Unit 4: Towards new futures – a role for partnership

Figure 1  UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals

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1) No poverty, 2) zero hunger, 3) good health and wellbeing, 4) quality education, 5) gender equality, 6) clean water and sanitation, 7) affordable and clean energy, 8) decent work and economic growth, 9) industry, innovation and infrastructure, 10) reduced inequalities, 11) sustainable cities and communities, 12) responsible consumption and production, 13) climate action, 14) life below water, 15) life on land, 16) peace, justice and strong institutions, 17) partnerships for the goals.

Figure 1  UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals

Welcome to Unit 4 of Sustainable pedagogies.

Meeting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as set out by UNESCO (Figure 1) and ratified by its member countries, becomes more and more urgent as the world suffers an increase in climate-related events such as wildfires and flooding. These events are directly attributable to human activity affecting the climate.

The idea of partnership is part of SDG 17 which is about revitalising global partnerships for sustainable development. The SDG agenda needs to be universal and call for action by all countries – developed and less well-developed – because actions by and within one country can be seen to affect every country. Therefore, meeting all the SDGs requires partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society, which is why partnership runs through all other goals.

Figure 2 shows partnership running through the three layers of SDGs and the layer each SDG relates to:

• Biosphere (base) – SDGs 6, 13, 14, 15.
• Society (middle) – SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 16.
• Economy (top) – SDGs 8, 9, 10, 12.

Figure 2  SDG 17 ‘Partnership’ running through the layers of goals – biosphere (base), society (middle) and economy (top)

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Three circles with an arrow running through the centre of all three, pointing to SDG 17 'partnerships for the goals'. The bottom circle (base) represents the biospgere, the middle represents society and the top represents the economy.

Figure 2  SDG 17 ‘Partnership’ running through the layers of goals – biosphere (base), society (middle) and economy (top)...

Working with others may seem like an obvious approach to sustainability but it is in considering why and how partnership is so important that the imperative to act that way is understood. Partnership links to other aspects of sustainable pedagogy (transdisciplinarity, compassion, participation) discussed in this course and cuts across many other pedagogies.

In this unit, we will discuss not just how to use partnership as a pedagogy but also how important it can be to exemplify it to learners so that they see and understand its power. This unit outlines what partnership means and why this term is used as opposed to collaboration. It also looks at the tensions that exist in conventional pedagogies and how partnership can address these. The unit ends by giving you a chance to consider what partnership might look like to you.

Activity planner

Partnership as envisioned in SDG 17 involves working with others towards a common goal. In this case partnership seems a better term to use than collaboration to describe the needful enduring and committed relationships that will enable progress towards sustainability. A partnership can be regarded as a defined relationship, a long-term understanding of the commitment offered and required by all the parties that are involved.

Collaboration can be seen as a less formal commitment. Two institutions, groups or individuals may collaborate on a certain task, each using the skills they have in pursuit of completing that task, informally filling in for the other if support becomes necessary or circumstances alter. Collaborations often are formed for short-term, specific projects without formal obligations. Partnerships, on the other hand, are more structured and typically involve a long-term commitment with shared responsibilities, risks, and benefits. It is in the setting out of those roles, responsibilities, risks and benefits that partnerships are formed. So, in this unit partnerships formed for learning will be discussed, with their defined roles and responsibilities rather than collaborative learning. Within effective partnerships the benefits of collaborative learning are likely to be realised as the structure of a partnership will help those benefits to be realised.

In order to use partnership as a pedagogy, learners will need to develop the skills and qualities that support partnership working. Partnership is seen as a sustainable pedagogy through learning to form, structure and work within a partnership, within which learners can grow and develop the collaborative skills that are seen as necessary to live sustainably.

Many current pedagogies used in schools and in Higher Education settings are inherently individualistic, but the evidence review by the Educational Endowment Foundation (EEF) in 2021 showed there are clear benefits in using collaborative pedagogies, including partnership ways of working, in terms of improved learning. Such a view is antagonistic to the current neoliberal society but is considered a necessity by UNESCO if society is to move towards living sustainably. Neoliberalism (Venugopal, 2015) refers to the current political, economic and social arrangements within society that emphasise market relations, re-tasking the role of the state and individualism.

