Pedagogical model for teaching sustainability in higher education: Engaging head, hands and heart

This study aims to build a pedagogical model that engages both head, hands, and heart in the transformative learning of sustainability. We built our pedagogical model for teaching sustainability by integrating the theories of transformative learning (Mezirow 2006; Hoggan 2016), transformative learning for sustainability (Sipos et al. 2008; Rodríguez Aboytes & Barth, 2020), sustainability competencies (Redman & Wiek 2021) and education for sustainability leadership (Haney et al. 2020; Novy et al. 2021). Our study contributes by integrating the theory into a coherent pedagogical model with learning activities that are designed to engage both the learners’ thoughts, identity, and agency. By using empirical data from the first implementation in the advanced master’s level course in the fall 2023, we tested its transformative potential through pre- and post-surveys (n=25) and student feedback (n=19) and demonstrated the learning outcomes as well as the evaluation of the implementation practices.