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Hi John - very interested in this - hugely relevant to our fundamental debates about what HE is for! For the past couple of years I've been part of a HEFCE funded project 'Leading Curriculum Change for Sustainability' looking at how institutional quality systems can be used to support this, but at a deep level rather than just providing an extra layer of policy box ticking. I would like to be involved in any group and/ or conference sessionwill try and send more considered reply/ suggestions when I have a moment! Meanwhile I can strongly recommend Stephen Sterlings Future Fit publication ( link in Johns email) as a very helpful and practical starting point for discussions with colleagues and students. Best wishes Pauline ------------ Pauline Ridley On 11 Jul 2012, at 10:19, "John Hilsdon" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: Dear all I’m doing a ‘testing the water’ thing! Julia Dawson and I have been having conversations here in Plymouth about ‘sustainability’ over a period of time with Stephen Sterling. He is Professor of Sustainability Education and Head of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and author of Sterling, S (2012) 'The Future Fit Framework: an introductory guide to teaching and learning for sustainability in HE' <http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/esd/The_Future_Fit_Framework.pdf> http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/esd/The_Future_Fit_Framework.pdf One of our discussions has been about the extent to which all teaching and learning needs to embed sustainability. Stephen says, for him, it comes down to the issue of the purpose education: given that we are in the midst of the most fundamental environmental changes we have witnessed, many of which seriously threaten life on the planet, and that these are undoubtedly caused by human activity, it is a ‘no-brainer’ that education needs to serve sustainability – in other words “ … ensuring social, economic and ecological well-being, now and into the future.” So what are the implications for learning developers and for our work? How do we ensure that what we do and how we do it serves a ‘sustainability’ agenda? When I asked him this question, Stephen referred me to the following quote: ESD is about the learning needed to maintain and improve our quality of life and the quality of life of generations to come ... ESD enables people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively, both locally and globally, that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future. (Sustainable Development Education Panel Report 1998) I know it is about things we are all pretty familiar with now - the extent to which we use paper, power, share transport, buy local, use resources thoughtfully, recycle etc. But what specifically in terms of LD? In my own mind I can see how this relates to what I say and do as a learning developer – it means I should think about context, local, regional, global in the examples I use in teaching, and think about modelling good practice. Thinking back to our Bournemouth conference of 2009 – we hosted Jan Sellers’ labyrinth and talked about the need to promote mental wellbeing through allowing time and space for contemplation and for more holistic approaches to learning … but … What else? I wonder if there is enough interest among us, and sufficient ‘sustainability learning development topics’ to support a group of presentations on this theme for our upcoming conference in Plymouth next March? If this is something you feel strongly about either way, or if you have suggestions it would be great to hear from you. And if there is enough interest perhaps we might ask the ALDinHE Conference Working Group if they would be willing to include sustainability as one of our 2013 themes? Best wishes John PS – another recent publication folks might like to read on this topic: Seda Special 31 “Putting the 'S' into ED - Education for Sustainable Development in Educational Development” Edited by: Debby Cotton, Stephen Sterling, Vivian Neal and Jennie Winter ___________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by MessageLabs' Email Security System on behalf of the University of Brighton. For more information see <http://www.brighton.ac.uk/is/spam/> http://www.brighton.ac.uk/is/spam/ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by MessageLabs' Email Security System on behalf of the University of Brighton. For more information see http://www.brighton.ac.uk/is/spam/ ___________________________________________________________