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Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning
Work-based learning as a catalyst for sustainability: a review and prospects
Tony Wall, Ann Hindley, Tamara Hunt, Jeremy Peach, Martin Preston, Courtney Hartley, Amy
Fairbank,
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Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, Vol. 7 Issue: 2, pp.211-224, https://
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Work-based learning as a catalyst
for sustainability: a review
and prospects
Tony Wall and Ann Hindley
International Thriving at Work Research Group,
University of Chester, Chester, UK
Tamara Hunt
Sustainability Unit, Estates & Facilities, University of Chester, Chester, UK
Jeremy Peach
Centre for Work Related Studies, University of Chester, Chester, UK, and
Martin Preston, Courtney Hartley and Amy Fairbank
University of Chester, Chester, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to highlight the continuing dearth of scholarship about the role of
work-based learning in education for sustainable development, and particularly the urgent demands
of climate literacy. It is proposed that forms of work-based learning can act as catalysts for wider cultural
change, towards embedding climate literacy in higher education institutions.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper draws data from action research to present a case study of a
Climate Change Project conducted through a work-based learning module at a mid-sized university in the UK.
Findings –Contrary to the predominantly fragmented and disciplinary bounded approaches to
sustainability and climate literacy, the case study demonstrates how a form of work-based learning can create
a unifying vision for action, and do so across multiple disciplinary, professional service, and identity
boundaries. In addition, the project-generated indicators of cultural change including extensive faculty-level
climate change resources, creative ideas for an innovative mobile application, and new infrastructural
arrangements to further develop practice and research in climate change.
Practical implications –This paper provides an illustrative example of how a pan-faculty work-based
learning module can act as a catalyst for change at a higher education institution.
Originality/value –This paper is a contemporary call for action to stimulate and expedite climate literacy in
higher education, and is the first to propose thatcertain forms of work-based learning curricula can be a route to
combating highly bounded and fragmented approaches, towards a unified and boundary-crossing approach.
Keywords Work-based learning, Education for sustainable development, Climate literacy
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Over a decade ago, the United Nations’established the Principles of Responsible
Management Education (PRME) initiative to promote responsibility and sustainability as
broad concepts within the curricula, to influence the next generation of professionals in
workplaces and indeed in academe. More recently, and against this backdrop, PRME
released a statement to respond to the increasingly divisive political landscapes which
are appearing on global platforms, including new senior appointments in the USA, the UK,
and increasingly so across the globe. In an e-mail communication that was sent to all
members of PRME in February 2017, Andrew Main Wilson (Chair of the PRME Steering
Committee) and Jonas Haertle (Head of the PRME), stated:
Our global community has thrived on the commitment and the ideas brought by people from
around the world […] we are deeply concerned about growing protectionism, nationalism and
populism on the global stage […]. Scientific progress depends fundamentally on an open exchange
Higher Education, Skills and
Work-Based Learning
Vol. 7 No. 2, 2017
pp. 211-224
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2042-3896
DOI 10.1108/HESWBL-02-2017-0014
Received 18 February 2017
Accepted 20 February 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2042-3896.htm
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of ideas, scholars and students. To meet global challenges like climate change that are threatening
our lives and those of future generations, we must depend on a science-based system of evidence.
We call for more business and management-related higher education institutions around the world
to join us and stand up for the principles and values we all share.
This statement followed a significant event a year earlier, hosted by UNESCO’s
International Institute for Educational Planning, which debated the role of higher education
in promoting sustainable development goals (SDGs). A key outcome was the reiteration of
the idea that higher education has a vital role in achieving the SDGs, but that the highly
silo-structured nature of higher education was a significant impediment to realise its
potential contribution. This structure was evident through disciplinary boundaries within
higher education institutions, but also at the macro-system level (where higher education is
an interdependent part of all educational and training systems) (UNESCO, 2016).
