In the past week, almost 600 Trinity Business students gathered to attend the first mandatory climate module in the university’s history. “Enacting Education for Sustainable Development” has been developed within the past year by the Fellows in Education for Sustainable Development, as well as student interns, and is mandatory for all first year business students.
The module, taught by Associate Professor Norah Campbell, of the School of Business, was designed to be interdisciplinary with an understanding that the knowledge and ability to employ multiple disciplines is necessary to create a balanced and sustainable strategy for business. It recognises that in the 21st century, the conditions of business development are due to change drastically due to the increasingly stressed ecological environment.
The course, consisting of lectures and problem-based workshops, will, according to the module page, provide ‘the language and frameworks to understand the relationships between the economic, environmental, social and personal world.’ It focuses on the complex, intertwined network of global challenges to sustainability and is structured to help students approach these as problems and develop solutions.
The interdisciplinary approach is also important as it allows for the module to be easily integrated into the structure of various undergraduate courses or taught as a Trinity Elective in the future years.
The module is a hallmark of Trinity’s ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) initiative. In May 2023, Trinity Teaching and Learning (TT&L), in collaboration with Trinity Sustainability appointed 5 ESD fellows, with sustainability-related backgrounds in their chosen disciplines. The initiative aims to develop and implement an ESD strategy for Trinity, recognising relevant competencies for sustainability and the pedagogical approaches which support their development. Further ESD curriculums are due to be implemented in other departments, with fellows working closely with members from various faculties, such as STEM, Health Sciences, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
