Developing innovative approaches to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) pedagogical research
The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) has highlighted the importance of developing more active and participatory pedagogical approaches within ESD and the need for research that provides a deeper evidence base of the impact and outcomes of such approaches.
Towards this aim, CSF has developed a new pedagogical research service that seeks to work in partnership with staff keen to develop new pedagogical approaches within sustainability themed modules. Adopting an action research strategy, and drawing in particular from lesson study research methods emerging from Japan, this service seeks to capture the experiences of students as they participate in an ESD module in order to identify areas of positive impact as well as ideas for future innovation and refinement.
In the last year, colleagues within the Business School have helped CSF to trial this approach within their new module BUS 229 Shaping the Future: creating sustainable organisations. This interdisciplinary module develops students' ability to assess how organisations can adapt, innovate and thrive in response to the macro social, economic and environmental forces impacting society and organisations. We'll be sharing the outcomes from this pedagogical research project at the Education for Sustainability in Higher Education: Achievements and Prospects conference at the University on 8 January 2015.