Scott, W. and Gough, S. (2006). Sustainable Development within UK Higher Education: Revealing Tendencies and Tensions.

Scott, W. and Gough, S. (2006).  Sustainable Development within UK Higher Education: Revealing Tendencies and Tensions.  Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 30(2), pp. 293 - 305.  Retrieved on September 18, 2010 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03098260600717398


Introduction
Scott and Gough discuss the way in which the targets for education implemented at the Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro 1992 were relevant to the needs of higher education.  Their paper reviews how higher education (UK) has evolved post-Summit.


Sustainable Development in UK Higher Education: A Snapshot
Funding councils actively promote and support ESD and it was suggested that higher education contribute as:

• hubs of learning and research; formative support for leaders of the future;
• centres of commerce;
• developers of the community.

Associated bodies (e.g. Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges) are heavily invested in combining both environmental management and sustainability to form business development models that institutions are capable of implementing (e.g. transport, consumption).  The Higher Education Funding Council oversees good management practice initiatives, and is in partnership with four universities.  Their research has four main categories:

1. building level benchmarking of energy and water consumption;
2. developing case studies of best practice in environmental performance improvement in HE;
3. identifying and testing standardised measures for procurement, waste and other functions; and
4. developing the capacity of staff with environment-related responsibilities to achieve positive environmental change within their institutions through action workshops and other means.

Scott and Gough observe that successful outcomes of this project have been primarily related to managing the environment in higher education than with curriculum development.  The authors propose that implementing both environmental management and curriculum together present challenges of its own.  Ashley states one reason this could be is linked to individuals possessing RPL skills in numeracy, IT and communication, but no key skill has been identified as understanding sustainability.

Environmental managers are not required to focus on curriculum, and academics are time-constrained.  Tensions erupt as a consequence.  Tacit knowledge reveals while teaching or researching ESD is professional choice, group ethic or value is against a forced curriculum change in support of academic freedom.  "Determinist curriculum interventions can have a negative effect" (pg. 4).  An HE21 initiative asked UK institutions of higher learning specifically what different professions would need to know to maintain sustainable development, but no change came from this.  Legislation in environmental standards becomes more stringent as organising bodies do their best to ensure measures are based on global opinion.

The UK have adopted a curriculum toolkit on learning for sustainable development, a collaboration between HEPS and the University of Antofagasta, Chile.  Some of the concepts included in the toolkit are:

• as noted previously, universities are hubs of learning and research and act as key intermediaries between community and sustainable development;
• the Triple P attitude towards sustainable development is overly simplistic and requires five types of capital (i.e. natural, human, social, manufactured, financial);
• twelve criteria stemming from the fivefold capital are adduced to project a vision of a sustainable society; and
• learning must be delivered in a particular manner to be supportive of sustainable development; holistic, learner centered education binds social, environmental and economic environments to draw on positive attributes of location and individual; focus is on identified outcomes; it can apply to a range of complexity.

The first of seven stages in the toolkit requires a student profile and represents the student's perspective of the world.  Student identity (e.g. profession, affiliation) is the core and behaviour adjusts as it moves through outer rings and back again.  Interaction that occurs less frequently form the outer rings.  Second, program content is listed in a way that identifies the skills and knowledge a student requires to fulfill the learning contract.  Third, evaluations are based on the twelve criteria of capital.  Fourth, personal learning outcomes depend on evaluations in third stage (e.g. goal setting, clarity of understanding).  Fifth, the strategy for implementation.  Sixth is an embedded point of reflection when the program design is presented to faculty members.

The context in which learning takes place is a determining factor in guiding progress with pragmatism, as Scott and Gough indicate challenges are almost certain when a lack of common interpretation introduces inertia.  The design strategy of the toolkit is founded on natural sciences and economics, consequently learning has more focus on managerial aspects rather than on emancipation and examples are:

• a target population of graduates and professionals;
• emphasis on measurable learning outcomes using the twelve criteria instead of through the pedagogy of self-discovery;
• sustainable development arguably relies on the fivefold capital, or UNESCOs strategy for teaching the strategy of making long-term decisions based on our ecology and the economy;
• learning as the source of achieving sustainable development rather than as an integrated aspect.

In response to feedback, HEPS published a booklet on the attributes of good practice when integrating sustainable development.  The practitioners guide facilitates the identification of aspects in ESD.  As there are no models to provide examples, the booklets' aim is to provide a balance between guidance and spoon-feeding that generates confidence in ability and the skill to begin, belief in themselves and trust in the process.

Developing the Higher Education Curriculum: Further Issues

Despite the progress made with the toolkit, there remain three outstanding issues:

1. Extensive budgets are attractive but not always necessary, Scott and Gough state.  Guided learning to act in ecologically sustainable ways is required to support and/or enhance static knowledge.
2. Opinions of the teacher might not be shared by the student (i.e. what the teacher considers important may be in direct opposition to student opinion).  The skills students bring are either developed or modified.  Learning objectives are clearly stated in the toolkit.
3. Strategy for change must take account of paideia as not all learning is formal or expected.

