Robert Kordts and myself (Mirjam) recently led the “Learning and Teaching in Higher Education” LTHEChat on bluesky on the topic of “how to teach for sustainability” (see our six discussion questions and links to the resulting discussions at the end of this post!). In preparation of the chat, we wrote the blogpost below, which was first published on their blog. I am sharing it here to remind you of the “Teaching about, with, in, through, for Sustainability” model that we think is a really useful way to start approaching the topic.
The title of the blog post, “How to teach for sustainability”, might sound like we have the answer, but to be clear right away – we do not. But we invite you to address this, the biggest challenge that we as teachers and academic developers are facing, with us, and to hopefully come a little bit closer to answering the question how we can learn – and teach – for a sustainable world.
In this blog post, we suggest different ways to think about teaching for sustainability. We acknowledge that most teachers are not experts on sustainability (which, arguably, do not exist, since sustainability is a wicked problem and solutions need to be co-created locally and globally), that we are all pressed for time, that there are many other tasks and challenges competing for our attention. Given all that, where does one start?
In January 2025, Kyle Bartlett posted on bluesky about five forms to think about teaching for sustainability in music education. We took this framework and translated it first into Engineering Education but have since used it in higher education more generally because we find it to be a helpful tool to explore different facets of what is important to consider. In the following, we will thus explore what it might mean to teach about, with, in, through, and for sustainability.
Teaching about sustainability
Teachers starting out on their sustainability journey often begin with teaching *about* sustainability, i.e. teaching about general concepts related to sustainability, for example about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, about climate change, about planetary boundaries. This is not surprising, since most of the resources that are easily available to use or adapt, especially by obvious authorities on the topic like UN bodies and national governments, are designed for the broadest audiences possible, and therefore very general.
While it is important that students have a general understanding of those concepts, the danger is that many teachers are implementing very similar, introductory content so that sustainability, in the students’ perception, might become narrow, repetitive, boring, and disconnected from the course’s or program’s content and therefore not relevant to their studies and their lives. There is also the danger of token discussions when sustainability might be seen as sufficiently addressed after basic concepts have been clarified.
Teaching with sustainability
Another common approach is to teach *with* sustainability: including examples of sustainability applications within the discipline (for example solar panels or carbon neutral bridges in engineering, international negotiations in law, the effect of heat waves on humans in medicine, reimagining monetary systems in economy, and many more). It is very important that students think about sustainability in the context of their subjects! However, examples alone are not enough. If we want to address the bigger picture, it is necessary to connect sustainability and teaching in other ways. We want to challenge teachers to also consider teaching *in*, *through*, and *for* sustainability.
Teaching in sustainability
Teaching *in* sustainability positions the discipline as part of a sustainable world. This means remembering that we are acting as role models for professional and personal responsibility (whether we want to or not), so we should explicitly talk about sustainability as an integrated part of our own and the students’ future professional role. In their article “Do not leave your values at the door”, Nooij et al. (2025) remind us that inaction isn’t neutral, and that what is perceived as activism and permissible depends a lot on whether people agree with the stance, and on whether people are aware that they are not objective themselves.
Teaching in sustainability can also include teaching about how to cope with climate anxiety – sharing our own experiences and emotions, holding space for conversations with students, and pointing to resources. Eriksson et al. (2022) share ways how one might do this.
Teaching through sustainability
Teaching *through* sustainability is about practicing today how we hope to live and work together in a sustainable world. This is not something that we can expect to just magically happen; it needs practicing – both in the sense of repeatedly doing it to get better, and as being in the habit of doing it. Teaching through sustainability means using sustainable pedagogies which are both transformative and emancipatory and facilitate an inclusive and equitable learning environment. A great place to start is to consider that “the magic of inclusion: transformative action for sustainability education” by Ahlberg et al. (2025), or more practically the “Liberating Structures” and Tanner (2013)’s “teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity”.
Teaching for sustainability
Teaching *for* sustainability means inspiring action for sustainable development. It is not enough to have knowledge and understanding, and competencies and skills. We also need to develop our judgement and approach – and foster the will and the drive to use our freedom to do good things in the world. How can we empower students to take action towards a sustainable world?
The literature has generally converged on what competencies students will need to learn to meet those challenges, and Redman & Wiek (2021) suggest a framework which puts the key competencies in sustainability (the four interconnected planning competencies systems-, futures-, values-, and strategies thinking) as well as implementation and integration competence in the context of other professional, disciplinary, and general competencies. While some of these competencies can be practiced independently, their integration – and practicing them in an integrated way – is key (and thus even highlighted as its own competence). How can we ensure our students have the opportunity to learn this?
References
Ahlberg, S., Kennon, P., & Rončević, K. (2025). The Magic of Inclusion: Transformative Action for Sustainability Education. All means all!-OpenTextbook for diversity in education. https://book.all-means-all.education/
Eriksson, E., Peters, A. K., Pargman, D., Hedin, B., Laurell-Thorslund, M., & Sjöö, S. (2022, June). Addressing students’ eco-anxiety when teaching sustainability in higher education. In 2022 International Conference on ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S) (pp. 88-98). IEEE. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICT4S55073.2022.00020
Nooij, J. M., Collin, N. D. H. & van den Berg, F. (2025). “Do not leave your values at the door; the permissibility of activism in the lecture hall”, Higher Education Research & Development, 44:6, 1512-1527, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2514508
Redman, A., & Wiek, A. (2021, November). Competencies for advancing transformations towards sustainability. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 6, p. 785163). Frontiers Media SA. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.785163
Tanner, K. D. (2013). Structure matters: Twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 12(3), 322-331. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.13-06-0115
6 questions
The links at “Q1”, “Q2” etc bring you to the questions on Bluesky, where you can also see all the responses (no login required!).
Q1: What do you think is the most important knowledge, skill, attitude our students need to learn to contribute to a sustainable world?
Q2: What would you recommend to someone who wants to implement sustainability in their teaching but does not know where to start? What resources, networks, mindsets?
Q3: If you had a minute, a morning, a month to spend on preparing new teaching for sustainability, where would you put your focus?
Q4: How do you balance authenticity, professionality, activism, departmental and student expectations, …? In your work, in your life?
Q5: What resources or support would you need to (more) confidently teach for sustainability? Where might you find them or who might provide them?
Q6: What action do you want to commit to inspired by today’s #LTHEChat?
