| KEYWORD |
How to re-design a university course for transdisciplinary SDGs education?
Thesis abroad
keywords EDUCATION, INTERDISCIPLINARITY, ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE, SDGS, SUSTAINABILITY, TRANSDISCIPLINARITY
Reference persons GIULIA SONETTI
Research Groups DIST - TrUST, Green Team
Thesis type EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
Description Sustainability, human rights, global health, social responsibility, circular economy, global warming, poverty and education themes are strongly connected, with complex and still unknown trade-offs. Capacity building for students enrolled in business programs at higher education institutions requires appropriate pedagogy combining theory and practice, project and change management, business and research with the UN Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). One of the approaches for teaching how to embrace complexity, change and transdisciplinarity is the Theory U as propounded by Otto Scharmer (2009). This revolutionary theory urges the leader to suspend superficiality, judgmental attitudes, and preconceptions and propose practical tools to enhance deep and empathic listening with an open mind, open heart, and open will to ‘presence’ the emerging future even as it occurs. This research reviews a critical aspect of leadership education —that of responsible change-makers - and applies it to key canons of Otto Scharmer’s Theory U. The research should take at least three case studies to look retrospectively into its design and student’s impact on SDGs literacy. The research should analyses the course programme through the lens of the Theory U phases and methods, considering real projects with companies and organisations from the first year onwards, the international internship and professional career counselling and the coaching by fellow students and teachers on how to lead a project team and how to put innovative ideas into practice. During the Value Creator semester, students are expected to link their ideas and value to the SDGs. Workshops, MOOCs and micro-credentials are some of new tools and methods to analyse, addressing the complexity and the uncertainty of current higher education scenarios. Conclusions of this explorative exercise draw methodologies and criteria on how to ensure a long-term contribution of academia to sustainable futures, including how to fill the “knowing-doing gap” (a disconnect between our collective consciousness and our collective actions) to bring this tension to the foreground, especially starting from ourselves and how we live, and reaching the current leaders of tomorrow.
Deadline 21/08/2020
PROPONI LA TUA CANDIDATURA