Interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability education: islands of progress in a sea of dysfunction

Abstract

This essay describes the inequity faced by most interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability (IES) degree programs and the impact of that inequity on student and faculty experiences. Despite the urgent need for IES education and research to solve critical environmental and sustainability challenges, as well as high demand for IES education by students and employers alike, we illustrate and discuss how the majority of IES programs suffer from limited resources or unequal standing relative to the traditional disciplines. Traditional disciplinary departments, which dominate university structures and were created decades before most IES programs, often have a monopolistic grip on hiring, firing, and the tenure-granting process. We argue universities must structurally reform to support IES programs, given that this disciplinary silo problem is so deeprooted and restrictive. We assert the urgent need for equivalent autonomous status and equivalent resources for IES programs, preferably as schools, colleges, and institutes or centers that have core interdisciplinary faculty and draw upon resources across the university, or for smaller schools as IES departments. We also strongly support initiatives to more effectively support the integration of IES knowledge across all higher education curricula. We conclude with a list of recommendations we believe are necessary to support IES higher education.

Institutional Fragility: Structures of Dominance in American Higher Educational Institutions Inhibiting Sustainable Education

“…Hurdles created by these systemic arrangements are great and have led many organizational change and sustainability education thought leaders to propose that the entire higher education system needs a systemic overhaul. They advocate for a "higher calling for higher education" embracing a transformative vision for a sustainable future (Sterling and Schumacher Society, 2001;Vincent et al, 2015Vincent et al, , 2016Escrigas, 2016). These issues arise such as in Corcoran ( 2009) edited book, Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability-problems, promise and practice and its numerous illustrations and contributions of well-documented experiences of individuals on the front lines of these challenges.…”

“…Higher educational institutions (HEIs) have become a requisite place to educate future change agents towards solving urgent sustainability issues facing society, and HEIs have responded to this imperative. As Vincent et al (2016) reports, environmental and sustainability baccalaureate degrees grew by 57% between 2008 and 2012, master's degrees by 68 %, and doctoral degrees by 35% (p. 419). While HEIs' response to the demand for sustainability programming is evident, these curriculum and program add-ons primarily support first and second order change.…”

Leading by listening, learning by doing: modeling democratic approaches to conservation leadership in graduate education

“…In general, the literature shows a steady incremental interest from universities and individual teachers to innovate and challenge existing educational norms to consider contemporary contexts and local needs (Gosselin et al 2016). These innovations imply not only curricula modification, competencies, and infrastructure (Vincent et al 2016) but also new ways of teaching through individual and collective reflection, respect, and listening-all crucial conditions toward democratization, the basis of our educational platform. The window of innovation remains wide open to explore pedagogical processes and outcomes in different regions of the world as collaborations across and within universities and scholars of different regions evolve and as the social and environmental context demands new teaching content and dynamics.…”

Higher Education in the Environmental Century

“…Data from the Center for Environmental Education and Research of the National Council for Science and the Environment show that structural obstacles to this kind of pedagogy are widespread. Traditional institutions of higher education do not adequately support transdisciplinary education and research (Vincent, Roberts, and Mulkey ; Vincent and Mulkey ).…”