Student-Led Knowledge Exchange as a Vehicle for Post-Pandemic Sustainability View Digital Media

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Debby Cotton,  Susan Cooper,  Mauro Fornasiero,  Saul Bloxham  

Education has been frequently cited as an essential driver for sustainability, and will play a key role in post-pandemic recovery. In this session, we would like to promote discussion about an innovative way in which higher education institutions might engage students and educators in post-pandemic sustainability, through sharing a model of Student-Led Knowledge Exchange which we are developing as part of a project funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Office for Students (OfS). Drawn from research in a health and well-being context, the model has important implications across all subject areas, and its key components link to theoretical understandings of sustainability pedagogies including experiential learning, active participation and transformative learning (Cotton & Winter, 2010). The model outlines the benefits of student co-production of knowledge, which enhances motivation and engagement; it illustrates the importance of students encountering real-life contexts and experiences; and it evidences the skills required by staff to support multi-directional knowledge brokering. All of these elements are crucial underpinnings for sustainability in higher education and offer the potential both to enhance student learning and agency with respect to sustainability issues, but also open up opportunities for students to have a direct impact on green economic recovery by working with local partners and community groups. This can and should form a central tenet of post-pandemic sustainability.