(Re-)designing higher education curricula in times of systemic dysfunction: a responsible research and innovation perspective

Valentina C Tassone,Hansje J Eppink,Emma Mckenna,Catherine O’Mahony,Arjen E J Wals

doi:10.1007/s10734-017-0211-4

Abstract

There is an urgent need to address the grand sustainability challenges of our time, and to explore new and more responsible ways of operating, researching, and innovating that enable society to respond to these challenges. The emergent Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) policy agenda can act as a catalyst towards the development of new and more responsible research and innovation efforts. Inevitably, higher education needs to be closely attuned to this need and agenda, by preparing students to engage in RRI efforts. This paper makes a first step towards guiding the embedding of RRI within higher education. It does so by bringing together academic knowledge with phronesis or practical knowledge about what should be done in an ethical, political, and practical sense. It draws on a literature review and on the reflective practices of partners in the European Commission funded project EnRRICH (Enhancing Responsible Research and Innovation through Curricula in Higher Education), as well as on interviews and case studies gathered as part of the project. The paper suggests elements, especially design principles and a competence framework, for (re)designing curricula and pedagogies to equip higher education students to be and to become responsible actors, researchers, and innovators in a complex world, and to address grand sustainability challenges. In addition, this paper proposes that contemporary higher education teaching and learning policies and strategies, especially those promoting neoliberal agendas and marketized practices, need to adopt a more responsible and responsive ethos to foster the renewal of higher education in times of systemic dysfunction.

Highlights

We live in a turbulent age characterized by grand sustainability challenges—increasingly referred to as the Anthropocene (e.g., Gibson et al 2015)
By embracing a prospective notion of responsibility while including a consequentialist perspective, and by building on the relevant HE models and insights discussed above, this study proposes the following working definition of Research and Innovation (RRI) in HE: “Fostering RRI in higher education curricula is about equipping learners to care for the future by means of responsive stewardship of research and innovation practices that address the grand challenges of our time in a collaborative, ethical and sustainable way.”
The increasing need to respond to complex grand sustainability challenges and the increasing relevance of the RRI policy agenda call for new and more responsible ways of operating, researching, and innovating that enable society to respond to those challenges

Summary

Introduction

We live in a turbulent age characterized by grand sustainability challenges—increasingly referred to as the Anthropocene (e.g., Gibson et al 2015). Before addressing this question through our study, it is important to point out that, without referring to the notion of RRI, educational scholars have already proposed models and insights for the development of curricula that include a culture of responsibility (e.g., Barnett 2000; Boyer 1990; Brew 2003; Fanghanel and Cousin 2012; Fung 2017; Griffiths 2004; Wals et al 2016).

Results

Conclusion