May 16, 2025, by sustainablenottingham
Reflections on the Teaching and Learning Conference – Sustainability in Education
In April 2025, the University of Nottingham held its annual Teaching and Learning Conference, this year with a focus on: The Future of Education for Sustainable Development: Engaging Students and Empowering Educators. The conference highlighted the critical role of education in addressing global environmental and social challenges, empowering students and educators alike to lead in a sustainable and innovative future.
Conference Keynote: Education for sustainability: the stories we live by approach
In the keynote talk, Arran Stibbe Professor of Ecological Linguistics at the University of Gloucestershire, argued that the changes required to build a sustainable society are so large that they require systemic transformation. This is change at the level of the stories we tell ourselves about the purpose of the economy, about the value of the natural world, about what it means to be human. In educational terms, this means:
- engaging students in reflection to develop their own values framework which they use to judge whether stories are destructive or beneficial,
- helping them gain critical awareness of the stories that underpin the unequal and unsustainable society around them, and
- developing the ability to search for new stories to live by that can bring a very different future into being.
The session can be watched here. Read more about this engaging and inspiring talk in this blog.
Panel Discussion: Education for Sustainable Development
Mike Clifford, Associate Professor, Mechanical Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
On Wednesday 16 April, as part of the University of Nottingham’s annual Teaching and Learning Conference, I had the privilege to chair an online panel discussion on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) with a panel of experts. Our panel included:
- Arran Stibbe, Professor of Ecological Linguistics at the University of Gloucestershire,
- Subarna Sivapalan, Associate Professor of Education and Associate Dean, Research and Knowledge Exchange, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNM),
- Muhammad Ali, University of Nottingham Director of Environmental Sustainability,
- Chris Ives, University of Nottingham Associate Professor in Geography, and
- Stuti Dave, a University of Nottingham Student of MSc Environmental Leadership & Management.
Over 100 members of the University of Nottingham attended the discussion, including colleagues from the China and Malaysia campuses. Our discussion was framed around three themes:
- Reimagining Curriculum,
- Culture Shift and Overcoming Barriers, and Partnerships,
- Innovation & Integrity.
The panellists shared their stories and experiences from their individual contexts to produce an almost united response to the pressing issue of how to increase the profile of ESD at Nottingham and beyond. A recording of the session is available here.
The final question to the panel was, “If you could change one thing tomorrow to advance ESD at your institution, what would it be — and why?”. I’ll summarise the panel’s answers and I’ll leave it to you to guess who said what.
- Embed ESD into every course validation and review process.
- Establish a unit or a centre, a space for sustainability, to support and equip academics to embed sustainability in their teaching.
- Develop a Tri campus ESD Research Centre.
- Replace degree programmes with just one course, “Towards the flourishing of life now and into the future.”
- Foster greater collaboration between students of different faculties that are interested in sustainability.
My overall reflection on the session was of the passion and shared vision that emerged – despite all the obstacles and frustration that we face in terms of administrative burdens, entrenched attitudes in some colleagues, and a general resistance to change, all typical of large institutions.
There is so much good work on sustainability going on at the university (and beyond), but sometimes we are not very good at communicating and sharing what is happening. It’s often said that sustainability is everyone’s responsibility, which is great, but the downside is that we can be tempted to leave it to other people to get on with it without playing our part and without finding out what is going on. Let’s hope that Sustainability Action Week is a catalyst to enhance our storytelling, our listening and our learning.
Start your sustainable journey by adding your environmental pledge to the virtual ‘pledge for the planet’ wall.
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