Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
As part of the review of the University’s governance structure for Sustainability a new committee focused on embedding sustainability within the curriculum was formed. This is a development of the previous ‘Sustainable Education Working Group’ (SEWG) which achieved a significant amount during the three years of its life. The ESD committee falls within the overall Sustainability Management Structure. A full review of the achievements (internal only) of the SEWG provides a useful context moving forward.
The review outlines
- Progress made in relation to curriculum delivery
- Significant progress made in relation to curriculum content
- Areas where more limited progress has been made in relation to curriculum content
- Factors which have restricted progress in relation to curriculum content
- Possible next steps in order to move the curriculum agenda forward
- Management and leadership as a key to progress
The formation of the new committee is a direct response to the need to raise the profile and move the focus forward from largely environmental sustainability to one that envelops the wider framework of sustainable development and is therefore fully inclusive of economic and social sustainability.
Four key objectives fall out of the review, which are summarised as:
- The need to develop a definition of Sustainable Development in the context of Canterbury Christ Church University. This will establish the principles by which academic departments and programmes can consider their sustainability credentials.
- The need to raise the level of understanding of academic staff in relation to sustainable development and how it can be embedded within the curriculum, through widespread conference and discourse.
- Critical thinking and problem solving: leading to confidence in addressing the dilemmas and challenges of sustainable development.
- The need to develop an ESD policy, which provides clear direction and indicates the measures and processes that will be used to ensure that sustainable development is embedded within the curriculum.
- Participatory decision-making: learners participate in decisions on how they are to learn and how their learning environment is managed.
- The need to develop a simple and easily applicable audit tool, which can be used to measure the extent to which sustainable development is being embedded across the institution. This may sit alongside or include an impact assessment tool, which will assist with the development process.