Higher education (HE) has a key role in supporting sustainable development (Walsh, 2022). Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) enables individuals to act and make informed decisions that support a just society, environmental integrity and economic viability, for current and future generations. ESD is needed, globally, to enable HE students and staff to contribute to a more sustainable future, with calls for action for over a decade.
Despite the calls for action, there is inertia related to the sustainability agenda in HE. This is attributed to a ‘dislocation between decisions in the “here and now” and outcomes in a relatively distant future’ (Baughan et al., 2021, p. 14). At its heart, sustainability is a complex issue and is understood to require interdisciplinary approaches (Freeth & Caniglia, 2020). Higher education institutions are urged to create meaning for sustainability; a narrative that resonates across disciplines and connects with university functions to inform vision and planning.
We undertook a study at a university in Scotland involving 15 students and members of staff. Participants worked in interdisciplinary groups to envision the future of ESD in HE in 20 to 30 years. We used a workshop method, informed by the Manoa approach (Curry & Schultz, 2009), which supports small groups to vision future scenarios. Participants initially generated potential scenarios for ESD using ‘futures wheels’ (see figure 1). They then used the scenarios to identify the implications of changes in social, technological, environmental, economic and/or political spheres. The data from the ‘futures wheels’ was thematically analysed.