Observations are that the nature of the booklet is inspired by a conservative and nurturing shared worldview and supported by cultural theory.  As long as society is inexorably integrated through technology (e.g. between private and public, local and national) tensions and diversity will continue to exist.

The toolkit acknowledges this dilemma and offers various entry points to initiate course content that reflects the range of values students and institutions present.  The paradox is the less stimulation the values receive, the less likely natural growth occurs.  Success or failure of such initiatives is highly dependent on the institutions' responsibilities (e.g. financial, patriarchal).  Scott and Gough argue that the integration of sustainable development and learning may have been pushed into the background owing to poor articulation, and misrepresented by hidden individual agendas.

Managing the institutions' environment has thus far proven less challenging, as any change for sustainable development has the potential to make a significant impact on energy consumption, creating a savings.  Scott and Gough clearly state that although the toolkit has the flexibility to address these issues at metatheoretical level, investigative analysis on issues pertaining to sustainable development remain secondary.

Research and teaching at some universities are two areas heavily invested in sustainable development.  Geography departments have been examples of key research activity around the globe.  Scott and Gough indicate that at the time of publication there appeared to be no potential models that used university life to integrate commerce, research and activity as envisaged by UNESCO.

Universities are memes and thus, interconnected at national level.  The relationship the institution has with the community is subject to the Law of Cause and Effect.  The negative association with sustainable development is its perceived expense that is assumed to benefit only the institution, in favour of ongoing projects.  Initiatives abound but do not constitute, nor have they been linked with, a national strategy.  Scott and Gough promote initiatives such as the one proposed by HEP that encompass the seven stage approach and fivefold capital model, and question other research agendas.

Learning as Sustainable Development

Sustainable development reflects lifelong learning and is unlikely to gain public approval if teachers of ESD are not exemplary role models.   In this instance, constructive action is potentially more valuable than constructive feedback.  Progress is necessarily contingent upon the time it takes to link ongoing institutional and professional commitments.

Viewing evolution as a progression of tiny steps towards a greater good, recognises a naturally occurring sustainable phenomena.  Experience and confidence, or single loop learning, occurs according to independent stages of personal development.  Failures are viewed as experience gained, thus professional disappointments can be retained at a rational level without upsetting equilibrium.  Sharing is crucial in order for others to learn from experience by proxy.  Scott and Gough propose that leadership and creativity include the following as priorities:

• commissioning research into learning difficulties facing ESD, and the potential relationship between lifelong learning and sustainable development;
• national planning and strategy to cross-reference domain development through networks and rpl;
• situation monitoring and analysis of proposals for learning in sustainable development;
• strong professional networks to encourage widespread discourse; and
• promotion of leader contributions to international developments.

Two items relating to education were mentioned at the World Summit.  The Millennium Development Goals and the need for a civil society movement to increase national commitment.  The 6th session of UNCSD issued seven areas in need of priority action:

1. clarifying and communicating sustainable development concepts and key messages;
2. reviewing national education policies and reorienting practice, including teacher education and higher education teaching and research;
3. incorporating education within national sustainable development strategies and planning processes;
4. promoting sustainable consumption and production through education;
5. promoting investment in education;
6. identifying and sharing innovative practice;
7. raising public awareness.

A UN backed agenda proposing a decade of ESD highlighted the role universities have to offer.  The perspective taken teaches students to conduct their own explorations into the subject and acquire their own information, which is a more sustainable activity than teaching the subject itself.  Scott and Gough propose that if sustainable development can be learned, then an objective must be established to consistently remain in focus.  Goals achieved from learning may not receive recognition as there is no contextual authority.  The authors are of the opinion that certain perspectives may not be congruent in other domains.  Simply put, it's easier to release preconceptions and move forward into the unknown.

Issues range from outright denial "Problem?  What problem?" to resignation "Humanity incapable of necessary change" (pg. 11).  The authors suggest using a metatheoretical approach, which they term 'the clumsy approach' as a wide acceptance of knowledge can be obfuscated by stakeholder needs (e.g. stakeholders expect definitive answers in order to promote their cause).  Issues relating to sustainable development stem from fear of the unknown.  Uncertainty is causing 'analysis paralysis'.  Dominant roles can only be achieved with clear and open communication.

Scott and Gough indicate that the clumsy way is a heuristic they use themselves as a means of unpacking problems.  Categorisation leads to simplification and the clumsy way provides security in constant evaluation (i.e. situation monitoring).

Concluding comments

The way in which knowledge is categorised (i.e. policy-making in ministries) is only a simplification in conceptual articulation rather than a diminishing of problems.  "For example, the economy, the environment and society are not separable, and sustainable development cannot arise from the independent insights of economists, environmental scientists and social scientists, working with different assumptions and methodologies" (pg. 13).

In closing, the authors discuss shared worldview and the subsequent actions of humanity as indicative of how the human-environment relationship is co-evolving.  Learning content is significant as it is a deciding factor in gaining skills for further endeavour.  Scott and Gough propose that these are factors fundamental to thinking about applying sustainable development in higher education, and suggest that progress will be made in conjunction with contextual and cultural filtering.