Education

Paradigm Shakes

We seem to be stuck in a dangerous and destructive paradigm. Our current approach to climate change is painfully inadequate. Will shifting paradigms be easier if we start with a few small shakes?Karen O’Brien Jan 20 ExtremesThese are not easy times. It’s hard to watch the news and read the latest climate projections. And it’sContinue reading “Paradigm Shakes”

Biesta: The Beautiful Risk of Education

We seem to be in the process of creating an education system that strives to reduce all risks whilst making ever-greater demands. The new system tells our students they must work harder, be more productive, and aim ever higher, but is not prepared to allow them simple freedoms or opportunities to make choices and toContinue reading “Biesta: The Beautiful Risk of Education”

What do faculty owe future generations?

By Sharon Stein, originally published by Resilience.org January 30, 2024 I’m a millennial faculty member. The millennial generation – also known as Generation Y – came of age with 9/11, followed by the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and then the 2007/8 financial crisis. While we were growing up, promises of perpetual progress and prosperityContinue reading “What do faculty owe future generations?”

Consilience

In Search of the Unity of Knowledge by E. O. Wilson I have recently returned to reading the biologist and polymath’s 1998 book in search of some answers to why there is an absence of political leadership capable of addressing our current ecological and environmental crises. I have adapted and summarised some of the earlyContinue reading “Consilience”

DEEP REGENERATION

In the midst of today’s tumultuous times, as we grapple with a rapidly changing climate and deepening social divides, the need for action has never been more pressing. The concepts of regeneration and sustainability have long been discussed in academic circles, but we must move beyond the realm of theory and into the arena ofContinue reading “DEEP REGENERATION”

We Need a Revolution in Universities to Help Humanity Solve Global Problems

Guest Blog by Dr Nicholas Maxwell, Science and Technology Studies, UCL The world is in a state of crisis. Global problems that threaten our future include: the climate crisis; the destruction of natural habitats, catastrophic loss of wildlife, and mass extinction of species; lethal modern war; the spread of modern armaments; the menace of nuclearContinue reading “We Need a Revolution in Universities to Help Humanity Solve Global Problems”

PROJECT BASED LEARNING

A recent book from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) highlights how universities are not providing the majority of their students with the critical thinking skills required by employers. In their study analysing data from the US, UK, Italy, Mexico, Finland and China, 45 per cent of students were found to be proficient in criticalContinue reading “PROJECT BASED LEARNING”

New Ways of Seeing the World: Big History and Great Transition

Opening essay for a GTI Forum David Christian May 2023 As the first astronauts peered down on Earth from space, they saw the planet anew. They all had the same epiphany, as the sight of one small, fragile world, embedded in a huge universe briefly replaced the multiple, ever-changing impressions of everyday life. To buildContinue reading “New Ways of Seeing the World: Big History and Great Transition”

HOSPICING OUR UNIVERSITIES IN DECLINE

In this the third of my most recent blogs on the theme of a University for the Common Good – I reflect on the decline of our current model of the University and how the concept of “hospicing a habit of being” coined by Stein et al(2020) might enable those of us who have arguedContinue reading “HOSPICING OUR UNIVERSITIES IN DECLINE”

CAN WE REIMAGINE THE UNIVERSITY?

In my earlier post I set out the idea that universities are of the crisis rather than as is widely understood that external risks are the real threat to them. I have written an earlier blog(Educating Earth Literate Leaders) – if we look back on the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002) and many of theContinue reading “CAN WE REIMAGINE THE UNIVERSITY?”