Sustainability Curriculum Audit: Poster presented June 2014 at Annual Conference of Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE). Kingston, ON. (original) (raw)

Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, together with industry, has emphasized the need for graduates to have sustainability skills and knowledge (Knibb, 2012; OECD, 2011). George Brown College has a strategic focus on ensuring its graduates understand how sustainability relates to their work and to society. This led to our sustainability-across-the-curriculum project in 2013. In order to render visible all courses that deliver and measure student acquisition of sustainability skills and knowledge, the College undertook an audit to determine current levels of sustainability teaching and learning within all active programs of instruction (cf. Rusinko, 2010; Bridges, 2008; Jahan & Mehta, 2007; Springett, 2005). We now know which of our programs provide a framework for learning that emphasizes environmental, social and economic sustainability skills and knowledge, particularly as these relate to a student’s own field of study. We also know precisely in which courses this learning takes place. As a result of our sustainability-across-the-curriculum audit we are better able to link our sustainable research mandate to broader industry productivity and graduate preparation (cf. United Nations Development Program, 2014; Sibbel, 2009; Tilbury, 2004).