Mission Impossible? Sustainability and steps towards transformative change:the Plymouth experience

Centre for Sustainable Futuresat the University of Plymouth

ESD CETLwww.csf.plymouth.ac.uk

Dr Stephen Sterling

Schumacher Reader in Education for Sustainability

‘Reinventing the university’

‘…it is pre-eminently in the universities that we should be thinking hardest about the implications of this whole world-system for our common life and its future, and bringing the best of our available intelligence to bear on the necessary changes. If not there, where? If that’s not the business of universities in the early twenty-first century, what on earth are they for?’

-John Foster, 2007

From review of Michael M’Gonigle’s Planet U: Reinventing the University

Barriers

Cited factors• Crowded curriculum• Irrelevance• Limited staff awareness

and/or expertise• Limited institutional

commitment• Limited commitment from

external stakeholders• Too demanding

Types of barriers

• Paradigmatic/psychological

• Policy/purpose related

• Structural (governance, compartmentalisation etc)

• Resource/information deficiency

‘My perception that universities have pretty well isolated themselves from society, through their academic detachment, and that’s the way they’ve made themselves rather irrelevant to current issues of sustainability, which are absolutely critical. ….

And…so I’ve felt that university education has to go radically localised, in the sense of integrating student learning with the local community. Universities have to become dedicated in service to their community…..

…that’s something that I see emerging quite strongly now…this is going to radicalise University education, and make it relevant.’

- Academic, University of Plymouth, 2005

‘Make it relevant’

Towards ‘sustainable institutions’

FROM: TOWARDS:

Incoherence and fragmentationLarge scalePoor connectivityClosed communityTeaching

organisation

Microcosm of unsustainable society

Human scaleHigh

connectivityOpen

communityLearning

organisationSystemic

coherence and synergyMicrocosm of sustainable society?

Two arenas of learning

• Structured learning:

- intentioned learning amongst students in formal education which arises from educational policies and practices

• Attendant learning:

- the social learning response to sustainability in organisations, institutions and

their actors

Organisational change

• Systematic

- policies, strategies, rules, procedures, assessment, evaluation, structures etc

• Systemic

- emergence, collegiality, social learning, informal networks, collective intelligence, ethos, self-organisation etc

Melding paradigms?

‘Delivery’ Meaning Prescriptive Participative Performance valued Emergence

valued Instructive Constructive

DialogueInvitational

Mentored engagementFacilitative

Keywords – ‘C’ words

• Connection

• Communication

• Collaboration

• Coherence

• Consistency

• Congruency

Goal of CSF

The Goal of this CETL is to transform the University of Plymouth from an institution characterised by significant areas of excellence in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to an institution modelling university-wide excellence and, hence, able to make a major contribution to ESD regionally, nationally and internationally

Centre for Sustainable Futures Has a mandate for transforming the University of

Plymouth into an institution modelling university-wide excellence in SD/ESD

Aims to have all students engage critically with sustainability agendas and their personal, ethical, professional and personal implications

Seeks to embed ESD into curriculum, learning and teaching across all schools

Undertakes pedagogical and institutional change research so development is research-informed

Aims to play a key role nationally by engaging with HEIs, Higher Education Academy and Subject Centres, HEFCE, EAUC etc

One-liner Response

“To develop the transformative potential of higher education at the University of Plymouth and beyond for building towards a sustainable future”

20 Centre Fellows across Schools and Faculties

Campus Community Curriculum

Key structures

Fora

Centre FellowsCore team

DirectorAsst DirectorReader

Research Fellow

Centre Manager

Two Research Assistants

Support staff

Student placements

Steering Group

Reps across UP and external partners

IWG

Interdisciplinary curriculum working group

Environment Committee

Wave model of change

The 4C model

To enhance student and staff experience through embedding sustainability across

the curriculum

To embed sustainability

practice across the UoP campus

To contribute to the regional sustainability

agenda through university / community

partnerships

To engage with a cultural backcloth and

attendant practices that feed

unsustainability

The four C model

UP Sustainability Strategic Action Plan

Curriculum component

Aim‘To engage students at all levels with sustainability concepts and issues through their formal and informal learning’

Objectives include‘To develop the sustainability literate graduate’

‘To engage students with both disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainability’

‘To build the capacity of staff for sustainability related teaching and curriculum development’

CSF’s curriculum related work includes…

- UP Sustainability Policy and Action Plan

- Indicative ‘generic module’ – key concepts, outcomes

- Developing ‘Common Module’

- Building in sustainability dimension to Learning and Teaching Policy

- Building in sustainability to ‘Skills Plus’ policy

- Integrating ESD into LTHE programme

- Staff wiki site on ESD resources and practice

- CPD, website, resource centre and support

- Supporting curriculum development and pedagogic innovation and research

- Schumacher College Scholarship Scheme

Possible curriculum responses

• Minor modifications to existing programmes• New “podules” (infusionism)• Generic modules (electives)• New modules• New programmes• Common module• Cross-disciplinary events and cooperation• Extra-curriculum initiatives and events

What are your ‘unique selling points’?

• Only CETL set up specifically to engage in whole system change

• Working to crack the ‘curriculum nut’

• Research emphasis – research ‘about’ and ‘as’ change- nine strands, evaluation and meta research

• Four ‘C’ model

• Centre Fellow model

• Implementing systemic change approach

• Student support

• Chancellery support

• Partnership with Schumacher College

Advantages of CSF

• Well funded. Some prestige as CETL• Well connected, knowledgeable staff• Chancellery support; Corporate plan• Unusual status in university, belonging to no faculty, and

no previous baggage• Free rein and encouragement from HEFCE to be

innovative• Fairly fertile ground – levels of interest and awareness• Funded connection with HE Academy ESD Project• Context: sustainability profile in HE and wider society• Reputation in wider field and expectations on UP

Disadvantages/issues

• All CSF staff were imports to Plymouth campus• All CSF staff have educational background• Student body hard to engage• Evidence of some resistance• Large university• Chancellery support now uncertain

Lessons

• Don’t overreach your capacity• Marketing is important• Attract allies and support them• Create spaces for discussion, exchange and trust building• Make connections that wouldn’t otherwise exist• Don’t assume too much• Slow is the new fast• Balance systematic and systemic aspects• Invitation not exhortation• Find out about, and value what exists• Learn how the organisation works • Be exemplary as far as reasonable• Ensure feedback

How is your CETL engaging with the wider HEI community?

• Regional networking – Partner colleges; SW ESD Coalition

• HE Academy ESD Project

• Papers and articles, book forthcoming, CPD workshops, conference presentations, website, wiki

• Projects with other HEIs

• Links to HEFCE, EAUC, Forum for Future etc

• ‘All our Futures’ conference planned for Sept 08

• International links – IMESD, UNESCO, GHESP, OECD, Tbilisi plus 30 conference etc

Centre for Sustainable FuturesKirkby LodgeUniversity of PlymouthDrake CircusDevon PL4 8AA

01752 238890

csf@plymouth.ac.uk

ESD CETLwww.csf.plymouth.ac.uk

Building the future…!