384
O. Khalaim and S. Urenje
Our main contribution to CCESD related research is to expand the importance of
higher education as an essential platform for introducing CCESD approach, using
examples from Ukraine. We try to highlight possibilities for preparing university
teachers and students who are more committed to engaging in personal and social
transformation processes. In this paper, we discuss CCESD in three aspects:
1. As an environment that helps to extend transformative learning,
2. As a set of critical reflection processes to challenge existing beliefs, values and
behavior,
3. As an enabler for co-creation of new, and more sustainable, ways of thinking and
being.
The nature of current sustainability challenges demand that dominant pedagogies
and forms of learning in higher education be reconsidered to enable students and
staff to deal with accelerating change, increasing complexity, contested knowledge
claims and inevitable uncertainty (Wals and Benavot 2017). Thus, the role of higher
education to challenge learners with alternative ways of interpreting their experiences is an important part of transformative social learning, to disrupt unsustainable
practices and create new, and more sustainable, ways of thinking and being (Wals
2007, 2010).
A UNEP Report suggests that while society has produced large amounts of knowledge to confront complex global environmental and climatic challenges, it is still
lacking in responding effectively to these challenges. Due to insufficiency of knowledge of problematic issues in itself, UNEP suggests a range of action-oriented capabilities, including development of new modes of learning. In addition to acknowledging the need for adaptation and mitigation, there is also a need for transformative
learning.
In this paper, we present transformative learning as a generic process that we
believe is key to shaping the possible, probable, and preferred futures arising from
the consequences of climate change. The paper aims investigating quality teaching
and learning through transformational perspectives of CCESD in formal university education in Ukraine. The main objectives are to identify functional factors in
the Ukrainian system of formal higher education that promote or hinder CCESD’s
embedment, and thus strengthen transformative ESD. In addition, we aim to deliberate on different transformative, flexible, locally applicable yet generic pedagogical
and teaching methods related to CCESD, assessing the potential for effective teaching
and learning opportunities in higher education.
O. Khalaim and S. Urenje
Our main contribution to CCESD related research is to expand the importance of
higher education as an essential platform for introducing CCESD approach, using
examples from Ukraine. We try to highlight possibilities for preparing university
teachers and students who are more committed to engaging in personal and social
transformation processes. In this paper, we discuss CCESD in three aspects:
1. As an environment that helps to extend transformative learning,
2. As a set of critical reflection processes to challenge existing beliefs, values and
behavior,
3. As an enabler for co-creation of new, and more sustainable, ways of thinking and
being.
The nature of current sustainability challenges demand that dominant pedagogies
and forms of learning in higher education be reconsidered to enable students and
staff to deal with accelerating change, increasing complexity, contested knowledge
claims and inevitable uncertainty (Wals and Benavot 2017). Thus, the role of higher
education to challenge learners with alternative ways of interpreting their experiences is an important part of transformative social learning, to disrupt unsustainable
practices and create new, and more sustainable, ways of thinking and being (Wals
2007, 2010).
A UNEP Report suggests that while society has produced large amounts of knowledge to confront complex global environmental and climatic challenges, it is still
lacking in responding effectively to these challenges. Due to insufficiency of knowledge of problematic issues in itself, UNEP suggests a range of action-oriented capabilities, including development of new modes of learning. In addition to acknowledging the need for adaptation and mitigation, there is also a need for transformative
learning.
In this paper, we present transformative learning as a generic process that we
believe is key to shaping the possible, probable, and preferred futures arising from
the consequences of climate change. The paper aims investigating quality teaching
and learning through transformational perspectives of CCESD in formal university education in Ukraine. The main objectives are to identify functional factors in
the Ukrainian system of formal higher education that promote or hinder CCESD’s
embedment, and thus strengthen transformative ESD. In addition, we aim to deliberate on different transformative, flexible, locally applicable yet generic pedagogical
and teaching methods related to CCESD, assessing the potential for effective teaching
and learning opportunities in higher education.