Together, these silos were recognised as inhibiting the sharing of practices and
understandings needed to develop a coherent set of actions (UNESCO, 2016). Scholars treat
this lack of connectedness to the issues of responsibility, ethics, and sustainability, as a failing
of business and management pedagogies (e.g. Wall, 2016a,b, c; Wall and Perrin, 2015;
Wall and Jarvis, 2015; Miller and Xu, 2016). In addition, scholars critique the lack of a clear,
single theoretical framework (Nonet et al., 2016) on the one hand, and on the other, critique
the diverse pluralism and related “academic provincialism”in presenting perspectives in
the educational setting (de los Reyes et al., 2016). These oppositional critiques indicate the
diversity of views currently available within this field.
In conceptualising the diversity of ways sustainability has been integrated (or not)
within and across curricula, Painter-Morland et al. (2016) found that most business
schools tend to adopt one or more of the four main approaches originally proposed by
Rusinko (2010) (see Figure 1). Overall, they argued that practice and scholarship appears to
I. Integrate into
existing curricula
(piggybacking)
II. Create new
disciplinary-specific
curricula (digging
deep)
III. Integrate into
common core
curricula
(mainstreaming)
IV. Create new
cross-disciplinary
curricula (focusing)
DELIVERY
FOCUS
EXISTING Structures NEW Structures
BROAD Curricula NARROW Curricula
Forms of
work-based learning?
Source: Adapted and extended from Rusinko (2010) and
Painter-Morland et al. (2016)
Figure 1.
Matrix showing broad
options of integrating
sustainability into
curricula, and the
potential locations of
work-based learning
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focus on fragmented, silo and “bolted on”approaches, which need to be integrated at the
institutional level (Painter-Morland et al., 2016).
This empirical work, however, did not consider the fifth category, co-curricular activity,
originally proposed by Rusinko (2010). Within this fifth option, Rusinko (2010) positioned
service learning, which has experiential commonalities with forms of work-based learning in
higher education, such as learning in the circumstances of practice (Billett, 2014). Interestingly,
however, Rusinko explained this fifth category of education as “exist[ing] independently of the
four quadrants because they are outside of curricula”(p. 512). In this way, both the original
conception of this model (Rusinko, 2010), and the latter empirical work (Painter-Morland et al.,
2016), omitted consideration of the forms of work-based learning which are either part of a
programme of study (such as a module or unit), or which formed the main pedagogic vehicle of
learning for an entire programme (Wall, 2015). In this way, forms of work-based learning may
offer additional insights into how sustainability is integrated or manifests in educational forms.
An additional limitation of this conceptual and empirical work is that is masks all
aspects and dimensions of sustainability into a generalised agenda. A major concern, as
highlighted by PRME’s communication earlier, relates specifically to climate change, and in
the context of higher education, climate literacy. Indeed, this was confirmed by searching all
databases of the EBSCO Business Source Elite with only 5 full-text academic peer reviewed
journal articles out of 1,446 identified as being relevant to this more specific agenda
(i.e. using the terms “climate literacy”,“climate change literacy”,“climate change education”
or “curriculum”, and “climate change”). The scholarship of climate literacy therefore remains
limited, against a backdrop of urgent calls for higher education to do more to tackle this
significant global issue.
This paper seeks to develop a greater understanding of the approaches that can be used
to develop climate literacy in higher education institutions, and in particular, proposes that
work-based learning can act as catalyst for wider cultural change, towards embedding climate
literacy. In this way, this paper extends the conceptual and empirical work currently available
about how sustainability is integrated into higher education, but more importantly, develops
insight into how change can be instigated in higher education through work-based learning
curricula. The paper does this through a case study of a Climate Change Project conducted
through a work-based learning project at a UK university, and draws from an action research
study into its delivery. The next section of this paper examines climate literacy and the
fragmented nature of it in practice and scholarship, which sets the scene for the methodological
approach adopted. The findings are then outlined in relation to the creation of a unifying vision
or framework for action across multiple disciplinary, professional, and identity boundaries.
The final section discusses the wider implications of the findings and concludes with questions
which might stimulate additional insights into how work-based learning can be utilised to
inculcate climate literacy in practice.
