Development Diplomacy – a transformational teaching and learning approach in Higher Education to building competences and skills for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS)

Development Diplomacy – A Transformational Teaching And Learning Approach In Higher Education To Building Competences And Skills For The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS)

Abstract

Development Diplomacy represents an evolving diplomatic practice that targets inclusive sustainable development and sustaining peace. Development Diplomacy applied in Higher Education (HE) promotes a transformational learning and teaching approach aiming to build students’ key competencies and skills demanded by future professional practice and society in implementing sustainable development endeavours. This will require the transformation of learning and teaching methods and pedagogical approach. In this respect, this policy paper shows the value added by introducing ‘Development Diplomacy’ as a novel and effective approach for shaping teaching and learning and to implement the SDGs in Higher Education and how the Development Diplomacy’s based learning objectives, outcomes, and applied pedagogy contribute to building learners competences and skills to this aim.

The Development Diplomacy approach in HE is learning-centred and focuses on the key sustainability competencies and skills – systems thinking and strategic competencies, critical thinking competencies, normative competencies, collaborative competencies, and interpersonal skills– that are needed to implement the SDGs.

Development-Diplomacy-based transformative learning and teaching informs pedagogy and learning methods and addresses the need for organisational and strategic changes at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) level for the purpose to enhance the overall learning process leading to develop learners’ sustainable development competencies.

Universities introducing the novel approach of Development Diplomacy in learning and teaching will need to develop learning platforms and educational activities that facilitate acquiring and exercising the competencies and skills necessary for promoting sustainable development, as well as assessments based on verifiable results.

To accomplish this, a university might reframe its educational system and develop an institution-wide learning program that promotes transformational cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral research for sustainable development, fosters outreach based on results, and connects with business and society through partnerships, with the aim of contributing to the implementation of the SDGs.

Introduction

This policy paper demonstrates the value added by introducing ‘Development Diplomacy’ as a novel and effective approach for shaping teaching and learning in higher education (HE) for the SDGs. Development Diplomacy builds students’ key competencies and skills for sustainable development. They will be capable of carrying out the collaborative, interdisciplinary work involved in strategic planning and targeted decision-making to find inclusive and equitable sustainable solutions for present and future global sustainability challenges and to promote and facilitate cooperation and transformative multi-stakeholder partnerships endeavours to achieve the SDGs in different contexts at local and global levels. On the personal level, learners will become agents for Sustainable development, aware of opportunities to act and prepared to assume responsibility for and promote values for inclusive sustainable development in their future professional lives thereby becoming active members of society committed to enhancing the common welfare, peaceful, just and inclusive societies and a living planet.

It is undeniable, that strengthening our capacities to work towards a common understanding, collective action and practice in the area of sustainable development is vital to any kind of successful future for human society. Referring to the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development (UN, 2015), education is crucial in many respects for the achievement of the Global Goals and expressed by its Goal 4: to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning” and referenced in its target 4.7 “… ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development…” (UN 2015), and examining progress therefore by “mainstreaming at all levels, in national education policies, teacher education and student assessment” (Global indicator 4.7.1; IAEG-SDGs 2017).

Worldwide, at the international, regional and many countries level, as well as by educational institutions themselves, there is a manifested growing interest for Sustainable Development Education (UNESCO 2015; UNESCO 2016 a) and the 21st Century skills (Partnership for 21st Century skills, 2009; OECD 2009), framed to meet the needs of society and workforce and enabling to respond to the challenges of the future, going with the preoccupation on how to integrate these overall learning goals and agendas in educational policies and institutions’ teaching and learning practices, including in higher education.

Globally, numerous higher education institutions (HEIs), associations, networks and international organizations highlight and express in their platforms, at international conferences and debates the importance of higher education’s contribution to implement all SDGs through curricula, research and community connectivity and engagement. Furthermore, associations, networks, experts and leaders from the international HEI community from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America play an important role in advocacy to further the engagement of higher education institutions for sustainability education and applying the SDGs as framing reference, therefore. To this end, many argue for a needed reconceptualization of higher education, namely by rethinking teaching and learning away from the merely discipline model to a cross-disciplinary approach and multidisciplinary research to foster learners’ competencies to address the complexity of todays and future global challenges and for inclusive, sustainable solutions. Thus, requests the transformation of the teaching and learning environment, institutional reforms, and adapt HEIs to engage with society (communities, civil society organisations, business) to meet local and country’s needs and aspirations. Consequently, arguing to include the SDGs in curricula, research, community engagement, campus activities, institutional governance and adopt policies and practices to this end what represents the essence as of the ‘Whole Institution Approach’ (UNESCO 2014; UNESCO 2016b and 2019).

Broadly, the HE community stresses the importance to integrate Sustainable development in the whole HEI’s systems in a holistic manner. However, as the current practice in teaching and research apparently show, that most universities are engaging only with a few SDGs each, evidenced by findings of different sources (IAU 2020; GUNi 2019). Also, as IAUs global survey on HE and the SDGs (Mallow, Toman and van’t Land 2020) summarizes that all the SDGs are addressed also to a different extent by the group of respondents as a whole.

The main challenge here is to figure out how HEIs might effectively transform their approaches to teaching and learning, in such a way as to develop students’ competences and skills in sustainable development. to build learners’ key competencies and skills demanded by future professional practice and society in implementing sustainable development endeavours.

In this respect, this policy paper shows the value added by introducing ‘Development Diplomacy’ as a novel and effective approach for shaping teaching and learning to implement the SDGs in HE and how the Development Diplomacy’s based learning objectives, outcomes, and applied pedagogy contribute to building learners competences and skills to this end.