2021); therefore, innovative pedagogical approaches and educators' willingness to question their role and the activities they conduct are required. Despite these emerging frameworks, key questions remain as to what this means to our practice as educators and practitioners in ESD: How do we enable students to gain the kinds of competencies needed to bring about transformative social change toward sustainability in their own universities and wider communities? How can we move beyond preparing students for employment and produce graduates who are genuinely change agents and ready to be the change they want to see in the world?
2.1.2 Activist Learning and Education for Sustainability
The questions in the preceding paragraph require a pedagogical approach suited to empowering and motivating students to drive change. Experiential learning theory is based on a learning cycle incorporating concrete experience, abstract conceptualization, reflective observation, and active experimentation (Kolb and Kolb 2017) and is derived from Kolb's seminal 1984 work on experiential learning that draws on the work of Lewin, Dewey, and Piaget. This approach is seen as involving the whole person and is applicable not just to the formal classroom, but to all areas of life (Kolb and Kolb 2017). Experiential learning is used here as an umbrella term encompassing a range of active pedagogies and approaches that integrate the interconnections of theory and action (Ludlow 2010). It has been suggested that experiential learning can support students to move beyond generic dissatisfaction about the way things are, to feel empowered to drive change through focusing on specific issues, targets, and actions (Ludlow 2010). Such approaches, particularly where there is the goal of driving social change, have connections to other fields of learning design and philosophy including emancipatory learning, social purpose education, critical pedagogy, and radical adult education (Ollis 2008).
Within this chapter we explore the synergies between activism and forms of activist‐oriented learning with ESD that cross the formal, informal/non‐formal, and hidden curricula. Activism can be defined as a process whereby individuals act to impact social change (Ollis 2008). Here we define activist learning (in the context of sustainability), as a strategy for generating sustainability competencies that encapsulate the knowledge, understanding, skills, values, and attributes that allow learners to contribute to a more sustainable future through engagement and leadership in (broadly defined) community activism. In the context of more formal curriculum approaches, the expectation is that they will use their academic learning to inform action in the world with the aim of bringing about positive social, political, and cultural change (Still and Kent 1996), whereas within the non‐formal/informal curriculum such connections to academic learning might or m not exist. Clearly, activism or activist learning do not take place in the curriculum alone, with work‐placed activism (e.g. Costa et al. 2021b) and community activism, amongst others, important areas of actions and development.
Sustainability requires activism. For some, our current times lack strong and vibrant social movements (Bubriski and Semaan 2009), with the suggestion that beyond the recent trend of climate‐related activism (e.g. de Moor et al. 2020) few students participate in movements for social change (Bubriski and Semaan 2009); others argue that activism is an ever‐increasing aspect of student life (Eagan et al. 2015). Some educators see embedding activism in the classroom as imperative, merging theory and action to ensure curricula that engage with societal injustices beyond just consciousness‐raising, allowing students to implement in practice what they have learned and to drive social and systemic change (Bubriski and Semaan 2009). Buchanan and Griffin (2010: 5) assert that embedding ESD within the curriculum “is hollow and insincere in the absence of practical and social action on site and perhaps beyond.” Hence in this chapter we take the perspective that activist learning has an important role to play as part of ESD.
One way in which experiential learning and community action has been embedded in the curriculum, particularly in North America where it has a long tradition, is through service learning, founded on John Dewey's philosophy of the link between practice and theory and the role of education in fostering the common good. Definitions of service learning vary, but the key components include: (i) participation in community service for academic credit; (ii) reflection to enable connection between the action and curriculum content; and (iii) a desire to enhance a sense of civic responsibility (Bringle and Hatcher 1999; England and Marcinkowski 2007). For such experiential learning to be effective, it has been argued that reflection should draw on both cognitive and emotional registers (Ludlow 2010), thus integrating both affective and cognitive learning approaches, while much service may also incorporate practical action; hence engagement of “head, heart, and hands.”
The literature on the impact of service learning is varied with inconclusive results, thought to be partly due to the range in the quality of service learning (Covitt 2002). However, a long‐term study of an environmental service learning course in middle schools in the US highlighted that the greatest impact was directly on students' environmental actions and its long‐term empowerment, through helping participants realize that they can make a difference as young people and have the skills and knowledge to drive change (Hobert 2010).
However, the service learning model is critiqued for its encouragement of passive participation and failure to challenge the underpinning, systemic issues which perpetuate social inequalities (Bubriski and Semaan 2009). Another criticism is that the service or experience itself does not necessarily produce learning, without critically reflective thought creating new meaning, leading to growth and the ability to take informed actions (Bringle and Hatcher 1999). Service learning also presents a number of hurdles such as communication and relationship‐building within the communities served, students' cultural competency, and challenges of short‐term service learning (Tryon and Stoecker 2008). This indicates that there is space to explore other forms of activist learning.
Activist learning can be said to challenge the structural cause of social and environmental injustice unlike the more passive engagement implied by service learning (Bubriski and Semaan 2009; Ludlow 2010). Another key difference lies in service learning tending to respond to a pre‐articulated community need, whereas activist learning may be more driven by the students' own interests in driving change. Hence, activist learning can turn students' own potential dissatisfaction and disempowerment into political activism and moral agency (Ludlow 2010). In addition, rather than the more usual focus on wider community needs of service learning, many examples of activist learning in higher education involve action on the university and college campuses themselves (e.g. Ludlow 2010). Gruenewald (2003) argues for the value of place‐conscious education, arguing that students' localized places of study, work, and recreation are centers of their experience and understanding of how the world works. Our university campuses might, therefore, be one of the most immediate places that connect to a student's own experiences and awareness of unsatisfactory conditions upon which they can act.
With its emphasis on bringing about the kinds of social changes needed to create a more sustainable society, the aspirations of ESD seem to encourage an activist learning approach. Students pursuing activism projects in their communities have powerful potential to generate the transformative education of true ESD. Many students already recognize the need for change on campuses (Barlett and Chase 2004; Drayson et al. 2014) and beyond to enable a more sustainable society, and are motivated to adapt their own behavior (Dagiliūtė et al. 2018; Rodríguez‐Barreiro et al. 2013) and influence others (Cotton et al. 2016). Encouraging and supporting students to channel their energies and values – in a way that is determined and driven by them – seems a vital way to generate truly transformative learning, while for students who lack a sense of responsibility for the sustainability of their surroundings, activist learning can also potentially generate a greater sense of agency and empowerment. Wherever a student's starting point as a sustainability activist is, opportunities to engage in activist learning have the potential to empower students to build sustainability competencies through systems thinking, problem‐solving and enacting social change, in contrast to more passive learning activities.
While it is generally accepted that university students should be encouraged to take part in volunteering and work experience for the development of employability skills, the idea that they might be encouraged to engage in social or political activism as part of their studies is seldom discussed and undoubtedly controversial.