EMESER Symposium: Educational perspectives on emotions in teaching and learning for sustainability

Description

Trust as a cornerstone of education for sustainability

Trust has been shown by students to be a vital aspect in encouraging learning in Higher Education (Glessmer et al, 2024). Trust building is a powerful focus for teaching practice and demonstrably enhances educational interactions (Felten et al, 2023; Hagenauer et al, 2023). Pedagogical approaches that foster trust can provide safe-enough spaces for students to take risks and admit confusion (Anderson et al, 2019). It can encourage students to grapple with troublesome knowledge
and to appreciate “confusion, indeterminacy and emotional destabilisation” (Gourlay, 2009) as being part of student transitions and their own development. Many of these experiences align well with the types of learning encouraged in education for sustainability. Indeed, Education for Sustainability places equal focus on affective learning outcomes as on cognition (Shephard, 2008) which is also true in trust-based practices (Felten et al, 2023). This paper draws on key literature on how trust is conceptualised in teaching and learning scholarship and considers its relevance for education for sustainability. It outlines what pedagogical approaches foster trust in classroom settings and their potential use to transcend eco/climate anxiety of staff and students (Olsen et al, 2024).

These insights are used to critically reflect on the design and enactment of a community based participatory research module run at a research-intensive University in Ireland. The module runs over 12 weeks as a collaboration with a community group on a sustainability related topic identified by the community group (Hally et al, 2020). The module provides an interesting approach to furthering sustainability competences in students and provides a rich learning experience for students as it connects head, heart and hands. Students learn engaged research techniques experientially through the collaboration. Classroom based sessions provide space to connect learning with key theories and frameworks. Students and community partner are supported to debrief following each session, and students capture their learning via weekly reflective posts. There are two trust relationships being forged through this module; between the university (students and teacher) and community partner, and between the students and teacher. Careful attention is placed on fostering trust relationships through the use of facilitation techniques, and students learn these techniques experientially as they move from participant to facilitator over the 12 weeks. Community engaged learning and research is seen as exemplar pedagogical practice in Education for Sustainability (Tassone et al, 2018) and this paper will illuminate this approach while foregrounding the development of trust relationships. It will conclude with recommendations
regarding implications for future practice.

Period	11 Apr 2025
Event type	Conference
Degree of Recognition	International