Abstract
One of the repeating themes around the provision of the knowledge and skills needed for delivering sustainable communities is the idea of a “common language” for all built environment professionals. This suggestion has been repeated regularly with each new political and professional review within and between different sectors responsible for the delivery of sustainable communities. There have been multiple efforts to address academic limitations, industry fragmentation and promote more interdisciplinary working and sector collaboration. This research explored the role of skills for sustainable communities, particularly within the higher education (HE) sector, and the responses to support the development of a “common language of sustainability” that can be shared between different sectors, professional disciplines and stakeholders. As an interdisciplinary group of academics and practitioners working with the HE sector in the North East of England, we evaluate the progression of sector collaboration to develop a quintuple helix model for HE. We use this as a suitable framework for systematically “mapping” out the mixed sector (academic, public, business, community and environmental organisations) inputs and influences into a representative sample of HE degree modules that are delivered from foundation and undergraduate to postgraduate levels, including examples of part-time and distance-learning modules. We developed a cascade of models which demonstrate increasing levels of collaboration and their potential positive impact on the effectiveness of education on sustainable communities. The methodological assessments of modules were followed by semi-structured group reflective analysis undertaken through a series of online workshops (recorded during the Covid19 lockdown) to set out a collective understanding of the generic skills needed for the delivery of sustainable communities. These generic skills for sustainable communities are presented as a pedagogical progression model of teaching activities and learning outcomes applied to the levels within HE. We propose sustainability education principles and progressions with the hope that they can have an impact on the design or review of current degree modules and programmes. The paper informs future sustainability research to be grounded in holism and systems thinking; better understanding of values, ethics, influencing and political impact; and procedural authenticity.
Highlights
Changing educational practice in the delivery of further education (FE) and higher education (HE)programmes from various disciplines within the construction industry has always been challenging.When, in the North American context, Boyer and Mitgang [1] suggested that there should be a unified profession between teaching and practice, with the academic connecting with the real world, and more radically, using a connected curriculum that brings knowledge from outside architecture and professional disciplines into play, they were subject to a lot of undue criticism
In the North American context, Boyer and Mitgang [1] suggested that there should be a unified profession between teaching and practice, with the academic connecting with the real world, and more radically, using a connected curriculum that brings knowledge from outside architecture and professional disciplines into play, they were subject to a lot of undue criticism
As the built environment professionals charged with delivering sustainable development are seen to be lagging significantly behind other sectors in the national economy [8] there is the need for new models for education, training and the delivery of skills [9] that have a shared understanding of how important collaboration is to the delivery of sustainable communities [10]
Summary
Changing educational practice in the delivery of further education (FE) and higher education (HE). Similar messages in the UK were repeated by Latham [3] in suggesting that the fragmented professions responsible for sustainable communities, design and the built environment should move from an operational position of confrontation to one of collaboration and shared standards. As the built environment professionals charged with delivering sustainable development are seen to be lagging significantly behind other sectors in the national economy [8] there is the need for new models for education, training and the delivery of skills [9] that have a shared understanding of how important collaboration is to the delivery of sustainable communities [10]. The authors have developed a cascade of models which demonstrate increasing levels of collaboration and their potential positive impact on the effectiveness of education on sustainable communities
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