The Whole Institution Approach to Sustainability and Transdisciplinarity

In a recent essay for Earth Charter Magazine, Alicia Jimenez-Elizondo argues for the importance of a whole-institution approach to sustainability. She is a biologist at the University of Costa Rica and Director of Earth Charter International in Costa Rica. She also teaches courses on sustainable development and has worked in the field for 25 years. In the article published in the Earth Charter Magazine, she uses recent pedagogical work in holistic education to support her arguments.

Autopoiesis and Holistic Learning

Alicia Jimenz-Elizondo cites the work of the Chilean scientists Maturana and Varela (1998), who believed that living itself is a learning process. They argued that human beings are constantly learning through interaction with the environment and, as a consequence, both self-organising and creating in response to the environment in which they live (autopoiesis). Their work was very much focused on human evolution and helped us develop some features such as eyesight and teeth. Gutierrez and Prado (2004) have adapted these ideas to consider the holistic nature of learning in educational settings. They argue that both students and teachers also learn from their environment, including cultural norms, physical working conditions and facilities such as toilets. If we consider that, as human beings, education takes place in every context and helps to shape how we perceive the world and how we develop our own value systems.

Whole Institution Approach (WIA)

It is suggested by Kohl et al (2021) that the understanding of learning as a holistic process is how Unesco proposes a recommended strategy for education for sustainable development. Unesco (2012) recognises that education plays a key role in sustainability. Unesco argues that 'it is not education about sustainable development, but education for sustainable development'. 

Such an approach requires a change in educational practice "so that learners can live what they learn and learn what they live" (Unesco 2020). 

An important point made by the author is that this approach also relies on transdisciplinary approaches, as this is the best way to analyse and deal with the complex issues of sustainability. It is able to do this because it looks at all the components of particular issues. A systems approach is clearly well suited to the transdisciplinary way of analysing and finding solutions.

Core elements of WIA

• Coherence: This means that for WIA to be successful, there must be coherence between what is taught and what is done in the school.

• Participation: This follows from coherence and involves the whole school community, where everyone - students, staff, parents and community - is clear about the school's aims and commitments to sustainability.

• Ownership: The role of the school leadership is key in providing collaborative leadership, creating time for discussion and being a listener to the educational community.

• Continuous learning: There should be a culture of continuous learning that comes from self-evaluation and revision of both formal and informal curricula.

• Collaborative Leadership: The ability to delegate and recognise situational leadership is important.
  (Holst, 2023, Unesco 2022)

Steps in implementing a WIA

Such a holistic strategy is not linear and implementation can take place at several levels:

• Governance: Writing policy papers with a wide range of stakeholders involved in the process.

• Collaborative leadership: In the form of committees and/or working groups, the conditions can be created for individual and societal shifts in worldviews.

• Operations: These include reducing ecological footprints, pollution and land use. It is important that students are aware of this.

• Curricula: Pedagogy should reflect knowledge, skills and values related to sustainability. It is important to move away from silo-based disciplines to a trans-disciplinary approach.

Some personal observations

The use of a pedagogical approach that emphasises the importance of a truly holistic approach to teaching, including both the formal and informal aspects of education, is an important strand of the WIA. There have been many claims by both institutions and schools to provide a holistic education, but it is an elusive goal. The WIA approach has been advocated by many writers on sustainability education, and its five core elements form the basis of this approach. It encourages schools to work with members of the wider community.

However, a major challenge that remains is to have a transdisciplinary approach to teaching in schools as they continue to be organised along disciplinary lines. The author of this article advocates a project approach to the study of world problems. Research by Bergmann (2021) highlights the benefits of this approach and how it promotes systems thinking, dialogue, empathy and listening skills. An added benefit is mutual understanding.

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References

Adomßent, M. (2022). Taking inter- and trans-disciplinarity to eye-level with scientific disciplines: Teaching and learning in the Complementary Studies at Leuphana College in Lüneburg, Germany. In B. Baptista Vienni & J. Thompson Klein (Eds.), Institutionalizing interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity: Collaboration across cultures and communities. (pp 27-42). Routledge, London. DOI:10.4324/9781003129424-4, ISBN 9780367654344

Bergmann, M., Schäpke, N., Marg, O., Stelzer, F., Lang, DJ., Bossert, M., Gantert, M., Häußler, E., Marquardt, E., Piontek, FM., Potthast, TM., Rhodius, R., Rudolph, M., Ruddat, M., Seebacher, A., & Sußmann, N. (2021). Transdisciplinary sustainability research in real‑world labs: Success actors and methods for change. Sustainability Science 16, 541–564 (link)

Gutiérrez, F. & Prado, C. (2004). Germinando humanidad: Pedagogía del aprendizaje. Save the children – Norguega.

Holst, J (2023). Towards coherence on sustainability in education: a systematic review of Whole Institution Approaches. Sustainability Science 18:1015–1030 (link)

Jimenez A (2023) The Whole Institution Approach to Sustainability and Transdisciplinarity in Earth Charter Magazine

Kohl, K., Hopkins, C., Barth, M., Michelsen, G., Dlouha, J., Razak, DA., Bin Sanusi, ZA., & Toman, I. (2022). A whole-institution approach towards sustainability: A crucial aspect of higher education’s individual and collective engagement with the SDGs and beyond. Vol. 23 No. 2, 2022 International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 23(2), 218-236. DOI 10.1108/IJSHE-10-2020-0398

Maturana, H., & Varela, F. (1998). De máquinas y seres vivos. Autopoiesis: la organización de lo vivo. Editorial Universitaria S.A.

UNESCO (2014). Roadmap for implementing the global action programme on ESD (link)

UNESCO (2020). Education for sustainable development: A Roadmap (link)