Transdisciplinary Learning for Sustainable Development Sharing Experience in Course and Curriculum Design
• Research topics: probably the easiest links are thematic: e.g. research on core topics and issues of SD such as natural resource degradation, globalization, migration, etc. Research methodology: measuring or determining changes in key variables is essential to assess wheth• er development is sustainable or not. Thus, any scientific method that helps to collect quantitative and qualitative data of key variables is a contribution to monitoring and assessing changes and impacts of activities, technologies, etc. that relate to sustainability. • Theory: contributions to critical debates about SD in general, or about various issues of SD, for instance, are useful contributions on a conceptual level. • Application: finally, applying research results has direct impacts on SD, such as developing sustainable technologies, formulating laws regulating environmental care, ESD, etc.
What links does your discipline have with SD? To help you identify these, try exploring one or more of the following pathways: research topics, research methodology, theory, and application. The following grid pattern analysis (Figure 10) combines the four interfaces mentioned above with the three dimensions of SD (environment, society, economy). Such an analysis is particularly important when developing or adapting study programmes that go further than a “bolt-on” approach (Chapter 1.4) and that aim to integrate sustainability topics in a “build-in” approach or even a substantial “curriculum redesign” towards ESD. For systematic and significant contributions to SD, we propose that lecturers identify several potential links between their scientific discipline and SD. Please try to answer the key questions below for your own discipline. Depending on the structure of the study programme or of the responsible institution, this analysis can be carried out at different levels (macro, meso, and micro). It is ideally carried out at all three.
Guiding Question 1 (Quick Guide): What are potential links between your discipline and SD?
Environment Natural resources (as the basis of livelihoods), climate change, energy consumption, waste production and recycling, …
Society Independence/dependen cies of individuals, societal structures, inclusive development, migration, knowledge, education, health, well-being, …
Economy Livelihoods, poverty, future of labour, inequalities, migration, economic & political power relations, globalization, …
Research Topics Research Methodology Theory Application Figure 10: Analysis raster to determine potential links between a scientific discipline and SD (K. Herweg)
• What potential effects may research findings and/or their application in your discipline have, directly and indirectly, on the three dimensions of SD (environment, society, economy)? • Who, in the global North and South, will probably benefit from your research, and who will not? • With which disciplines should or could you potentially collaborate to address “wicked sustainability problems”, which cannot be solved within the boundaries of your discipline?
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