Curriculum review of ESD at CCCU: a case study in health and wellbeing

Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) has produced a curriculum review tool to help modules and programme directors identify the four core components of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), as defined by the QAA ESD guidance: Global Citizenship; Environmental Stewardship; Social justice, Ethics and Well-being and Futures Thinking. From its grass roots ESD reached the university’s Strategic Framework, where sustainability features as a cross-cutting theme. The review tool was designed in order to realise the aim ‘to support curriculum innovation so that all students have the opportunity to engage with sustainability related issues relevant to their discipline and chosen field of work’ (Sustainability Framework 2015), to be used by programme teams to identify sustainability content that is already in use, and to support opportunities for curriculum innovation and development.

This paper explores the process of creating the ESD review at CCCU and results of carrying out a pilot review on the Foundation Degree in Health and Social Care, faculty of Health and Wellbeing. By using the mapping tool, it became apparent that the concept of sustainability was present within the degree, however it wasn’t explicit. Its use motivated team members to question their own contribution to creating a more sustainable future. It has been noted that although climate change poses the most serious threat to global health in the 21st Century, for health professionals the threat seems removed and distant. Realization seems to challenge individuals to explore the potential posed by the theme. Results indicate the importance of allowing academic staff the time and space to think and talk, so that engagement with the topic is possible. They also identify a need to re-frame sustainability to evoke positive emotions, capitalising on the things that can be achieved, rather than creating a sense of enormity that results in disempowerment.

By sharing the findings of a review of ESD curriculum mapping exercises; of the opportunities and hardships involved in developing CCCU’s mapping tool; and the experience gained by piloting such tool, this paper will assist other universities that are interested in exploring the scope of ESD in their own curriculum.