A Center-Based Model for Self-Directed Learning in Sustainability: Engaging Campus and Community as a Living Lab

Introduction

In this chapter, the authors evaluate self-directed learning (SDL) opportunities centered in sustainability topics in three separate campus departments that employ similar approaches. Firsthand accounts from alumni and students who have engaged in SDL related to sustainability with these departments document strategies, tools, and learning content that were most useful and then identify gaps and limitations in the existing structures that supported their work. The trends arising from these accounts suggest that a centralized hub with a campus and community as a living lab (CCLL) framework, in this case at a liberal arts institution, is the ideal structure to support sustainability-related SDL work. The general perspective of the authors is that an interdisciplinary, academic-based, center model is best suited to serve as that hub and can play a critical role in facilitating scalable, robust, and relevant SDL experiences in sustainability.

The objectives of this chapter are to:

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  Illustrate the value and fit of SDL in higher education, particularly related to solving sustainability challenges;

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  Make the case for why college-level, liberal arts settings are ideal for addressing sustainability challenges;

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  Identify existing barriers, limitations, and challenges to scaling availability of SDLs in the context of higher education; and

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  Show how a center framework employing a CCLL model within a liberal arts higher education institution best supports sustainability SDL by lending direction and a path to action, which encompass more nuanced needs such as mentorship and emotional wellness to address the broad scope of wicked problems that interest self-directed learners.

Background

Arnett (2006) identified emerging adulthood as a new and distinct developmental period for 18–25-year-olds, the age demographic traditional college students inhabit. Emerging adulthood is defined by identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling “in-between,” and optimism (Arnett, 2006). This optimism, energy, and enthusiasm can kindle a desire in students to affect concrete change. “Can you help me learn how to change the world?” is a common refrain of this cohort of adult college students who are developing awareness of problems at play in contemporary society[edits to avoid repeat below, where the concept is more fully documented]. Another hallmark of this developmental period is the focus on identifying values, beliefs, and then questioning the extent to which they align with the habits, behaviors, and sense of self that, until now, have largely been shaped by external factors (e.g., familial beliefs, hometown societal expectations, peer group norms). The college context can amplify the dialectic tensions of identity formation in emerging adult college students focused on societal and environmental sustainability concerns because, often for the first time, the college classroom exposes them to myriad “wicked problems” of modern contemporary society in ways they have yet to experience. Wicked problems are those that have no clear solutions, challenge traditional expectations or knowledge, change over time, and scale based on geographic location (Hanstedt, 2018). Despite the narrative that often dominates traditional K-12 learning environments, all questions do not have discrete answers testable in a multiple-choice format. As students develop an acute awareness of how they contribute to these problems in their personal lives and through membership in contemporary society, they are often passionately driven to find ways that they can make tangible and meaningful change.