Abstract
This article introduces sustainable learning and education (SLE), an emerging philosophy of learning and teaching founded on principles of sustainability. SLE is not necessarily education for sustainability, but rather sustainable learning, a new and different idea. The intention behind SLE is to create and proliferate sustainable curricula and methods of learning and teaching. These are designed to instil in people the skills and dispositions to thrive in complicated, challenging and ever-changing circumstances, and contribute to making the world a better place. This article contributes to the literature by (1) elucidating the concept and purpose of SLE; (2) enumerating principles of sustainability that apply in the educational and professional development context; and (3) proposing a curriculum for SLE framed as a university course or professional development programme. The authors emphasise the importance of systems and ecological thinking and the essential role of self-sufficiency as both a means and an end of sustainable learning and education. They conclude with a comment on community: the more fully we accept and appreciate our neighbours, organisations and societies as important, interdependent and deserving of a viable future, and the more we engage with them towards positive ends, the more universally accepted the imperative of sustainability will be, and the more likely we are to attain it.
Résumé
Apprentissage et éducation durables : un curriculum pour l’avenir – Cet article présente l’apprentissage et l’éducation durables (AED), une philosophie émergente de l’apprentissage et de l’enseignement, basée sur des principes de durabilité. L’apprentissage et l’éducation durables ne correspondent pas forcément à une éducation au développement durable, mais plutôt à un apprentissage durable, une notion nouvelle et différente. Derrière cette approche se cache la volonté de créer des curriculums et méthodes durables d’apprentissage et d’enseignement, et de les multiplier. Ils sont conçus pour inculquer les compétences nécessaires à la réussite dans des situations difficiles, complexes et marquées par de continuelles mutations, pour mettre en valeur les dispositions indispensables à cela et pour contribuer à rendre le monde meilleur. Cet article contribue à enrichir la documentation à ce sujet en (1) expliquant le concept et le but de l’apprentissage et de l’éducation durables; (2) en énumérant les principes de durabilité appliqués dans le contexte du développement éducatif et professionnel; (3) en proposant un curriculum d’apprentissage et d’éducation durables structuré comme un cursus universitaire ou un programme de développement professionnel. Les auteurs soulignent l’importance de la pensée systémique et écologique, et mettent en relief le rôle essentiel de l’autosuffisance en tant que moyen et fin en soi de l’apprentissage et de l’éducation durables. Ils concluent par un commentaire sur la communauté : plus nous acceptons et apprécions pleinement que nos voisins, organisations et sociétés sont importants et interdépendants, et qu’ils méritent un future viable et plus nous nous engageons à leurs côtés à des fins positives, plus l’impératif de la durabilité sera universellement accepté et plus il est probable que nous le réaliserons.
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Notes
The term environmental scanning refers to the purposeful and thorough search for and analysis of information in one's environment and circumstances that enables effective decision making, planning and course correction.
In the moment refers to being “fully focused on or mentally involved in what one is doing or experiencing” (OUP n.d.-a).
Systems thinking refers to thinking of events and situations, problems and opportunities, as embedded in larger, more complex systems. This means there may be much more to the story than is obvious. Systems are comprised of many parts that are connected and interrelated, often in subtle and complicated ways which are not easy to see and which take time to reveal. Systems thinking strives to see beneath the surface of symptoms and first observations to obtain deep understanding of causality. Hays (2010a), Mathews et al. (2008), and Stroh (2015), cited elsewhere in this article, provide useful background on systems thinking.
Incremental learning refers to learning through accumulation of information, adding to existing knowledge. Such learning is necessary and important in the additive sense, but insufficient in fundamentally changing the way we see the world, or challenging if what we know and are learning remains useful. Incremental learning may be contrasted to deep, transformational learning. The concept as we use it here is discussed in more detail by Steven Appelbaum and Lars Goransson (1997).
The concept of organisational learning has been around since the 1980s and has increasingly become part of the management lexicon since the 1990s. A learning organisation is an enterprise or institution that learns and applies learning intentionally. Such organisations can identify what they know and what they still need to learn to survive and thrive. They are equipped to learn and to make use of knowledge acquired. For more background on this concept, see Murray (2002), cited elsewhere within this article, or Pemberton and Stonehouse (2000).
A wicked problem is a persistent problem that seems too big to resolve. Such problems have been resistant to attempts to solve them – simple remedies have little to no impact and solutions attempted may have unexpected, counterproductive results. Wicked problems cut across disciplines and geographic boundaries, necessitating collaboration in tackling them while making this even more difficult. The dynamics of wicked problems in education are clarified and explored at length elsewhere (Hays 2012, 2013a).
Thomas Kuhn (1962) is credited with coining or popularising the concept of “paradigm shift”, a revolution in thinking resulting in profound change in understanding, application, direction and possibility. A useful explanation and further references are provided elsewhere by the first author of this article (Hays 2010b).
There is an underlying belief amongst proponents of sustainable education that transformation of existing practices and systems is necessary to produce (and sustain) transformational learning, itself requisite to viability, at the individual, organisational, community, societal and global levels (see Hammond and Churchman 2008; Sterling 2001; Thomas 2009). Though not addressing issues of sustainability, the first author of this article emphasises elsewhere (Hays 2013a) that producing graduates with the capabilities required in the 21st century will require dramatic reinvention of the content and process of higher education, a point underscored by Karl Haapala and John Sutherland (2005), Mitchel Resnick (2003) and others with respect to ecological and sustainability thinking and acting by citizens.
The concept of “learning forward” is introduced and explained in Hays (2013b). More recently, Afiavi Dah-gbeto and Grace Villamor (2016) present an interesting application of anticipatory learning. Elsewhere (Hays 2014, 2015), the first author of this article underscores the importance of proactive, anticipatory and innovative learning. Likewise, Sterling (2008) speaks of anticipative education as “recognising the new conditions and discontinuities which face present generations, let alone future ones” (p. 65).
It seems reasonable to conclude that emergent, evolving and responsive learning hinges on dialogue, collective inquiry, united action, purposeful reflection, conscious shared understanding and creation of meaning. Emergent learning is flexible in that it determines the learning content in accordance with the learners’ interests and the circumstances of the day. Evolving learning is another term for experiential learning. Responsive learning adapts to learners’ individual needs and encourages collaborative learning among them. Sources such as Bessant (2012) and Garrison (2013) provide helpful background in this regard.
In this sense, SLE – as a course understood more broadly – might be likened to a massive open online course (MOOC), providing access to, engaging with and receiving inputs from interested individuals around the globe (see Bali 2014; Kim 2014). Whilst the MOOC phenomenon may appear as a “flash in the pan” (a sudden and unrepeatable success), many of its aspects could be drawn upon in designing a course for sustainable learning and education.
Due diligence is a legal term which refers to “a comprehensive appraisal of a business undertaken by a prospective buyer, especially to establish its assets and liabilities and evaluate its commercial potential” (OUP n.d.-b). In the context of this article, it refers to a thorough assessment of a project proposal.
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Hays, J., Reinders, H. Sustainable learning and education: A curriculum for the future. Int Rev Educ 66, 29–52 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-020-09820-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-020-09820-7