Sustainable literacy: skills for living well into the future

Stephen Sterling
Centre for Sustainable Futures

'Sustainability is about the terms and conditions of human survival, and yet we still educate at all levels as if no such crisis existed. The content of our curriculum and the process of education, with a few notable exceptions, is unchanged.'

So said David Orr - the internationally renowned environmental educator who gave a public lecture here at UP last year - in his 1992 book 'Ecological literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World'. Orr popularised the notion of an ecologically literate person by which he meant someone with the knowledge to comprehend the interrelatedness of key issues; an attitude of care and stewardship; and the practical competence to act on the basis of this knowledge and orientation. In brief, knowing, caring and practical competence form the three dimensions of ecological or sustainability literacy in Orr's view. This is a revisiting of the old educational triad of head, heart and hands, it might be said, but recast and reconsidered in the light of contemporary social, economic and environmental conditions and the pressing imperative to achieve more sustainable bases for human activity against increasingly apparent signs of ecological harm and limits (WWF/Stockholm Environmental Institute 2006). The ambiguity of my subtitle, 'skills for living well into the future', is entirely intentional.

In this article, I outline something of the debate and various interpretations of sustainability literacy, and summarise on-going work to introduce and encourage engagement with it at the University of Plymouth. In my view, sustainability literacy is a critically important, yet often absent, dimension of the skills and competencies debate.

The Plymouth ESD CETL and the sustainability challenge

Many will be aware that Plymouth won awards for four Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs) in 2005. The education for sustainable development (ESD) CETL operates as the 'Centre for Sustainable Futures' and made its case to HEFCE on the basis that Plymouth already had an outstanding record on environmental and sustainability education. Hence, the 2004 submission document states that:

'The goal of this CETL is to transform the University of Plymouth from an institution characterised by significant areas of excellence in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to in institution modelling university-wide excellence and, hence, able to make a major contribution to ESD regionally, nationally and internationally.'

'..builds upon the emerging concept of sustainability literacy which has been defined as a skills and knowledge set enabling a proactive engagement with social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainable development allied to an understanding of dynamically connected spatial levels, local to global. It recognises sustainability literacy as important for employability, effective professionalism, economic performance, and social well-being.'

Well and good: but if this is to be meaningful, and importantly, practicable, we need to examine it critically and in more detail. Not least, we need to tackle the term 'sustainability'. The debate around this and the associated term 'sustainable development' is very extensive. This is not the place to enter the contestations, positions and shades of meaning that reflect the considerable discourse in this area. Setting aside this debate, there is wide if not total consensus, even in conservative circles, that human societies locally and globally need to change to assure a liveable future. Not least, the twin spectres of 'peak oil' and climate change indicate that we and our students, are entering a very different age than that which we grew up in: an age likely to be characterised by resource conflicts, climatic shifts and unpredictable economic and social dislocation. The profound challenge is how we prepare for, and adapt to possible critical scenarios whilst at the same time as far as possible shaping a future characterised by ecological integrity, economic viability around a low carbon basis and social coherence at all levels. This underlying challenge has driven a policy response from government, not least reflected in its sustainable development strategy 'Securing the Future - delivering UK sustainable development strategy' (2005) http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/publications/uk-strategy/index.htm: two sustainable development action plans from DfES, and the associated strategy and policy document 'Sustainable development in higher education' launched by HEFCE http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2005/05_28/ in July 2005 after a period of consultation.

Internationally, we have entered the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) which is giving rise to a plethora of national and local strategies and initiatives globally. There is an increasing international debate in HE about the capabilities that students need in relation to sustainable development (Sterling and Thomas, in press). In addition, research related to the state of sustainability literacy provision is mounting with a recent report produced for the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council (Forster 2006) and baseline research planned by HEFCE. In addition, some 20 Higher Education Academy Subject Centres are engaged on ESD related projects researching and developing work around the theme in relation to their disciplines and this hold much potential for collaboration as CSF's work at Plymouth gains momentum.