Fragmentation in the practice and scholarship of climate literacy
Climate literacy can be conceptualised as the understanding of the climate system, an ability
to communicate climate change information in a meaningful way, and to make informed
responsible decisions on actions that may impact the climate (Bofferding and Kloser, 2015;
Veron et al., 2016). Yet in examining the broader pedagogical drivers informing how
sustainability is understood in management education, Kurland et al. (2010) identified major
fragmentation with a diverse range of perspectives. These perspectives include disciplines
such as consumer sciences, geography, management, political science, psychology, recreation
and tourism, and urban studies (see p. 471 for an overview). For example, from a geography
perspective, curricula tend to focus on the causes of global warming, energy use, and
population, whereas from a management perspective, curricula tend to focus on managing
against tragedies and addressing sustainability issues (Kurland et al., 2010, p. 471).
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Other scholars such as Anyanwu et al. (2015) have found that climate literacy does not only
consist of alternative perspectives, it necessarily crosses multiple boundaries, including
biological, social, and physical sciences, and is at heart an “interdisciplinary enterprise”.
Yet there is evidence that discussion of climate literacy is primarily located within disciplines
which might be considered “hard”sciences such as physical geography (Kagawa and Selby,
2015). Contrary to this trend, and in response to it, there are continuing calls for climate change
education to be integrated or embedded across all disciplines. The line of argument is that
climate literacy should be part of a contemporary set of considerations that any person should
be engaging with in organisational life, as opposed to a smaller sub set of people (Pavlova, 2013).
However, there are important systemic issues which impede the progression of this
integrated perspective which crosses disciplinary and professional boundaries, compounded
by the high level of fragmentation and pluralism within climate literacy. The first relates to the
widespread misconceptions about climate change within the education sector.
These include the conflation of climate change specifically with the depletion of the ozone
layer (Bofferding and Kloser, 2015; Liu et al., 2015); relating climate change specifically to air
pollution (Liu et al., 2015; Veron et al., 2016); and confusing weather with climate
(Liu et al., 2015). Linked to this, scholars have reported tensions between heavily content-driven
pedagogic approaches which aim to inculcate “correct, best practice”behavioural responses,
and pedagogical approaches which promote critical thinking in contexts of uncertainty
(Blum et al., 2013). These trends explain why there have been numerous calls for greater
professional development opportunities for educators to develop their awareness of
contemporary understandings of climate change concepts (Anyanwu et al., 2015).
A second important systemic issue relates to how young people appear to be engaging
with climate change and wider sustainability agendas. According to Ojala (2012), evidence
suggests that young people appear to be either ambivalent or uncertain about environmental
problems, partly influenced by how contemporary lifestyles reduce outdoor experience and
therefore firsthand experience of environmental issues and their resolution (O’Malley, 2015).
In addition, responsibility can also be avoided through negative emotions associated with
climate change, as well as the resultant sense of helplessness (Ojala, 2012). At the same time,
experiential pedagogical approaches, which appear in many forms of work-based learning, do
appear to be effective in developing climate literacy in higher education (Porter et al., 2012;
Korsager and Slotta, 2015). Again, however, such pedagogical approaches tend to focus on
“co-curricula”activities in Rusinko’s (2010) matrix, such as an experiential learning day in a
botanical garden (Sellmann and Bogner, 2013) or inter-organisational collaborations between
universities, schools, and museums (e.g. Melrose, 2010; Veron et al., 2016).
The next section outlines how this study examined an alternative approach which
developed climate literacy in a work-based learning for academic credit framework as part
of degrees rather than as co-curricula activity.
Methodological context, approach, and methods
There were two overarching purposes for the conceptualisation of this study. The first of
these was an instrumental purpose to practically develop and drive climate literacy as a
strategic commitment to the PRME initiative. As part of this initiative, all higher education
institutions commit to setting ambitious goals and monitoring the achievement of them.
The second purpose was more scholarly in that it aimed to generate empirical insight into
instituting and developing climate literacy using a different approach, that is, one which
was unifying and boundary crossing rather than the commonplace, fragmented, silo
approach. To meet this dual practical-scholarly agenda, an action research study was
designed as a logically defensible approach to examine the lived experiences and trajectories
involved in situated phenomenon such as change (Wall and Stokes, 2014). Rather than
claiming probabilistic representativeness and generalisability, this approach sought a
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theoretical single-case sampling approach which prioritises and values insight into the
phenomenon alongside the practical outcomes in a live setting (Wall and Stokes, 2014).
