The newly published "Facilitator Guide: Addressing Inner Dimensions for Sustainability in Higher Education" supports teaching staff at higher education institutions. The guide leads through an 8.5 hours course and aims at teachers interested in expanding their sustainability knowledge and perspectives, integrating sustainability into their teaching practices, and enhancing their sustainability-related teaching approach by addressing inner dimensions such as individual and collective consciousness, awareness, or mindsets.
As we navigate the complexities of the 21st century, the importance of inner dimensions for sustainable development – which include mindsets, emotions, values, and self-awareness – become increasingly clear. Teaching staff at higher education institutions (HEI) plays a pivotal role in shaping future generations of socially conscious and environmentally responsible leaders and change agents – and they can enhance their ability to do so by expanding the scope of education to encompass not only intellectual development, but also inner development.
The Facilitator Guide "Addressing Inner Dimensions for Sustainability in Higher Education" is aimed at HEI teaching staff. The target group is interested in expanding their sustainability knowledge and perspectives, integrating sustainability into their teaching practices, and enhancing their sustainability-related teaching approach by addressing inner dimensions. The guide leads through an 8.5 hours course, which can be facilitated either by one person or, ideally, by a small team. Facilitators can be HEI faculty, a professional course moderator, or someone in a similar role. By reading the Facilitator Guide and related materials, facilitators will learn more about running the course for a group of HEI faculty. The individual exercises in the Facilitator Guide can also serve as a source of inspiration for teaching activities with other target groups.
The course was developed within the project "Transforming Higher Education for Sustainability by Fostering Inner Dimensions of Learners", which ran from 2022 to 2024 and was funded by Movetia, the Swiss agency for exchange and mobility. The project aimed to develop innovative teaching approaches to promote sustainable development and brought together seven HEIs from Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the US (including CA members University of Bern and Leuphana University Lüneburg) with complementary experience and interests in the field of sustainability teaching.
⧉ Facilitator Guide "Addressing Inner Dimensions for Sustainability in Higher Education"