The European virtual seminar on sustainable development as an opportunity for staff ESD competence development within university curricula
Abstract
The purpose of the article is to assess the current and potential value of the European Virtual Seminar on Sustainable Development (EVS), as an opportunity for professional development in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) at university level. The article presents and reflects on the specific case of EVS, including its competence-based approach and educational staff roles.
Particular attention is paid to the development of ESD competences of tutors through participation in EVS, based on the UNECE (2011) competence framework and supported by the results from a small-scale questionnaire. Three major aspects of EVS as a professional opportunity in ESD are elaborated: EVS as an on-the-job training opportunity, as an international staff mobility opportunity, and as an active learning and innovation community.
EVS is currently an effective opportunity for developing a range of ESD competences, especially for junior university staff. In quantitative terms, the actual contribution of EVS to professional development in ESD is modest, but given its features the EVS approach has the potential to be adopted at a much larger scale.
In spite of its flexible and tailor made design, two major constraints for scaling up exist: rigid rules for integration of new courses in curricula and the need to form new EVS-like partnerships. This case study of EVS shows that web-based, internationally networked courses with a pedagogical approach and design focused on ESD, have a large potential in providing effective opportunities for the development of teachers' ESD competences, but to realize this potential, active uptake of the approach by the existing networks for ESD in higher education is needed.
The article presents a promising option to address the observed lack of opportunities within university curricula to acquire and practice ESD competences for teaching staff.