As a Graduate Research Assistant for my professor Rob VanWynsberghe, I did a literature review of an ongoing and branching conversation around Key Sustainability Competencies. I attended a workshop before the WEEC conference, which put many of the leading scholars on this topic in the same room. The day was full of rich dialogue and brilliant ideas. An overarching question was “what is education for?”. I realized that at present, the academy works to produce excellent additions to the workforce. My research explores how education must change in order to foster the creation of change agents or people who will make moves towards creating sustainable well-being societies. Here, I present some of my key findings from my research and the workshop.

 

What are the key sustainability competencies?

“A constellation of abilities, attitudes, knowledge, understanding, skills, and habits of mind that are functionally linked to support both problem- posing and problem-solving and evoke purposeful behavior toward particular end goals” (Glasser & Hirsh 2016). They include social skills & agency (e.g. empathy and compassion), knowledge & understanding (e.g. systems thinking, future thinking), and values & commitments (e.g. affinity for all life, caring for others). There are many different frameworks proposed in the literature, but they are all variations of the same themes. 

Why competencies?

In a nutshell, the competencies can act as an adaptive and non-prescriptive framework that guide students towards being self-empowered change agents and critical thinkers. In light of today’s wicked and complex sustainability problems, this is much needed in order to disrupt destructive narratives that guide society.

Competencies for who?

A lot of the competency literature points to the Western developed world and those with a certain degree of privilege. My research aims to apply the KSC conversation to marginalized or otherwise not-written-about groups (i.e. blue collar workers, women, other cultures, etc.).

Future research:

In my next paper, I aim to connect the KSC with transformative learning. I also investigate pedagogies and assessment methods that could support these two themes.