Partnership as a pedagogy is an important focus in learning and education as it allows individuals to learn about ways of working which will benefit them and progress their learning. Partnership echoes Littleton and Mercer’s (2013) book on ‘interthinking’ as a way to enhance learning, in that each partnership must move towards meeting agreed goals together, including listening to and respecting the views of each member of the partnership. Importantly in partnership, as in interthinking, the shared responsibilities, risks, and benefits are set out at the beginning of the cooperative task. Working in partnership whilst in formal education will build the learners’ skills and understanding that learning and knowledge can be used for the betterment of not just themselves, but of society and the world.

Partnership pedagogies in formal education are vital because:

As explained earlier, although partnership involves collaboration, it involves more structure and better-defined roles and responsibilities. Collaboration is a skill, which may come naturally to some, but which others need to be helped to learn. It is a vital part of partnerships hence part of using partnerships as a pedagogy will be facilitating ways for learners to understand the power of collaborative working.

As partnership is defined as a structure to meet goals, it offers a frame for building an understanding of concepts important to resolving an issue, but it also offers access to multiple different views of what constitutes resolution, which often results in a shifting of views. This way of working also allows learners to see and appreciate how ideas and realities are connected worldwide. Such ways of working are vital in living sustainably where compassion and change are required along with building an understanding of someone’s place and power in the world, and their effect on others and the environment.

Partnership working is seen by UNESCO (2023) as a transformative aspect of education for sustainable development (ESD) as the partnerships act as a bridge between learning and action and facilitate a ‘shift—from learning how to understand to learning how to act and transform’ (Schnitzler, 2019, p. 243).

Partnership can be seen as being formed in layers. Partnership between individuals, groups of individuals or organisations initially requires a clear purpose and structure. The first layer is the initial partnering, which will include decisions about the purpose, the structure and the roles and responsibilities each element of the partnership will take on. As the partnership becomes more established deeper layers are created in the form of the relationships which will uphold and sustain that partnership. These layers create opportunities for learning within that partnership to be stimulated.

A key part of partnership as a pedagogy is creating learning spaces where learning in the partnership can take place. To be successful as a pedagogy, the purpose of the partnership must allow for a move from simply learning as individuals to putting that learning into action. The more the purpose of the partnership is to tackle complex problems or difficult issues (i.e. wicked problems) the more learners will be involved in pedagogies that develop their skills to work sustainably, allowing them to learn the skills, understanding and compassion that are vital for living and learning sustainably.

UNESCO (2023) sees global partnerships as a vital part of SDG 4 (Quality Education) and EDS. Therefore, creating learning spaces and communities that allow for external as well as internal partnering will be important in helping learners understand themselves as global citizens (Bennell, 2015). There can be much to consider in these networks and educators often describe partnership work as challenging. Where internal collaboration and networking are frequent, such that the knowledge, skills, and understanding of key players are shared, commitment to ESD can grow. In Audio 1 below, Sheila Bennell outlines what can work well, particularly in busy school environments, to build a global citizenship approach in partnership with both internal and external colleagues.

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Transcript: Audio 1  Sheila Bennell on partnership and a global citizenship approach

Sheila Bennell

OK, so this is just a brief introduction to tell you about why I was actually doing the research in the first place. I had actually worked in the World Education Centre in Bangor University which worked with schools and colleges and things on education for sustainable development and global citizenship. I wanted to find out what the full picture, how do schools support each other? However, this was supported within the LA and basically they knew what to do and how they went about it, where they got their information from to address the SGC, for education for sustainable development and global citizenship.

On the LA level, there was lots of work going on with different advisers within the LA with one overall coordinator for the area and then all the other advisers who were working within that field, international advisers, healthy schools advisors, green schools advisors, they all work together. And between them, they used to run conferences and we had a North Wales ESGD forum, which included all the LA people, people like us in the World Education Centre and people from other organisations like the North Wales Wildlife Trust and Fair-Trade Association. We all came together every couple of months to actually discuss what could be done and what was going on so we all learned from each other.

