Last week I held a seminar with the great people of the Várdduo centre for Sami research at Umeå University. As I presented the project and what has been done so far, which is rooted in business school culture, we also discussed the opportunities to take the project on a journey towards northern Sweden’s Sámi culture. We began our dialogue about how the language of sustainability might be understood in a Sami education environment and what role sustainability science might play in this context. We would like to thank Dr. Charlotta Svonni, specialist in Sámi education in historical and contemporary contexts, who gave great support for our ideas. We look forward to continuing collaborations in the pursuit of interdidicplinary knowledge for education’s future. To imagine the future we think about what we want to keep, what we want to relinquish, what we want to make peace with and what we want to bring back (Sharpe et al., 2016).
We have been making plans to invite all local, national and international communities into this sustainability education project to get a wider understanding about how to support teachers in a student-centred approach to sustainability education. This approach includes exploring alternative teaching environments and educational systems that can provide insight to help transform sustainability education into an interdisciplinary science. While meeting with Dr. Kent Williams at the beginning of the year we began plans to provide opportunities for international communities to find space for exploring imaginative futures. I also witnessed futuring techniques with Professor Nick Mcguigan at an accounting conference, showing that the didactics of sustainability education can be applied across disciplines with simplicity as well as intriguing enthusiasm and great energy.
We would like to thank the research group at the Várdduo centre for continuing the dialogue with us. It is also our aim to include all perspectives of how to build capacity for sustainability competence at the symposium held in the new year. Plans are continuing well, and ideas are put in place to ensure a fruitful dialogue across disciplines. We encourage interest from all disciplines to take part in the symposium to open up the space for futuring opportunities and much more.
Reflection questions this week include: What alternative perspective could you share with us at the symposium for sustainability competence? Would you like to present your ideas, projects or work by using alternative methods? What can you imagine for the future?
Reference
Sharpe, B., Hodgson, A., Leicester, G., Lyon, A., & Fazey, I. (2016). Three horizons: A pathways practice for transformation. Ecology and Society, 21(2).
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