Sustainability competences and pedagogical approaches at the Universidade da Coruña

Abstract

[Abstract]: The Universidade da Coruña (UDC) was founded in 1989. It is situated in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the region of Galicia. UDC has around 17,000 students and 1,400 teaching staff, in two campuses. As a result of its commitment to sustainability, UDC presented the Sustainability Campus in 2018, with the mission to consolidate UDC as a pillar of knowledge of regional, national, and international excellence in the areas of knowledge linked to urbanism and landscape, sustainability, and healthy living. This chapter presents the results from two hundred and nineteen survey respondents. The main focus of the university is on cross-cutting themes, followed by environmental issues, social issues, and economic ones. The contribution is high and the strength is medium. The ranking of the competences shows that Critical thinking and analysis is the highest one, followed by Inter-disciplinary work. The ranking of the pedagogical approaches resulted in Project- or Problem-based learning and Lecturing were the highest ones, followed by Case Studies. A correlation analysis showed that Case studies, Eco-justice and community, Inter-disciplinary team teaching, Participatory Action Research, and Community service learning developed the most competences. The competences most developed were Personal involvement, Justice, responsibility, and ethics, Strategic action, Assessment and evaluation, and Tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. The results highlight that synergies could be achieved at UDC by designing programmes for all teachers, in order to foster new ways of teaching sustainability and to stimulate the development of sustainability competences in different disciplines.