Challenge:
There is no way I can change the content of my course but I want to help my students develop a sustainability mindset.
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Try This:
Think about the skills that you teach in your class. It might be helpful to refer to the HLO Framework to identify these skills. You are likely teaching sustainability competencies without even knowing it.
What are sustainability competencies? Sustainability competencies are a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that improve the ability to problem solve holistically, recognize patterns and communicate/advocate for better outcomes that can be applied to real-world, sustainability problems, challenges and opportunities.
Taking a look at the Sustainability Mindset, you might notice that sustainability is not just about understanding topics like climate change or waste management. It is also:
- anticipatory & futures thinking
- equity, diversity & inclusion
- flexibility & adaptability
- social justice, civic responsibility and environmental ethics
- strategic action
- systems thinking
What does this mean? It means that sustainability is about connecting the dots. It is about seeing how things fit together in large, complex systems, and about anticipating how an action in one area will impact other areas.
This ability to have anticipatory and futures thinking, to be flexible and adaptable, to have a systems approach and to take strategic action is not exclusive to a sustainable mindset, but it does support one.
Other sustainability competencies that are encompassed by the HLO Framework include collaboration and strategic problem-solving.
Consider the following example of a failure of these competencies.