Going++Against+the+Grain+...


 * Going Against the Grain: Sustainability and Pedagogy in Higher Education**

Audience? Journal? EER? Studies in Higher Education? IJGEE? This paper reports the findings of the second phase of a research project which investigated lecturers’ beliefs and understandings about the inclusion of sustainability into the higher education curriculum. Engaging lecturers in curriculum change with regard to the sustainability agenda is a complex and under-researched area, which brings into question the role of higher education in initiating wider social change. This phase of research utilised semi-structured interviews with a cross section of university lecturers, aimed at gaining an in-depth understanding of their perspectives on this issue and identifying the potential implications for institutional change. The findings revealed mixed views about whether sustainability should be incorporated more widely into the HE curriculum, and a notable concern about the manner of its inclusion. The research also suggested that the lecturers’ personal beliefs were more important than the subject being taught in determining whether sustainability would be included in any given discipline. Whilst some were vehemently opposed to its inclusion, others who were strong advocates of sustainability noted the tendency for it to creep into the curriculum irrespective of the subject being taught. Data on lecturers’ conceptions of appropriate pedagogies for sustainability reveal tensions with competing agendas in higher education, and therefore bring into question the potential for genuine institution-wide change. Preamble about the importance of ESD at all levels in the education system … However, arguably, change has been slowest in the tertiary sector. Only very recently have universities and further education institutions attempted to take on the implications of sustainability, and resistance to change has been a powerful mediating force. Sterling (2001) identifies “… the comparative newness of the sustainability agenda, the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary nature of the area (and) the need for learner-centred approaches …” as a challenge to established norms in higher education (HE). He also notes the increasing emphasis on standards and standardisation as a barrier to the development of a high quality educational experience, and argues that for education to engage fully in the transition to sustainability, involves “… visioning and designing a credible and practicable alternative.” (Sterling, 2001, p. 19). One of the reasons for engaging in this research into lecturers’ beliefs about sustainability was the need to understand the current context with a view to making recommendations for potential future action.
 * Abstract**
 * Introduction**


 * Research questions**


 * Methodology**


 * Findings**
 * Research question 1:** **To what extent do lecturers view sustainable development as relevant to their own teaching?**

