Quick Start Guide to Embedding ESD in Your Module
This page is designed for colleagues who may be encountering the SDGs and ESD for the first time.
While ESD is a dynamic topic in higher education currently, it is important to highlight that changes in a module, or even within a small number of teaching events, can be made in the short term and enable you to step into ESD on a larger scale. This page provides some starting points.
Context – in brief
Section 1 explains in detail why Trinity is engaged in embedding ESD and responding to the SDGs through our curricula. In brief, education for sustainable development means developing students’ knowledge and competencies to address global sustainability challenges and support a sustainable future on this planet. We encourage you to engage with all of the resources in this Hub over a longer period of time in order to support review, and if necessary, revision of modules and programmes to embed ESD.
Making a start: just one thing
Here is a short list of ideas focused on changing just one thing in your teaching, or in support of students’ learning at Trinity to address one SDG. This can start the process of embedding ESD. Each of these ideas could be implemented within a short time frame, for example during one teaching session, or over one or two weeks of a module, or through independent learning activities undertaken by students.
All of these ideas address SDG4, Quality Education, but many could address a range of the other SDGs too depending on your creative choices.
Change one reading list source
- Can the reading list include sources addressing aspects of sustainable development, for example: climate action, improving global public health, innovating in industry or infrastructure, responsible consumption and production, social justice, or partnership approaches to social challenges?
- Can any existing source on the reading list be reconsidered through the lens of sustainable development, choosing any one of the SDGs?
- Can the reading list include a source from the Global South and/or research published through Open Science/open publishing?
Change one resource you use
- Could one resource pick up on a topic related to ESD and be used for another purpose, for example, for translation to another language or for literary criticism?
- If you use grey literature or policy documents, can one of these address the SDGs? Or perhaps an older policy or report could be compared with more recent ones where sustainability is foregrounded – to be discussed and critiqued by students?
- Can one of the teaching resources you use be drawn from an open educational resource repository? Here is some help with finding open educational resources
- Can any existing source you use be reconsidered through the lens of sustainable development?
Introduce a new in-class activity
- Instead of presenting information, could you use short case studies to generate questions and discussion, building on this to discuss sustainability and the SDGs within your discipline?
- Have you tried pairwork or polling to find out students’ responses to the SDGs, and their connection with your discipline?
- If you are new to ESD, then your students may be new to it too. How can you work with them to identify connections with your discipline? Can you introduce one or more SDGs through a topic you are teaching, and discuss what that means specifically in your context?
Take one news story
- What's in the news this week? Could any news items provide you with a connection between the topic you are teaching this week, and sustainability-related topics?
- Stepping back from the topic of a story, could you use a news item to prompt more critical consideration of how information is now reported and shared, and how this affects our understanding of both disciplinary knowledge and the SDGs?
- Misinformation and disinformation influence public understanding of sustainability: could your students critique examples of what they read/view to identify how this might be happening?
Take one cultural artefact
- Films, fiction, art, and social media all address themes in our disciplines, and illustrate the relationship between our disciplines and real-world challenges or events. In any discipline, using a quote or excerpt (such as a film clip) could help with illustrating the climate crisis as understood in your discipline. Can you use a short piece for this purpose? Building on this, can cultural artefacts help us to understand issues of partnership and the challenges of working in partnership to achieve goals including the SDGs?
- For Arts and Humanities disciplines, there are limitless possibilities to consider how culture interacts with the themes of the SDGs, and particularly the climate crisis. This could be considered across different time periods and in different cultures, and perhaps linked with discussion of future sustainable development of work in the disciplines?
One step further: student-generated materials and activities
- For any of the ideas suggested here, it would be feasible to ask students what they think would help them to understand the SDGs in relation to their disciplines: what are they thinking, and what do they envisage for their future work in related fields?
- Can students also suggest something they have read, watched, listened to, that touches on climate crisis or sustainable development? Could this resource link with a topic that you are teaching?
- Are students involved in societies, clubs or organisations that are addressing sustainability in what they do? What have they learned from those experiences that they can bring to their learning in class?
Next Steps
- What has been effective?
- What has been less effective or needs development?
- What are your next actions in relation to ESD?
Return now to the landing page of this Hub, and decide on your learning goals:
- Which sections will you engage with next, and over what time period?
- What would you like to achieve by the end of next term?
- What would you like to achieve by the end of the academic year?
- Would you consider scheduling an email to send to yourself in one month’s time, as a reminder of your planned goals and actions?
Remember that further support for ESD is also available through this Hub and through planned activities at Trinity. Please visit the Centre for Academic Practice website regularly to find out more.
Key Takeaways
- Trying one or two small changes in teaching materials and resources can start your engagement with education for sustainable development.
- Linking one or two teaching and learning activities with the themes of the UN SDGs can build your engagement with education for sustainable development.
- Students can help by identifying resources to use, or by connecting the SDGs with their experiences and with their disciplines.
- Reflecting on these small changes can help you to identify areas you would like to develop further.
The content of this publication has not been approved by the United Nations and does not reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or Member States. Please see their Sustainable Development Goals communications page for more details.
If you are looking for further assistance with ESD curriculum design in Trinity, please contact the Academic Practice team.