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Teaching sustainability across curricula: understanding faculty perspectives at Vancouver Island University
Author(s) -
McCunn Lindsay J.,
Bjornson Alexander,
Alexander Don
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the curriculum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.843
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1469-3704
pISSN - 0958-5176
DOI - 10.1002/curj.16
Subject(s) - sustainability , coursework , curriculum , higher education , sustainability science , pedagogy , sociology , qualitative research , sustainability organizations , public relations , engineering ethics , political science , engineering , social science , ecology , biology , law
Sustainability initiatives in higher education are growing in importance. This case study may guide faculty at other institutions seeking to gain deeper insight into the state of sustainability education where they work. Members of the Vancouver Island University Sustainability Advisory Committee hosted a workshop for faculty members, students and staff to explore how sustainability is incorporated into teaching and learning at the institution, to share perspectives, and examine ways to enhance individual and collective pedagogical practices. A World Café posed four questions for participants to answer as they rotated between tables. The resulting qualitative data were content analysed and interpreted. Key themes and categories from data concerning participants' successes and inspirations while teaching and learning at Vancouver Island University (VIU), challenges and barriers in blending sustainability into coursework, faculty's perceptions of student perspectives of sustainability in VIU courses and about resources and opportunities to integrate sustainability in interdisciplinary courses are reported and discussed. This case study differs from others in that it does not describe an evaluation of a programme but, rather, explicates a process by faculty working at a new university to elicit information from their peers and develop networks that will engage the university in interdisciplinary sustainability for years to come.