       |
UM's GREEN THREAD
Achieving a sustainable society is a central part of UM's mission, and every discipline and program on campus has something to teach about sustainability. Plans are being developed to organize those lessons into a Green Thread that runs through the curriculum, so that every student and faculty member can participate in learning about sustainability.
The Green Thread is a curricular initiative, modeled after successful projects at Northern Arizona University (The Ponderosa Project) and Emory University (The Piedmont Project) that will infuse ecological, social, and economic sustainability into courses across UM. This initiative is in response to the ACUP Climate Commitment’s action item requiring UM to develop an institutional plan to “make climate neutrality and sustainability a part of the curriculum....”
A key component of sustainability literacy is faculty development. Dr. Paul Rowland was a co-developer of the Ponderosa Project and has offered significant guidance on developing this model for UM. Through a two-day summer 2009 workshop for UM faculty members, this initiative seeks to guide faculty through course development/modification in an informal, interdisciplinary and sustainability-focused environment. Key benefits of this model include:
- Promotes faculty development and cross-disciplinary collaboration, which is the cornerstone of sustainability literacy
- Provides faculty with a stipend for modifying current courses or developing new courses, offering students from all disciplines exposure to sustainability concepts.
- Creates high impact [Emory University states that 600-900 students are impacted for each faculty cohort of 20]
The Green Thread Initiative:
A Proposal for Faculty Development – Sustainability Across the Curriculum
Steve Schwarze and Lisa Swallow
Approved by the Sustainable Campus Committee
Overview
The Green Thread Initiative is intended to infuse issues of ecological, social, and economic sustainability into courses across the UM curriculum. A key component of sustainability literacy is faculty development. Through a two-day summer workshop for UM faculty members, the initiative seeks to help faculty integrate issues of sustainability into their general education courses. Consistent with the very idea of sustainability, the initiative ultimately seeks to enhance students’ understanding of the interconnectedness of ecological, social, and economic issues.
Need
Even though environmental and social justice issues are prominent at UM, students’ exposure to matters of sustainability is limited to a small number of degree programs and specialized courses. (See http://www.umt.edu/greeningum/teaching_programs.htm.) Consequently, many UM students may not see the relevance of sustainability to their disciplines, examine issues of sustainability on an ongoing basis, or comprehend the holistic nature of the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability.
However, as a signatory to the Talloires Declaration in 1999, as well as the ACUP Climate Commitment in 2007, UM has made an institutional commitment to “Educate for Environmentally Responsible Citizenship” and “Foster Environmental Literacy for All.” The former commits the University to:
Create programs to develop the capability of university faculty to teach environmental literacy to all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.
The latter commits UM to:
Develop a comprehensive plan, within two years, to attain climate neutrality as soon as practically possible….as well as the education and research necessary for all students.
In May 2002, the Environmental Focus Planning Cluster at UM similarly advised that we:
Explore how to infuse environmental and natural resources literacy into curricula and to enhance the literacy of students, faculty, and staff on campus.
Given these commitments to sustainability literacy, we offer The Green Thread as a way to weave issues of sustainability into the General Education curriculum – a first step toward sustainability literacy among all UM students. In May 2006, the UM Sustainable Campus Committee approved a prior draft version of this document as a framework for initiating sustainability literacy efforts at UM.
Vision
A two-day workshop held during the week following the conclusion of Spring Semester. This first day will focus on the idea of sustainability and its implications within and across disciplines. The second day will focus on integrating issues of sustainability into existing courses and envisioning pedagogy that enables student learning. Short presentations by mostly non-UM experts on sustainability and pedagogy will be used to stimulate discussion on Day One. On Day Two, faculty will break out into small interdisciplinary groups and are facilitated to envision / discuss how each respective discipline can embrace sustainability topics. Faculty then leave with tangible ideas as to how to review one of their current courses or develop a new course over the summer; they will share the outcome of their work with one another during a ½ day retreat at the inception of the Fall Semester.
This initiative is modeled after successful projects at Northern Arizona University (The Ponderosa Project) and Emory University (The Piedmont Project). These projects exemplify the kind of informal, faculty-driven curriculum development that we seek to initiate at UM.
Benefits
The initiative promotes faculty development and cross-disciplinary conversation. The workshop intends to convene 20-30 UM faculty members from a variety of disciplines and encourage discussion about how issues of sustainability connect with their disciplines. In addition, they will discuss pedagogical strategies that facilitate student learning about those issues.
The project enhances the coherence of the University’s General Education Curriculum. As growing numbers of faculty participate and revise their courses, students will be increasingly likely to encounter issues of sustainability in several of their General Education courses. As a result, the initiative encourages connections across disciplines and scholarly perspectives. Moreover, it does so within the existing curricular structure, avoiding some of the practical difficulties associated with team-teaching and wholesale curriculum revision.
The initiative expands UM’s sustainability efforts into the realm of teaching. Past and current sustainability efforts have tended to focus on facilities, operations, and outreach; however, there are a significant number of faculty who do research on sustainability-related issues. This project would be the first to make curriculum development a comprehensive site for sustainability efforts.
The initiative fulfills UM’s commitment to the Talloires Declaration. As noted above, the initiative directly addresses the need to develop faculty teaching capabilities and environmentally responsible citizens.
Next Step:
- Identify Steering Committee members to begin meeting Fall 2008. This group of 6 faculty / administrative members will be committed to organizing a workshop for May 2009. The group would meet regularly throughout AY 08-09. This group would focus especially on identifying outside speakers for the workshop, allocating budget and recruiting UM faculty participants.
Contacts