?Include summary table of where respondents came from and who agreed with what, eg: Sustainability central to teaching … Sustainability peripheral … Sustainability creeps in … Sustainability irrelevant … tick box 1-20 (key at bottom tells you faculty of origin) Only two of the interviewees reported that sustainability was a central or core component of their teaching (an engineer and a geographer); the majority (11 out of 20 respondents) noted that it was peripheral to their teaching. These respondents claimed that sustainability was included in their teaching in small areas, was touched upon, or was somewhat tangential. Nonetheless, between them, the respondents identified a wide range of subjects in which sustainability played some part. These included: Coastal zone management; Education; Energy; English Language; Environmental Policy; Media Arts; Medical Ethics; Occupational therapy; Oceanography; Theatre and Performance; Visual Arts. Some of these appear to have a more obvious link to sustainability than others, yet the teaching area of the respondent was by no means the key indicator of their beliefs about the relevance of sustainability to their teaching. Whilst it was clear that some subjects were viewed as having less obvious connections with sustainability, these could still be made by enthusiasts: //“On the surface you would think, occupational therapy is about recruiting people for the health profession primarily, what has that to do with sustainable development? And yet if you look at the human resource angle … all the resources that are required in order to get them qualified, it does have an impact on sustainability.”// (int 3) An unexpected outcome of the research was the extent to which respondents reported that sustainability could be integrated into teaching via indirect means. They noted that even where it wasn’t part of the explicit learning outcomes for a teaching session or module (3,4,8,12,14), it might nonetheless be integrated into the curriculum (3,7,10,12,13): //“For most of the modules it’s not an integral part of the curriculum, as in it’s not a specified outcome to what they’ve got to learn. It is just part and parcel of what they get taught.”// (int 4) //“Well in a subject area like statistics you can’t really include anything like that directly … some of them do creep through, surreptitiously in the examples I use … it’s all a bit undercover I am afraid (int 7)// “//I was also involved in co-operation with another university and being involved with building simulation mainly but also a little bit of sustainability always creeps in alongside.”// (int 13) This picture of sustainability as something a little ‘undercover’, creeping into the curriculum was a recurrent theme in several interviews, and was reflected in later comments about the lack of institutional support and leadership. Lecturers appeared genuinely concerned about whether their inclusion of sustainability in certain subject areas could be viewed as somewhat subversive. One respondent explicitly noted that the influence of the tutor may extend well beyond the formal curriculum: //“My feeling is that as tutors, as lecturers, we have viewpoints that we share with our students in many ways, probably more complexly than just teaching about it. Very simple comments that you slip in in a lecture about saving trees for instance and not doing too much photocopying … I think that tutors actually influence students in ways well beyond the classroom or the subject. And perhaps that is possibly how it is done, and by choosing texts and cultural products which, while possibly commenting on their structure or contextualisation but also providing pawns for discussing issues of sustainability, which is actually what people do all the time. So in other words I think through the back door.”// (int 10) This participant demonstrates an unusually clear understanding of the potential impact of the hidden curriculum (ref), and the possibility that what students learn may be considerably discrepant from what tutors are overtly aiming to teach them. These findings also suggest that the lecturers’ own beliefs about sustainability are more important than the subject being taught in determining whether sustainability is included in their teaching. This may explain our published quantitative findings (Cotton //et al.// 2007) which showed no correlation between discipline and belief that sustainability was relevant to their subject. (One might expect that geography or environmental science, for example, would be more natural contexts for sustainability issues). The three respondents who felt that sustainability did not come into their teaching at all essentially argued that sustainability was not relevant to their subject area, and that they could not see how it could be integrated: //It doesn’t really fit into the portfolio of what I teach at the moment.// (int 2) //In the second year teaching its human metabolism, it’s about human and is very human orientated, and I can’t see how you would bring it in.// (int 5) //I don’t yet see the importance of it to my particular academic course. I suppose I would listen to that argument that is should be … At the moment I don’t see that it is relevant to my course. Yes I can imagine there would be courses on sustainability, which will even use some of the elements that I teach and I think that those, I guess that I would see individuals with those interests going into that study.// (int 6) The final quote underlines the importance of personal beliefs in the choice to include or exclude sustainability from any given programme or module. It is clear that this respondent makes an overt decision not to include sustainability because of him beliefs about its importance in general rather than solely due to concerns about its relevance to his teaching. In terms of appropriate pedagogies for teaching about sustainability in higher education, two of the respondents (1, 14) felt that the traditional teaching methods (lectures, chalk and talk - or the technology-enhanced equivalent) were suitable for any subject matter: //What is my teaching method? It’s stand up and deliver. Now how do you stand up and deliver you can either talk off a sheet of notes or you can talk without notes. Or you talk with visual aids, which is the standard method. How does sustainability come into that? I don’t really know. I don’t think the teaching method is driven by sustainability. The subject or subjects which might be linked to sustainability get a mention … but not the teaching method as such. I can’t think of what a sustainability teaching method is.// (int 1) Five others (3,5,7,8,9) felt that sustainability issues could be incorporated into their teaching by use of case studies or specific examples. It may be that this was less threatening to their over-riding pedagogical beliefs than a more interactive approach which might involve a more radical change to traditional teaching methods. //I am concerned with getting the fundamentals though it is quite useful if you can bring in some context and you know, rather than keeping it dry. So you do try to use examples// (int 5) //Through case studies and just through general examples// (int 7) //The thing is, there is direct or indirect. In terms of content my job is to improve the students English. But that can be done in many ways. There could be an article about this or an article about that. All other things being equal, as long as it is teaching them English. I have actually been using an article on recycling this week.