The study was set in a mid-sized university in the UK, and was initiated and then led
by an academic within the business and management faculty with primary responsibility
for the PRME initiative. The academic formulated a broadly defined Climate Change
Project within the context of a work-based learning module. The module is conceptualised
as an employability module which utilises a five-week work placement in an organisation,
during that time each student works on formal work tasks (set by the employer) and
works towards negotiated, experiential learning goals (set by the student with support
from a tutor) (Boud and Solomon, 2001; Wall, 2013). Underpinning the learning experience
are concepts of reflective practice, positioned as a way to inculcate a commitment to
lifelong learning (Wall, 2014, 2015, 2016c). Unusually for the higher education sector, the
majority of the university’s undergraduate students across all faculties and disciplinary
boundaries undertake the module in their second year of study for academic credit
(the equivalent of one of six courses studied on an annual basis for an undergraduate
degree, i.e. 20 credits at level 5). Approximately 1,300 students undertake the module each
year, at the same time.
In the context of the work-based learning module, the Climate Change Project was
seen as a real workplace project, overseen by the PRME academic, and employed six
students as research assistants. Positioned within the overarching dual purposes of the
broader action research study, high-level research questions were agreed which then guided
the main stages of the research as well as the choice of methods adopted. These are outlined
in Table I. For the purposes and scope of this paper, data are primarily drawn from stage 2,
which relates specifically to the experiences of initiating and implementing the work-based
learning project. This is aligned to the function and practice of adopting a theoretical
sampling approach mentioned above (Wall and Stokes, 2014).
Findings
This section identifies the empirical findings from implementing the action research
approach to delivering the Climate Change Project at a university. As a way of organising
and making sense of the experiences and reflections generated during the project,
the researchers adopted a contemporary, integrative framework for the dimensions of
culture (Giorgi et al., 2015). This framework provided an organising device to consider the
possible indicators of cultural change developed by and through the project in relation to
Stage and research question Focus, methods and rationale
Stage 1: what action will we take? The Climate Change Project team decided to analyse the curricula
across the university, identifying where climate and climate change was
mentioned across small units of curricula (i.e. modules) and the larger
units of curricula (i.e. programmes). This involved document analysis
across formal curriculum description documents. The rationale was that
this was expected to indicate areas of good or promising practices which
could inform action on the project
Stage 2: what were our experiences
of taking action?
Utilising some of the reflective practice models from the work-based
learning module, the Climate Change Project team undertook cycles of
action and critical reflection. These were conducted at individual levels
(which fed into individual assessments), as well as team and project level
at team meetings over the 5 week placement. The rationale was that this
was expected to generate practical insights into progressing the project,
as well as empirical insights into the process of instituting climate
literacy in practice
Table I.
Driving research
questions and
methods adopted in
the study
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climate literacy, but also the tensions and issues which might indicate a lack of development
or even retrenchment. The key themes drawn from this action research are the mobilisation
of collective action across boundaries, the developmental of institutional resources and
infrastructures, and the development of new technologies to engage others in climate
literacy. These are summarised in Table II.
