UK Consortium on Sustainability Research

Symposium on Sustainability Teaching in Higher Education – Approaches, Methods and Perspectives

11 April 2024

Rationale

As part of the global debate on sustainable development at universities, there is a need to identify approaches and deploy methods to foster sustainability teaching.

Indeed, teaching sustainability is, along with sustainability research, a major field to which academic staff from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines may contribute.

But despite the central role played by sustainability teaching, there remains a need for specialised events focusing on it, where teaching staff may come together and interact.

It is against this background that the ‘Symposium on Sustainability Teaching in Higher Education: Approaches, Methods and Perspectives’ is being organised by the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme, the European School of Sustainability Science and Research, and the UK Consortium on Sustainability Research.

We invite higher education institutions from around the world to join this unique event, present the work they do, share their experiences, and expand their networks in this rapidly growing area.

Aims

The aim of the event is to address the question: how can we foster the cause of sustainability teaching in a higher education context?

The meeting aims to bring together teaching staff engaged in education for sustainable development in a higher education context. It also aims to provide a platform for the exchange of information, paving the way for technology transfer and networking. Furthermore, the symposium intends to provide a fertile basis upon which colleagues involved in sustainability teaching may cooperate more closely in this key area.

Target groups

The event will be of special interest to teaching staff, researchers, students, and other interested people working on sustainability in higher education. The symposium offers them a good opportunity to present their work, and for interactions with like-minded colleagues.

Publication of inputs

The experiences of the presenters will be documented and promoted in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. All papers are subject to peer-review and there is no guarantee that submitted papers may be published.

Theme clusters

The event will be structured around four main theme clusters:

• theme cluster one: Sustainability and the Curriculum: teaching on, about and for sustainable development
• theme cluster two: Innovative, non-formal teaching methods
• theme cluster three: Students´ engagement
• theme cluster four: Policies and approaches to embed and evaluate sustainability in the curriculum and other means to measure progress

The organisers are happy to consider other topics. Please contact the organising committee if you wish to discuss an additional theme.

Venue

Manchester Metropolitan University will host this event. Manchester is the UK´s second-largest city and has excellent transport links. We’ll share venue details and travel information with registered delegates.

How to attend

• The deadline for the submission of abstracts was 30 January 2024.
• Full papers are due by 20 May 2024.
• The details will be discussed with the selected authors.

Location

The symposium will be held at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Grosvenor Building.

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Main room: Lecture Theatre GF.11
Parallel session rooms: 3.01, 3.02, 3.09, 3.12 and 3.13

There will be a reception desk to welcome delegates on arrival.

Programme

• 8:30-9:00 Arrival
• 9.00-09.20 Welcome 

Plenary room: Lecture theatre GF.11, Moderator: Walter Leal

• 9.20-09-50 Plenary presentation 1: Curriculum design and ESD in practice supported by the CoDesignS ESD Framework. Liz Price, D. Theresa Nicholson, Valeria Vargas, Manchester Metropolitan University and Maria Toro-Troconis, Association for Learning Design and ESD (ALDESD)
• 9.50-10:20 Plenary Presentation 2: Promoting sustainability teaching and learning in HEI through the concept of Ecological Footprint. Georgios Malandrakis, Athanasia Papadopoulou, Masha Mapar,  Sandra Caeiro,  Paula Bacelar-Nicolau, Sara Moreno Pires, Federico Maria Pulselli, Nicoletta Patrizi, Alessandro Galli,  Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, Universidade Aberta, ​Lisbon​, Portugal, NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal, University of Coimbra, Portugal, University of Aveiro, Portugal, University of Siena, Italy, Global Footprint Network, Geneva, Switzerland  
• 10:20- 10:50 Plenary Presentation 3: Competence learning needs personal development - Transdisciplinary discovery stages for ESD, Dr. Nadine Husenbeth, Lisa-Marie Seyfried University of Bremen, Germany
• 10:50- 11:00 Discussion
• 11:00-11:30 Break

