Nurturing Sustainability Leaders: Pedagogical practices and guiding stories

Dr. Heather Burns, Leadership for Sustainability Education, Educational Leadership & PolicyGraduate School of EducationPortland Sate University

Session Facilitators- from the Leadership for Sustainability Education (LSE) graduate program at Portland State University:

• Heather Burns- Assistant professor, LSE program coordinator

• Dilafruz Williams- Professor, LSE & LSE founder• Jacob Sherman- LSE recent graduate• Ryan Smith- LSE student• Sybil Kelley- Assistant Professor, LSE• Denissia Withers- LSE recent graduate• Hope Yamasaki- LSE student• Jared Rhea- LSE student

LSE Key Learning Areas1) Self understanding- developing sustainability values and

ethics; developing an ecological identity and sense of place, developing a personal educational and leadership philosophy

2) View of the world- understanding sustainability issues as interconnected, holistic, and relational; developing systems thinking; understanding and valuing the importance of multiple perspectives

3) Relationships- developing strategies for working with diverse groups to affect change; understanding how power, privilege and justice impact relationships; developing sustainability networks and partnerships

4) Tools for change- developing a toolkit for enacting sustainable change; gaining tools for educating for sustainability; developing leadership skills

(adapted from Parkin, 2010)

What does sustainability leadership look like?

(story building activity created by session participants)I don’t know, but tomorrow I will. It is calm…collaborative…patient. Sometimes it doesn’t feel right. It’s innovative, self-organizing, with and element of slowness and deliberation. There’s a sense of inclusiveness, movements. It can be narrow. It can empower to accept responsibility.We need to empower youth…think about the future…Take the time to see connections…time to be. We walk the walk…subject to critique. We speak in terms people can understand. We integrate into existing systems. See it as a natural process. It’s a burden…a lot to take on. There’s a sense of hope, diversity of life and cultures. We feed hope through activism and deliberation…and delegation. But it all depends on the lenses through which you look…what’s behind your values? About the web of inclusion…a fierce but compassionate action that is flexible and emergent. It’s about a change of heart. The role is to bring people into an understanding that we are embedded in natural systems, reaching out to translate sustainability into individual lives and talent. It’s about metaphors, paradoxical metaphors, not power-driven or ego-driven. Its’ about a strategy of thought and action leading from within…following behind the people who were once following you. Its’ about having a holistic perspective, inspiring a cultural shift, but ultimately, it’s humble. And I don’t know what sustainability leadership looks like.

Thank you!

For more information, please contact:Dr. Heather Burns hburns@pdx.eduLeadership for Sustainability EducationGraduate School of EducationPortland State University