Universities as Agents of Change: Green Academy to Ecological University
Year: 2023
Type: other
Abstract: How can we learn, act and lead in real-time and with sufficient scale to tackle the grand challenges of the Anthropocene? What is the purpose of universities in the 21st century?In this chapter, we analyse some of the criticisms levelled at current models of university practice. In light of contemporary global crises, we argue the need for wholesale university reform. Recognising the inherent complexities within this task—spanning organisational values and cultures to designing transformative pedagogies and understanding systemic barriers—leads us to consider a new, fit-for-purpose university model wherein staff, students, graduates and wider citizenry are active agents in second-order change.We broach questions, challenges and opportunities regarding the university and education as central mechanisms for urgently transforming the unsustainable trajectories of the Anthropocene. Building upon past and current examples of Higher Education (HE) institutional change processes, we present a series of recommendations and argue for the emergence of a new model: the ecological and civic university.
Source: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc eBooks
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4319992383