Beschreibung
In an article published in Science in 2007, Debra Rowe, President of the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development, formulates an inspiring vision for sustainability courses in higher education: "Imagine what would happen if students were regularly exposed to real-world sustainability problems brought to campuses by cities, businesses, non-profits, and other institutions. If classroom exercises led to practical solutions, students would understand that they can have a positive impact on the world through their academic learning (Rowe, D. (2007): Educating for a sustainable future. Science, 317(5836), p. 324).
However, given the high level of complexity, the knowledge required across academic and practical disciplines, and the long-term economic, social and environmental impacts that characterize sustainability issues, this vision of teaching is proving challenging, if not overwhelming. In addition, time and resource constraints limit the level of ambition that can be achieved in regular teaching practice, especially by younger researchers who face the challenge of combining their academic qualification with good teaching.
How could university teaching that takes this vision seriously look like? How, under the given condition, can we seek to pragmatically and repeatedly, implement appropriate elements in the classroom that work towards comprehensive problem analysis and sophisticated solutions i.e. that seek to promote transformative approaches in the truest sense of the word?