This December, we have shared a range of resources in our Teams-channel as a countdown to winter break. We hope that you have found or will find these helpful and inspiring! In this blog post, you find all the resources in one place.
Some of the resources are podcast episodes, others are web pages, TED-talks, or book chapters. Some are easily absorbed others perhaps need a bit more time to digest and could be something we return to in a seminar or workshop. What do you think? Was there anything in particular that caught your interest? We would love to hear your feedback – feel most welcome to email education@sustainability.lu.se with your thoughts and ideas!
Happy Holidays! Looking forward to continuing our work in 2026!
❄️ Education for Sustainability BINGO
First up: our BINGO! This is a playful way of trying some quick things to include more sustainability in our education. Perhaps challenge a colleague and see who gets BINGO first?! A “Teaching for Sustainability” Bingo – Teaching for Sustainability
❄️ Can Education be Serious Fun?!
Our next resources is a tip from our book club reading Stories of Hope: Reimagining Education. In story No. 3, Sarah Honeychurch suggests that education can and should be serious fun – an enjoyable and engaging adventure while also learning and doing something meaningful. One part of this is to use assessment as learning and a chance to take risks and learn from this.
In one practical example, students pick a few activities: “They then complete the activities they choose (receiving assistance to learn any necessary digital skills) and submit them along with a reflective blog post. Their classmates (and even their tutor) will then comment to give feedback on each activity, and there is then time and space for revisions to be made. Getting things “wrong” in this scenario is not viewed as failure, and learners can afford to experiment and take risks because there is time and space to make revisions in light of feedback. Later in the course they will choose a selection of their creations that they are happy with (again to a specified number of stars) and resubmit these for formal grading.” (p. 42).
What do you think of this activity? Have you tried something similar?
❄️ Student Podcast: Climate Fresk
Have you tried a serious game in class this year? What worked well and what could be improved?
In the podcast “Sustainability Speaking Beyond the Aula”, students from the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) discuss sustainability research, practices, policy, and legislation. In this specific episode, Justine Auvrignon – student and Climate Fresk facilitator – discusses serious games with researcher Léa Levy, previously at the Faculty of Engineering. While the focus is on the Climate Fresk, the discussion also covers serious games more generally and Léa talks about one of our Teaching for Sustainability-workshops on serious games and the advantages that she sees with using serious games in teaching more generally. Happy listening! https://share.transistor.fm/s/66bd1949
❄️ Philosophy of Science
What is the Role of Science in Transformative Change for Sustainability?
Dear Community, are you curious about Philosophy of Science and how it can help us advance sustainability? In December, we organised a Transformation Thursday discussing how Philosophy of Science can be valuable in advancing sustainability – a topic we are planning on returning to in spring. Until then, this lecture gives a lot of food for thought on the role of universities: Prof Jem Bendell Lecture on Universities, Climate and Deep Adaptation
❄️ How can we Teach in Turbulent Times?
In her keynote at the Teaching and Learning conference at the University of Bergen this autumn, Anne-Kathrin Peters, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, shares her thoughts on and research about education that makes a difference in turbulent times. She uses a set of reflection questions from the book “Active Hope” to structure her talk and invite others to think with her about what we love, what our concerns are, and what inspires us despite our concerns. Anne talks about what the problem with the current and past educational systems are and how to change the system. Watch the keynote here: Anne-Kathrin Peters – Education in Turbulent Times
❄️ Active Hope
We continue our countdown to winter break/advent calendar with some food for thought from the book Active Hope.
If you looked at the keynote by Anne-Kathrine Peters, you recognise the following prompts that Anne uses to structure her presentation:
- I love [fill in]
- Looking at the future we are heading towards, my concerns are [fill in]
- Facing these concerns, what inspires me is [fill in]
These questions are a set of 7 questions presented in a book called Active Hope. The book is available at the library, and Mirjam (Glessmer) has summarised it in a blog post where she also shares a figure with the questions posed that could be used at, for instance, workshops with colleagues: Currently reading about “Active hope” (Macy & Johnstone, 2022) – Adventures in Ocea…
❄️ Debunking Myths in Education for Sustainability
Is Education for Sustainability only about the environment? Does more knowledge lead to more action for sustainability?
