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2 Activist Learning for Sustainability: A Pedagogy for Change
Zoe Robinson, Rebecca Laycock Pedersen, and Sarah Briggs
2.1 Introduction
2.1.1 Education for Sustainability in Higher Education
There is increasing acknowledgment of the responsibility of universities in contributing to a more sustainable future, and our role as educators in ensuring our students have the agency to enact change (Robinson 2019). The responsibility of universities goes beyond the traditional estates‐based environmental management focus toward a more holistic understanding of the ways in which universities can contribute to sustainability, through their engagement and outreach with local communities, their research activities, as well as their educational mission. Education can be a thread which weaves these areas of responsibility together.
These potential contributions to sustainability by universities cross the breadth of interconnected and interdependent environmental, social and economic issues that embody our understanding of “sustainability” (Gibson 2006; Purvis et al. 2019). The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ratified in 2015, comprise 17 goals and 169 targets and, although not without criticism (Adelman 2018; Liverman 2018), might represent the best blueprint we have for a more sustainable future. These models of interconnected issues highlight that sustainability challenges are complex “wicked problems” which can be time‐consuming and difficult to address due to involving multiple stakeholders, dimensions and conflicting needs (Ackoff 1974; Waddock 2013) and therefore need holistic and systemic approaches.
Quality Education is an SDG in its own right, which alongside targets relating to access to and inclusion within education, includes a specific “education for sustainable development and global citizenship” target with a goal of ensuring that “all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non‐violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture's contribution to sustainable development” (UNESCO 2021a). Education, however, is not restricted to its own goal, but is an enabler for all other goals through empowering “people with the knowledge, skills and values to live in dignity, build their lives and contribute to their societies' (UNESCO 2021b).
Education for sustainable development (ESD) needs to be widely adopted across higher education to enable a fundamental, transformative shift in thinking and decision‐making in all of society's leaders (Cortese 2003) through enabling the development of sustainability literate graduates, whose leadership in society can take many forms throughout their lives (Robinson and Molthan‐Hill 2021). Higher education is also a liminal moment in the lives of many students given that many experience independent living and decision‐making for the first time, providing an opportunity for the development of new (sustainable) habits (Verplanken and Wood 2006; Haggar et al. 2019).
However,