11:30-13:00 Parallel sessions

Room: Lecture Theatre GF.11, Moderator: Catherine Brentnal

• 11:30-11:50 Incorporating Sustainability into the Biosciences Curriculum. Authors: Yvonne Dempsie & Gillian Hunter, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
• 11:50-12:10 Designing a ‘Climate Escape Room’ to teach staff and students about climate science in a UK University. Laura Hackett, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK
• 12:10-12:30 Bringing Environment and Society Together: Teaching Sustainability through the Interrogation of Societal Systems. Robert Naylor, University of Manchester, UK
• 12:30-12:50 Exploring Critical Thinking in Sustainability Education: A case study of a Japanese university in Tokyo. Zoe Zhu, Hirohisa Nagai, Annie Kato, Lancaster University, UK, Meiji University, Japan, Seattle Pacific University, USA
• 12:50-13:00 Discussion

Room 3.01, Moderator: Walter Leal

• 11:30-11:50 Ecopedagogy: from origin to reinvention. Ivo Dickmann, Adriana Consorte-McCrea, Universidade Comunitária da Região de Chapecó, Brazil Canterbury Christ Church University, UK
• 11:50-12:10 The Pedagogy of Sustainability Education. Loko Olaoluwa Babajide and Amoo Babatunde Ibrahim, Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester (UK) & Antioch University (USA)
• 12:10-12:30 Spherical Consciousness and Sustainable Practice. Helen Burbidge, Joanne Lewis, John Boddy, Tetiana Mendez Rosas De Montfort University & Falmouth University, UK
• 12:30-12:50 Good Education in a Fragile World: higher education as if the world mattered. Alan Bainbridge, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK and Nicola Kemp, Canterbury Christ Church University
• 12:50-13:00 Discussion

Room 3.02, Moderator: Harriet Bickley

• 11:30-11:50 Building blocks of sustainability – embedding sustainability education across institutions through three-dimensional learning tools. Joanne Tippett, Fraser How, Jamie Farrington, Matt Rabagliati University of Manchester, How Creative, UK National Commission for UNESCO
• 11:50-12:10 Training teachers for sustainability awareness in their communities. Michel Mason, University of Essex, UK
• 12:10-12:30 ESD expectations in higher education: Interpretation of national ESD guidance in Subject Benchmark Statements. Georgina Gough, UWE Bristol, UK
• 12:30-12:50 Teaching the Teachers: How can we empower teaching staff who are not sustainability specialists to embed sustainability into their curricula? Angela Druckman and Vily Papageorgiou, Centre for Environment & Sustainability, University of Surrey, UK & Surrey Institute of Education (SIoE), University of Surrey, UK 

• 12:50-13:00 Discussion

Room 3.09, Moderator: Cormac Lawler

• 11:30-11:50 A global, people-centred approach to embedding sustainability in the mathematics/physics/data science curriculum: putting Mathematics at the heart of sySTEMic change. Pierre-Philippe Dechant, FInstP SFHEA, University of Leeds, UK
• 11:50-12:10 Co-creation in sustainability education: Collaborative engagement with students, academics and professional services in core modules to directly enhance university sustainability practices. Julia P Myatt, Michael Cassidy, James Wheeley and Sebastian Watt, University of Birmingham, UK
• 12:10-12:30 Navigating Climate Emotions: Coaching Approaches for Effective Education for Sustainable Development. Carry Luise Zimmermann Juliane Scheering, University of Bremen, Germany
• 12:30-12:50 Implementation of SDGs in the university sector: Experience from a Spanish public university. Manuel Larran, Francisco Javier Andrades Pena, University of Cadiz, Spain
• 12:50-13:00 Discussion

