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Leif Östman

International Thematic Network SEDwise 'Sustainability Education'

‘Sustainability Education – Teaching and learning in the face of wicked socio-ecological problems’

SEDwise is an International Thematic Network (ITN) established in 2016 in the context of Ghent University’s internationalisation policy. The aim of the network is to provide research-driven capacity-building on integrating sustainability in (university) education. Addressing sustainability issues in education is a challenging endeavour. Often characterised as ‘wicked problems’, these issues bring about major pedagogical challenges. Further research and capacity-building is required to support (university) teachers. SEDwise is established to contribute to that by enabling fruitful cross-fertilisation between research, education and services to society.

In the past 5 years, the SEDwise network developed a broad range of activities such as pilot experiments aimed at integrating sustainability in university education in various fields, action research in which the educational pilot experiments are investigated as cases, research seminars for in-depth discussions about the pilot cases and theoretical issues, workshops on sustainability in university education, in-service training, summer schools about (education and) sustainability issues, presentations at international conferences, joint project applications for research projects, etc. Read more about these activities in the news articles below or download the overview of SEDwise activities 2016-2020.

SEDwise has brought together university teachers within UGent who are strongly engaged in integrating sustainability in their educational activities with a selected group of ESE researchers in international partner institutions. Through the thus created interdisciplinary network, Ghent University serves as a 'living lab' where innovative experiments with sustainability education are co-created and turned into case studies for ESE researchers who act as ‘critical friends’.

Scientific research network 'Public pedagogy and sustainability challenges'

 

In this network, researchers at Ghent University (BE), University of Leuven (BE), Södertörn University (SE), University of Gdańsk (PO), Uppsala University (SE), Aarhus University (DK), Örebro University (SE), Maynooth University (IR) and Rhodes University (SA) share a scientific research interest in the relation between education and societal transformation. They want to deepen and widen our understanding of the public role of education in the face of sustainability challenges, nourish and facilitate further theoretical and empirical research and foster much-needed interdisciplinary collaboration of political theorists, educational theorists and sustainability education researchers.

Through the organisation of symposia, guest lectures and scientific collaboration the network develops a theory of public pedagogy with a focus on sustainability challenges and addresses – both theoretically and empirically – questions such as:

  • How can education play a democratic role in addressing sustainability challenges?
  • What are vital conditions or obstacles to make this possible?
  • What does this imply for designing sustainability education practices?
  • What are the theoretical, methodological and empirical implications of researching sustainability education as public pedagogy?

The project is funded as a scientific research network (FWO-WOG) by Research Foundation - Flanders.

Partners:

  • Ghent University: Centre for Sustainable Development, Department of Political Sciences (Thomas Block, Katrien Van Poeck, Gert Goeminne, Erik Paredis, Maarten Crivits) & Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy (Griet Roets)
  • University of Leuven: Laboratory for Education and Society (Jan Masschelein, Maarten Simons, Danny Wildemeesch, Joke Vandenabeele)
  • Södertörn University: Pedagogik (Elisabet Langmann, Lovisa Bergdahl)
  • Maynooth University: Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy (Carl Anders Säfström)
  • University of Gdańsk: Department of Philosophy of Education and Cultural Studies (Tomasz Szkudlarek)
  • Uppsala University: Department of Education, Studies of Meaning-making in Educational Discourse (Leif Östman, Stefan Bengtsson, David Kronlid, Petra Hansson, Michael Håkansson)
  • Aarhus University: Danish School of Education - Educating for Viable Futures (Jeppe Læssøe, Monica Carlsson, Jonas Andreasen Lysgaard)
  • Örebro University: School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences; Department of Education; SMED research group (Johan Öhman, Erik Andersson, Louise Sund)
  • Rhodes University: Environmental Learning Research Centre (Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Rob O’Donoghue, Tshandaphiwe Fumo)

Deze Wetenschappelijke Onderzoeksgemeenschap brengt onderzoekers bij elkaar uit de politieke wetenschappen, pedagogische wetenschappen en duurzaamheidseducatieonderzoek met een gedeelde focus op de relatie tussen educatie en maatschappelijke verandering. Hun interdisciplinaire samenwerking en dialoog is gericht op een beter begrip van de publieke rol van educatie in het licht van duurzaamheidsuitdagingen en op het stimuleren van verder theoretisch en empirisch onderzoek daarover.

Sustainability Education

Photo: Lynn Delbeecke

Since 2015, the Centre for Sustainable Development conducts a variety of research projects on sustainability education. Central in the work of our Sustainability Education Research team, is a focus on the role of education in the pursuit of building a more sustainable world and on the specificity of teaching and learning about socio-ecological issues that are often complex, controversial, value-laden, emotionally charged, and even existential. Empirically, our current research studies both formal and non-formal sustainability education practices. It mainly focuses on learning in the context of sustainability transitions, on sustainability in higher education, on climate education, and on challenge-based teaching in which students engage with real-world sustainability problems. We largely (but not solely) draw on pragmatist didactic theory and transactional analytical methods and we closely collaborate with other didactic researchers in the internationally networked research environment TEPLAB - Laboratory for Teaching Practices. A shared topic of special interest, is the relation between sustainability education research and practice, including establishing and investigating transdisciplinary settings for co-creating sustainability education.

Sinds 2015 coördineert het Centrum voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling verschillende onderzoeksprojecten in verband met duurzaamheidseducatie. Kenmerkend voor de onderzoeksactiviteiten van dit team is een focus op de rol van educatie in het streven naar een meer duurzame wereld en op de specificiteit van leren en lesgeven over sociaal-ecologische vraagstukken die vaak complex, waardengeladen, controversieel, emotioneel beladen en zelfs existentieel zijn. Empirisch focust ons lopend onderzoek op zowel formele als non-formele vormen van duurzaamheidseducatie. Het is vooral toegespitst op leerprocessen in de context van duurzaamheidstransities, duurzaamheid in hoger onderwijs, klimaateducatie en 'challenge-based' onderwijs over duurzaamheidskwesties. We zijn in belangrijke mate (maar niet uitsluitend) geïnspireerd door pragmatische didactische theorie en transactionele analytische methoden en werken nauw samen met andere didactische onderzoekers in de internationaal genetwerkte onderzoeksgroep TEPLAB - Laboratory for Teaching Practices. We delen een bijzondere interesse in de relatie tussen onderzoek over en praktijken van duurzaamheidseducatie en zijn geëngageerd in het opzetten én bestuderen van transdisciplinaire settings voor het co-creëren van duurzaamheidseducatie.

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