Developing Essential Competencies of Sustainability Educators: Teaching and Modelling Systems Thinking Through Partnership Learning

Patricia Grant; Marjo Lips-Wiersma; Vidayana Soebagio

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Developing Essential Competencies of Sustainability Educators: Teaching and Modelling Systems Thinking Through Partnership Learning

Patricia Grant, Marjo Lips-Wiersma, and Vidayana Soebagio

Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

Volume 14: 2017, pp. 241-260: ABSTRACT

Sustainability education entails transforming values and habits as well as developing skills. Much progress has been made in developing the appropriate teaching and learning strategies which not only impart knowledge but shape attitudes and behaviour. However little attention has been given to the education of the educators who often are teaching and learning at the same time. A particularly important but also challenging competency to teach is systems thinking. This paper is based on the teaching and learning experience of two of the authors who teach the same sustainability paper in different semesters in a business faculty. A two-tier reflection presents their learning journey. The reflection of the first author focuses on the challenges experienced with teaching systems thinking in the first semester. The reflection of the second author is based on the next iteration of the course modified in light of the first author’s learnings including the incorporation of student-faculty partnerships. The paper outlines practices and learning associated with this intervention.