Learning beyond compliance: a comparative analysis of two cohorts undertaking a first year social work module

This paper addresses a current gap in education for sustainable development (ESD), an international educational movement, with a particular focus on teaching and learning innovations. Reflecting upon the mainstream 'business as usual' approaches in the ESD discourse, theories and practices of transformative social work are considered to make a significant contribution to that end. Empirical research was conducted to examine a new pedagogical approach introduced within an established module taught in 9 different groups to first year UK Social Work students during the academic year of 2007/8. The core change investigated was the replacement of detailed weekly instructions for teaching staff. The new guide articulated a pedagogical framework for the course and outlined themes and objectives, leaving detailed planning and delivery to individual teachers. Explorations were made through a comparative analysis of the responses of teaching staff and students for pre- 2007/8 academic years and 2007/8 year respectively. Data were collected using both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The research findings include students' positive view towards the classroom-based learning and some indications of deeper and wider understanding of social justice. Staff reported a renewed sense of professionalism. This research illuminates the potential for learning beyond compliance within existing curriculum frameworks

Navigating holostic and sustainable learning:Challenges and opportunities in ongoing and creeping emergencies

Metadata merged with duplicate record (http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/377) on 20.12.2016 by CS (TIS).This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected]) to discuss options.The overalla im of thist hesisi s to developa ndc riticallyr eflectu ponl earningp rinciples that are fit for purpose in engaging learners within situations of actual and anticipated humanitarian crisis. The study begins with an examination of the broad backcioth to the study, the interlinked causes of humanitarian emergencies - globalization, climate change and underlying worldviews. It is based on the assumption that interconnected social and environmental problems, as currently manifested, will be further exacerbated by the consequences of incremental and especially runaway climate change, or'creeping emergencies. ' The study draws upon expertise and insights from two contemporary educational discourses:e mergencye ducationa nd sustainability-relatede ducation. It was conductedi n two phases. Phase one aimed at examining the current range of renditions and understandingsw ithin the two fields and by eliciting perceptionso f the interfaceb etweent he two fields. It was conducted through literature reviews and interactions with ten experts, five from each field. A process of dialogue and reflection allowed for the emergence of holistic and sustainable learning principles that could be applied within emergency contexts. Using a qualitative case study methodology in phase two, the applicability of and practitioner receptivity to the learning principles emerging from phase one were investigated through engagementw ith the ongoing initiativeo f the NGO Plan International,C hildrena nd Young People at the Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction, and its organically emerging follow-up multi-agency initiative, Children in a Changing Climate. By and large, participating educational practitioners expressed their sense of the relevance of the principles to a considerable degree. In order to examine contextual variables in applying the six principles, further critical appraisal of the principles was undertaken through documentary case studies of Plan International's Yogyakarta Earthquake Response and Recovery Program in Indonesia and its Rapid Education Pilot Project in Sierra Leone. The examination reveals that the principles and their constituent elements were of varying importance and practicality depending on context. The exigencies of each situation posed limitations on what could be done practically in the field during the immediate crisis period with the application of some principles and elements, while nonetheless important for building future resilience, better held over until the mid-or long-term. This study suggests the need for more empirical research into holistic renditions of emergencye ducationi mplementationt,h eoreticald evelopmentw ith a view to embedding insights from the field of emergency education into seemingly 'non-emergency' contexts, and advancing educational thinking and practice in anticipation of runaway climate change.Faculty of Education, the Centre for Sustainable Futures of the University of Plymout

Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula : Case Studies from Thirty Countries

Información sobre Perú, pp. 170-171This document reports the findings of a UNICEF/UNESCO Mapping of Global DRR Integration into Education Curricula consultancy. The researchers were tasked with capturing key national experiences in the integration of disaster risk reduction in the curriculum, identifying good practice, noting issues addressed and ones still lacking and reviewing learning outcomes. The methodology employed has been one of meta-research of available literature and case study documentary research into the experiences of thirty countries. The most frequently found approach to DRR integration is that of infusion, i.e., disaster-related themes and topics that are woven into specific school subjects. DRR is, for the most part, integrated into a narrow band of subjects, typically the physical and natural sciences, although there are examples of its appearance across a wider range of subjects. There are a limited number of examples of DRR appearing as the primary focus or key strand within a special new subject area. Moreover, there is little evidence of cross-curricular linkages being forged nor of an interdisciplinary approach being adopted. If horizontal integration is not prominent, neither is vertical integration of DRR learning at the primary and secondary grade levels. A broad range of approaches to integrating disaster risk reduction has been identified: the textbook-driven approach; the pilot project approach; the centralized competency-based approach (in which curriculum development is determined by the identification of key competencies); the centrally developed special subject approach; the symbiosis approach (in which an established cross-curricular dimension such as environmental education, education for sustainable development or life skills education serves as a carrier for DRR); the ‘special event’ approach. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach are enumerated. Learning and teaching approaches used in addressing DRR curriculum tend to be generally limited in application. Links are not, in many cases, being made between the competency, community engagement and proactive citizenship ambitions of DRR and the need for interactive, participatory and ‘in the field’ learning through which competencies, involvement literacy and confidence are built. Successful examples of interactive, inquiry, experiential and action learning are to be found across the case studies but not in great numbers. There is little evidence for affective learning approaches (involving the sharing of feelings and emotions) even though learning about hazard and disaster can elicit a strong emotional response in the learner. The need for affective learning becomes ever stronger in that the increasing incidence of disaster means that pre-disaster learning is increasingly taking place in post-disaster or slow-onset disaster learning environments

