1. Interdisciplinarity and transboundary thinking as a pre-requisite for learning our way out of unsustainability
Arjen E.J. Wals

2. Unsustainability & urgency Learning our way out?
Today
Unsustainability & urgency
Learning our way out?
Redesigning education, learning & research

3. 60.000/5sec
/5min

7. 25/04/2017
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9. “The conventional wisdom holds that all education is good, and the more of it one has, the better.… The truth is that without significant precautions, [it] can equip people merely to be more effective vandals of the Earth” (D. Orr).

10. Who knows? Who cares?
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Deepwater horizon
Nuclear radiation in Japan
Increased infertility in men
Calcium supplements for women
Runaway (?) climate change
Organic – sustainable – for all?
Paper or plastic? ….
‘ We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom’ E.O. Wilson, 1998, p. 300)

11. Post-normalism Complexity Uncertainty and indeterminacy
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Complexity
Uncertainty and indeterminacy
Contestation and controversy – extinction of ‘truth’
Shallowness and hyper-connectivity – erosion of meaning
Emergence - reflexivity

13. /day

14. What’s it made of?
Where does each component come from?
How does it affect our lifes?
How does it affect the lifes of others?
Is there a future for cell phones?

15. Mireille Faist Emmenegger, et al, “Life Cycle Assessment of the Mobile Communication System UMTS: Towards Eco-Efficient Systems,” International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 11, 4, (2006): 265 – 276.

18. Chromium: Production and Consumption emissions in Sweden

24. Lessons learned & competencies developed
Local and global issues are connected
Information is everywhere, how to choose?
Sustainability is multi-dimensional: ecological, economic, ethics, environment, etc.
Becoming critical of consumption & consumerism
Alternatives are possible!
Interviewing, presenting, reporting, listening, googeling, critiquing…

25. An Education for Sustainable Development Lens
Integrative – not only the ecological and the environmental, not only the present, not only the local, not only the human world
Critical - questioning continuous economic growth and consumerism and associated lifestyles
Transformative – exploration of alternative lifestyles (e.g. ‘voluntary simplicity’), values and systems that break from existing ones that are inherently unsustainable

26. Blinding insight - intermezzo
If you have done it before – don’t say a thing!
In the short movie you will see a small group of boys and girls wearing black or white shirts that are playing with two balls.
Your goal is to count how many times the ball is passed by those wearing white shirts. It’s that simple.
Remember, count just the passes of the ball by those wearing white shirts!
Write down the number of passes.

30. Transformative learning
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Sustainability Competence (1)
Transformative learning
Trans-spatial
Gestalt
Trans-cultural
Trans-temporal
Trans-disciplinary 30

31. Sustainability competence (2)
Competence to think in a forward-looking manner & to deal with uncertainty
Competence to work in an interdisciplinary manner
Competence to achieve open-minded perception, transcultural understanding and cooperation
Participatory competence
Ability to feel empathy, sympathy and solidarity
Competence to motivate oneself and others
Competence to reflect in a distanced manner on individual and cultural concepts
Sources: de Haan (2006); Michelsen and Adomssent (2007)

32. 3rd generation university
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33. Thank you!
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