Education for Sustainability

Outdoor education has traditionally bridged the spheres of environment, people and required them to work cooperatively and reflect on their actions within different environments and situations, often there are various challenges embedded (climatic / interpersonal / situational / etc.) within these experiences. These challenges were found to foster empathy, a spirit of camaraderie, a respect and understanding of the natural environment and a resilience to engage with the adventure of uncertainty and diverse challenge, in addition to facilitating an understanding of value systems and a spirit of engagement and engaged citizens.

In accordance with the National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development (Department of Education and Skills, 2018) Education for Sustainability aims to ensure that education contributes to sustainable development by equipping learners with the relevant knowledge (the ‘what’), the key dispositions and skills (the ‘how’) and the values (the ‘why’) that will motivate and empower them throughout their lives to become informed active citizens who take action for a more sustainable future. Education for Sustainability is a multidisciplinary approach to creating transformative learning experiences that contribute to the creation of a socially-just and sustainable and equitable society. Delivering Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)  within the context of outdoor education builds on the cross-disciplinary approaches inherent to outdoor education and facilitates the reflection of differing values and processes, in addition to fostering resilience all of which are key components of outdoor education experiences. 

The aim of this module is to provide students with the knowledge, skills and mindsets to prepare for the complex social, economic and environmental challenges. The module aims to develop a number of key competencies for sustainability; systems thinking, critical thinking, self-awareness, anticipatory competency, integrated problem-solving, collaboration competency and strategic competency. It aims to further develop other outdoor interdisciplinary skills; critical-ethical analytical skills; cross-cultural skills; influencing skills and skills in developing behavioural insights, empathy and communication. The module seeks to create a critical awareness of the challenges and empower students in active citizenship and to create positive change for a more sustainable future. An action-learning based approach will be used to develop a professional outdoor education context. 

This module will seek to explore education for sustainability pedagogies and initiatives to create a dynamic community of outdoor educators for sustainability, who are committed to integrating and embedding cross-disciplinary approaches to sustainability across all areas of outdoor education. The experiential, interdisciplinary approach integral to outdoor education will use challenge-based and research informed learning to focus and investigate real-world issues within a holistic educational framework, informed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).    

1. Demonstrate a critical awareness of the global sustainable development challenges;

2. To think holistically about sustainability in an outdoor education context and analyse interactions and impacts of its practices from different perspectives;

3. Critically analyse norms, practices and opinions in fostering sustainable behaviour within outdoor education;

4. Design a stakeholder engagement and work collaboratively to address sustainability-related challenges;

5. Engage in ongoing critical self-reflection on their values, perceptions and actions in relation to active citizenship and stewardship.

6. Develop and implement a sustainability education programme in an organisation that utilises the outdoors or outdoor practice.