Mobilising collective action across boundaries
Within the context of the work-based learning module, the first question driving action
related to the examination of the good or promising practices already established within the
university. In searching the university systems which held descriptions of curricula at
the programme level, the first finding was that the term “climate change”(and associated
terms) appeared in only five of the 500 programme specifications formally approved at the
university. In analysing wherein the specifications climate change was mentioned, the study
found that there was limited reference to climate change in conservation biology (only brief
mentions in the educational aims of the programme), international development studies
(only brief mentions in the programme structure and features), and moderate reference in
Cultural
dimension Indicators of development Indicators of tension or issue
Values (what is
considered
important)
Newly expressed values about enabling
other staff and students to learn about
climate and climate change
Establishment of a new Climate Change
Special Interest Group and Student Climate
Change Special Interest Group
New ideas from combining climate and
climate change information, mobile phone
applications usage, and gamification
Valuing subject-specific content and own
teaching (over climate and climate change)
Pockets of staff indifference towards climate
and climate change
Stories
(what people
say about things)
Large group, collective presentation at the
university’s staff conference –case study of
collective action
Stories of students benefiting from working
together, with other students from different
disciplines/courses, and with staff from
different professional groups
Emergence of stories related to “no time”for
extra curricula activity (reflecting
Rusinko’s, 2010) co-curricular view of
unaccredited activity)
Frames (or focus) Climate Change Project as a (temporary)
workplace
Work-based learning as lifelong learning
Climate change and literacy in the context of
lifelong learning
Subject content as primary focus
Climate and climate change as a subject- or
disciplinary-bound
Climate change framed as an issue for
others (e.g. geography experts)
Climate change education framed as the
legitimate domain of scientists
Categories
(socially
constructed)
New institutional resources specifically for
climate, climate change, climate change
education, climate literacy
Focus on subject content vs non-subject
content
Toolkits (sets of
the above,
practices, etc.)
Extensive faculty-level resources for
learning about climate and climate change
(references, links, documents)
Generation of the design and specification of
a mobile phone app to encourage others to
learn about climate and climate change
New infrastructures to mobilise the agenda
Ongoing pockets of indifference seemingly
perpetuated by lack of resources, funding or
investment in local contexts
Source: Extended from Hindley and Wall (2017)
Table II.
Example indicators of
cultural development,
tensions and issues,
related to developing
climate literacy
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natural hazard management (featuring in the programme structure, programme features
sections, and in the module structure section). Programme specifications for geography
showed a high level of reference to the term “climate change”, featuring in most sections
of the programme specification. This reflected the broader educational literature of
sustainability featuring mainly in physical geography, and acted as a signal that greater
work needed to be done across the university.
This informed the formal task of the work-based learning project (discussed in the next
section), in a way that involved the students working across disciplines (such as
psychology, geography, business, tourism), and across professional groupings within the
university, from the start of the project through to its completion. For example, the induction
involved various skills training sessions delivered by professionals across the university,
and included EndNote training, project planning and time management training, team
building and leadership training, and reflective learning and diary keeping training.
There was a sense that the students were no longer students but employed research
assistants working with and alongside a wider collection of professionals, including
librarians, academic specialists in disciplines different to their own, the institution’s
sustainability unit, and the careers and employability staff.
The formal task of the project seemed to unify action for the diversity of professional in a
way which juxtaposed and framed climate change alongside lifelong learning,
employability, and work-based learning. The researchers had reflected that as opposed to
fragmented approaches within the silos of the university, the work-based learning project
had unified a diverse group of students to work with a diverse group of professionals
towards a common goal and set of outcomes. This unifying, boundary crossing
characteristic is captured in Figure 2.
Developing institutional resources and infrastructures
In terms of the formal workplace task, set by the employer (in this case the PRME academic),
the goal was to collectively generate extensive online resources and EndNote lists of
“climate change”related resources for each of the different faculties. The intention was that
these would facilitate and encourage engagement with the subject of climate change within
the various departments of the university, partly by making the learning resources
generated by the project easily accessible. The project did indeed generate an extensive
students
support
academic
Work-based learning project
Figure 2.
Unifying and
boundary crossing
characteristics of
work-based learning
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range of faculty-level climate change resources, and in doing so, encapsulated and
explicated a strong sense of appreciation and value for climate change. In addition, the
researchers also found that expressing these values and generating stories about climate
change (two dimensions of culture), other, new initiatives emerged. Two of these recently
created have included the cross-faculty and interdisciplinary Climate Change Special
Interest Group (for staff), and the Student Climate Change Special Interest Group
(for students), with remits to continue to embed climate literacy more deeply across the
faculties and the wider university. A new story for a “meta”group is starting to emerge
which connects and binds these groups together. As an indicator of how this work had
influenced stories and narratives within the university, one dean of faculty stated:
[…] climate literacy is an essential imperative and it is a moral duty that all business curriculum at
both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes ensures that the businesses leaders make a
difference to the management of sustainable resources and procedures, now and in the future.
