New course announcement
Sustainability in ELT
Sustainability in ELT – a two-day course for all ELT institutional stakeholders
Overview
The vision behind this course is driven by the fact the many of the current innovations in the ELT and Sustainability space tend to be somewhat piecemeal and involve simply one or two of the stakeholders within an organisation. My thinking is that the push towards a more sustainable global ELT community in a short space of time needs a collective effort involving all the stakeholders right across a school, college or university community.
With this in mind this two-day course looks at a number of key aspects that together help to create a culture of sustainability within an institution. I strongly believe that all stakeholders have a role to play in almost all of the elements of this, hence the idea that this course will give an overview of the key sustainability challenges, opportunities and solutions for all the stakeholders, and that this unity of approach will produce a more coherent and powerful push towards sustainability. You can find out more about my views on the ELT and Sustainability intersection here and on my services around ELT and Sustainability here.
Who the course is for
In short, this course is for all the stakeholders within an ELT institution. This would include, on the educational side: teachers, directors of studies, supervisors, and teacher educators. On the operational side the stakeholders could be: school management, HR, finance, sales and marketing and other teams. Equally, where appropriate, governors or trustees could be invited to take part. In some cases, depending upon the ages of those concerned, representatives of learners themselves could benefit from the course.
A key benefit of this approach of having all stakeholders together will be the creation of a sustainability movement, and the facilitation of mutual support.
Structure
The course is run full-time over two six-hour days with eight modules of ninety minutes, with the content as outlined below. Please note the course is delivered in a closed group format on pre-agreed dates only, to institutions for their stakeholders, at present. Individual registration is not possible.
Delivery
The course can be delivered face-to-face or online via Zoom, and the maximum recommended number of participants is 20. There are big advantages of the course being held face-to-face within the institution, because the ideas and approaches discussed can be immediately contextualised on the spot by reference to physical resources, facilities and other specific considerations. There are of course sustainability issues where the course is held on-site, possibly involving flights and the other climate impacts of my visiting. One of the issues that is discussed on the course is that of compromise, and the idea of understanding areas where real sustainability improvements can be made, and others where it's more difficult. The benefits and sustainability impacts of face-to-face CPD against online CPD falls very much within this discussion.
Every course is, as noted below, preceded by an extensive consultation and it is during this that the issues about location and the impacts of my travel would be discussed.
Each of the modules is highly interactive combining collaborative deep thinking and immediate contextualising into the institutional setting. It is absolutely not a series of lectures or trainer-centred sessions. Much use is made of problem solving and discussions, reflective practice, collaboration, creative thinking, and discussions around the challenges of making cultural changes as part of the push towards a more sustainable institution.
The course leader
I lead each course in person and you can find out more about me here.
Learning outcomes
Course participants will be able to:
evaluate the current work around sustainability in their own institution, including identifying what more could be done and what the barriers are;
show an understanding of who the stakeholders in the institution are, and how they could be involved in creating a culture of sustainability;
appreciate the roles of both a sustainability lead and a sustainability working group;
demonstrate an understanding of the issues around integrating sustainability themes into the teaching institution;
articulate the work needing to be done on the non-educational operational side of the institution in terms of sustainability;
decide the support that teachers need another staff need in terms of CPD;
show an awareness for the potential challenges in the process of creating a culture of sustainability, and ways of dealing with them;
show an understanding of ways of capitalising on and communicating successes in the area;
suggest the elements of an institution-specific sustainability policy with in-built monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
YOU CAN CONTACT ME at the bottom of this page.
Brief Content
While the elements of the course are broadly fixed based upon my experience of the key issues in this space, it is the intention that they can be customised to a reasonable degree through discussions and consultations with the client institution. The main areas and themes that are covered on the eight ninety-minute modules are in the table below.
Day One
Sustainability – where are we?
What are we doing currently across the institution?
What more can we do?
What are the barriers?
Sustainability and ELT – an overview
What is sustainability in ELT across the institution?
What should we be doing?
What would the benefits and disbenefits be?
Creating a community commitment
Who are the stakeholders in our context?
How to involve them? The role of a sustainability lead. Sustainability working groups.
Accreditation options.
Sustainability and our teaching
Getting sustainability themes into our teaching in terms of the physical teaching environment - the classroom, halls and corridors, for example.
Sustainability and our goals and learning outcomes.
How do existing materials embrace sustainability and how can we adapt our resources?
Daily Reflection
Day Two
What needs to be done – non educational functions?
What needs to be done in terms of energy, transport, food, human resources, technology, the sales function (where appropriate) and external relations/ outreach?
CPD as part of creating a culture of sustainability.
What support do we need to give teachers and other staff in terms of CPD areas?
The role of the UN Sustainable Development Goals framework.
Students’ sustainable jobs, careers and future study options.
The anticipated challenges and their management
Managing the changes.
Capitalising on and communicating success across the stakeholder and wider community.
Interaction, reflection and action planning
Towards an institutional sustainability policy.
Monitoring and Evaluation.
Sustaining sustainability.
Final Q and A