Teaching for Sustainability

The relationship between supervisor and student is sacred – paving the way for a good outcome regarding time, effort, enjoyment, contribution, and learning for all involved. In this seminar, we explore various approaches to support your supervision of interdisciplinary theses and arrive at your personal supervision plan.

In our changing world, researchers and students want to address real-world problems from an interdisciplinary perspective, recognising the power and limitations of such an approach. Lund University is teaming with opportunities for interdisciplinary research and collaboration, for example, the new LU Profile Areas, Strategic Research Areas, as well as the LU Agenda 2030 Graduate School and Postdoc Excellence Programme. The new LU Strategy for Education highlights the importance of Education for Sustainability (EfS) and students are clamouring for the knowledge and skills to be able to tackle sustainability challenges beyond the classroom. Thus, we can expect more and more opportunities and requests to supervise interdisciplinary theses.

An interdisciplinary thesis is an independent student project, which integrates knowledge, methods, and insights from two or more disciplines to examine a complex, often real-world, problem, yielding a richer understanding than a single disciplinary perspective. Whether or not you have experience supervising student theses, there are various approaches that will enhance your interaction with a student embarking on an interdisciplinary thesis – mind mapping, systems thinking, methodological triangulation, concept saturation, Socratic questioning, among others.

During the seminar, we discussed:

Integrating disciplinary knowledge and methods
Setting knowledge and project boundaries
Dealing with complexity
Fostering effective communication and collaboration techniques
Implementing co-supervision or peer supervision

The workshop took place on 12 October 2023 at Eden (Room 129). It was hosted by the Division for Higher Education Development at Lund University. Moderated by Steven Curtis (Academic Developer), the seminar was interactive with opportunities to discuss and share experience with others.

References

Grossman, E. S., & Crowther, N. J. (2015). Co-supervision in postgraduate training: Ensuring the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. South African Journal of Science, 111(11–12), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2015/20140305
Jaakkola, H., Mikkonen, T., Systä, K., & Henno, J. (2022). Practices for Supervising Master’s Theses in Company Context: An Anti-Pattern Approach. 2022 45th Jubilee International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology (MIPRO), 609–614. https://doi.org/10.23919/MIPRO55190.2022.9803528
Ramachandran, A., Abdi, K., Giang, A., Gladwin, D., & Ellis, N. (2022). Transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary programmes for collaborative graduate research training. Educational Review, 0(0), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2022.2134312
Seiden Hyldegård, J., & Jensen, H. N. (2023). The implied peer: Thesis writers’ feedback activities and experiences in group supervision. Studies in Higher Education, 48(11), 1754–1766. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2023.2212273

12/10/2023

Steven Curtis

This entry was posted in

Event summaries

Comments

0 Comments Leave a comment

At this seminar, we learnt more about how to approach climate anxiety and eco-emotions in the educational setting. During the seminar, we discussed practices, available resources, needs, and wishes.

The educational sector has a pivotal role to play in addressing the sustainability crises we are facing by, inter alia, providing students with knowledge, skills, and competence development. As educators, how can we share information about sustainability crises including climate change and discuss the seriousness of these crises, while also providing support to deal with the emotional responses that may arise? How can we support each other in this endeavour and reduce the risk of feeling overwhelmed, emotionally drained, or numb?

Climate anxiety is a combination of feelings that someone can experience when having concerns about climate change and the state of the planet. Climate anxiety is sometimes used as a concept to capture different emotional responses to sustainability crises in general. In addition to anxiety, being confronted with any sustainability crisis can give rise to different emotional responses, including anger, fear, guilt, and sadness. While emotional responses can cause great suffering, they can also be a productive force and indicate issues of importance, crossed boundaries, unmet needs, or personal values, all of which can provide us a direction to work towards individually and collaboratively.

Content

During the seminar, we:

Learnt more about how to support students, colleagues, and ourselves in dealing with climate anxiety and other emotional responses to sustainability crises.
Talked about emotional responses to sustainability crises including what climate anxiety is and how it differs from other types of anxiety.
Learnt about the latest research and practice within climate anxiety/eco-emotions including different approaches to deal with climate anxiety/eco-emotions.
Talked about how to provide space for students to deal with their emotional responses and what support educators as well as the university can provide.
Learnt about available resources and discussed needs and wishes.

We invited two experts on eco-emotions – Panu P. Pihkala (University of Helsinki) and Marlis Wullenkord (Lund University) – to share their knowledge and experiences. In addition, three Lund University units that are dealing with climate anxiety/eco-emotions in different ways presented their work, experiences, and reflections – the Student Health Centre, the Occupational Health Service, and Medvetenskapens hus.

Visit the blog by speaker Panu P. Pihkala, with many additional resources and reflections – blogspot.com

Presentations

Download the presentations by clicking on the respective images below.

Speakers and invited guests

Marlis Wullenkord: postdoctoral fellow in Environmental Psychology at Lund University and part of the Vice-Chancellor’s excellence programme for sustainable development.
Panu P. Pihkala: adjunct professor of Environmental Theology at the University of Helsinki.
Johan Dahl: Lic. Psychologist, Lund University Occupational Health Service.
Linda Kuhn: Lic. Psychologist, Lund University Occupational Health Service.
Simon Nilsson: Lic. Psychologist, Lund University Student Health Centre .
Anette Andersson: Lawyer in International Law and producer at Medvetenskapens hus.
Viveka Ramel: Lic. Psychologist, Medvetenskapens Hus, and teaching Climate Psychology at Lund University.

Further Resources

Mosquera, J. & K. M. Jylhä (2022) How to Feel About Climate Change? An Analysis of the Normativity of Climate Emotions, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 30:3, 357-380, DOI: 10.1080/09672559.2022.2125150

Panu P. Pihkala – Climate education and emotions: https://toivoajatoimintaa.fi/ilmastokasvatus-ja-tunteet/ (google translate from Finnish to English)

Pihkala P. Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Education. Sustainability. 2020; 12(23):10149. doi.org/10.3390/su122310149

Vandaele, M., & Stålhammar, S. (2022). “Hope dies, action begins?” The role of hope for proactive sustainability engagement among university students. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 23(8), 272-289.