Engaged learning for climate change: The perils and potentials of collaborative partnerships and projects

Abstract

Impeding climate change and climate variability require professionals to develop a range of new skills to address new problems. We argue here that the development of those skills and the knowledge and ability to act sustainably can be generated in processes of engagement with the immediate and complex problems that beset local communities. We further argue that the generation of engaged learning and experiential learning approaches should be accompanied by the opportunity for students to reflect on the big picture questions raised by their enterprise. Based on an account of a suite of modular Masters Degree programs developed at the University of the Sunshine Coast, a regional Australian university, this chapter shows how stakeholder and partnership arrangements serve as the basis of a programme structure that allows students to identify regional problems and devise locally relevant solutions. The chapter further argues that engaged learning in the context of higher education should go beyond individually focused classroom activities to encompass curricula and pedagogical processes which enable collaboration rather than competition. Sustainability literacy from this perspective is not just about changing individual values and behaviour but also concerned with the process by which these are tempered through engagements with others.