Curriculum & Instruction: Mthds in Ed for Sustainability

Explores designing for education for sustainability (EFS). Participants should have a foundation in EFS, associated pedagogies, and curriculum or project development strategies. Action-oriented, culminating in a project or curriculum to implement. Prerequisite: EDCI 5043.

Instructor Permission Required; In-Person learning retreat at Shelburne Farms on July 21-23. Plus synchronous online meetings 9am-12 dates TBD, Pre and Post work required.

Education for Sustainability Methods is for those wishing to dive deeply into designing for education for sustainability (EFS). Participants should have a foundation in EFS, associated pedagogies, and curriculum or project development strategies. This course is action-oriented with an expectation at the end that each participant has a project or curriculum to implement. The lens of sustainability - social justice, environmental integrity and economic health - provides a lens for the explicit curriculum and implicit practices and approach to teaching and learning. Essential elements of the course include whole systems thinking and action; creating a network of learning, inquiry and practice; critical reflection; building participant content knowledge in sustainability practices and issues; developing leadership and agency and re-inspiring educators. This course is a hybrid summer intensive with a residential component. This hybrid course’s site-based experience takes place on Shelburne Farms’ campus where sustainability and applied systems thinking is modeled. At this unique site, educators explore ecological and human-designed systems, farm-to-school projects, and other place-based issues. For the three days of the site-based intensive, the land and the landscape is both classroom and teacher. The remainder of course sessions take place online prior to the in-person intensive.

Educators attending this course will: ★ Deepen their understanding of Education for Sustainability, associated pedagogies, and applications with students. ★ Work collectively with a network of educators and leaders—within this course and in your own setting—to shift systems to wholeness, equity, and joy. ★ Reflect on identity and relationship to place and how it informs our designs for learning. ★ Expand their skills in utilizing and developing frameworks with place/Land, student voice and collective + individual action. ★ Reflect on your sustainability and pedagogical values, and self-assess your values in relation to EFS key competencies. Pedagogy: We will model and incorporate promising practices and pedagogies of education for sustainability (EFS) including place- and project-based learning, action civics/service-learning, inquiry and hands-on and experiential learning. In order to engage educators in thinking critically about their practice we will model and use reflective strategies and protocols.

As a community of educators, we expect you to demonstrate the same level of professionalism in our classroom as you would in any formal or non-formal education setting. These expectations include: ● On-time attendance for all synchronous sessions ● Assignments completed by date specified, including class readings ● Generative contribution to all aspects of the course including informal dialogue, workshop options, work time/supported work time and both large and small group discussions ● Respectful behavior towards yourself, others, and the land ● Contributions in class: Participants are expected to contribute to all aspects of the course including informal dialogue, workshop options, work time/supported work time and both large and small group discussions