Leadership in Interdisciplinary Research and Education
Type of Session
Full Presentation Panel
Abstract
Environmental and sustainability research and education are by their nature interdisciplinary. Numerous challenges have been identified associated with interdisciplinary work in general, and specifically within environmental and sustainability contexts. This panel session will focus on the challenges of leadership unique to interdisciplinary research and education programs. Interdisciplinary leadership challenges occur at four scales: national (patterns and challenges at the national level), institutional (initiatives across an entire campus), program (developing and managing education and research programs) and individual (working across boundaries).
In this session we will explore the challenges of interdisciplinary leadership at each of these scales, including the types of boundaries encountered at each scale and how to negotiate them; methods for cooperative interdisciplinary program building; practical techniques for promoting effective interdisciplinary leadership; and approaches for developing current and future generations of environmental and sustainability leaders.
Additional abstracts
What Do Graduates from Environmental Programs Need to Know? What Do They Need to Be Able to Do?
Dr. Liam Phelan
This paper reports on a recently completed project to define threshold learning outcomes (TLOs, or minimum standards) for tertiary programs in the field of ‘Environment and Sustainability’ offered by universities in Australia. In developing the TLOs we asked, ‘What is the critical learning graduates need from Environment and Sustainability programs and why?’ The literature offers a wide range of different approaches, opinions and findings in relation to these questions, rather than a clear consensus position. We undertook this project using a collaborative approach to engage national and international stakeholders (academic, industry, student, indigenous and community) through 2014.We used a social learning approach which fosters discourse and framing of joint problem solving because we sought to articulate a set of TLOs that reflected a shared consensus amongst stakeholders in Environment and Sustainability education to ensure ownership of the TLOs by ‘frontline’ teachers. The collaborative development of the TLOs was informed by over 2,500 individual recommendations from more than 250 stakeholders, and this resulted in a set of TLOs grouped in four categories: Transdisciplinary knowledge, Systemic Understanding, Skills for Environment and Sustainability, and Ethical Practice. Piloting of the TLOs indicates the collective wisdom and experience of a broad and diverse set of stakeholders has resulted in an inspiring yet workable set of student learning standards for tertiary qualifications in Environment and Sustainability. Both the standards themselves and the process through which they were defined may be of interest to environmental educators internationally.
Primary Contact
Dr. Deana D. Pennington, University of Texas at El Paso
Presenters
Dr. Shirley Vincent, National Council for Science and the Environment
E-mail address (preferred) or phone number
Title of paper
Three perspectives on interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability program leadership: an analysis of the views of program leaders
Rod Parnell, PhD, School Earth Sciences & Environmental Sustainability NAU
E-mail address (preferred) or phone number
Title of paper
Meshing top down and bottom up decision-making in Campus Sustainability Programs
David Gosselin
E-mail address (preferred) or phone number
Title of paper
Preparing Students for Collaborative Leadership: Lowering the walls and crossing boundaries using business-based professional assessments to develop interdisciplinary teams
Dr. Deana D. Pennington, University of Texas at El Paso
E-mail address (preferred) or phone number
Title of paper
Integrating Knowledge in Interdisciplinary Environmental and Sustainability Teams
Dr. Liam Phelan, University of Newcastle
E-mail address (preferred) or phone number
Title of paper
What Do Graduates from Environmental Programs Need to Know? What Do They Need to Be Able to Do?