| 1. |
- Anderberg, Elsie, 1948-, et al.
(författare)
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Global learning for sustainable development in higher education : Recent trends and a critique
- 2009
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Ingår i: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. - : Emerald. - 1467-6370 .- 1758-6739. ; 10:4, s. 368-378
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of this paper is to provide a synopsis of some major trends that have marked discussions on global learning for sustainable development (GLSD) in higher education. The aim is formulated against the background of the complexity represented in GLSD, as well as the fact that sustainable development (SD) is an issue of global interest for universities.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an overview in recent trends in research on GLSD in higher education over the last 20 years, based on the combination of the keyword higher education for Sustainable Development with global learning (GL) and global education.FindingsThe overview suggests that only relatively limited steps have been implemented to achieve GLSD, and rhetoric still dominates the discussions. It appears that little empirical research has been undertaken on learning in global settings. Several authors have identified the need for a competence‐based curriculum for GLSD.Originality/valueUniversities, professionals and students need to take greater responsibility. How knowledge, values and abilities are formed and developed from the global learner's perspective therefore, remains an open and fundamental question. The paper underlines the crucial role that higher education plays in GL for sustainability.
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| 2. |
- Avery, Helen, et al.
(författare)
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We Can Only Do It Together: Addressing Global Sustainability Challenges Through a Collaborative Paradigm
- 2021
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Ingår i: Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. - Cham : Springer International Publishing. - 9783030633981 - 9783030633998 - 9783030634018
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urgent structural change is required in higher education to allow collaboration both within and acrossuniversities so that achieving a rapid sustainability transition can become the overarching and mainpurpose of education, research and work in society. A review of the literature reveals that fragmentation,caused by traditional hierarchical faculty and disciplinary organisation, is a major obstacle to such goals.Additionally, universities today operate under a competitive paradigm that prevents the transfer andapplication of available knowledge, thereby blocking the development of new knowledge and coherentfuture-oriented approaches. Fragmentation and competition prevent universities from pooling resources,understanding major challenges holistically and using systemic approaches to address them. Politicalagendas, funding priorities and existing mechanisms of dissemination and evaluation of academic activitycontribute to inertia. Rather than applying fragmented sustainability goals within rigid silo structures,action for sustainability needs to be coordinated among academic actors both horizontally and diagonally.This requires spaces for strategic thinking, concertation, open discussion and knowledge sharing. Theinsights achieved in strong sustainability research environments need to direct efforts towards achieving arapid sustainability transition, and priority must be given to structures, networks and research that alreadyenable concertation and collaboration
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| 3. |
- Avery, Helen, et al.
(författare)
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We can only do it together: Addressing global sustainability challenges through a collaborative paradigm. : Session 4: Comprehensive approaches to Sustainable Development: the integration of Curriculum, Research and Operations
- 2021
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urgent structural change is required in higher education, to allow collaboration both within and across universities, so that achieving rapid sustainability transition can become not only the overarching but the main purpose of education, research and work in society. A review of the literature reveals that fragmentation caused by traditional hierarchical faculty and disciplinary organisation is a major obstacle to such goals. Additionally, universities today operate under a competitive paradigm which prevents the transfer and application of available knowledge, as well as blocking the development of new knowledge and coherent future-oriented approaches. Fragmentation and competition prevent universities from pooling resources, understanding phenomena holistically and using systemic approaches in the way we address major challenges. Political agendas, funding priorities, as well as existing mechanisms of dissemination and evaluation of academic activity contribute to inertia. Rather than applying fragmented sustainability goals within rigid silo structures, it is therefore argued that action for sustainability needs to be coordinated among academic actors, horizontally and diagonally. This requires spaces for concertation and strategical thinking. Insights achieved in strong sustainability research environments need to direct efforts, and priority must be given to structures, networks and research that already enable concertation and collaboration.
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| 4. |
- Avery, Helen, et al.
