RCE Greater Atlanta-2021
Project Title:
1. Describe coordination and management of the project. Please also reflect how the RCE as a network organisation has contributed to the project. (Character count 400 words):
This project encompasses three initiatives that all advance ESD in Higher Education:
1) Going Global: An International Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Curriculum Design Workshop
2) Faculty Learning Community: Teaching with the SDGs
3) Community Science Collaboratory: Building a sustainable, regional network for community-university transdisciplinary, community-centered research that advances the SDGs.
This project was developed through the RCE Greater Atlanta’s “Action Group” called the Higher Education Learning Community (HELC). Within the RCE Greater Atlanta’s Action Groups, members propose formal projects to structure the group’s work. This project began in January 2021 and is ongoing. In addition, the project’s third initiative, the Community Science Collaboratory, rew from relationships forged through the RCE Greater Atlanta’s Community of Practice (CoP), as well as the HELC. The CoP is a project housed within the Advancing Justice for All Action Group, and it works to advance university/community-based organization (CBO) collaboration. The network function of the RCE led us to structure faculty support and university-community partner collaboration as multi-institutional initiatives. Prior to the development of the RCE Greater Atlanta, most colleges and universities in Atlanta were supporting faculty development and community-engaged learning entirely on their own, with little consideration of regional coordination that could leverage expertise and resources in ways that advance ESD and the sustainable development goals of local CBOs. The Going Global workshop attracted faculty and administrators from 14 colleges and universities across the U.S., Europe, and South America, all interested in advancing ESD. The Faculty Learning Community is the first of its kind in our region to bring together faculty from three different institutions on a regular basis to build community, assemble resources, and build their capacity to teach with the SDGs. The Collaboratory project includes higher education institutions (HEIs), three RCEs, and six CBOs, leveraging academic and community-based partnerships nurtured through the RCE.
1) Going Global: An International Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Curriculum Design Workshop
2) Faculty Learning Community: Teaching with the SDGs
3) Community Science Collaboratory: Building a sustainable, regional network for community-university transdisciplinary, community-centered research that advances the SDGs.
This project was developed through the RCE Greater Atlanta’s “Action Group” called the Higher Education Learning Community (HELC). Within the RCE Greater Atlanta’s Action Groups, members propose formal projects to structure the group’s work. This project began in January 2021 and is ongoing. In addition, the project’s third initiative, the Community Science Collaboratory, rew from relationships forged through the RCE Greater Atlanta’s Community of Practice (CoP), as well as the HELC. The CoP is a project housed within the Advancing Justice for All Action Group, and it works to advance university/community-based organization (CBO) collaboration. The network function of the RCE led us to structure faculty support and university-community partner collaboration as multi-institutional initiatives. Prior to the development of the RCE Greater Atlanta, most colleges and universities in Atlanta were supporting faculty development and community-engaged learning entirely on their own, with little consideration of regional coordination that could leverage expertise and resources in ways that advance ESD and the sustainable development goals of local CBOs. The Going Global workshop attracted faculty and administrators from 14 colleges and universities across the U.S., Europe, and South America, all interested in advancing ESD. The Faculty Learning Community is the first of its kind in our region to bring together faculty from three different institutions on a regular basis to build community, assemble resources, and build their capacity to teach with the SDGs. The Collaboratory project includes higher education institutions (HEIs), three RCEs, and six CBOs, leveraging academic and community-based partnerships nurtured through the RCE.
2. What are the current results of the project in terms of output (e.g. publications, developed practices, course materials)? (Character count 300 words):
Current results are described for each initiative within the project:
1) Going Global: An International Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Curriculum Design Workshop trained 50 faculty members from 14 colleges and universities across the U.S., Europe, and South America, all interested in teaching with the SDGs. The virtual workshop integrated ESD principles with best practice in course design and differentiated breakout room work for faculty working at the programmatic, course, and unit or lesson levels. An additional breakout room supported attendees charged with supporting faculty at their institutions in SDG teaching. Outputs include new, open access guides for curricular integration (samples here) and the development of a global network of faculty engaged I SDG teaching.
2) The Faculty Learning Community (FLC) on Teaching with the SDGs: The FLC is led by three co-facilitators and 14 participants from three universities and is supporting faculty who are re-designing courses to incorporate the SDGs as well as SDG integration at the department or college levels (across multiple courses). The facilitators have developed extensive resources and materials to support faculty, including the samples provided here.
3) The Community Science Collaboratory includes 25 participants from three Global RCEs, eight universities, and six Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). An initial, three-hour workshop in September 2021 completed a values clarification process, a review of best practice (from literature and experience) in university/community collaboration, and a very preliminary set of key principles and characteristics to guide the Collaboratory design. Participants are currently working on re-shaping and expanding the results from the first workshop into a draft design that will be vetted with additional partners at a second workshop in late fall, which will include an expanded set of community and faculty leaders as well as community science practitioners from RCE Saskatchewan and RCE KwaZulu-Natal. The output is still in draft form but will include a comprehensive design for the Collaboratory along with a full funding proposal to take it into the next phase of development.
1) Going Global: An International Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Curriculum Design Workshop trained 50 faculty members from 14 colleges and universities across the U.S., Europe, and South America, all interested in teaching with the SDGs. The virtual workshop integrated ESD principles with best practice in course design and differentiated breakout room work for faculty working at the programmatic, course, and unit or lesson levels. An additional breakout room supported attendees charged with supporting faculty at their institutions in SDG teaching. Outputs include new, open access guides for curricular integration (samples here) and the development of a global network of faculty engaged I SDG teaching.