Environmentalism, performance and applications: uncertainties and emancipations

This introductory article for a themed edition on environmentalism provides a particular context for those articles that follow, each of which engages with different aspects of environmentalism and performance in community-related settings. Responding to the proposition that there is a lacuna in the field of applied drama and environmentalism (Bottoms, 2010), we suggest that the more significant lack is that of ecocriticism. As the articles in this journal testify, there are many examples of applied theatre practice; what is required is sustained and rigorous critical engagement. It is to the gap of ecocriticism that we address this issue, signalling what we hope is the emergence of a critical field. One response to the multiple challenges of climate change is to more transparently locate the human animal within the environment, as one agent amongst many. Here, we seek to transparently locate the critic, intertwining the personal – ourselves, human actants – with global environmental concerns. This tactic mirrors much contemporary writing on climate change and its education, privileging personal engagement – a shift we interrogate as much as we perform. The key trope we anchor is that of uncertainty: the uncertainties that accompany stepping into a new research environment; the uncertainties arising from multiple relations (human and non-human); the uncertainties of scientific fact; the uncertainties of forecasting the future; and the uncertainties of outcomes – including those of performance practices. Having analysed a particular turn in environmental education (towards social learning) and the failure to successfully combine ‘art and reality’ in recent UK mainstream theatre events, such uncertainties lead to our suggestion for an ‘emancipated’ environmentalism. In support of this proposal, we offer up a reflection on a key weekend of performance practice that brought us to attend to the small – but not insignificant – and to consider first hand the complex relationships between environmental ‘grand narratives’ and personal experiential encounters. Locating ourselves within the field and mapping out some of the many conceptual challenges attached to it serves to introduce the territories which the following journal articles expand upon

The Bland Leading the Bland: Landscapes and Milestones on the Journey towards a Post-2015 Climate Change Agenda and How Development Education can Reframe the Agenda

After overviewing the global climate change threat, Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby identify elements that would comprise comprehensive climate change education of transformative intent. In the light of this, they go on to critically review the presently emerging post-2015 development and climate change agenda as encapsulated in the Sustainable Development Goals. They also scrutinise the outcomes of four gatherings feeding into that agenda – the World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development, the Lima Climate Change Conference, the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and the World Education Forum. They discern a signal failure to engage with neoliberalism and its workings as a root driver of climate change and a correlative failure to mainstream the holistic and transformative educational response that the climate crisis warrants. They end by suggesting how development education might play a formative role in reframing the post-2015 agenda

Sustainability Promotion and Branding: Messaging Challenges and Possibilities for Higher Education Institutions

This paper reports on case study research into six higher education institutions (three in the UK and three in the USA) that give prominence to their sustainability credentials in their paper form and/or electronic promotional and recruitment materials. The purpose of the research was to draw important lessons and identify significant issues concerning the sustainability branding and marketing of higher education institutions. Key findings include, first, the importance of calibrating sustainability marketing according to actual sustainability performance while also embracing a sustainability vision; second, the importance of combining internal with external marketing; third, the importance of institutional clarity in determining marketing parameters; fourth, the advantages of marrying broad-based ‘subtle’ marketing with intensive niche and segment marketing. It was found, too, that higher education institutions with a sustainability brand are not collecting systematic data to assess marketing impact on student recruitment, or utilizing the sustainability/employability interface to good marketing effect, or employing a multi-dimensional conception of sustainability in their marketing. There is clear evidence of the stirrings of movement away from paper-form towards electronic marketing across the cases considered. An overarching insight of the study is that rigorous institutional engagement with marketing sustainability credentials can have a significant impact on the quality and depth of sustainability performance by helping spread, enrich and diversify the institutional sustainability culture

Sustainability Promotion and Branding: Messaging Challenges and Possibilities for Higher Education Institutions

This paper reports on case study research into six higher education institutions (three in the UK and three in the USA) that give prominence to their sustainability credentials in their paper form and/or electronic promotional and recruitment materials. The purpose of the research was to draw important lessons and identify significant issues concerning the sustainability branding and marketing of higher education institutions. Key findings include, first, the importance of calibrating sustainability marketing according to actual sustainability performance while also embracing a sustainability vision; second, the importance of combining internal with external marketing; third, the importance of institutional clarity in determining marketing parameters; fourth, the advantages of marrying broad-based ‘subtle’ marketing with intensive niche and segment marketing. It was found, too, that higher education institutions with a sustainability brand are not collecting systematic data to assess marketing impact on student recruitment, or utilizing the sustainability/employability interface to good marketing effect, or employing a multi-dimensional conception of sustainability in their marketing. There is clear evidence of the stirrings of movement away from paper-form towards electronic marketing across the cases considered. An overarching insight of the study is that rigorous institutional engagement with marketing sustainability credentials can have a significant impact on the quality and depth of sustainability performance by helping spread, enrich and diversify the institutional sustainability culture.education for sustainability; sustainability; university; marketing; branding