So there were lots and lots of different groups supporting schools, but because they were all able to get together and talk to each other, they make quite a difference. They made them understand that ESD was involved in absolutely everything rather than just in their particular area of it. And within schools we found that the head teacher, obviously was quite an very, very important part. If the head teacher was on board, that made a big, big difference. If there was a strong ESD coordinator, sometimes the impact came from the person who became the coordinator first, who then influenced the head teacher. But generally, the schools where the head teacher was substantially involved from the start, that seemed to help.

Within the schools themselves where it was well organised, they used to hold regular weekly meetings and certainly strong monthly meetings where they could. All the teachers could share what they were doing, share the good practise. And there were also schools, within certain areas schools set up links with other schools and some in some cases it was mentoring. In some cases, you know, some schools mentoring other schools actually helped. In other schools it was more of a sharing thing where they come in and share all their ideas.

Some of the schools had international partnerships which became a really large part of their work and that's permeated through all the different areas in the school and all the different areas of the ESD. Yeah, some of them, some different schools, some of them would concentrate more on green schools or fair-trade schools, and if they didn't have an international partnership, they would be doing, you know, learning about other countries learning. Trying to help the children to appreciate that people were people all over the world.

But within the individual schools, they would have regular meetings when the teachers came together. The idea was to try and get all teachers to understand how the ESD permeated all their work. Then, once some schools had become more adept at it, then the ideas were working. I mean, there were local school groups anyway in an area, they would meet for other things as well, but they would meet to discuss what they've been doing within the ESD and explain their different methods. For example, one school had a link with Jamaica, and they used an enormous number of things to actually bring it all to life, Benjamin Zephaniah came into the school. They had people who had been over there and people from Jamaica came back over here. Other schools were working on other areas, other areas of the world and they would use local contacts that they knew you know. One school had a link with China, so they were using links with people in the community who were from China as well, so they were trying to bring in as many different aspects as they could. You know they were worked with North Wales Wild Trust on school gardening, wildlife gardening, all that sort of stuff, and then they would share it with other schools. I think the school partnerships were those groups that were quite important because in some ways, they helped each other and other ways they just enlightened them, you know, sort of helped each other, really. It was a too and fro, too and fro thing.

The pupils were, you know, they were saying things like. I've got a list of pupils’ sayings here. They were aware of the world, learning, respect and tolerances, differences, similarities, equality. Learning about people with different ideas, that they have a role to play in the world. The impact of their own actions. You know they would go home to their parents and tell them and say we've got to, we must start recycling or turning the lights off and that sort of thing. Empathy was one which is always a funny word, really relation to other people because it's quite difficult, I think, to have empathy. Sometimes you can have understanding and sympathy, but empathy is an interesting one, isn't it?

Local, global, you know, for example, when they were doing their gardening projects, they would also look at where other fruits came from, look at other countries, what were the issues in other countries where food came from, we would look at climate change, the future and what possibilities could be in the future. We did a lot of research from themselves, and the school councils were very influential, they had lots of ideas and they would instigate them in the school as well.

And making connections really. That was the other, other key thing that they could learn to make connections, that they weren't just alone in the world, that they were, the whole world was interconnected.

End transcript: Audio 1  Sheila Bennell on partnership and a global citizenship approach

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Audio 1  Sheila Bennell on partnership and a global citizenship approach

The use of a language of appreciation and cooperation is part of the necessary communication and dialogue which is a crucial part of partnership work. Partnership working requires that all those in that partnership engage in critical dialogue. The benefits of collaborative learning spaces which are set up through partnerships can be seen as ‘brave spaces’ (Arao and Clemens, 2013) in which experiences and knowledge can be shared and the formation of action through dialogue can be experienced and learned. The creation of ‘brave spaces’ acknowledges that it is often impossible to remove risk and ‘implies that there is indeed likely be danger or harm – threats that require bravery on the part of those who enter. But those who enter the space have the courage to face that danger and to take risks because they know they will be taken care of’ (Cook-Sather and Workworth, 2016, p. 1). The four stages of critical dialogue which are needed to build this courage are set out in Table 1 below.