(författare)
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Within, above, between or outside? : ESD in teacher training: implications of various institutional constructions
- 2015
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Ingår i: Abstract list of WEEC 2015. - : WEEC.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction: Theoretically, ESD is variously construed as inter- or transdiscipline. Despite divergences (Barth & Michelsen 2013; Lundholm 2011; Shallcross & Robinson 2007), a consensus exists in acknowledging fundamental complexities (Gough 2012), engagement and action-oriented learning (Sterling 2011; Wiek, Withycombe & Redman 2011). Objectives: The study looks at teacher education, considering the ways ESD-oriented knowledge, competencies and approaches are situated within pathways and curricula. The organization of teacher education (Rauch & Steiner 2013; UNESCO 2005; Wals 2014) is crucial, since it ultimately affects the potential for transdisciplinary development in schools. It is argued that the meaning of ESD in higher education is shaped by specific institutional structures, and the vocational contexts and practices the courses are oriented towards. With respect to teacher training, the meaning of ESD is additionally shaped by policy and steering documents regulating the profession. Methods: Policy documents and course descriptions relating to teacher education from two Swedish universities and four Danish institutions are investigated. Aspects focused here are: sustainability awareness, democratic deliberation, transdisciplinarity, working with complexity, problem-solving, boundary-crossing cooperation, action preparedness. Attention is also given to how the teacher training environments relate institutionally to wider academic contexts, and to how ESD oriented teacher competencies are formally described in terms of learning outcomes, requirements and qualifications Results: At a macro-level, a fairly positive picture of the position of HESD in northern Europe emerges (see ue4sd outcomes). Looking more specifically at teacher training, however, our study suggests that sustainability concerns are still marginal. Focus lies on subject-specific knowledge, and sustainability mainly appears as an isolated aspect of natural science education. Knowledge is constructed through assessment practices that tend to standardise, simplify and fragment understanding of complex interrelationships. Academic writing skills are emphasised to the detriment of transdisciplinarity and action-oriented capabilities. Conclusion: At an institutional level, economic steering and criteria for operationalising academic excellence tend to drive towards increased compartimentalisation. Importantly, the way learning is operationalised through modularisation of teaching provisions, constructive alignment of curricula and highly formalised assessment practices appears to limit transformative potentials for greening HESD curricula. Although the wider academic environments contain sophisticated research groups in the area of sustainability studies, there are very few institutional points of contact with teacher training programmes. Finally, the separation between academic and vocational tracks in Denmark further increases the institutional distance between teacher training and sustainability-oriented academic research.
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| 5. |
- Avery, Helen, et al.
(författare)
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Working with the divides : Two critical axes in development for transformative professional practices
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1467-6370 .- 1758-6739. ; 18:5 : Special issue on Professional Development in Higher Education for Sustainable Development, s. 666-680
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The paper aims to provide a conceptual map of how to mediate between sustainability theory and practice in higher education and how disciplinary divides can be bridged. It further looks at issues linked to knowledge views and drivers for institutional change that affect opportunities for whole institution development promoting action preparedness. Method: Taking its point of departure in the University Educators for Sustainable Development report UE4SD (2014, 2015), the paper discusses ways that ideas and interaction can be mediated in higher education settings, to connect sustainability research with vocational programmes. Different options are considered and compared. Findings: Although the literature stresses both action orientation and the need for holistic transdisciplinary approaches, many institutional drivers limit opportunities for more integrating approaches. Limitations: However, while conclusions may hold for universities at an overarching level, it is likely that certain research and teaching environments have been able to transcend such barriers. Practical implications: Conceptually mapping the different forms that dialogue, interaction and flows of ideas take within higher education institutions has relevance for whole institution development for sustainability. Societal implications: Importantly, producing sustainability science with relevance to practice in various professions is a fundamental condition to support accelerated transitions to sustainability at societal levels. Value: The paper makes a significant contribution by focusing on concrete institutional pathways for knowledge exchange and negotiation that can support education for sustainability in higher education.
