Seeing the wood for the trees: a heuristic framework to enable the integration of sustainability education in higher education settings

ABSTRACT

This paper puts forward a conceptual framework to support the dual challenges of strategic and practical integrative action of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) across Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). There are numerous existing resources and toolkits providing appropriate actions, guidance or approaches to monitor and measure ESD engagement. Our intended distinctive contribution in this paper is to complement these with heuristic ways of thinking that offer clarity on the context and evolution of progress on ESD at an institutional level. Our proposals were developed through structured comparative discussions by ESD practitioners from seven European universities, leading to a consensus view on key contextual influences across a range of environments, embodied in our proposed heuristic metaphors. The resulting proposed framework, built upon a systems-based visual metaphor of a forest ecosystem of HEIs, proposes the use of the dimensions of capacity and commitment, to define an integrative framework with four positional scenarios: ”Pockets of Practice”, “Emerging Agenda” to ”Integrated Impact” and “Off the Agenda”. To illustrate its application, it is used to contextualize relevant steps to progress ESD associated with each scenario in the areas of strategy, staff development, formal education and extra-curricular opportunities. We argue that the adoption of such a framework by HEI practitioners could support day-to-day decision-making and strategic planning towards an integrated approach to ESD that engages with all areas of university activity.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education institutions
• education for sustainable development
• heuristic framework
• tools

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the hard work and contribution of the other members of the EUA TPG, Elena Luppi of the University of Bologna, Pól Ó Dochartaigh, Michalle O’Dowd, and Gesche Kindermann of NUI Galway, Andrea Bernhard of TU Graz and Margien Bootsma and Karin Rebel of Universiteit Utrecht to the research presented here; as well as to Helene Peterbauer our hardworking and ever supportive EUA secretariat.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data statement

Data available on request from the authors.