Sustainability pedagogies refer to educational approaches that support learners and educators in understanding and responding to climate change and sustainability in its broadest sense—encompassing environmental, societal, and economic dimensions. Rather than relying on fixed methods, sustainability pedagogy encourages the integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) across curricula by fostering not only knowledge, but also values, skills, and attitudes.

In higher education, teaching specific values can present a unique challenge as it raises concerns about neutrality (McCowan, 2022). One solution is the use of constructivist, experiential, and active learning pedagogies that support learners to develop their own orientations toward sustainability, rather than prescribing a fixed set of beliefs.

There is broad consensus in the ESD field that transformative pedagogies—which are student-centred and engage learners cognitively, emotionally, and behaviourally—are essential. These approaches make learning participative and impactful, helping students not only understand sustainability issues but also feel empowered to act on them. The goal is to create learning experiences that are meaningful and relevant, enabling students to critically engage with complex global challenges and contribute to sustainable futures

References:

Ahmad, N. Et al. (2023). ‘CoDesignS Education for Sustainable Development: A framework for embedding education for sustainable development in curriculum design’, Sustainability, 15, 16460 https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/23/16460

Kukulska-Hulme, A., Wise, A.F., Coughlan, T., Biswas, G., Bossu, C., Burriss, S.K., Charitonos, K., Crossley, S.A., Enyedy, N., Ferguson, R., FitzGerald, E., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Hundley, M., McTamaney, C., Molvig, O., Pendergrass, E., Ramey, L., Sargent, J., Scanlon, E., Smith, B.E., & Whitelock, D. (2024). Innovating Pedagogy 2024: Open University Innovation Report 12. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Available at https://iet.open.ac.uk/files/innovating-pedagogy-2024.pdf.

McCowan T (2022) Teaching Climate Change in the University, Transforming Universities for a Changing Climate (PDF), Working Paper Series No. 8 

UCL (2023). Embedding sustainability into your teaching and learning. [online] Teaching & Learning. Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/publications/2023/apr/embedding-sustainability-your-teaching-and-learning#Adopt%20pedagogies%20and%20assessments.