Room 3.12, Moderator: Theresa Nicholson

• 11:30-11:50 On our way to more sustainable chemistry study programmes. Paula Deuermeier, David-Samuel Di Fuccia, University of Kassel, Germany
• 11:50-12:10 Sustainability is More Than Saving Water” Learnings from a Whole Institutional Sustainability Process in Higher Education. Rachel Bowden, Maria Kondratjuk, Technical University of Dresden, Germany
• 12:10-12:30 Student-led environmental sustainability (ES) coursework linked to health. Sally Freeman, University of Manchester, UK
• 12:30-12:50 Embedding sustainability principles in engineering education: a literature review. India Palmer, University of Warwick, UK
• 13:00- 14:00 Lunch

Room 3.13, Moderator: Judy Rogers

• 11:30-11:50 Designing Ideal Learning Spaces with Sustainability in MindVioleta Orlovic Lovren and Nikola Koruga, University of Belgrade, Serbia
• 11:50-12:10 Aligning sustainability education and interdisciplinary skills development in higher education. Matthew Weait, Bill Finnegan, University of Oxford, UK
• 12:10-12:30 ESD mainstreaming through ‘embedding’ playful teaching approaches: community of practice innovations through games-based learning at Strathclyde University’ Scott Strachan, Tracy Morse, Eirini Gallou, Strathclyde University, UK
• 12:30-12:50 Peer learning and community to support the development of employability skills towards green careers in fashion. Lisa Trencher, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
• 12:50-13:00 Discussion
• 13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-14:30 Plenary room: Lecture theatre GF.11, Moderator: Walter Leal

• Plenary Presentation 4: How do emotional intelligence and social innovation influence intention toward sustainability among University students? Clara Margaça, Giuseppina María Cardella, José Carlos Sánchez Garcia, Brizeida Hernandez Sánchez, University of Salamanca and University of Valladolid, Spain

14:35-15:35 Parallel sessions

Room: Lecture Theatre GF.11, Moderator: Lisa Trencher

• 14:35-14:55 Embedding Sustainability in the Curriculum: A School of Management Case Study. Fern Davies, Swansea University, UK 
• 14:55-15:15 Fostering Sustainability Teaching in Online Teacher Training. Alam Simcock, University of Derby, UK
• 15:15-15:35 Work Integrated Learning as a pedagogy for ESD: some reflections on a case study. Jonathan Muir & Laura Smith, University of Leeds, UK

Room 3.01, Moderator: Cormac Lawler

• 14:35-14:55 Building a Community of Practice around embedding Carbon Literacy across the curriculum at Manchester Met. Cormac Lawler, Rachel Dunk, Jane Mork, Liam Bluer, Manchester Metropolitan University
• 14:55-15:15 Outside and Inside: sustainability education as a critical reflective practice. Fiona Harrisson and Judy Rogers, RMIT, Australia

• 15:15-15:35 Sustainable Leadership Education: Reimagining HE through the movement towards a pedagogy of compassion. Paul Warwick, University of Plymouth

Room 3.02, Moderator: Walter Leal

• 14:35-14:55 Learning for sustainable development and social transformation: Project-based learning as a teaching practice intervention. Chi-I Lin, Nation Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan
• 14:55-15:15 The role of business: An investigation of change in students’ knowledge and beliefs. Irene M. Herremans, Atinuke Chineme, Wenyu Zhou, University of Calgary, Canada
• 15:15-15:35 Embedding Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the curriculum within a Masters in Management Programme at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom, Ani Raiden, Muhammad Mazhar, Rosalind Rae, Rasha Goumaa, and Petra Molthan-Hill, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, UK

Room 3.09, Moderator: Liz Price

• 14:35-14:55- Harnessing Academic Quality Processes to address Sustainability in Higher Education Courses: Issues and Opportunities in the UK. Andrew Reeves, DeMontford University Co-Authors: Julie Gwilliam, Peter Harrison, Liz Price, Nichole Schantz, Chris Ribchester, Tim Hughes, Sarah Gretton, Scott Strachan, Louise Logan, Simon Boxley, Elena Lengthorn, Heather Barrett, Sonya Peres
• 14:55-15:15- Sustainability in the HE curriculum; Navigating Complexity, Deepening Transformative Impact. Nicola Kemp, Canterbury Christ Church University, Gary Kass, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK and Chris Ives, University of Nottingham, UK
• 15:15-15:35- University Living Lab and a 43,000-strong force for change: Transforming the ability of universities to support sustainability transitions through teaching and learning. Jennifer O’Brien, University of Manchester, UK

