Watch: Teaching and Learning

Future Earth Ireland (FEI) in collaboration with various Irish higher education institutions are organising a series of three online webinars aimed at higher education staff, policymakers and the wider stakeholder community addressing the question, ‘How can higher education “build forward better”?’ in the post Covid-19 context.

The is the third and final webinar in the series and featured:

• Prof. Sarah Culloty, University College Cork, (University College Cork & Director of the Environmental Research Institute)
• Michelle O’Dowd, National University of Ireland Galway
• Prof. Keri Facer, University of Bristol
• Aoife Cannon, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland
• Julian Nagi, Maynooth University Students’ Union
• Chair: Dr. Marguerite Nyhan, University College Cork and a member of the Future Earth Ireland committee

This session was being co-hosted, with thanks, by the Environmental Research Institute at University College Cork.

Questions and Issues

The session focused on questions such as:

• What approaches to integrating sustainability education into HEIs’ curricula have been tried by Irish HEIs? What has been learned so far?
• How can transdisciplinarity best be built into sustainability education?
• What have we learned about remote teaching and learning practises during the pandemic, and what are the consequences for sustainability transitions?
• What impacts has remote learning had on access and inclusion in education? How can challenges in this regard be overcome?

About the Series

The pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges across our societies and economies, upending conventional wisdom in myriad ways. But the challenge of transitioning to a sustainable future remains an urgent priority at national, European and global level. The need to “build back better” or, perhaps more appropriately, “build forward better”, has become a slogan of those seeking to integrate sustainability priorities into Covid-19 recovery plans.

Higher education has a crucial role to play in the transition to a sustainable future. Higher education campuses and staff can lead by example, pilot and showcase best practice in sustainability initiatives, support policymaking and industry with evidence-based solutions and engage generations of learners towards more sustainable ways of living.

Session 1 in the series, on 23 February, focused on these themes in relation to research and innovation. Session 2 , on 13 April, focused on engagement with society.