‘It’s Not Just Bits of Paper and Light Bulbs’: A Review of Sustainability Pedagogies and their Potential for Use in Higher Education

In 2005, the UK Government published its sustainable development (SD) strategy Securing the Future, which endorses education as a major vehicle for raising awareness and building a skills base for sustainability. This document promotes sustainability literacy as a core competency for graduates and professionals in the workplace, and encourages universities and colleges to ‘raise the profile of sustainability literacy in all curricula’ (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [DEFRA], 2005, p151).The HEFCE also produced an SD strategy and action plan in 2005 that endorsed ESD, followed up by a strategic review three years later (HEFCE, 2008).These strategies were updated in 2009, in the light of consultation with the HE sector, culminating in a document that identified highereducation as ‘a major contributor to society’s efforts to achieve sustainability – through the skills and knowledge that its graduates learn and put into practice’ (HEFCE, 2009, p3). Among other things, the HE sector is encouraged to ‘develop curricula and pedagogy that will give students the skills and knowledge to live and work sustainably’ (HEFCE, 2009, p21). Here, then, is clear support at a national strategic level for sustainability pedagogies in UK HEIs.