Room 3.12, Moderator: Theresa Nicholson

• 14:35-14:55 Be Realistic! Lessons for ESD from EE through Realist Evaluation. Catherine Brentnall, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
• 14:55-15:15 Bridging Continents for a Sustainable Tomorrow: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of ESD in Higher Education. Caroline Morrison, Hafiz Mudassir Rehman, David Hanna, Francesca Enchang, Alexa Min-Wei Loi, Andrew Kincaid, Affiliations: Ulster University, UK, UCSI University, Malaysia, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
• 5:15-15:35 Environmental sustainability projects: a welcome addition to our portfolio of final year (‘capstone’) projects. Maggy Fostier & Ruth Grady; School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, UK

Room 3.13, Moderator: Violeta Orlovic Lovren

• 14:35-14:55  Strategically embedding climate and nature in a whole institutional curriculum change program from grassroots efforts. Lucy Patterson, University of Edinburgh, UK
• 14:55-15:15 Sustainable Growing Futures (SGF Wales) project. Keireine Canavan and Adrienne Titley, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK
• 15:15-15:35 Trash to Treasure: The universal language of art and its implications for climate change and sustainability. Theodoulou I. Zacharis T., Zapanti G. T, Skanavis C., University of West Attica, Greece

15:40-16:00 Final session. Plenary room: Lecture theatre GF.11

• 16:00 End

Poser

• University of Manchester School of Health Sciences Environmental Sustainability (ES) Welcome Week giveaway stall
• Harriet Bickley, Manchester Self-Harm Project, Division of Psychology & Mental Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK

Fees

In other to offset some of the costs with the organisation of the event, we’ll charge a registration fee of £120 per delegate. The fee also includes the coffee breaks and lunch.

Registration

We’ll send details of how to register to authors whose abstracts have been accepted. The deadline for registrations was 20 February 2024.

Contacts

• Professor Walter Leal and Professor Liz Price, Manchester Metropolitan University
• sdevents@mmu.ac.uk

European Symposium on Sustainability in Business Education, Research and Practices

Many business schools are trying to adapt and appeal to students’ and recruiters’ demands to embrace social values and sustainability. At present, more and more business schools are integrating sustainability as a whole, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular, into their core courses and MBA programmes, helping their graduates to become even more attractive to employers.

While integrating sustainability across all core business teaching is a logical step for impact-based business schools, it is unclear how best this work should be undertaken, and which approaches, methods and strategies may yield the highest impact. To address this perceived need, and to foster a dialogue among providers –and users – of business education, the symposium ‘Sustainability in Business Education, Research and Practices’ was organised by the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR), the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme and the UK Consortium for Sustainability Research (UK-CSR).

The symposium discussed how sustainability may be incorporated into business education, in the research programmes of business schools, and in business practice as a whole. It was part of the ‘Accelerating the Implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Series’, with events aimed at fostering the implementation of the UN SDGs.

The European Symposium on Sustainability in Business Education, Research and Practices was held in Liverpool, UK, on 23-24 February 2023. It was hosted by the Liverpool Business School, at Liverpool John Moores University. It was primarily aimed at European participants, but delegates from other parts of the world were also welcome to attend and use this unique opportunity to document and disseminate their work.

As an output and long-term documentation of the event, selected papers were published in the book ‘Sustainability in Business Education, Research and Practices’, which followed the success of the ‘Encyclopaedia of Sustainability in Higher Education’ and the ‘Encyclopaedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals’, the world’s largest editorial project on sustainable development ever undertaken.

