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O. Khalaim et al.
(2) Care and heart work were also placed there, and got questions of relevance
from the management team at the business department in Uppsala. The intention with
integrating this vocabulary into the description is to illustrate that ESD in business
education is not solely about learning how to ‘tackle’ the sustainability challenges
we face and gain knowledge about models to ‘deal’ with it. It is more about realizing
your own values around the challenges and discover what one personally thinks is
worthwhile taking care of in the future, as well as taking part in discovering what
knowledge and practices it is that deserves salvation.
The CPA gives teachers a platform to start this thinking process by themselves and
with other teachers. It gives courage and support to change things one did not dare
to rethink before. The CPA course forces teachers to ‘stop and think’ for realization
on what is meaningful and important to enable their responsibility and role towards
their students and society. Moreover, it gives change and creativity the legitimacy it
deserves.
The change project of Riga Technical University made it possible for the CPA
coordinator and her colleagues to rethink the goals of education and the organization of a training course in a specific program. The project allowed revising seriously the ideas and approaches in teaching, as well as enabled understanding of
what knowledge, practical skills, value attitudes and behavioral habits will allow
students to become direct participants in the process of sustainable development.
Interactive and student-centered practice-transforming teaching methods were used
to encourage students’ independent work, critical thinking, individual and collective
projects, and a problem-oriented inter- and transdisciplinary approach to cognition.
It can help to promote the formation of students’ skills in making informed decisions
and reasonable measures in order to ensure economic viability, the preservation of
the environment, and a fair basis for the existence of society for present and future
generations.
Thus, the analysis of three cases shows that despite the common methodological
background of Change Project Approach applied to shape and design the projects,
they appeared to be quite different regarding the ideas, aims, and ways of realization.
At the same time, all three cases served the general idea of spreading and enforcing
sustainability actions at the university/department level, spreading ESD principles
and values. The key common outcomes of all cases were related to (1) scale effect
(ability to apply the project at other departments/universities), (2) renewed values
(rethinking on basic sustainability and ESD principles), and (3) converting the project
results to a new “business-as-usual” practice.
O. Khalaim et al.
(2) Care and heart work were also placed there, and got questions of relevance
from the management team at the business department in Uppsala. The intention with
integrating this vocabulary into the description is to illustrate that ESD in business
education is not solely about learning how to ‘tackle’ the sustainability challenges
we face and gain knowledge about models to ‘deal’ with it. It is more about realizing
your own values around the challenges and discover what one personally thinks is
worthwhile taking care of in the future, as well as taking part in discovering what
knowledge and practices it is that deserves salvation.
The CPA gives teachers a platform to start this thinking process by themselves and
with other teachers. It gives courage and support to change things one did not dare
to rethink before. The CPA course forces teachers to ‘stop and think’ for realization
on what is meaningful and important to enable their responsibility and role towards
their students and society. Moreover, it gives change and creativity the legitimacy it
deserves.
The change project of Riga Technical University made it possible for the CPA
coordinator and her colleagues to rethink the goals of education and the organization of a training course in a specific program. The project allowed revising seriously the ideas and approaches in teaching, as well as enabled understanding of
what knowledge, practical skills, value attitudes and behavioral habits will allow
students to become direct participants in the process of sustainable development.
Interactive and student-centered practice-transforming teaching methods were used
to encourage students’ independent work, critical thinking, individual and collective
projects, and a problem-oriented inter- and transdisciplinary approach to cognition.
It can help to promote the formation of students’ skills in making informed decisions
and reasonable measures in order to ensure economic viability, the preservation of
the environment, and a fair basis for the existence of society for present and future
generations.
Thus, the analysis of three cases shows that despite the common methodological
background of Change Project Approach applied to shape and design the projects,
they appeared to be quite different regarding the ideas, aims, and ways of realization.
At the same time, all three cases served the general idea of spreading and enforcing
sustainability actions at the university/department level, spreading ESD principles
and values. The key common outcomes of all cases were related to (1) scale effect
(ability to apply the project at other departments/universities), (2) renewed values
(rethinking on basic sustainability and ESD principles), and (3) converting the project
results to a new “business-as-usual” practice.