To achieve this goal, it is crucial that each module across all of business and management
programmes develops and tests students’understanding and skills in relation to each business area
such as Marketing, HR, Operations, Finance, etc.
And beyond the faculty, the vice chancellor of the university said:
Climate change and its impacts are already affecting the environment and society at a local and
global level. At the University we recognise the vital role of education in the service of society,
acknowledged by the Responsible Futures accreditation we achieved in 2015. We are striving to
support the acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills to combat climate change, by
both staff and students. The Climate Change Special Interest Group is a superb initiative and
reflects the significant interdisciplinary interest by academic staff, but also by our dedicated
support staff. As a signatory to the Principles of Responsible Management Education, the Faculty
has importantly identified they are working towards climate literacy. This is a significant initiative,
which we plan to apply across the University in a whole institution approach.
In this way, the project has initiated new resources and structural arrangements at the
intuitional level, across departments, and has therefore expressed a greater sense of value
(see Table II). At the same time, although awareness was generated through the course of the
project, the researchers also recognised a theme appearing from reflections which highlighted
that not all staff or students were interested in the climate or climate change. Following the
work of Rusinko (2010) and Painter-Morland et al. (2016), some staff conceptualised climate and
climate change as subjects that did not belong to their discipline, or that it should be kept as an
extra curricula activity rather than relevant or important to the core of a subject area. Table II
summarises other themes emerging from the experience, in relation to cultural dimensions.
Generating ideas for engaging others
The final theme emerging from the experiences and reflections of the group relate
specifically to the negotiated aspect of work-based learning student experience. For this
part, the research assistants were asked to consider a collective, climate change-related
project that they could work on together as a team. The team was prompted to consider
selecting a project with two broad dimensions. The first was that it would be relevant to
students, the university, the local council, and the local community, and the second, was that
they draw on their own personal and previous experiences to inform the design of a project.
The brief, other than that, was open.
The research assistants reflected on their own circumstances of being students, and
especially when arriving university (at level 4). They drewon their experiences of not knowing
how to recycle when they arrived at university, and some recalled unpleasant stories of being
fined by the local council when they were not able to select the correct type of items to be
recycled. Importantly, they also recognised the potential negative impacts of inappropriately
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recycling and littering, which affected local ecosystems as well as relations in the local
community. The research assistants decided to target students starting university, as they
thought that such students may not have any experience of recycling, coming from homes
where parents would normally take responsibility for such domestic tasks.
The research assistants reflected on what might engage new starts at universities and
realised the importance of mobile phones in their own daily life –and particularly how
important the university’s proprietary mobile phone application (software) has become in
daily student life. This mobile phone application is the central source of timetables,
documents, module information and learning resources, and other university information.
These insights lead the students to generate the idea and design of a mobile phone
application related to learning how to recycle, which would be paperless and thereby also
aligned to their own learning about sustainability.
However, the research assistants also realised that the mobile phone application would
need to be engaging for the new students, and so developed a gamified design based on an
existing and very popular basketball game. The idea was that rather than “shooting hoops”,
the user would “shoot waste”into the appropriate recycling bins. The research assistants
believed that “students tend not do things for nothing”, so when the users of the game
placed the right items in the right bins, they would be rewarded with points linked to levels
and potentially even vouchers. This would then be the basis for instilling competition on an
individual level, but also group level (e.g. departments, campuses, or even universities).
An overview and summary of the findings using Giorgi et al.’s (2015) integrative framework
of culture are outlined in Table II.
