Tuesday 27 June 2023
Kennedy Seminar Room 1, Canterbury Campus
Deadline for Proposal Submissions 6 April 2023
Embedding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the Curriculum and Co-Curriculum
University of Kent staff involved in teaching or supporting student learning are invited to submit proposals for discussion papers or mini-presentations for the 2023 Learning and Teaching Conference. Contributions should address the theme, “Embedding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the Curriculum and Co-Curriculum”, and be received by 6 April 2023. The full call, including the proposal submission form, is available here.
Higher education has a key role to play in protecting our collective future. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) at Kent is about ensuring that our graduates, regardless of their field of study, are equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attributes to face global challenges. The United Nations have agreed to action on 17 Sustainable Development Goals, addressing a range of inter-connected social, economic, and environmental challenges such as social inequalities, resource use, and climate change. Tackling these issues requires that students be future-oriented, reflect on their own values and positions, practice systems thinking, and use their own disciplinary knowledge in problem-solving challenges related to their field. Through this conference, we aim to stimulate academics to rethink their disciplines from a sustainability perspective and encourage staff in a variety of roles to embed knowledge, skills, and attributes of sustainability across formal and informal learning opportunities. Dr Patrick Baughan, Head of Education at the University of Law and a former Senior Learning Advisor at Advance HE specialising in ESD, will give the keynote.
We invite contributions focus on innovations in education for sustainable development in areas such as the following:
- Diversifying curricula or assessments to promote cultural and cultural inclusivity and equitable outcomes
- Authentic assessments
- Problem-based learning approaches
- Methods that engage students in systems thinking or in anticipating the (unintended) consequences of actions, products, policies, or processes
- Using the SDGs to connect the curriculum to global challenges and frame inter- and transdisciplinary discussions
- Rethinking disciplines through a sustainability lens
- Innovative use of materials, spaces, or technologies to achieve ESD
- Addressing real-world local sustainability challenges
- Use of campus or local environment as a living lab
- Co-curricula, partnership, work-based, or employability activities related to ESD
The conference will be held on Tuesday 27th June 2023 in Kennedy Seminar Room 1 (Canterbury Campus). Sign up here to attend.
Questions can be emailed to heprogsadmin@kent.ac.uk.