PTWho prepares teachers for sustainability?
Many universities have a Teaching and Learning Center that helps faculty teach better. The thesis looked at the Centers of 101 universities that stand out in sustainability rankings and asked whether they bring education for sustainable development to every teacher. So far, almost never. Explained in 12 screens.
Teaching sustainability is more than adding content
Education for sustainable development (ESD) aims to prepare people to face environmental, social and economic challenges. The thesis argues that this takes more than one more class: it means revising assumptions, values and worldview.
To make the case, it uses Jack Mezirow's transformative learning theory. In it, change starts with a disorienting dilemma, something that shakes how a person understands the world, and goes through critical reflection on one's own beliefs.
“The difference between a sustainable future and a chaotic future is learning.” · Stephen Sterling (2001), the thesis's epigraph
Phases as in Table 7 of the thesis (Mezirow, 1991, 1997, 2000). The “just inform” comparison is our own reading, to illustrate the difference.
Scaling means going further and deeper
Teaching and Learning Centers have existed for about 50 years and built a reputation for looking after teaching quality: they offer training, consulting and room for faculty to try new practices. Each Center reaches many teachers, and each teacher reaches many students.
That is why the thesis sees them as a way to scale ESD. And scaling, for the author, is not just more Centers or more programs: it is also the depth with which they change teaching practices and faculty development.
Illustrative diagram: the numbers of teachers and students are made up, only to show the idea.
A magnifying glass on the websites of 101 leading universities
The author did not interview anyone. She read what the Centers publish: web pages, missions, plans, courses and reports. It is qualitative research based on documents.
- She chose universities scoring 9 or more in five sustainability, SDG or Latin American rankings: 101.
- She searched their websites for a unit dedicated to teaching and learning: found in 76.
- She catalogued 337 items from these Centers on a framework of 6 axes and 27 indicators, built from the literature (next screen).
The rankings were only used to pick reference universities; the thesis does not analyze the scores.
tap a step of the funnel
Six axes to gauge whether a Center spreads sustainability
Drawing on the literature, the author built a framework with 6 axes and 27 indicators: from a commitment written into the mission to training teachers in sustainability. Tap an axis to see what it looks for.
The framework was designed to grow with the data. Reading the Centers, she found 8 practices it did not foresee, such as living labs, ePortfolios and assessment rubrics. With them, the framework now has 35 indicators.
Does this Center talk about sustainability?
The excerpts come from missions, strategies and web pages of real Centers, quoted in the thesis (translated from the author's Portuguese and shortened by us). For each one, say whether it commits to sustainability or only to teaching quality.
Watch out for words that look the part but aren't: “transformative”, “innovation” and “reflection” show up a lot in the Centers.
Few Centers say they work on sustainability
Each little square is one of the 76 Centers. Pick a question and see how many said “yes” in what they publish.
Source: Figures 11 and 14 of the thesis.
Sustainability lives upstairs
In universities, sustainability appears in the institution's strategy. But it does not trickle down to the Center, which is the unit that works directly with faculty. The author sees a disconnect: the commitment exists on the university's paper and almost vanishes where teacher development happens.
The Centers' missions talk about teaching quality, the student experience, technology and faculty development. These are legitimate goals, but none makes an explicit commitment to sustainability, ESD or the SDGs.
The two-floor image is our own metaphor. Pick an indicator from Axis 1 to see what the author found at each level.
They do plenty of good things, but rarely link them to sustainability
In the other five axes, the author found practices with transformative potential. The problem is the link to ESD: the Centers describe their methods but almost never say they serve sustainability. Flip each card.
The next step: transformative learning Centers
The thesis ends with a three-step path. First, the university takes on ESD. Then the Centers bring it into the classroom. At the top, Transformative Teaching and Learning Centers (CEAT, in Portuguese) combine ESD with critical reflection and change students, teachers and the institution itself.
Along the way there is another player: Sustainability Centers, which are growing in universities. They look after the green campus, energy and waste, not faculty development. Without dialogue between the two kinds of Center, the author sees a limit to scaling.
Putting sustainability where teachers learn to teach
For the author, the Centers have great potential to scale ESD, but only if they change roles: from promoters of teaching quality to catalysts of a change in worldview.
For the Centers
- Write ESD into the strategic plan and into their own policies, not only the university's.
- Continuous faculty development, with critical reflection on one's own practice.
- Link e-learning and technology to ESD, to reach more people.
For university leadership
- Governance that connects the institution's strategy to the Centers' work.
- Bring Sustainability Centers closer to Teaching and Learning Centers.
- Measure the impact of ESD initiatives on communities.
For teachers
- Spaces to rethink their own practices and assumptions, not just receive content.
- Bring ecological, social, cultural and economic issues into every subject.
For those who assess universities
- The framework of 6 axes and 35 indicators can serve as a checklist for a Center.
- A good place in a sustainability ranking does not guarantee that ESD reaches faculty development.
What this research does not say
- Only what is published. The Centers' documents are sometimes outdated and fragmented. What is not on the website may exist in practice; the author suggests interviewing managers, teachers and students. · according to the author
- An academic elite. Only universities at the top of the rankings were included; universities with other profiles may be different. · according to the author
- Provisional findings. The study is exploratory and descriptive, about a phenomenon still at an early stage. · according to the author
- Sustainability Centers, only in passing. They deserve a study of their own, compared with Teaching and Learning Centers. · according to the author
Credits
SOUTELLO, Luciane de Paula. A importância dos Centros de Ensino e Aprendizagem na escalagem da Educação para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável no ensino superior [The importance of Teaching and Learning Centers in scaling Education for Sustainable Development in higher education]. Doctoral thesis (Business Administration) — Mackenzie Presbyterian University, São Paulo, 2024. Advisor: Prof. Janette Brunstein.
Qualitative research using document analysis (template analysis) of the websites and documents of Teaching and Learning Centers. Supported by MackPesquisa (Mackenzie Research Fund). This version simplifies the work for a general audience; the excerpts from each Center and the full discussion are in the original text.