Journeys in/with ‘sustainability literacy’: Pedagogical possibilities in higher education contexts.

Abstract

Recent reports from the higher education sectors of the UK and Australia suggest that graduates from higher education institutions should be sustainability literate. Conceptualisation of sustainability literacy is emerging, complex and contested, providing significant curriculum and pedagogical challenges for higher education institutions. Research in sustainability pedagogy emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary or other innovative approaches to sustainability education and sets a cultural, structural and curricular challenge for the higher education sector. This paper focuses on pedagogical possibilities from the standpoint of research findings that demonstrate the importance of holistic, ‘real world’ learning for understanding the complex and problematic nature of sustainability and sustainable development in theory and practice. Through the paper I explore potentials and problems for outdoor environmental education pedagogy, in higher education contexts, to contribute to sustainability literacy. While the focus of the paper is an exploration of processes and outcomes of a post-graduate expedition conducted for an outdoor environmental education programme in Scotland, it is also, in a sense an expression of my own, ongoing journey of engagement with the concepts and issues relating to sustainability education and, in particular, the notion of sustainability literacy.