Abstract
This study aims to examine the use of reflective pedagogies in sustainability leadership education by investigating two specific pedagogical tools—the Portfolio and Pod—employed by the Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) program at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden. The study analyzed data gathered from student surveys, teacher interviews, and staff reflections to determine the benefits and challenges faced by students and staff in implementing and engaging with these pedagogical tools. Benefits include the provision of distinct structures to guide student reflection towards individual skill development and the use of collective reflection to encourage generative dialogue between students and staff. This holds benefits for collaboration, self-awareness, understanding of multiple perspectives, and creating self-directed graduates. Staff and students also, however, suggest a number of challenges. These include the ‘constrictive’ nature of guided reflection and the emotional and mental load faced by staff in hosting and holding students through often challenging personal reflective processes. For the potential of reflective pedagogies to be truly realized for Education for Sustainable Development in higher education institutions need to develop an understanding of the impacts that reflective pedagogies have on students and teachers and create institutional structures to support them.
Highlights
If Higher Education is to play a significant role in developing graduates as sustainability leaders, educational programs guided by values of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and driven by a focus to develop sustainability knowledge and skills are required [1]
Others suggested, ‘I felt very blocked, and I had the feeling I had to deliver something specific or I needed certain insights and critical questions’ or ‘trying to quantify personal development is not working for me.’. These statements show that despite the intention of the pedagogies as a whole, there is definitive push back and hesitation from a number of students who displayed discomfort with either the process or the content of the Portfolio and Pod pedagogies, an outcome that undermines their effectiveness in helping the students learn and develop as a result of their experience with the pedagogy. These results suggest that reflective pedagogies can play an important role as pedagogies in education for sustainability leadership, and that they require a suite of complementary pedagogies and that certain considerations need to be taken within their design
This study aims to provide an examination of two reflective pedagogies within a sustainability leadership program in a higher education institution and highlights the experience from both a student and staff perspective
Summary
If Higher Education is to play a significant role in developing graduates as sustainability leaders, educational programs guided by values of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and driven by a focus to develop sustainability knowledge and skills are required [1] These programs need to educate both about sustainability and prepare students to implement and lead solutions for sustainability [2]. The adoption of pedagogical approaches that encourage learners to critically consider and reflect on traditional worldviews, practices, and behaviors is needed [6,7] This requires engaging students in a praxis of dialogue and action that help them deconstruct themselves and the world they live in [8], transgressing boundaries and creating pathways to participation and shared meaning making [1]
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