An Exploratory Journey into Sustainability Changemakers Learning Programs

Abstract

Humanity is facing highly complex challenges at a global scale. A new sort of conscious sustainability changemakers is needed to face the sustainability challenge. However the mainstream entrepreneurship education tends to focus on business as usual skills, with a significant lack of comprehensive understanding of the whole system and the inner work needed to face the mental barriers to become sustainability changemakers. While the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development was used as a structured approach to the topic, the research design was based on a dynamic research interactive model. Theory U guided the data gathering process that included participatory observation, dialogues with the organizers and participants through the seven progressive schools in Europe. The research aims to identify the common assumptions that guide the design of leading edge learning programs for sustainability changemakers. Building on the findings, the authors present a prototype of a learning tool in a form of self-reflection card game with the intention of helping the next generation of changemakers in their learning journey towards sustainability. Conclusions detail specific guidelines to design a learning program of changemakers towards sustainability