AdvanceHE just shared a brand-new framework for engaging with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Higher Education. The framework reflects lessons from the literature, the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 2021 Guidance for ESD produced by the QAA, and the ever-growing demand for sustainability from our students. The guidance also relates to professional skills and values for the world of work. For a very short document, it packs a punch. As Dr Kay Hack (Advance HE Lead Consultant, Education) states:
“It is a rallying call to arms, rallying all stakeholders to come together and align our efforts towards the integration of sustainability into not just what students learn, but how and where they learn. I hope this Framework will support colleagues to transform their curricula and enable our students to become stewards of the planet.”
The framework articulates definitions of ESD and why it is important. It thereafter is structured in three parts: institution, educations, and students. In a light-touch manner, it pauses on the most important aspects of ESD to each part of the HE whole. For the institution, it’s all about strategy, systems to support ESD and quality assurance. For educators, the focus is on pedagogies that work for ESD like problem-based learning (PBL) and real-world challenges. For students, ESD is a gateway to employability and enterprise competencies. With just eight pages of graphics and text, it’s an easy read and perfect for those new to thinking about ESD.
Request a download of the AdvanceHE Framework for ESD here.
Alongside the framework, AdvanceHE released fourteen new guides to inspire practice in a range of teaching contexts. Here’s the list of guides provided (you’ll need to log in to access them):
- Co-creating sustainable solutions with external partners: the Warwick Sustainability Challenge (WSUsC)
- ‘Go Green Week’ assessment of engagement for the development of collaborative and critical thinking competencies
- Developing reasoning, resilience and responsibility competencies through a waste sort and packaging redesign
- Embedding climate change goals in engineering curricula
- Curriculum design and ESD in practice: CoDesignS Learning Design and ESD Framework and Toolkit
- Addressing the employability-sustainability curriculum gap: a masterclass
- Interdisciplinary work-based learning module
- Students facilitating low carbon solutions in organisations: connecting sustainability and employability through experiential learning
- Meme making for enhancing student reflection of learning
- Student engagement through gamification for experiential learning in the formal curriculum
- Co-designing authentic and inclusive assessment for growing problem-solving competence
- Supporting the development of new targeted sustainability initiatives in education settings to develop strategic competence and collaboration competence
- Collaborative sustainable engineering design project that develops multiple ESD competencies
For those looking for non-specific ESD content at depth, I highly recommend the 2021 Guidance for ESD produced by the QAA.
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