Discussion
The case study discussed in this paper suggests that conceptualising and positioning
“co-curricula”activity as “independent and outside of curricula”(Rusinko, 2010;
Painter-Morland et al., 2016) is a narrow way of conceptualising some forms of curricula
where learning is generated in the circumstances of practice rather than the classroom
(Billett, 2014). Indeed, the form of work-based learning discussed in this study crossed the
conceptual boundaries proposed in the matrix (see Figure 3). For example, The Climate
IV. Create new
cross-disciplinary
curricula (focusing)
I. Integrate into
existing curricula
(piggybacking)
II. Create new
disciplinary-specific
curricula (digging
deep)
III. Integrate into
common core
curricula
(mainstreaming)
DELIVERY
EXISTING Structures NEW Structures
FOCUS
NARROW CurriculaBROAD Curricula
Work-
based
learning
Sources: Adapted and extended from Rusinko
(2010) and Painter-Morland et al. (2016)
Figure 3.
Matrix showing
broad options
of integrating
sustainability into
curricula, and the
role of one form of
work-based learning
examined in
this study
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Change Project was delivered through the work-based learning module, as a narrow focus in
the learning experience, but was integrated into an existing curriculum (and therefore can be
said to operate in quadrant I/piggybacking). At the same time, the work-based learning
module is a core curriculum for undergraduates across the majority of disciplines in the
university, with broad focus in terms of multiple disciplinary resources as well as personal
transferable skills (and therefore can be said to operate from quadrant III, or mainstreaming).
In addition, the implementation and outcomes of the Climate Change Project had created
new institutional-level resources for climate literacy, crossing multiple disciplines (and can
therefore be said to operate from quadrant IV, or focusing). The establishment of the new
Climate Change Special Interest Group for staff and the Student Climate Change Group,
specifically to develop more specific approaches within particular programmes, are indicators
that this change might spread to the final quadrant II, where the approach digs deeper. It is in
this way, through the work-based learning curriculum discussed in this study, that such
curricula might have an important role within the higher education institutions in initiating
and developing change within its own organisational structures. Together, these insights not
only recognise the possible roles of work-based learning in developing climate literacy, but
also offer insight into how work-based learning can initiate and prompt change in higher
education institutions with respect to climate literacy. This is summarised in Figure 3.
Though this study only examined one form of work-based learning, there are many
other forms which involve some element of experiential learning in the circumstances
of practice including work-integrated learning and accredited forms of service learning
(Boud and Solomon, 2001; Wall, 2013). Across the landscape of diversity there are varying
degrees of negotiated curricula, disciplinary content and input, and structural locations
inside or outside of academic departments (Wall, 2013, 2016c). Different manifestations may
shape the opportunities available to embed climate literacy within higher education, but also
the opportunities to influence structures beyond the immediate curriculum space. That said,
a common thread throughout these forms is the conceptual and practical linkage with
lifelong learning and learning for employability, and the ability to deal with the complexity
in life (Longo et al., 2017; Meakin and Wall, 2013). In this way, work-based learning and its
various forms might offer a way to overcome UNESCO’s (2016) criticism of higher education
not connecting beyond its immediate setting and into other educational systems including
the lifelong and informal learning systems. Indeed, this is more aligned to Painter-Morland
et al’s (2016) call for more integrated and systemic approaches.
However, the efficacy and effectiveness of the various approaches of work-based
learning to inculcate climate literacy beyond the module experience, and beyond the higher
education setting are still unknown. The case study highlighted some of the ongoing
challenges that are faced when attempting to promote climate literacy, and reflect the extant
literature. Perhaps most fundamentally (Wall, 2016c) is the value placed on climate change
knowledge and education, which appears to be less important than subject knowledge, and
the potential positioning of the climate and climate change as a concern outside of the
curriculum. Similarly, work-based learning can experience similar marginalisation from
mainstream curriculum when it is claimed to be an illegitimate or improper subject (Rowe
et al., 2016; Wall et al., 2016). When positioned alongside broader, strategic imperatives such
as employability, however, these critiques can soften. Overall, these challenges echo the
“academic provincialism”explored and critiqued by de los Reyes et al. (2016) and Painter-
Morland et al. (2016), and suggest they are still significant in impeding development.
Prospects
This study found promising possibilities for the role of work-based learning to offer
opportunities to embed climate literacy in higher education, but also how work-based
learning opportunities can help initiate change in the higher education institution.
