| Festival of Learning
Learning Innovation for Tomorrow: The LIFT Lab
Wednesday 9 June, 10.00-11.30
The University’s Learning Innovation for Tomorrow (LIFT) programme supports academic teams to develop university experiences that empower students to create more equal and resilient futures for people and planet not just profit, in the widest range of industries and careers.
Education for Sustainability (EfS) is consolidating its position as an important curriculum design agenda for the future with the release of an updated guidance from the QAA in March 2021, plus a drive to see sustainability reflected in every subject benchmark.
As we continue to adapt to a post-pandemic world of greater online and blended learning, we need to strengthen our EfS commitments to equip our students to deliver sustainability change in their future industries, with urgent attention to climate change in this critical decade to 2030.
This LIFT Lab shares stories from three projects that have now spanned two academic years having had to adapt and evolve through the pandemic. The lab will also share our first steps in creating an online learning resource that will help students and staff to come to grips with what sustainability learning looks like in practice and in curriculum design.
Join us online for lightning presentations from the project leaders and the chance to discuss the latest experiments and student views in the academic space around sustainability.
Recording of the session
1. Counting Threads
Amy Lilley-Stewart and Margaret McDonough
Triggered by the interest of the new Cheltenham Education Partnership (CEP) in collaborating with the University on sustainability, this project led by the School of Education with Fashion Design is empowering secondary school students to train their teachers in sustainable fashion.
Having built a collaboration across the various schools in the CEP, this year the project delivered a series of workshops called; ‘love your uniform’ – challenging pupils to design and make wearable fashion items from used/second hand school uniform shirts. Alongside this, the project is developing legacy resources for teacher training to help scale project partnerships and increase reach in future years.
2. Sostenuto
Tom Soper
Sostenuto is aiming to influence sustainability practice with industry partners and embed sustainability learning right across the Music Business curriculum.
The course team has reviewed and reframed its provision and assessment at all levels of study working collaboratively with students and building in a set of applied sustainability experiences with a range of partners.
The result is a whole course education for sustainability approach including core assessments that develop professional practice in sustainability as well as attention to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
3. Decolonising Learning
Charles Afriyie, Sam Copland and Mouhamed Thiam
The Decolonising Learning project is supporting the University’s move to increase global perspective as well as develop a more inclusive curriculum portfolio and wider University culture.
This year the project has been engaging senior management and other teams in dialogue about how decolonisation should feature in our course experience. The project team has redesigned four key modules in different subjects as case studies which will accompany the online toolkit of resources developed last academic year.
4. EfS CPD toolkit
Miriam Webb
In addition to the projects led by course teams, the LIFT fund this year has started to develop an online resource that will support course teams on curriculum design and to give students quick insight into sustainability as professional development.
We’ve worked with leading corporate sustainability partner The Heaven Company to develop a set of briefs that relate EfS principles to real sustainability practice in leading organisations. These briefs will be supported by a set of film interviews with key organisational partners including Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, Interface, Adnams and Iggesund.
