Workshop: “Higher Education for Sustainability in Turbulent Times”

organized by Dr. Mandy Singer-Brodowski and Nora Große (Freie Universität Berlin)

Dear participants,

Thank you for choosing our workshop! Please find below our program for Tue, Oct. 20, 4-7 pm CET:

4.00-4.20 pm – Workshop Introduction: Setting the stage. Who is in the Room?

4.20-5.15 pm – Keynote by Arjen Wals, Questions and Discussion: Higher Education in Times of Climate Urgency, Polarization and Psychic Numbing – Navigating Bildung (Education) and Activism

5.15-5.30 pm – Introduction to the Breakout Sessions, Short Break

We will introduce the three breakout rooms just before the break so that you will have time to decide on your focus of interest and enter one of the three separate breakout meetings during the break.

5.30-6.20 pm – Discussion and Collaboration in Three Parallel Breakout Sessions

The breakout rooms are based on the main levels of transformative change and corresponding workshop contributions (see list of presentations). We really recommend you to watch as many videos as possible before the live workshop, as they are an integral part of the conference program and above all fun to watch! If your time is limited, please watch at least the presentations of your chosen breakout session! (You may also make your choice after their introduction during the workshop.)

We ask you to stay in one room consistently during this slot to allow for focused group collaboration.

The three breakout rooms are:

  1. Landscape/macro-level: This session will focus on larger, broader questions of transformation in higher education for sustainability, e.g. the role of power and discourses, emotions, ‘neutrality’ vs. taking a political stance, the role of digitalization, global inequalities etc.
  2. Institutional/meso-level: This session will focus on questions of transformation through HEI institutional changes, e.g. curricular reform, cooperation with university stakeholders etc.
  3. Project/micro-level: This session will focus on opportunities, learnings and challenges faced by specific innovative educational formats in transforming higher education in the classroom.

6.20-6.40 pm – Collective Sharing of Results from the Breakouts

6.40-7.00 pm – Main Take-aways, Open Questions & Closing

Workshop Abstract

The recent student movements calling for climate justice have arguably created new opportunities and requirements for an inclusive and empowering Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD). Firstly, as more students aim to understand complex sustainability challenges, potential strategies and solutions, HESD may require innovative approaches to respond to their heterogeneous backgrounds, competencies and needs. In this context, e-learning and blended learning may allow more flexible learning adapted to students’ individual and social realities.
Secondly, sustainability activism and digitization may require a critical reflection of HESD educators’ and students’ roles and necessary skills. Educators play a vital role in enabling transformative learning processes, thereby supporting and empowering students as individual and collective sustainability actors – not only cognitively, but also emotionally and socially. Yet, how should HESD educators respond to questions of normativity, ideology and emotions like climate anxiety in the classroom? Which personal and professional skills are necessary to foster students’ competencies and self-efficacy, and through which training formats can HESD educators acquire these?
Finally, transdisciplinary approaches may address students’ aim to make concrete, meaningful societal changes in cooperation with non-academic partners. This includes a wide spectrum of activities, ranging from research- to project-based cooperation, bilateral to multi-stakeholder- and community-based partnerships. Which course programs, formats and practices can foster successful, long-term transdisciplinary learning processes and projects, and which challenges are they confronted with?
This workshop aims to share and discuss innovative formats in HESD and learning in the context of global sustainability and digital transformations. In light of the above-mentioned questions, the workshop focuses on three promising approaches – blended learning, transformative learning and transdisciplinary learning – their respective potentials, challenges and strategies for implementation, including case studies and best practices.

Please click here for the overview of pre-recorded presentations.