Education for Sustainability
All students graduating from Imperial should understand how they can use their education to tackle societal ‘Grand Challenges’, including climate change, biodiversity loss and other themes encompassed by the Sustainable Development Goals, in ways that result in meaningful positive impact.
The aim of this SIG is to create a staff community of practice to explore and develop pedagogical approaches, practical strategies, helpful content and the support needed to embed education for sustainability into teaching and the wider curriculum.
We will serve as a grassroots group where all members of staff can come together to share ideas for how concrete progress can be made. We encourage participation and contributions from any staff with an interest in this topic – whether you are actively involved in working on sustainability projects or not. We will adopt an action-based approach where contributions to meetings will provide examples of good practice, and lead to recommendations for how these could be applied more widely.
This year, the SIG is co-led by:
- Nigel Forrest, Teaching Fellow, Centre for Environmental Policy
- Mark Pope, Senior Teaching Fellow, Centre for Languages, Culture and Communications
- Laura Skedgell, Careers Consultant – Sustainability, Energy and Social Impact, Business School Careers
- Daisy Pataki, Teaching Fellow, Centre for Languages, Culture and Communications
What will we discuss?
We will address issues such as:
- How can we ensure that all members of Imperial are aware of the importance and urgency associated with sustainability challenges?
- How can competences be developed to ensure staff and students are empowered to promote sustainability in their future lives and careers?
- Disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science approaches and solutions;
- Pedagogy development to help embed STEMM-B-focused sustainability into the curriculum;
- How can ethics, environmental and social justice, and inclusivity be promoted through scientific and technological education surrounding sustainability?
Meeting Schedule:
We convene once a term to ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate and contribute. These meetings serve as a forum for lively discussions, presentations, demonstrations, and networking opportunities. We will also consider additional meetings based on community responses.
Communication Channels:
Our primary communication platform is Microsoft Teams. Here, you'll find updates on upcoming events (General Channel).
If you would like to join the SIG, fill out the form here to be added to the mailing list. You will then be informed about future activities.
Meeting history 2025
Agenda
We were pleased to host a first meeting full of positive contributions. We presented our key aim to be an inclusive 'grassroots' community that works towards embedding Education for Sustainability across the university. We introduced a guiding framework for the SIG, proposing that it could cover sustainability competencies, pedagogy, content, tools and resources - and how we might share and embed these more widely. Participants then proposed a wide range of suggestions for potential topics in future sessions. These included ideas for providing input on climate literacy, specific projects such as the Ambassador or Champions programmes, and on providing guidelines for supervisors. We will provide details on the next meeting very soon.
Agenda
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