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| 6. |
- Bengtsson, Stefan, et al.
(författare)
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Mind the gap! Moving from awareness to action : Showcasing emergent research from the Swedish Graduate School in Education for Sustainable Development (GRESD)
- 2015
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Ingår i: Abstract list of WEEC 2015. - : WEEC.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction: The main purpose of the symposium is to showcase some recent research findings produced by PhD students accepted by or affiliated with the Swedish Graduate School in Education for Sustainable development (GRESD). Objectives: GRESD started as a state sponsored one-time research capacity development project that accepted 9 post-graduate student and included additional 9 post-graduate students all focusing on ESD in their PhD projects. With the project coming to an end and having produced a number of dissertations targeting an international research audience, it is the intention to showcase some of the central contributions made and to receive feedback on from practitioners and researchers on how existent research projects can tie into and contribute to existent demands in environmental education (EE) practice and practice. The presentations of research results are aimed to cover a wide range of issues, including topics such as evaluation of classroom practices, students qualifications, globalization and teachers’ ethical reflections the role of place-specific artifacts in learning. As GRESD is a collaboration between eight universities with their specific traditions and approaches to educational research, approaches show a creative variety of theoretical backgrounds. This variation is also reflected in the presentations that are putting into play Lacanian psychoanalysis, discourse theory, pragmatist theory and phenomenography in order to shed new light on critical areas of environmental education. Methods: The symposium will consist of an introduction (10 minutes) brief presentations (10-15 minutes each) of central research findings in the context of their overarching research projects, followed by a synthesis and suggestions by a selected commentator (20 minutes) and general discussions with the audience (20 minutes). The dialogue following the presentations is intended to outline possible future research projects as well as emerging areas topics in the portrayed GRESD research that could feed into existing demands in EE practice and research.
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| 7. |
- Harju, Anne, et al.
(författare)
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Space of action for pedagogues and researchers in action research projects
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The ai m of the presentation is to discuss the possibilities of action research to make profound and long-lived educational changes. We discuss this in relation to an ongoing action research project carried out with pedagogues in a preschool section in southern Sweden. The section is in a phase when they need to review the organisation in relation to inner and outer structure and pedagogy. One challenge that has been identified during the research process is that the section is perceived as being 'isolated' and 'invisible'. This perception relates to the surrounding organisational, juridical and economic structures, which, according to the pedagogues, make it difficult to work with the organisational and pedagogical changes they feel are needed. Based on these results, we want to address the possibilities of change-making in an action research project in relation to power relations between different organisational levels of power (pedagogues, preschool management, municipality management, researchers). We draw on the concept of practice 'architectures' (Kemmis and Smith 2008; Kemmis 2009) to explore how scope for change at the section is shaped and formed by mediating preconditions for practice, that is, how cultural –discursive, material –economic and social –political preconditions shape and give content to the ‘thinking, ́doing ́ and ́relating’ that orient and justify the practices.
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| 8. |
- Nordén, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Africa and beyond : Supporting collaborative networks for transnational refugee higher education
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Refugees and forcibly displaced populations have needs and aspirations in higher education just as other groups, but often experience conditions that severely limit access. Refugee HE can also involve additional challenges (eg. language of instruction, validation of previous qualifications, developing relevant content, funding or issuing diplomas to work in regulated professions in different countries). Current refugee HE provisions are fragmented, such as scholarships or programmes in refugee camps, limited to educating professionals needed in the camp itself. In emergency situations, HE may be viewed as less urgent than humanitarian needs (Dryden-Peterson, 2016). But although we cannot foresee who will be the next victims, we do know that situations of forced migration are likely to increase dramatically. Not addressing the specific constraints and challenges of refugee HE, is tantamount to permanently disqualifying entire populations, thereby creating an easily exploitable underclass. It means placing entire countries and regions in a state of underdevelopment and dependency (Avery & Said, 2017). In the long term, it leads to large-scale social, economic and geopolitical imbalances, potentially sowing the seeds for future successions of conflicts. Impacts of this neglect are thus serious, both for countries of origin of the refugee flows, and for the host countries.
