highlights from recent “sustainability across the curriculum” workshop

posted by rhett mcdaniel on wednesday, march 31, 2010 in news.

on tuesday, march 30th, the cft hosted a workshop titled “sustainability across the curriculum” featuring four faculty panelists: cecelia tichi (english), beth conklin (anthropology), james clarke (civil & environmental engineering), and jack barkenbus (vanderbilt center for environmental management). cft graduate teaching fellow john morrell facilitated the session, and cft assistant director derek bruff live-tweeted the session. below are some highlights from the discussion from derek’s tweets.

first up, jack barkenbus, vu institute for energy and environment, http://is.gd/b7bna.
jack barkenbus is also executive director of the tennessee higher education sustainability association (thesa): http://thesa.utk.edu/
thesa’s 4th annual statewide conference starts tomorrow at trevecca-nazarene here in nashville: http://is.gd/b7c9e.
barkenbus: sustainability in the curriculum is often nested within particular majors (e.g. env. studies), not *across* the curriculum.
keynote at the thesa conference: paul rowland, director of assoc. for the adv. of sustainability in he (aashe), http://www.aashe.org/.
rowland’s ponderosa project at northern arizona univ is a bottom-up approach, involving summer workshops for faculty. http://is.gd/b7ccy
next up, cecelia tichi, professor of english and american studies: http://is.gd/b7cgb.
tichi: let’s expand the notion of sustainability beyond “just” the environment. it should include our social systems, large and small.
tichi: for example, what does “sustainability” mean in looking at the us prison system? perhaps, our investment selves vs. our civic selves.
tichi’s expansion of sustainability has implications for where & how sustainability appears in the curriculum, & for learning goals.
next up: james clarke, civil and environmental engineering. http://is.gd/b7des
clarke: the challenges we face in dealing with environmental dangers (e.g. nuclear waste) are enormous, esp. in the long run.
clarke’s framing of this challenge indicates ample opportunities for problem-based learning in the curriculum.
clarke: sustainability means making decisions that don’t tie the hands of our descendants. tough to do when dealing w/nuclear waste.
next up: beth conkin, associate professor of anthropology: http://is.gd/b7e0q.
conklin: sustainability comes up in almost all of her undergrad courses (the amazon, medical anthropology, indigenous peoples).
conklin: has taught graduate seminars on this topic, as well, sometimes alongside earth sciences and engineering professors.
conklin: teaching sustainability involves interdisciplinary teaching. except in particular technical areas, interdisc. is unavoidable.
conklin: 2nd big factor is that this is a topic in the news, it’s timely and relevant.
conklin: 3rd big factor in teaching sustainability is that the topic often has very personal relevance to students.
conklin: one impact of factor #2 is that some of the best writing is done by journalists, not academics. requires info literacy.
conklin: factor #1 means that the instructor can’t know everything. requires a little humility! also, opp for less hierarchical teaching.
conklin: factors #1 and #2 mean that instructors should build flexibility into their courses, room for going in unexpected directions.
conklin: when teaching grad students from other disciplines, they have particular things they want to get out of the course…
conklin: …which means they sometimes don’t engage w/common readings as they would in a seminar in their own discipline.
conklin: that means that she needs to pay more attention to accountability structures in these interdisciplinary grad courses.
conklin: factor #3 (personal relevance) provides ample ways to draw students into conversations…
conklin: …but this can make it hard to move students from personal anecdotes to dealing criticallly w/social issues.
now for discussion at the workshop. how to help students appreciate the problem w/out feeling too guilty abt their own consumption?
conklin: counter a student’s sense of guilt by sharing one’s own struggles in this area. or confront this conflict head on w/students.
conklin: this is complicated by the ways in which students’ identities are formed by their consumption patterns, esp. college students.
students sometimes feel helpless to make changes, esp. when living in a constrained environment like a college campus.
conklin: however, that tension can be used to help students start understanding societal constraints, ones that affect personal choices.
beth conklin recommends carleton college’s serc site on the affective domain in teaching: http://is.gd/b7g9q.
barkenbus: some students encounter despair w/this topic. others are empowered by it to invest, build careers around sustainability.
american studies will be coordinating a year-long theme of sustainability in courses in 2011-2012. look for faculty workshops next may.
any vu faculty interested in participating in american studies’ year of sustainability should contact teresa goddu: http://is.gd/b7g2h.