Looking at the meaning of sustainability literacy

Clearly, sustainability has far-reaching educational and learning implications. The concepts of ecological and sustainability literacy may be seen as a response to the considerable challenge of creating a safe, economically viable and ecologically secure future for all. In their 2004 report 'Learning and Skills for Sustainable Development' Forum for the Future, an NGO which has been closely involved in work with HEIs on sustainable development through its HEPS programme (Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (www.heps.org.uk)', laid out its view of the competencies that a sustainability literate person would be expected to have:

• understand the need for change to a sustainable way of doing things, individually and collectively
• have sufficient knowledge and skills to decide and act in a way that favours sustainable development
• be able to recognise and reward other people's decisions and actions that favour sustainable development

Whilst rather unspecific, the Forum's notion of sustainability literacy was nevertheless subsequently picked up in 'Securing our Future' where the government stated 'we need to make sustainability literacy a core competency for professional graduates'. Indeed, it is increasingly being recognised as a course requirement by professional bodies yet there is still a considerable gap between aspiration and actual provision in HE (Baines 2006).

A 2006 report from the Higher Education Academy suggested a more detailed outline of the scope and meaning of sustainability literacy, based on a commissioned survey carried out in 2005 on the extent to which ESD and sustainability literacy prevail across different disciplines. This report suggests that sustainability literacy skills and knowledge involves:

• An appreciation of the importance of environmental, social, political and economic contexts for each discipline
• A broad and balanced foundation knowledge of sustainable development, its key principles and the main debate within them, including its contested and expanding boundaries
• Problem-solving skills using non-reductionist methodology for highly complex real-life problems
• Ability to think creatively and holistically and to make critical judgements
• Ability to develop a high level of self-reflection (both personal and professional)
• Ability to bridge the gap between theory and practice
• Ability to participate creatively in inter-disciplinary teams
• Ability to initiate and manage change

(HEA 2006)

These are dynamic qualities rather than something to be achieved once and for all as a 'skill set': 'sustainability literacy' is a relative term inviting an on-going process of learning and deepening. This is implied by CSF's CETL bid document which suggests that sustainability literate students will be able:

'to contribute to the changes required for a low carbon economy and a society which is low in the use of energy and raw materials and high in terms of intellectual capital and creativity'.

Others would go beyond Stables' triad and stress the need for changed perception and the need to encourage not only understanding but an ecological or relational consciousness. Indeed, some criticise the notion of sustainable literacy as being too instrumental and skills based; lacking sufficient attention to the need for personal transformation towards what has variously been called a global or holistic ethic which transcends the bounds of self-interest towards a sense of participation in society and in our common future. This ethical and valuative dimension adds a relational sensibility to the range of qualities that is often implied by sustainability literacy.

Teaching and learning

As the 2006 HE Academy report notes, 'many of these skills and attributes are not easy to teach in a traditional sense'. Indeed, sustainability implies a need for innovative teaching and learning models which are more participatory, inquiry-led, real world focussed, and open-ended than is often the case. CSF holds that contemporary social, economic and ecological conditions of uncertainty, complexity and rapid change require appropriate learning and teaching models that promote flexibility, creativity and resourcefulness in the learner (including such methods as collaborative learning), experiential learning, systemic learning, critical inquiry and action-oriented learning, as well as drawing on imagination, intuition and sensory experience, together with rationality and intellect.

Sustainability literacy requires the teaching of 'thought processes capable of understanding and developing novel responses to dynamically evolving and changing situations' whilst educators need to 'provide a wide range of conceptual and material content, illustrate interconnections and interdependence, and stress dynamic rather than fixed structures and processes' (Dale and Newman 2005). This is challenging. If academic staff are to become sufficiently confident in extending their teaching styles to begin to embrace sustainability literacy, they need to feel supported, and that their existing expertise is valued. At CSF, we have begun consulting on a suite of curriculum initiatives designed to help and support Schools in a process of embedding sustainability into their curricula and pedagogies.

These include:

• a staff guide/resource on ESD: this will be rolled out by means of a 'wiki' site so that needs, experience, queries, resources can be built up and shared by all interested academics
• an indicative module or teaching scheme on ESD to be used for adaptive purposes
• CPD programmes led by Core Team staff and/or Centre Fellows
• Changes to learning outcomes in existing modules

In addition, CSF has over 20 Centre Fellows, drawn from schools across the university who are working in their own disciplines to integrate ESD into programmes and promote sustainability literacy with fellow staff. For example, Paul Murray, part of the university's Environmental Building group has used the concept of sustainability literacy to help him audit and transform the Environmental Building curriculum. Paul's work is outlined in the Box below.