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| 9. |
- Nordén, Birgitta, Dr. 1952-
(författare)
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Att öppna upp för delaktighet och naturvetenskap på förskolegården
- 2021. - Första
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Ingår i: <em>Möjligheter och utmaningar för förskola </em>. - Lund : Studentlitteratur AB. - 9789144124773 ; , s. 65-84
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Bokkapitel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- "Då hade man kunnat göra lite tvärgrupper, kanske – en av oss, och en eller två av er, sådär – och att vi sysslar med olika saker, för det är ju begränsat med både tid och möjligheter, och var och en har sina intressen".- I detta kapitel belyses ambitionen att väcka intresse och motivation för att undervisa i hållbarhet, miljöfrågor och naturfenomen genom att öppna möjlighetsrum för barns delaktighet och lärande. Citatet ovan kommer från en diskussion mellan förskollärarna på Sjöstjärnan, där några pedagoger diskuterade möjligheten att skapa temagrupper för samarbete med att utveckla verksamheten på förskolans gård. Denna reflektion gjordes under arbetet med en aktion inom ramen för projektet ”Möjligheter för förskolan i en migrerande värld” som mellan 2016 och 2019 genomfördes i en förskola i Malmö. Detta var ett aktionsforskningsprojekt, vilket innebär att pedagoger och barn samarbetade med en grupp forskare. Projektet startade på en introduktionsavdelning för barn som är nya i Sverige, men kom senare att omfatta hela förskolan, där introduktionsavdelningen ligger. Syftet med projektet var att undersöka förutsättningar att förändra och att utveckla verksamheten på avdelningen, som präglades av stor språklig mångfald. Som en del i projektet genomfördes en aktion i syfte att se på förståelsen av utepedagogik och hållbart gårdsarbete. Aktionens fokus var hur pedagogernas handlingsutrymme i miljöundervisning på förskolans gård kunde ökas, liksom barnens möjligheter att bli delaktiga i undervisningen.
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| 10. |
- Nordén, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Beyond incrementalism : Knowledge formation for transformative change in ESE
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Abstract: In this conceptual paper, we wish to argue that the commitment to transitions for sustainability has implications regarding the way knowledge is seen. Sustainability fundamentally implies a recognition of the interconnectedness of phenomena across sectors, disciplines and geographical locations (Avery & Nordén, 2017), as well as responsible decision-making linked to democracy and power distribution (Fine et al., 2012). All of these points have relevance to the connections between policy and research. The metaphor for truth in academia has long been one of disembodied contemplation of an absolute state of existence. By contrast, ’knowing-for-sustainable action’ is based on how the human and the societal relates to our modes of producing knowledge and competence, both with respect to what we need to know something about, and what we can do about it. This not only concerns questions of ontology and epistemology for individual studies, but also refers to how we collectively organise academic institutions (Aikens et al., 2016; Lysgaard et al., 2016; Payne, 2016; Avery & Nordén, 2017) and as societies, to develop the know-how needed for planetary survival (Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2017). By defining economic objectives independently of sustainability and letting non-sustainable conceptualisations of economics determine policies of research and education, we have condemned sustainability to function as an add-on to business as usual. Even more worryingly, when sustainability agendas do take the forefront in policy discourse, proposed solutions may be those pushed by powerful industrial lobbies (Peck et al., 2012). Another challenge is posed by fragmented aims underlying sustainability education, and supported by similar fragmentation in SDGs, or European climate commitments for instance (cf. COP23 Bonn). Although each goal is certainly important, the combined effect is to foster a belief that transition to sustainability can be achieved through incremental changes and without reconsidering the overall structures or drivers. Understanding is siloed into existing disciplinary framings (Mochizuki & Yarime, 2016). Measurement coupled with accountability has in many cases had impacts on administrative routines and structures. One the one side measurement has valuable functions in documenting a status quo, raising visibility of sustainability dimensions and providing a starting point