On November 27, 2021, the Graduate School of Education hosted the second online international webinar on higher education for sustainability. Scholars from Japan, China, and Malaysia, presented practices in innovating teaching and learning to promote sustainability at Ritsumeikan University, Tsinghua University, Universiti Sains Malaysia, and Tohoku University.
In the discussion session, Dr. Tristan McCowan, Professor at UCL IOE, raised two questions for panelists to discuss.
- There is much discussion in debates on higher education and the SDGs on the need for alignment, coherence, and ‘joined-up thinking, rather than ‘silo’ working. Is there space for the contrary, for unevenness across and within universities, for innovation at the grassroots level that leads to diversity rather than uniformity of practice?
- This session focuses on innovation in teaching and learning. Are traditional forms of teaching and learning unhelpful for sustainable development? Is there anything that we can learn from traditional approaches to teaching and learning in your countries? What might contribution be made by popular or indigenous knowledge and traditions relating to sustainability?
It was a productive discussion! Panelists mentioned issues of transformation of higher education, from tradition to innovation, from single course work to whole institution approach, from pedagogy to evaluation, from learners to community to best meet the demand for the fulfillment of the SDGs. The discussion unveiled that higher education needs a more inclusive ecology for promoting sustainable development!
