The EDINSOST Project: Implementing the Sustainable …
201
4 Results and Discussion
There have been numerous attempts to make compilations of core competencies in
sustainability in HE, both in sustainability in general and in ESD.
The understanding of sustainability and competencies for sustainability at universities is sufficiently deep and complex to analyse the concept of competency, the
concept of sustainability and the competencies in sustainability further. Implementing the proposals of the EHEA has at least led European universities to work on
competencies and they are reflected in the curriculum for each degree. The difficulty
lies in assessing the competencies from the learning results of the students.
This paper presents the first result of the EDINSOST project: a competency map on
sustainability for 4 undergraduate education degrees (Primary Education, Pre-school
Education, Pedagogy and Social Education) and a master degree in Environmental
Education, offered at eight Spanish universities. The map is easily adaptable to any
education degree and to other HE degrees.
Table 1 contains the Competency Map on Sustainability in Education at University
level.
This table allowed us to face the different objectives of the project. It implied
looking closely at the syllabi of the subjects of the different degrees in education to
analyse which competencies are being developed and how they are progressing.
It enabled us to analyse the presence of competencies in the curriculum of the
different education degrees considered (Objective 1); to validate the most suitable
didactic strategies to develop these competencies in sustainability (Objective 2); to
diagnose the current situation of teachers with respect to developing didactic strategies for sustainability (Objective 3); to carry out a diagnosis on the students’ situation
regarding learning about sustainability in their degree programme (Objective 4).
The overall objective of the project is to advance in education innovation in ESD
in universities, providing future graduates with the necessary competencies to initiate the change towards a more sustainable society. This is a challenge for university instructors when designing activities and strategies that enable their students to
acquire competencies in sustainability (Molderez and Fonseca 2017).
In the map of competencies, discussions external to scientific education are linked
with practices in the field of education (Brundiers et al. 2010), promoting the existence of science and technology that goes beyond the vision as the solver of the
problems, recognizing its uncertainties and limitations. This implies moving away
from a narrow and neutral idea of the development of HE, recognizing that the course
of development of our planet is marked by a society full of political, economic, cultural and environmental imbalances (Medir et al. 2016).
The map provides six units of competencies with three domain levels (Miller
1990; NCES 2002), which describe the phases so that future educators can become
competent in dealing with sustainability. On the map for education degrees, acquiring
competencies begins with the understanding of the natural, social and economic
systems and their interrelations, both at a global and local level.
201
4 Results and Discussion
There have been numerous attempts to make compilations of core competencies in
sustainability in HE, both in sustainability in general and in ESD.
The understanding of sustainability and competencies for sustainability at universities is sufficiently deep and complex to analyse the concept of competency, the
concept of sustainability and the competencies in sustainability further. Implementing the proposals of the EHEA has at least led European universities to work on
competencies and they are reflected in the curriculum for each degree. The difficulty
lies in assessing the competencies from the learning results of the students.
This paper presents the first result of the EDINSOST project: a competency map on
sustainability for 4 undergraduate education degrees (Primary Education, Pre-school
Education, Pedagogy and Social Education) and a master degree in Environmental
Education, offered at eight Spanish universities. The map is easily adaptable to any
education degree and to other HE degrees.
Table 1 contains the Competency Map on Sustainability in Education at University
level.
This table allowed us to face the different objectives of the project. It implied
looking closely at the syllabi of the subjects of the different degrees in education to
analyse which competencies are being developed and how they are progressing.
It enabled us to analyse the presence of competencies in the curriculum of the
different education degrees considered (Objective 1); to validate the most suitable
didactic strategies to develop these competencies in sustainability (Objective 2); to
diagnose the current situation of teachers with respect to developing didactic strategies for sustainability (Objective 3); to carry out a diagnosis on the students’ situation
regarding learning about sustainability in their degree programme (Objective 4).
The overall objective of the project is to advance in education innovation in ESD
in universities, providing future graduates with the necessary competencies to initiate the change towards a more sustainable society. This is a challenge for university instructors when designing activities and strategies that enable their students to
acquire competencies in sustainability (Molderez and Fonseca 2017).
In the map of competencies, discussions external to scientific education are linked
with practices in the field of education (Brundiers et al. 2010), promoting the existence of science and technology that goes beyond the vision as the solver of the
problems, recognizing its uncertainties and limitations. This implies moving away
from a narrow and neutral idea of the development of HE, recognizing that the course
of development of our planet is marked by a society full of political, economic, cultural and environmental imbalances (Medir et al. 2016).
The map provides six units of competencies with three domain levels (Miller
1990; NCES 2002), which describe the phases so that future educators can become
competent in dealing with sustainability. On the map for education degrees, acquiring
competencies begins with the understanding of the natural, social and economic
systems and their interrelations, both at a global and local level.