Paul has pioneered a research-led process for defining a sustainability literate building professional, in terms of the knowledge and skills attributes that such an individual would ideally possess. In total over 100 knowledge and skills sets were identified within two categories; discipline-specific sustainability knowledge/skills (like energy efficient design, waste management, eco materials) and generic knowledge/skills (like basic ecology, future visioning skills). These were used to audit the current curriculum in order to assess overall coverage by reviewing syllabi, examining course work and examination briefs and reviewing module year plans. The results are being used to inform a comprehensive curriculum review, which will be completed within the next academic year. However, Paul has taken the sustainability literacy concept further and is examining the behavioural and motivational aspects which centre on the issue of values. The rationale here is that without the 'right' motivation, the likelihood of hard-won knowledge and skills being put to use, is limited.

Following six months research Paul, aided by his wife Sheran, has developed a suite of workshops designed to enable learners (be they students, lecturers or professionals) to self-review their core values and attitudes in the context of sustainable development. Known as 'Sustainability training' the sessions comprise of five activities lasting in total between five and six hours. There have been multiple pilots involving staff, conference delegates and 36 volunteer students, with extraordinarily positive feedback responses. Paul's work is about to be published in Vol. 2 of the International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability -( Murray, P., Brown N., Murray S. (2006) Deconstructing Sustainability Literacy - the role of values) (Murray P., Goodhew S. Turpin-Brooks, S. (2006) Environmental Sustainability - Sustainable Construction education - A UK case study and McCurry N., Murray P. (2006) Sustainability Literacy in the Construction Curriculum - An International Collaboration, Paper presented at the World Conference on accelerating Change in the Built Environment, Wolverhampton, 2-4 October 2006.

The next stage is to further enhance the activities and to trial them with other disciplines and other audiences.

From September '06 the author of this article has had a dual role working both for CSF and the Higher Education Academy ESD Project. The potential for collaboration and joint working between Plymouth and CSF on the one hand, and the Academy and its nearly 20 subject centres engaged in innovative work on aspects of sustainability literacy is considerable, and we hope to be able to report on this in the future.

A good deal is happening in the HE sector on sustainability: both nationally and internationally. Plymouth is increasingly being recognised as a leader in the field and there is every intention of being, in David Orr's terms, a 'notable exception' where all students will be equipped to meet an uncertain world able to make a positive difference to a more sustainable future.

Dr Stephen Sterling is Schumacher Reader in Education for Sustainability, Centre for Sustainable Futures, Kirkby Lodge.

Email Stephen.sterling@plymouth.ac.uk
Tel 01752 238898

Website: http://csf.plymouth.ac.uk

References
Baines, J (2006) Integrating Sustainable Development Principles into Professional Practice, Environmental Scientist, Sept/October issue, IES, London.

Dale, A. and Newman, L. (2005) Sustainable development, education and literacy, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol 6,no 4, 351-362, Emerald Publishing.

Forster, J. Sustainable Literacy - Embedding sustainability into the Curriculum of Scotland's' Universities and Colleges, John Forster Associates.

Higher Education Academy (2006) Sustainable Development in Higher Education - Current Practice and Future Developments, Higher Education Academy, York. www.heacademy.ac.uk/embedded_object.asp?id=22007&filename=SUS_MAN -

Orr, D. (1992) Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World, SUNY Press, Albany.

Stables, A. (2003) Education for Diversity - Making Differences. Ashgate Publishing, Hampshire.

Sterling, S. and Thomas, I. (in press) Education for Sustainability: Designing the Curriculum to Guide Capabilities, International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development ,InterScience, New Zealand.

WWF/Stockholm Environmental Institute, (2006) Counting Consumption - C02 emissions, material flows, and Ecological Footprint of the UK by region and devolved country, WWF, Stockholm Environmental Institute, Godalming.