The Community Resilience and Sustainability Education Lab: Promoting responsible management education through innovative learning experiences

Abstract

[presentation] This work regards the use of an education lab as an academic mechanism for linking communities and their sustainable challenges to educational activities that enrich learning experiences and faculty development. Universities are expected to cultivate the human and professional capacities that students need to meet the present and future demands of people, society, and the planet, encompassing managerial, professional, and technical skills. Consequently, this prevailing situation necessitates prompt attention and a steadfast commitment to the development of educational approaches that ensure both the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching processes, as well as the pertinence of learning experiences. In response, global efforts in Higher Education (HE) are underway to leverage innovative teaching and learning approaches for advancing relevant learning outcomes. This is the case of sustainability education to ensure that all learners acquire the requisite knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development. However, it is claimed that HE is insufficiently promoting sustainability awareness and capacities that translate into practice. Hence, this work aims to address this gap by proposing a systematic approach for community engagement to nurture sustainability-related learning scenarios for active learning activities. At Aston University in the UK, two initiatives, namely Public Engagement and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), are guiding sustainability education efforts. To this end, the Community Resilience and Sustainability Education Lab (CoRSEL) endeavours to promote community engagement through meaningful, active, and enriching teaching and learning experiences. CoRSEL serves as an educational laboratory that supports research and scholarship aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Aston’s vision of a civic university. Accordingly, the lab employs pedagogical approaches that enrich learning experiences addressing complex sustainability issues concerning food security, transport and mobility, environmental impact, health and well-being, and social inclusion, among others. CoRSEL adopts a working model that prioritizes building relationships with the public and communities, enhancing students' competencies as responsible citizens, fostering community-related skills among faculty, conducting disciplinary and educational research, and engaging organizations in community efforts. The learning experiences offered by CoRSEL, as the core output of the lab, incorporate novel pedagogical approaches, such as active learning, competency-based education, experiential learning, challenge-based learning, and service learning. These approaches promote hands-on, collaborative, and autonomous learning among students. Such learning experiences can be framed within a pedagogical framework that establishes a research agenda on innovation in HE. Examples of these learning experiences refer to food supply limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic, urban mobility issues in logistic operations, solid waste generation in retail operations, and the effects of high-calorie products’ retail on food security, among others. Through these endeavours, CoRSEL seeks to influence actions related to the public and communities, develop a repository of students' portfolios showcasing academic evidence, support knowledge dissemination, and enhance research publication. Already, the lab has facilitated the enrichment of three modules and has contributed to strengthening national and international collaborations. Future steps include expanding the collaboration network to attract community-academic partners, incorporating new colleagues at Aston University, developing additional learning experiences, and evaluating their impact on learning and the community.