// (int 9) Others (2,3,8,9,10) drew on the idea of modelling good practice for students in terms of energy and paper use in particular, but again had little idea of how pedagogy might be influenced by the ideas of sustainable development: //There are some things where technology will perhaps enable me to do things like use less paper in the future. But because of what I teach, and they way that I teach, that’s about as far as I can go in the current circumstances//. (int 2) //I think is it as basic as when you finish teaching turn the light out// (int 3) Several of these respondents voiced concerns about making more radical changes to their teaching. They felt that insufficient support from both within and beyond the institution meant that their actions were constrained. //I mean if we want to change anything then I think we have to look at the way we operate. We have to have proper green campuses. We have to fly in the face of the dominant economic paradigm. Whether universities want to do that or not, I think it is a big question//. (int 9) In terms of specific pedagogies mentioned as being appropriate, respondents mentioned discussion-based teaching (1, 8,12), role plays (4) and project work (8, 10), reflecting the findings of the first stage of the research (Cotton et al., 2007). This was often seemingly in response to the different attitudes and values which might be expressed or considered when looking at issues of sustainable development: //Because you are talking mainly about concepts presumably - attitudes and value systems … It would require I think quite a lot of discussion and debate and reflection.// (int 12) //It’s one of those things that we supervise the dissertation on every single year.// (int 10) //Through role playing is the way forward … The more you can get people to engage with the different groups in the situation ... I often ask the room if any of them have a feeling on this … So I will often say “who thinks this is bad” and invariably most of the group with think this or some of the group and then I’ll flip their role … So instead of leaving them with their preconceived idea, stick them in the other one.// (int 4) However, the extent to which these teaching strategies were used is an issue which would benefit from further research. It is notable that the respondent who discussed the use of role play in some depth (int 4 above) was from one of the university’s partner colleges, where the lecture-based format is considerably less entrenched. This tutor’s response is well aligned with the data reported in previous research looking at teaching about controversial environmental issues in schools (ref), but it is an approach which would probably be alien to many staff working in a university context. Both respondent 4 and respondent 12 are quite explicit about their aims in terms of challenging students’ preconceived ideas, and even ‘trying to change their perspectives’ (also to some extent interviewee 3 below): //I think part of something like this is you are trying to change people’s perspectives. Make them less selfish in their perspective perhaps but more looking at the broader picture ...// (int 12) //It is not just coming out with a degree,// //it is how you change and what your values are when you finish//. (int 3) It would be interesting to look at this in a larger-scale study to gauge the extent of agreement amongst lecturers for these types of approaches. Another lecturer took the opposing view, that it was important to remain impartial given the controversial nature of the issues, and this position might be echoed amongst the wider academic staff: //I slightly take the view that we should keep the issues a little bit at arm’s length and present the case kind of as a kind of “there are some people that think this, there are some people that think that” and that is interesting and to and in a way present it as a project for them to engage with in that way … I think we need to keep an impartial position//. (int 8) Despite the ubiquity of the lecture as a teaching method in higher education, there was very little mention of it in the data collected. One respondent did talk about lectures but dismissed them as inappropriate, noting the apparent dissonance between her idea of appropriate teaching methods for ESD and the common approach in HE teaching: //Yes and I would say something like that would fit very neatly with that approach [a discussion] rather than someone standing at the front saying “you have to care about the environment!”// (Laugher). (int 12) When asked whether sustainable development should be incorporated into the curriculum more generally, there were varied responses, and many interviewees returned to the specifics of their subject area rather than answering the wider question about whether SD should be part of higher education for all. Those who did confront this issue were left grappling with big questions concerning the role of education in society and the particular role of HE. Positive responses came from those who felt that social awareness should be part of the wider education that students should receive; that students may be in positions of power in future and that they will need to understand issues of sustainability in their everyday lives (1,2,3,4,5,7,9,12): //I think it should be included throughout education as a whole … it’s an important part of what we are doing. I mean I am not breeding historians in my classes but creating people who will be important movers and shakers in the future. Hopefully there will be people in positions of power and decision making at the local level, and maybe even have a Prime minister in my class! So yes, I do think it is something that is important to take on board.// (int 2) //I think we all ought to have, just for our own wellbeing, a holistic perspective and be made aware of the consequences of our behaviours/actions/ minds so yes so yes I would say I am a bit of a passionate about that.// (Laughter) (int 12) However, even these supporters of ESD in HE had some doubts about the practicality of inclusion in all curriculum areas. //I don’t know if it is necessarily something that is important to teach directly in every discipline.// (int 2) //So yeah I think it is good. How that would translate into many of the degrees … I am not sure, but I think it is something people should think about and try and incorporate it in their teaching.// (int 3) Nonetheless, the level of support was quite strong for what is in a sense a quite radical idea. Those who gave less positive responses were concerned with the potential for what is clearly a complex and contested area to be incorporated uncritically in a tick-box manner. Issues were also raised about the relative importance of ESD as compared to other competing elements in the curriculum. Some respondents were drawn to recall previous ‘hot topics’ in the curriculum with a cynical feeling that this is simply the latest in a long line of competing agendas! //It is interesting as I think in this question you come to the heart of what is education for, and whether in fact an educational outlook should actually incorporate necessarily a kind of quasi political outlook … I feel in some ways education should equip young people to be able to make up their own minds about their own futures and so in that way I am rather inclined to say that we are responsible to give young people tools of analysis and tools to be able to interrogate ideas, but to leave in one side our own particular prejudices and interests which might colour their subsequent uptake of things.// (int 8) //It is possible that we could overload programmes by having to tick too many boxes// (int 10) To many lecturers, the manner of inclusion of sustainability was a central issue which remains to be resolved. In part what is needed is a clear sense of how different disciplines might interpret sustainability (in terms of philosophy, curriculum content and/ or pedagogy) rather than asking lecturers to sign up to a single vision of ESD. Ultimately, the concept will be interpreted differently by different individuals/ subject groups, and this must be taken into account in any attempt to implement university-wide changes.
 * Research question 2: In what ways and to what extent do they perceive there to be a distinct pedagogy for ESD?**
 * Research question 3: To what extent do they support the notion of incorporating SD into the curriculum generally?** //(go through individual interviews and get an overall for and against count)//