2) The Faculty Learning Community (FLC) on Teaching with the SDGs: The FLC is led by three co-facilitators and 14 participants from three universities and is supporting faculty who are re-designing courses to incorporate the SDGs as well as SDG integration at the department or college levels (across multiple courses). The facilitators have developed extensive resources and materials to support faculty, including the samples provided here.
3) The Community Science Collaboratory includes 25 participants from three Global RCEs, eight universities, and six Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). An initial, three-hour workshop in September 2021 completed a values clarification process, a review of best practice (from literature and experience) in university/community collaboration, and a very preliminary set of key principles and characteristics to guide the Collaboratory design. Participants are currently working on re-shaping and expanding the results from the first workshop into a draft design that will be vetted with additional partners at a second workshop in late fall, which will include an expanded set of community and faculty leaders as well as community science practitioners from RCE Saskatchewan and RCE KwaZulu-Natal. The output is still in draft form but will include a comprehensive design for the Collaboratory along with a full funding proposal to take it into the next phase of development.
3. What are the expected/confirmed outcomes (e.g. impact of the project, such as changed practices, improved capacity, institutional changes, etc.)? Please provide evidence where applicable. (Character count 400 words):
Both the Going Global Workshop and the Community of Practice have or will result in additional courses that integrate the SDGs and the improvement of existing courses that incorporate the SDGs. By developing a stronger understanding of the principles and key elements of ESD, faculty become much more thoughtful about what aspects of the SDGs to incorporate, and why. By integrating ESD knowledge with best practice in course design and pedagogy, these initiatives have resulted in more effective teaching. Because the FLC is still in progress we are limited to the results of an early feedback survey which provides qualitative evidence of changes in course design and teaching. The insights participants indicated they have developed so far include: understanding the connection between ESD and High Impact Practices in higher education, including the Dilemma/Issue/Question approach; effective ESD pedagogies including local/global case studies, community-engaged learning, and reflection exercises; and strategies for moving toward transdisciplinarity. In addition, the facilitators have created a wide range of worksheets to guide course integration of the SDGs—samples available here. Finally, participants in both the workshop and FLC have identified many gaps in available resources on ESD, especially examples of higher education syllabi that integrate the SDGs with core course content and examples of strong assessment instruments. We are building a “library” of such resources that will be open access and disseminated widely through the RCE network.
4. What are the remaining challenges and/ or limitations for further development? (Character count 300 words):
As described above, one of our challenges has been identifying examples to use as models with faculty—failing to find many, we have developed our own and developed new worksheets and other resources. The sample syllabi we have been able to identify online tend to be focused exclusively on sustainability or the SDGs, rather than examples of courses that were re-shaped to incorporate the SDGs. This project will address that gap—our participating faculty will be sharing their re-designed syllabi, assessment instruments, and lessons to be share in a “Teaching with the SDGs” open access “library.” An additional constraint is faculty time; without resources for course re-design many faculty members find it hard to devote focused effort to integrating the SDGs. We will address that gap with a Faculty Fellows program to follow the FLC that provides funding to faculty. We also will offer a follow-on global workshop (virtual) to extend the reach of our faculty training impact. Finally, we will identify synergies between the faculty trainings and the Collaboratory initiative. Specifically, we will develop a new workshop and identify a section of the resource library specifically on community-based ESD, drawing on the opportunities created by the new Collaboratory. One of the participating institutions already has extensive, open access tools available on community engagement (see, for example, here), but these have not been explicitly linked to ESD. The Collaboratory will offer a platform for highlighting the importance of community-based learning to ESD.
5. How does your project further improve capacities of various partners and stakeholders on the theme? (Character count 500 words):
As described above, these initiatives include faculty from six higher education institutions in the Atlanta area, six CBOs, faculty from a dozen universities outside the Atlanta region, and three RCEs. Most colleges and universities have limited support for faculty in ESD. These initiatives provides in-depth training in best practices in ESD and connects faculty to community stakeholders through the Collaboratory, also advancing best practice in university-community equitable collaboration. Through the open access materials we have developed and are continuously expanding, the project has the potential to support course re-design to incorporate ESD globally, with a significant outreach and dissemination effort. By bringing together expertise in course design and pedagogy with ESD and community engagement expertise, this project provides a model for a comprehensive approach to across-the-curriculum ESD in higher education. The Collaboratory further expends the impact of the project by building a sustainable infrastructure for supporting the regional SDGs of Georgia’s community-based organizations working for the Goals. The Collaboratory will significantly expand and enhance university-community science and action projects that advance Goals in water and air quality, climate mitigation and resilience, economic development, and more. Both the faculty training initiatives and the Collaboratory also advance greater transdisciplinarity in higher education, a significant element of ESD.
6. How does your project link to the SDGs or other global frameworks (e.g. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Convention on Biological Diversity, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030)? (Character count 300 words):
Because this project do not predetermine specific SDGs but rather support ESD across the SDGs, the outputs, particularly as we reach more and more faculty over time, are likely to intersect with all these global frameworks.
(Check all that apply):
- Serving as local and regional hubs for ESD, showing leadership to pioneer, practice and advocate for knowledge and innovative approaches
- Strengthening the association of RCE activities with key local, national and global policies and frameworks related to SDGs and ESD
- Expanding knowledge sharing and outreach among RCEs, external partners, communities and relevant stakeholders, including by leveraging innovative technologies and modalities
