Education for Sustainability at Otago Polytechnic
The skills and values of Otago Polytechnic graduates contribute to every sector of society. Our curriculum, teaching and learning therefore is pervasive and influential with global impact. The Otago Polytechnic sustainability vision is that our graduates, our practitioners and our academics understand the concepts of social, environmental and economic sustainability in order for them to evaluate, question and discuss their role in the world and to enable them to make changes where and when appropriate. Our goal is that every graduate may think and act as a “sustainable practitioner”.
Otago Polytechnic statement on education for sustainability
In 2004 the Otago Polytechnic Leadership Team made a commitment to become a sustainable organisation and a leader in the field of education for sustainability. However, rather than deliver specialist courses in environmental studies, OP has elected to weave education for sustainability into each and every programme of study.
A clear process has been established by the academic board to meet the goal of EFS content within each programme by mid 2009. This process requires both the programme content and the process of educating to be considered, with experiential education and inquiry based learning being desired ahead of the lecturer talking at students, which has low long term learning value.
No courses are being prescribed in “how to” best integrate EFS into programmes across the board, rather ‘early adopter’ schools have been supported to find different approaches that best meet the needs of their staff and students. For example, the design school has elected to integrate all EFS initiatives into existing courses, where as the health and community school has decided to offer a stand alone EFS “101” type programme to all first year students, then integrate this into year two and three courses.
All new programmes under development are required to contain EFS content and process. An OP ‘graduate profile’ across all disciplines will now include being action competent as a sustainable practitioner in their field.
- EFS Updates: Read more about the progress our schools are making towards integrating education for sustainable practice into their curriculums.
- LivingCampus: Otago Polytechnic's LivingCampus project provides a wealth of opportunity for our staff, students and community to learn about sustainability in practice first-hand.