From the findings discussed above, two key themes emerge: 1. Lecturers’ beliefs about sustainability are an important mediating factor in understanding the notion of ESD being ‘relevant’ to a subject area. In areas in which there is less strong overt relevance, covert inclusion may take place. 2. Teaching methods advocated as appropriate for ESD run counter to those in common use in higher education, therefore strong university leadership provides an essential backdrop to any attempt at radical changes.
 * Conclusion**

From the data collected in this study, a picture is starting to emerge of a range of subject areas with weak or strong overt links to sustainability and, overlaid on these, //covert// inclusion of sustainability through modelling good practice, discursive or interactive methods of teaching, and use of sustainability-focused case studies or examples. There is also evidence of a desire from some respondents for stronger university leadership but a reluctance (from others) to include issues seen as controversial in their teaching and to risk influencing students’ views. The challenge of inter-disciplinarity is gradually being addressed by some innovators in HE (refs), though the ‘academic tribes and territories’ described by Becker and Trowler (****) are still a very powerful influence on the development of academic identity. A crucial factor – and one which offers an immense challenge to higher education institutions in the current political climate - appears to be the need to move “.. from //transmissive// towards //transformative// learning” (Sterling, 2001, p.11) which is called for in education //as// sustainability. The debate about what higher education is //for// – vocational preparation, socialisation, the liberal humanist or transformative models – are reflected in the comments of these lecturers (cite some education literature here). Those interviewees who gave a more positive response to the question of whether ESD should be incorporated across the curriculum were seemingly those who subscribed to a more transformative view: They believed that one of the roles of higher education was to encourage change within society, rather than simply prepare students for their future working lives, or to support the status quo. However, this aim runs counter to much of the current direction of higher education policy decisions. Universities are already struggling with the tensions which inevitably arise from the increasing focus on students as consumers, and higher education as a product rather than as a process. The apparent instrumentalism of many students, together with the increasing external drivers towards employability and skills rather than a focus on critical thinking makes the potential for higher education to act as a genuinely transformative experience increasingly unlikely. Increasing student numbers militate against any widespread moves towards more interactive teaching approaches in many disciplines, even where these are identified by researchers and practitioners as being more effective (refs). The strategies identified by these lecturers for teaching about sustainability issues have much in common with findings from previous research (e.g. Corney & Reid 2007), which identify debates, discussions, case studies, and fieldwork as effective strategies for teaching about sustainability. However, they perhaps stop short of some of the more radical approaches recommended by Tilbury (2007), who argues that there is a need for “… //new learning approaches// which help us explore sustainability and build skills that enable change, such as mentoring, facilitation, participative inquiry, action learning and action research.” (p. 118). She focuses on the importance of critical thinking triggered by a questioning process which helps: “… uncover assumptions, challenge assumed knowledge and question current thinking. This questioning might take place through dialogue in a workshop, during a meeting, through role-playing exercises, or through constructing visual maps.” (p. 125) Doubts also remain as to how widespread the approaches mentioned by the respondents are, especially in the university context where lecturing to large groups of students is very much the norm. As this research shows, some individual academics are attempting to integrate sustainability into their curricula in a wide variety of ways, and in a broad range of disciplines – but there is a sense that they are ‘going against the grain’, that they are having to do this ‘by the back door’, that there is little support from the institution (or perhaps even from the wider society) for what they are trying to achieve. The difficulty of negotiating transformative changes to curricula - which are themselves within the boundaries of a wider (and largely traditional and conservative) educational system - has been raised by Sterling (2001) (and others in wider educational context??). This case study shows that piecemeal changes can be made within an institution, but it also indicates that wider changes in the system are likely to prove problematic. This research suggests further avenues of exploration which might investigate //how// individual academics circumnavigate the barriers which exist in higher education, in order to integrate sustainability into their discipline, and the impact that this has on student learning. In practical terms, what seems to be needed is a major discussion involving the whole university concerning what Higher Education in general, and the University of Plymouth in particular is aiming to achieve. What are the key aspects of a university education? Not surely simply passing a degree? Learning to be critical? Learning to think like a biologist/ geographer? Learning by doing? Becoming sustainability-literate? The nature of the educated person – RS Peters? What is education about? The quest for truth (philosophy) … Or a training for leadership (rhetoric)? – Aristotle to Dearing … Are these in conflict
 * Discussion**
 * The implications (within and beyond UoP)**