional body to whom I am a member, or if it does, not so prominently that I am aware of it
The results demonstrate how seven ‘deep green’ respondents feel that the ability to fulfil this competency is very important, compared to only four ‘distanced’ people.
Teaching would model commitment to ESD; promote discussion on global issues; use methodology such as development education from the traditions of Paolo Friere; promote critical thinking; show how ESD can be included in all areas of the curriculum
Three ‘distanced’ people did recognise how it is ‘important’, this leaves a gap to understand why they do not believe it to be very important.
Females aware of the ‘Jump Scheme’:
HEA’s student attitudes towards and skills for sustainable development’ (Drayson et.al, 2013) lists three ways in which departments at HE institutions should develop ESD among staff and students.
The graph shows how both distanced and deep green respondents feel as though their departments rarely participate in the suggested.
HEA’s FFF defines ‘stimulus activities’ as the use of ‘dynamic media such as photos, videos, newspapers’ (Sterling, 2012). The results in the graph indicates that while ‘deep green’ staff fully to often integrate this method of teaching, the majority of ‘distanced’ staff members do not integrate it into their modules.
From the feedback we received some respondents claimed the wording of the questions were confusing and unclear, therefore didn’t answer some of the questions. We found that those that understood or have an interest in ESD answered all or the majority of the questions, however the staff members that don’t have an interest would leave them blank, leading towards biased and incomplete results.
The results represent the theory that both ‘deep green’ and ‘distanced’ staff members disagree that this is a reason for, if they have an objection, to engaging with ESD.
From a students perspective, as a group we feel that the University of Chichester’s staff could embed ESD more into our learning within the Business School. This will enable us to gain an understanding of the importance of ESD as majority of people don’t realise the full depth of what ESD is as it’s not just about the environment. However it does “prepare people to cope with manage and shape social, economic and ecological conditions characterised by change, uncertainty, risk and complexity” (Sterling, 2012)
This suggests that an opportunity might be a framework of some kind as, this results suggest they are not worried about effects on their academic freedom.
‘If sustainability, why not a whole raft of other areas- where is it going to stop?’ (Sterling, 2012).
HEA’s FFF, recognises how ‘methodological values and approaches can be manifested through a number of methods’ and that taking ESD further is often a matter of ‘extending pedagogic diversity by taking one, two or more of the less familiar methods on board’ (Sterling, 2012).
To conclude our research project we found that receiving only 26 responses came at a surprise. Initially we chose to target staff members as we thought we would receive a higher response rate than students, therefore showing our naivety as we underestimated how preoccupied staff already are. Primarily we hoped that by gaining the staffs’ module codes we would be able to make a comparison to how much knowledge each department have on ESD, however due to a low response rate we were not able to analyse this in such detail. This also meant that we were unable to carry out any analytical tests of our results.
The idea here, refers to the idea that staffs opinion reflects that of ‘being expected to integrate sustainability into my teaching interferes with academic freedom’ (Sterling, 2012).
However none of the respondents believe it cannot be easily integrated into their module, which we hope to make clear in our barriers section as to why.
The graph also demonstrates a problem with our research. We expected the most influential variable to be subject area, and so would have analysed this theme throughout, and this graph would had been the perfect opportunity to examine which subject area engages most. However due to the format of our question ‘what subject do you teach?’ we were unable to categorise each answer, meaning we couldn't analyse each section with reference to this.
Although there is not a high amount of ’deep green’ people who believe incentive funds/ awards will be effective, it show that money isn't a factor that compels staff to be interested in ESD.
Males aware of the ‘Jump Scheme’:
Results from this graph shows that while the majority of ‘deep green’ respondents think internal academic staff incentive funds/awards will generate a low level of engagement and effectiveness, perhaps because of their already imbedded interest in the area, ‘distanced’ people believe that it will generate a moderate level of engagement and effectiveness.
The results are similar to the ‘academic freedom’ graph, in that it shows that although majority disagree with this as a barrier, however one individual agrees. There were more objections listed by FFF but these three had the most significant difference.
If we were to carry this research project our again we would change the way distribute our survey, for example we could conduct interviews which would allow us to gain a deeper insight into the staffs’ knowledge and understanding of ESD. We would also allocate more time to receive more responses, therefore sending the survey out sooner. The feedback suggested we would have to change the type of questions we asked, allowing us to receive different types of data, meaning we would be able to carry out analytical tests. Another way we could improve our project is by researching the topic in further detail by using a variety of sources, this would allow us to gain more knowledge and better understanding of the topic. It could be possible for us to research deeper into what other Universities are doing in comparison to UOC and see if our University could incorporate any of their ideas according to ESD. From the ‘People and Planet’s University league table 2015’ it shows that the University of Chichester is in the top 20, placing 18th. This league table identifies which University’s are environmentally friendly and from the data shown, since 2007 UOC have been consistently engaged with environmental activities.
PBL begins with the assumption that learning is an active, integrated, and constructive process influenced by social and contextual factors (Barrows, 1996; Gijselaers, 1996 cited in Speaking of Teaching, 2001).
Instead this project will contrast those people which feel less engaged ‘distanced’ with those who are deeply engaged with ESD ‘deep green’ in context with their attitudes, understandings, barriers and opportunities
To gage a general overview of staff’s present engagement with ESD, we developed this metric using the ‘Scottish Environmental Attitudes and Behaviours Survey, 2008’.
The results from this question display the higher percentage feel ‘deep green.’ This suggests that the UOC has an already developed scheme of ESD in place. However the next highest percentage at 29% feel ‘distanced.’
The results indicate that ‘deep green’ staff members fully to often integrate PBL in their teachings, while a small number ‘distanced’ staff do often integrate PBL the majority either do not integrate it or believe it cannot be integrated into their modules.
Modelling good practice refers to the commitment to using all knowledge and technology at one’s disposal to ensure success and the best practice (Rouse, 2007). In higher education, modelling good practice is the idea of using all resources at staff’s disposal to demonstrate good practice of the subject area. The results suggest that the majority of ‘deep green’ candidates fully integrate this, however the minority few, often do or do not integrate
Ideology as an objection to engaging or integrating ESD refers to the idea that ‘promoting sustainability is promoting an ideology and that is not the job of Higher Education’ (Sterling, 2012).
Although majority of both segments disagree with this statement, one individual does agree, and perhaps with a larger response rate the significance of this objection might be clearer.
Alex Ryan (2011) Education for Sustainable development and Holistic Curriculum Change: A Review and Guide. Higher Education
Education for Sustainable Development at Oxford Brookes University (2012) Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching, 4(1).
George Robinson and Janice Moulton (2002) Academic Freedom (online) Available from >http://sophia.smith.edu/ ~jmoulton/Acadfree.pdf
Margaret Rouse n.d best practice definition. TechTarget (online) available from >http:// searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/best-practice
Speaking of Teaching (2001) (online) Available from > http://web.stanford.edu/dept/CTL/cgi-bin/docs/newsletter/ problem_based_learning.pdf
Stephen Sterling (2012) The Future Fit Framework: An Introductory guide to Teaching and Learning for Sustainability in HE. The Higher Education Academy