for discussions across national borders. But on the other side, it has limited potential on its own to drive transformative changes and there is a real risk that it can lock our understanding into uncontroversial expressions of the problems at stake, preventing strategic long-term reflection. In the Symposium: The Opportunities and Limitations of ESD/GCE/ESE Monitoring Approaches - Knowledge Production within and beside Standardization Chair: Mandy Singer-Brodowski (Freie Universität Berlin) Discussant: Jutta Nikel (University of Education Freiburg) In the context of globalized educational policies (Rizvi/ Lingard 2010) and the international Agenda 2030, evaluation and monitoring approaches are gaining increasingly political relevance and public visibility. While there existed differentiated indicator sets for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) during the UN Decade (e.g., UNECE 2005), the current strategies focus on defining one indicator to capture progress (SDG 4.7). Although there are only few studies about the systematic integration of ESD on the level of national policies (Læssøe/ Mochizuki 2015: 28), there is a trend of using indicator-based research projects to measure the state of ESD in specific regions and also push the further integration of ESD (i.e. in sustainability strategies, educational reports). Nevertheless, the monitoring of ESD, GCE (Global Citizenship Education) or ESE (Environmental and Sustainability Education) holds not only opportunities for communicating progressive educational approaches in the light of global challenges, but also the risk to reduce, de-contextualize and oversimplify the research objects. Based on the assumption, that ESE is not only influenced by international policy trends but also by the cultural and socio-political conditions and the landscape of actors in local contexts (Blum et al. 2012, Feinstein et al. 2013), the question arises how suitable standardized and indicator-based evaluation and monitoring approaches are for capturing the multi-facetted practices of ESD. On the one side there is the risk that standardized approaches based on international indicators and strategies are leading to a narrowing of the very specific and context sensitive understandings and practices of ESD, GCE and ESE in local contexts. On the other side, the potentials of these approaches can be seen in measuring, communicating and thereby mainstreaming the approaches through evidence-based policy strategies. Further questions emerge with the dynamics of gaining policy-relevant evidence at the science policy interface, i.e. looking at the level of independence of monitoring reports in ESD (Nazir et al. 2009). During the symposium, the opportunities and limitations of ESD/GCE/ECE monitoring approaches are discussed against the background of general trends in educational and sustainability policies. The overall question is what kind of knowledge is used as a base for monitoring approaches in the context of ECE/ ESD and GCE and how this knowledge is adapted (or not) by policy-makers. Three presentations will focus on this question from different perspectives and different countries (Chile, Germany and Sweden). The first presentation highlights tensions between local knowledge about environmental related education and the National ESD policy strategy of Chile. A main result of the presented research project is that Chilean teachers are using contextualized approaches stemming from traditional concepts of environmental related education but are measured by a standardized environmental management approach in their schools. The second presentation focusses on the results of the ESD monitoring in Germany that are communicated and used at the science policy interface. It reflects how the policy relevant knowledge is used i,.n various ways and which kinds of chances and risks can be seen in it (e.g., by reducing complexity). The third presentation focusses on the changing conceptions of policy relevant knowledge (production) in the background of the global trend of economization of educational policies. This trend seems to support a fragmented and isolated mode of standardization for incremental change in sustainability and educational policies rather than the fundamental transformation that is needed regarding global sustainability problems. The symposium wants to combine different perspectives on how policy-relevant and standardized knowledge about ESD/GCE/ECE monitoring is produced, communicated, critized and sometimes even rejected. Thus, it wants to open up discussions about a critical and reflected engagement of researchers at the science policy interface (Læssøe et al. 2013).
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