Climate change: the contribution of UK universities to addressing climate change from a sustainability perspective

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and a threat to the achievement of sustainability. The goal of a sustainable future cannot be fully achieved if we do not address climate change and the many environmental and socio-economic problems associated with it.

There are currently many efforts to better understand the contribution of UK universities to addressing climate change from a sustainability perspective. But these initiatives often take place in isolation, with little connection or communication between them.

To fill this gap and promote greater interaction between university stakeholders working on the climate change – sustainability interface, the UK Consortium on Sustainability Research (UK-CSR) organised the Symposium ‘Climate Change: the Contribution of UK Universities to addressing Climate Change from a Sustainability Perspective’.

Objectives of the symposium

1. To disseminate information on ongoing research projects and research results in the field of climate change and sustainability at UK universities
2. To present innovative approaches in teaching and research
3. To facilitate the exchange of experience and information between researchers from universities, but also from research centres, companies, and other institutions
4. To provide opportunities for further networking and contact building

Programme

• 8:45am – 9:30am: Arrival, registration, and refreshments
• 9.30am – 9.40am: Welcome and opening. Walter Leal and Liz Price, Manchester Metropolitan University
• 9.40am – 10.00am: The fastest warming place on earth: what can UK HEIs learn about climate change education from pedagogical practice in the High Arctic town of Longyearbyen? Simon Boxley, University of Winchester.
• 10.00am – 10.20am: Voices of the future: Collaborating with children and young people to re-imagine treescapes. Samyia Ambreen, Kate Pahl, Manchester Metropolitan University
• 10.20am – 10.40am: Visual Images of Sustainability in Higher Education. Debby Cotton, Jennie Winter, Joe Allison, Rachel Mullee, Plymouth Marjon University
• 10.40am – 11.00am: Art for climate change in, around, and through institutional spaces: possibilities and modalities. Tony Wall, Ann Hindley, Liverpool John Moores University
• 11.00am – 11.10am: Discussion
• 11.10am – 11.40am: Refreshment break
• 11:40am – 12.00pm: The Carbon Literacy for Universities and Colleges Toolkit: A first step in responding to the climate crisis. Rachel Dunk and Jane Mork, Manchester Metropolitan University
• 12:00pm – 12.20pm: Climate Literacy for all! An exploration of the impact of Carbon Literacy training for students and staff in a UK Higher Education Institution. Steve Cayzer, Hannah Hogarth, Eliane Bastos, Nicki Schantz, Clare Power, Tianqi Lu, University of Bath
• 12:20pm – 12.40pm: A curriculum topography approach to learning about climate change in higher education. Tristan McCowan, University College London
• 12:40pm – 13.00pm: Preparing university students for a perfect storm! An experience in curriculum development on skills for a sustainable environment at Ulster University. Farshad Amiraslani and Adrian Moore, Ulster University
• 13:00pm – 13.10pm: Discussion
• 13.10pm – 14.10pm: Lunch
• 14.10pm – 14.30pm: Aviation and Climate Change - Bringing Hard Science to the Sustainability Debate. David Lee, Manchester Metropolitan University, Susanne Becken, Griffith University, Australia
• 14.30pm – 14.50pm: Public Value, climate change, and sustainability in Cardiff Business School: A holistic approach. Peter Wells, Cardiff Business School
• 14.50pm – 15.10pm: The Climate Emergency in Business, Community and Campaign Groups - Driving Change for the Common Good. Simon O’Leary, Agnes Gulyas, Sarah Lieberman, Matthew Ogilvie, David Bates, Canterbury Christ Church University.
• 15.10pm – 15.30pm: Meeting stakeholder needs through authentic assessment of Carbon Literacy and digital skills. Ann Hindley, Liverpool Business School
• 15.30pm – 15.45pm: Final discussion
• 15.45pm: Close

Download the conference abstracts