Pedagogies and Practices for Transformative Learning and Ethical Action in Sustainability Education

This communication presents the design of an educational sustainability doctoral program that aims to foster transformative learning and ethical action. The program focuses on practices and pedagogies that target key sustainability competencies and cover a holistic range of sustainability topics, as presented in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). To evaluate the effectiveness of the program in educating for sustainability, we conducted a survey and interviews with current students and alumni. The results indicate that practices, such as the cohort model and in-person residences, and pedagogies connected to action research were critical in supporting student learning. We also found that the program iteratively improved overtime, with cohort 1 expressing greater challenges in learning and conducting research as compared to later cohorts. The educational sustainability doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point was launched in 2017 with cohort-1 but underwent a leadership change in 2019, leading to substantial changes in program design and implementation processes. Due to the stark contrast between the early years of the program and the current state, the study is on-going, and the results presented here are considered preliminary.