In this podcast episode, Professor Marco Rieckmann, University of Vechta, debunks some common myths regarding Education for Sustainability and discusses cultural differences between different concepts: Episode5 – Marco Rieckmann- Sustainability Education Podcast Happy listening!
❄️ PhDForum – an online study room for community and support
How can virtual spaces create ommunity and boost motivastion?
Here comes another gem from our Book Club on Stories of Hope Stories of Hope: Reimagining Education | Open Book Publishersnamely a PhD (and others) online study room, which seems to have become somewhat of an online success: https://www.thephdforum.com/study-room It is open not only to PhD students but also postdocs or other academics in need of a silent but supportive online study community. Loneliness is a risk factor for our wellbeing, and this is a resources that is always available. Take care!
❄️ Communication styles that inspire action on climate change
We often say that knowing about sustainability is not enough to inspire action towards sustainability, but what then does inspire action?
This Ted-talk has a few years on it, but (unfortunately) still seems relevant: Per Espen Stoknes: How to transform apocalypse fatigue into action on global warming | TED Talk. in this talk, Per Espen Stoknes presents five mechanisms that explain why we tend to shut down when we hear about climate change – distance, doom, dissonance, denial, identity -and how to instead create motivation and willingness to act by telling new(ish) stories that make us feel that the climate crisis is near, personal, and urgent.
❄️ Microaggressions in the Classroom
How can we spot microaggressions in the classroom and how can we best act on them once spotted?
Microagressions can be hard to spot for someone not personally affected but can really take a toll on someone who is and therefore is an important training in empathy and a reminder of comments and actions to look out for: MICROAGGRESSIONS IN THE CLASSROOM
❄️ Head-Hands-Heart-Model
Are we teaching with our heads, hands and hearts?
The countdown continues with another addition from our book club and one of the stories that seems to have been most inspiring namely No. 6 “The human and nothing but the whole human: With head, heart, and hand”. This story proposes the concept of unconditional positive (self)-regard as a framework to build supportive and empathetical work environments at HEIs for students and educators alike. It also refers to the head-heart-hands model which in brief proposes that we should try to include not just knowledge (head – cognitive function) but also our senses and place (hands – what we do) and emotions (heart – unconditional positive regard) to build supportive environments as discussed in this chapter, but also to empower action for sustainability. Stories of Hope: Reimagining Education | Open Book Publishers
❄️ More serious gaming – with Playmobil?!
Have you used LEGO, Playmobil Pro, or other building blocks or figures in your teaching?
I had not heard of Playmobil Pro until I read about it in our Book Club “Stories of Hope”. Turns out one can order sets and use them to teach all kinds of students – here is a very short video with examples from business, accounting, and marketing: Using Playmobil Pro for playful learning but I am yet to find examples from sustainability specifically. Have you heard about this or even tried yourself?
If you want to read the short chapter in the book, it is story No. 18 Stories of Hope: Reimagining Education | Open Book Publishers “Playing with learning: Adopting a playful approach to Higher Education learning and teaching” by John Parkin.
❄️Are we more inclined to preserve species if we know their names?
How can we connect individuals to the natural world and thereby spark an interest in the preservation of our natural environment?
Have you heard about plant blindness? Are we interested in saving something if we do not know what it is or what it is called? Perhaps the study of botany could lead to higher interest in preserving nature?! If you are interested in these questions, you might be interested in the Botanic Gardens Education Network: Bgen | Home The network “supports and builds capacity in educators and community engagers in natural and plant science, biodiversity and sustainability, visitor engagement, audience development, evaluation and funding”. Read more about the benefits of studying botany in our Book Club-book and story No. 19 Stories of Hope – 19. Making plants cool again