Table 1 The four stages of critical dialogue (Wood, 2017)

These stages of critical dialogue can be exemplified in the ‘Youth Solidarity Dialogue Model’ (Wood, 2017) which was set up as the mode of partnership between marginalised young people in Malawi and young people in Scotland. This model explores the nature of equality versus equity in partnerships. Thinking about power and context within partnerships is important if learners are to understand social justice and global citizenship. Critical dialogue takes the partnership beyond simple to something more complex which has the power to change and develop the attributes required for living sustainably.

Problems shared can be resolved

It is important not to see partnership as always warm and cosy. Just a short reflection will identify partnerships that have not succeeded or that have taken a great deal of work to establish and/or to keep going. Häggström and Schmidt (2022) suggest that partnerships will only succeed where the complexity, sharp edges, fuzziness and contradictions which constitute a shared situation are embraced. Just as Freeth and Caniglia (2020) showed that sustainability researchers learned best to collaborate while collaborating, learners will only learn the skills and understandings that are necessary to be an effective partner in a collaborative learning partnership. Collaborations can be spaces that comprise epistemic, social, symbolic, spatial, and temporal dimensions and that produce different degrees of comfort and discomfort in those that participate in them.

In creating the conditions necessary for learning to take place within a partnership, learners will also need to pay attention to the feeling of discomfort and risk which are experienced in any space where learning takes place. When learners are developing their understanding of how partnerships work, how to be a partner and how to learn within that partnership they will, of necessity, make mistakes, feel they could have done better and experience failures in some way. Sometimes the partnership itself will be at risk of failure because of lack of commitment, ineffective structuring of the partnership or because an important part of the partnership is unable to fulfil their commitments for some good reason. Therefore, recognition of the risks that learners take in entering that learning space is necessary, as is support to overcome any negative or uncomfortable feelings and when learning from the discomfort of making mistakes.

There are three ways that engaging in partnerships or collaborations can strengthen learners’ capacities to continue to work collaboratively and build partnerships:

Ways of working

	1. Ways of being (heart) – Learners can be encouraged to develop ways of being in collaborative or partnership learning situations that increase tolerance for discomfort in the face of challenges and openness so that they can gain new collaborative knowledge and skills.
	2. Ways of knowing (head) – Encouraging reflection on the partnership, its effectiveness and impact can develop insight, understanding and awareness that support further collaboration and partnerships.
	3. Ways of acting (hands) – Partnerships that have a practical and measurable purpose within their communities locally and globally, advance collaboration skills interpersonally, practically and technically.

(Orr, 1992)

Partnership is considered within the Sustainable Development Goals set out by UNESCO as key to reaching all seventeen of the SDGs. The skills, understanding and learning that can be achieved through partnership locally and globally are regarded as fundamental to achieving a sustainable way for all to live in this world. Collaboration as a competency is essential in forming effective partnerships but partnership also requires commitment that is longer term than many of the ways collaborative skills are used.

When used as a pedagogy, partnership can move learners understanding from an individualistic view to a more compassionate and empathetic collective view as part of communities and wider society and can help learners understand their role and responsibility for the world around us, both human and non-human.

Effective communication is essential in creating effective partnerships. Creating learning spaces where critical dialogue can be learned and used can create brave spaces that can allow learners to both learn about issues in their immediate environment and globally, and to deliberate and learn about what must be done in terms of putting the learning into action. These need to be supported spaces to recognise the courage needed to deal with tensions and discomfort in challenging norms and assumptions, and recognising vulnerabilities due to power imbalances. Where learners recognise and address imbalances within a partnership this allows the partnership to engender more skills to be learned that will allow learners to engage in sustainable reasoning and action.

Finally, learners can only understand and learn all the skills that are needed to be an effective partner while acting in a partnership. To develop collaborative capacities, learners need to consider their ways of being, knowing and acting and to become comfortable with discomfort as that will allow them to see transformation through learning.

