UNI4ST · University education as a driver for sustainability transitions
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-01-01 → 2024-01-01
- EU contribution
- €203,852
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
University education as a driver for sustainability transitions
The UNI4ST project aims to create empirically grounded knowledge on how university education can be designed and performed so that it becomes a fruitful driver for Sustainability Transitions (STs). STs are long-term processes that change deeply anchored structures, practices and cultures. Such fundamental transformations of societal systems require new forms of collaboration, experiments with creative problem-solving and new knowledge, skills, values and capabilities. Thus, learning - especially also in universities - is attributed a vital role for transforming unsustainable regimes. This requires profound change of currently dominant forms of education. UNI4ST aims to progress insight in how ‘learning-by-doing’ practices at the intersection of education and societal transformation, i.e. the teaching and learning of academics, students and societal stakeholders who jointly address sustainability challenges, can contribute to STs. Despite omnipresent reference to the importance of ‘learning’ in ST literature this term is poorly conceptualised and empirical research on its role in relation to societal transformations is rare. Since, in the available literature, both the learning content and the educational process often remain black boxed, research has so far not delivered sufficient and adequate guidance for the improvement of teaching and learning practices. What is thus needed for progressing the state-of-the-art, is a sophisticated analytical framework that enables rigorous large-scale, long-term empirical research that opens-up this black box. UNI4ST addressed this through the following scientific objectives: developing an analytical toolbox; applying the toolbox to pilot case studies for evaluation and fine-tuning; developing empirically grounded knowledge on how university education contributes to STs; formulating hypotheses for future research; and effectively communicating, disseminating and exploiting the results of UNI4ST towards researchers, practitioners, policymakers and the general public.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
UNI4ST aims to create empirically grounded knowledge on how university education can be designed and performed in such a way that it becomes a fruitful driver for Sustainability Transitions (STs). Learning is considered a vital means of realising STs, but an empirical knowledge base that offers adequate guidance for the improvement of teaching and learning practices is lacking in the available literature. We address this research gap by developing a tailored analytical toolbox (methods, research instruments) for empirical investigations, inspired by pragmatist didactic research. Next, we apply the analytical tools to 3 pilot case studies of university education practices where academics, students and societal stakeholders jointly address sustainability challenges in the local community. This results in knowledge of how the design and performance of teaching and learning practices produce outcomes that promote STs. Furthermore, it allows to develop a much-needed, systematic research agenda by formulating hypotheses for future investigations. Through open access journal articles, academic conferences, a handbook, lectures, seminars, an opinion piece, workshops, a self-assessment manual for university teachers and a web-database with quality-assured practices, the results of UNI4ST are communicated and disseminated to varied audiences. Applications for follow-up research projects and a business plan facilitate the exploitation of the results. Through creating state-of-the-art knowledge and the reinforcement of methodological, management, communication and entrepreneurial skills, the experienced researcher will strengthen her international profile, visibility and network in the fields of sustainability transition studies and sustainability education research and become an internationally recognised expert on this topic. This will substantially advance het scientific maturity and strengthen her capacity to obtain a position as an indepentend researcher.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UPPSALA UNIVERSITET · UppsalaCoordinatorSweden
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union