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Importantly, Akrivou and Bradbury-Huang (2015) recently argued that for certain cultural
norms to be established and then be sustained, the whole organisational structure of an
educational setting needs to reflect the norms of responsibility, sustainability, and ethics.
In a broad sense, internal structures reflect external structures (Wall, 2016a, b, c; Wall and
Perrin, 2015), such as the structuring of curricula which intimately and implicitly considers
the climate as a legitimate consideration (Cotton et al., 2013), and which formulates
assessment criteria and strategies which promote connectedness to people and planet in
addition to productivity (Wall and Jarvis, 2015).
This suggests that opportunities afforded by, and the wider changed created by,
work-based learning will be influenced by its form, position, and structure. For example,
a climate change project conceptualised through work-based learning which is only one
out of 18 modules may have a more significant role in making wider systemic changes
(e.g. quadrant II above), than on embedding values relevant to climate change. In contrast,
a whole programme through work-based learning focusing on climate and climate change
may be more effective at the individual level, but less effective at mobilising systemic change
in the institution. However, these are theoretical possibilities, and the empirical evidence to
support such conjectures are not yet available. Additional questions worthy of further
investigation include:
•How does the structural location of the work-based learning curriculum shape the
possibilities of climate literacy?
•How does the manifestation of work-based learning shape the development of values,
beliefs, and knowledge related to the climate and climate change over the medium to
longer terms?
•How do the answers to the above compare to forms of education primarily based in
classrooms?
Conclusions
Amidst urgent calls for higher education to do more to embed sustainable development in
the curricula, scholarship about the role of work-based learning has largely been absent.
So much so, it is difficult to locate work-based learning in the pedagogic options currently
available. This study discussed and examined how a form of work-based learning was
utilised not just to offer an alternative pedagogic option for embedding climate literacy, but
also how it initiated change within a higher education institution. This approach, contrary to
the predominantly fragmented approached currently available, generated a unifying,
boundary-crossing approach to developing climate literacy, with positive indicators of
cultural change. Although this approach offered promising signs of development, there were
also indicators of significant barriers beyond the work-based learning opportunity.
This echoes the need to change the wider structures of higher education institutions, should
the sector wish to embed deep, long-lasting values, beliefs and knowledge sets to sustain
responsible and ethical citizens in the twenty-first century.
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About the authors
Dr Tony Wall is the Director of the International Thriving at Work Research Group at the University
of Chester, UK, and an International Visiting Scholar at research centres in the UK, Australia and
the USA. He leads a number of research projects and champions sustainability in various
international professional bodies. Dr Tony Wall is the corresponding author and can be contacted
at: t.wall@chester.ac.uk
Dr Ann Hindley is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Tourism and Marketing Management and a
Researcher at the International Thriving at Work Research Group at the University of Chester, UK. She is
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the Principal Investigator on the Climate Change Project, and Convenor of the Climate Change Special
Interest Group.
Tamara Hunt is a Sustainability Officer at the University of Chester, leading an initiative to embed
sustainability within the curriculum. Her key interest lies in creating cross-faculty collaborations that
expose students to the real-life challenges of climate change relevant to their subject and supporting
them in development of innovative solutions.
Jeremy Peach leads the renowned, academically credited programme of Work-Based Learning at
the University of Chester. Previously he was a Senior Lecturer in Work-Based Learning and
Organisational Behaviour, specialising in HRM, starting his career as an HR Manager for a deep
mining company and a large public sector organisation.
Martin Preston is a Geography Student at the University of Chester. He believes that climate
change is too serious an issue to ignore and can potentially steer humanity towards a different, more
delicate future.
Courtney Hartley is a Psychology Student at the University of Chester. She believes she has strong
interest into individuals’thoughts and behaviour, and that this stems towards climate change;
researching into how individuals can be influenced to become more sustainable is of great interest.
Amy Fairbank is an International Business with Tourism Student at the University of Chester.
She believes that climate change is a global problem which needs to be addressed, and is keen to learn
even more about it.
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1. WallTony, Tony Wall. 2017. A manifesto for higher education, skills and work-based learning.
Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning 7:3, 304-314. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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