Unit 4 cards

Click/tap each card to reveal the text.

Cook-Sather, A., and Woodworth, M.K. (2016) ‘Creating brave spaces within and through student-faculty pedagogical partnerships’, Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 1(18), p.1. Available at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/ cgi/ viewcontent.cgi?article=1143&context=tlthe (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

Wood, E. (2017) ‘An Alternative to Voluntourism’, Steka skills and Queen Margaret University. Available at: https://www.stekaskills.com/ our-model-of-critical-dialogue-for- (Accessed: 14 February 2024).

Arao, B., and Clemens, K. (2013) ‘From safe spaces to brave spaces: A new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social justice’, in L. M. Landreman (Ed.), The art of effective facilitation, pp. 135–150. Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Bennell, S. (2015) ‘Education for sustainable development and global citizenship: Leadership, collaboration, and networking in primary schools’, International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 7(1), pp. 5–32. Available at: https://uclpress.scienceopen.com/ hosted-document?doi=10.18546/ IJDEGL.07.1.02 (Accessed: 5 March 2024).

Carcasson, M. (2016) ‘Tackling Wicked Problems Through Deliberative Engagement’ National Civic Review, 105(1), pp. 44–47. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1002/ ncr.21258 (Accessed: 5 March 2024).

Cook-Sather, A., and Woodworth, M.K. (2016) ‘Creating brave spaces within and through student-faculty pedagogical partnerships’, Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 1(18), pp.1. Available at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/ cgi/ viewcontent.cgi?article=1143&context=tlthe (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

EEF (2021) Collaborative learning approaches, Educational Endowment Fund. Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/ education-evidence/ teaching-learning-toolkit/ collaborative-learning-approaches (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

Freeth, R. and Caniglia, G. (2020) ‘Learning to collaborate while collaborating: advancing interdisciplinary sustainability research’, Sustain Sci, 15, pp. 247–26. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1007/ s11625-019-00701-z (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

Freire, P. (1970) The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum Books.

Häggström, M. and Schmidt C. (2022) Relational and Critical Perspectives on Education for Sustainable Development. New York, NY: Springer.

Head, B.W. (2022) ‘The Rise of “Wicked Problems”—Uncertainty, Complexity and Divergence’, in: Wicked Problems in Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1007/ 978-3-030-94580-0_2 (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

Littleton, K. and Mercer, N. (2013) Interthinking: Putting talk to work. London: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.4324/ 9780203809433 (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

Lundström, N., Raisio, H., Vartiainen, P. and Lindell, J. (2016) ‘Wicked games changing the storyline of urban planning’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 154, pp. 20–28. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1016/ j.landurbplan.2016.01.010 (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

Orr, D. (1992) Ecological literacy: Education for a post modern world. Albany, NY: State University of New York.

Rittel, H. and Webber, M. (1973) ‘Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning’, Policy Sciences, 4(2), pp. 155–169. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/ stable/ 4531523 (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

Schnitzler, T. (2019) ‘The Bridge Between Education for Sustainable Development and Transformative Learning: Towards New Collaborative Learning Spaces’, Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 13(2), pp. 242–253. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1177/ 0973408219873827 (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

Schulte, M. (2022) ‘Exploring the Inherent Tensions at the Nexus of Education for Sustainable Development and Neoliberalism’, Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 16(1–2), pp. 80–101. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1177/ 09734082221118621 (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

UNESCO (2023) Renewing the Social Contract for Education. Available at: https://www.unesco.org/ en/ futures-education/ new-social-contract?hub=81942 (Accessed: 1 March 2024).

Venugopal, R. (2015) ‘Neoliberalism as Concept’, Economy and Society, 44(2), pp. 165–187. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/ doi/ abs/ 10.1080/ 03085147.2015.1013356 (Accessed: 5 March 2024).

Wood, E. (2017) ‘An Alternative to Voluntourism’, Steka skills and Queen Margaret University. Available at: https://www.stekaskills.com/ our-model-of-critical-dialogue-for- (Accessed: 14 February 2024).