Visual Displays of the Sustainable Development Goals …
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4.2 Engaging Students in Developing SDG Visual Displays
The inclusion of students working with the Green Academy to produce an effective
strategy of communication via visual displays, is an important part of education for
sustainable development (ESD) projects.
The goal of an education for sustainable development (ESD) is to help create the conditions
for self-determined and autonomous action and not just to train changes in behaviour. ESD
aims at developing and enhancing the creative potential in the individuals, his competencies in communication and cooperative work as well as problem-solving and taking action.
Godemann and Michelsen (2011, p. 10)
In order to nurture the creative potential of students, workshops were developed
for two of the three final visual displays as shown in the case studies, including
problem solving activities and encouragement on how to call for action on the SDG
targets. By including students this way, it can subsequently transpire to unexpected
rewards as shown in the final cast study. Horn (1973) also highlights the importance
of involving students in the design and construction of projects so that it can help
draw attention to the issues the SDGs are trying to solve, and more importantly they
can signal to others how they should act to work towards them.
van der Linden et al. (2015) developed five ‘best practices’ to improve public
policy making on climate change:
(a) emphasize climate change as a present, local, and personal risk; (b) facilitate more
affective and experiential engagement; (c) leverage relevant social group norms; (d) frame
policy solutions in terms of what can be gained from immediate action; and (e) appeal to
intrinsically valued long-term environmental goals and outcomes. (van der Linden et al.
2015, p. 758)
Adapting the five ‘best practices’ in the context of communicating the SDGs, the
Green Academy developed workshops both followed a similar structure to help students address behaviour in sustainability. First, the workshops emphasised an issue
of a particular goal that the visual displays need addressing, during the workshops
the Green Academy used experiential engagement activities where the students evaluated behaviour change models, discussing how to lever social group norms, and
submitting ideas that showed the benefits of immediate action appealing to the longterm goals of the SDGs. This allowed the students to reflect critically on not just
their own actions, but everyone’s actions collectively, whilst also allowing them to
influence sustainability change within the university in a positive way (Godemann
and Michelsen 2011) through the creation of a visual display.
4.3 Barriers to Communicating the SDGs
Problems that relate to the economy, environment, social welfare and health
(Newman-Storen 2014) such as loss of biodiversity loss (Sharman and Mlambo
2012), and climate change (Head 2008; Sun and Yang 2016) are increasingly being
233
4.2 Engaging Students in Developing SDG Visual Displays
The inclusion of students working with the Green Academy to produce an effective
strategy of communication via visual displays, is an important part of education for
sustainable development (ESD) projects.
The goal of an education for sustainable development (ESD) is to help create the conditions
for self-determined and autonomous action and not just to train changes in behaviour. ESD
aims at developing and enhancing the creative potential in the individuals, his competencies in communication and cooperative work as well as problem-solving and taking action.
Godemann and Michelsen (2011, p. 10)
In order to nurture the creative potential of students, workshops were developed
for two of the three final visual displays as shown in the case studies, including
problem solving activities and encouragement on how to call for action on the SDG
targets. By including students this way, it can subsequently transpire to unexpected
rewards as shown in the final cast study. Horn (1973) also highlights the importance
of involving students in the design and construction of projects so that it can help
draw attention to the issues the SDGs are trying to solve, and more importantly they
can signal to others how they should act to work towards them.
van der Linden et al. (2015) developed five ‘best practices’ to improve public
policy making on climate change:
(a) emphasize climate change as a present, local, and personal risk; (b) facilitate more
affective and experiential engagement; (c) leverage relevant social group norms; (d) frame
policy solutions in terms of what can be gained from immediate action; and (e) appeal to
intrinsically valued long-term environmental goals and outcomes. (van der Linden et al.
2015, p. 758)
Adapting the five ‘best practices’ in the context of communicating the SDGs, the
Green Academy developed workshops both followed a similar structure to help students address behaviour in sustainability. First, the workshops emphasised an issue
of a particular goal that the visual displays need addressing, during the workshops
the Green Academy used experiential engagement activities where the students evaluated behaviour change models, discussing how to lever social group norms, and
submitting ideas that showed the benefits of immediate action appealing to the longterm goals of the SDGs. This allowed the students to reflect critically on not just
their own actions, but everyone’s actions collectively, whilst also allowing them to
influence sustainability change within the university in a positive way (Godemann
and Michelsen 2011) through the creation of a visual display.
4.3 Barriers to Communicating the SDGs
Problems that relate to the economy, environment, social welfare and health
(Newman-Storen 2014) such as loss of biodiversity loss (Sharman and Mlambo
2012), and climate change (Head 2008; Sun and Yang 2016) are increasingly being