Community of Practice on Sustainability Teaching

We are in urgent need of teacher education that fosters climate stewardship and a sense of responsibility to the more-than-human-world. In this webinar, Alysha Farrell (Dean of Education, Brandon University) discussed ways for pre-service teachers and teacher educators to call in the wild unknown to support and enrich Climate Change Education (CCE). By sharing a process called Rooted Inquiry that uses nature-based storytelling, Alysha aimed to contribute to the growing conversation about loosening teacher education from the grips of anthropocentrism and to the cultivation of CCE pedagogies that are rooted in justice and joy. She was joined by Dr. Candy Jones, who discussed the importance of rural education in the implementation of CCE.  This webinar was offered in collaboration with the Accelerating Climate Change Education in Teacher Education project, SCAN and U of T’s Community of Practice on Sustainability Teaching.

View the recording of this webinar 

Resource List from this Webinar

Dr. Alysha J. Farrell is the Dean of the Faculty of Education at Brandon University. An educator in Manitoba for over 20 years, her research focuses on relationship building and the emotional dimensions of teaching, leading, and learning in the face of climate change. She is one of the co-editors on the anthology Teaching in the Anthropocene: Education in the Face of the Environmental Crisis.

Dr. Candy Jones is an Associate Professor and Curriculum and Pedagogy Department Chair in the Faculty of Education at Brandon University. She spent 20 years as a rural educator prior to becoming a teacher educator, working in 3 different communities in rural and northern Manitoba. Candy’s research and writing interests include rural education, climate change and sustainability, mathematics education, teacher and teacher educator identity, teacher professional development, rural houselessness and rural identity. She is one of the co-editors on the anthology Teaching in the Anthropocene: Education in the Face of the Environmental Crisis.

We are called to the “Great Work” of transformation, where we situate our way of being within the story of the cosmos, the Earth, and the fate of species including the human species. How might we engage transformative learning to foster the transition from the Holocene/ Anthropocene eras to an anticipated Symbiocene era, where we learn to live in symbiosis with the living Earth? In this webinar, Dr. Elizabeth Lange, a transformative sustainability education leader, will detail some of the new “stories,” principles and practices of transformative teaching for sustainability and climate justice, from a relationality approach.  Organized in collaboration the University of Toronto’s CoP on Sustainability Teaching and  OISE’s SCAN.

Recording of this webinar

Resources:

• Transformative Sustainability Education: Reimaging Our Future Book (link)
• Lange, E. (2024). Composting modernity: Pedagogical practices for emplacing ourselves within the living world. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 15(3).
• Lange, E.A. (2025). A Transition Imagination for Higher Education Leaders: Toward Relationality. In M. Drinkwater and Y. Waghid, (Eds.). The Bloomsbury Handbook of Ethics of Care in Transformative Leadership in Higher Education, pp. 254-277. Bloomsbury Publishing. (link)

About the speaker:  Dr. Elizabeth A Lange is a professor of transformative adult and lifelong education, having served three Canadian universities. She is an Honorary Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Futures in Australia and a Visiting Professor for Athabasca University, Canada. Elizabeth’s latest book is Transformative Sustainability Education (Earthscan Routledge, 2023). She is a co-chair of the Fireweed Learning Commons on Vancouver Island, dedicated to community climate education.   More information about Dr. Lange’s work and publications can be found here.

Wednesday, May 28, 2025, 2:00-4:30pm 
In-person Workshop & Discussion on St. George Campus 

Join members of the UofT’s Community of Practice on Sustainability Teaching for an afternoon retreat to experience and discuss Land-based approaches to teaching and learning. A walking tour of Ziibiing, the new Land-based Installation in front of Hart House, will be led by Andrea Johns & John Croutch of UofT’s Office of Indigenous Initiatives. This tour will deepen our understanding of Indigenous teachings, history, and connections to the Land, as well as provide insights into Indigenous cosmologies, traditional stories, native plants, and cultural and spiritual connections to the natural world. This will be followed by time for discussion and a sharing of teaching practices that support Land-based learning at UofT. Refreshments will be provided. This retreat is open to UofT faculty and doctoral students.

Universities worldwide are considering the transformative role they can play in shifting their communities towards sustainability, but what commitment is higher education making to transform its approaches to teaching to align with this? Reflecting on curriculum and pedagogy in university courses will help to avoid replicating the same approaches to teaching and learning that have contributed to the climate crisis in the first place. Dr. Heather Burns (Portland State University) and Dr. Rob VanWynsberghe (UBC) spoke about the potential of transformative pedagogy that is relational, community-engaged, justice-forward, and action-oriented to better align with the principles and practices of sustainability.

Link to video recording  

This in-person  forum/discussion focused on the potential of transformative pedagogy that is relational, community-engaged, justice-forward, and action-oriented to better align with the principles and practices of sustainability. UofT faculty, staff and doctoral students joined in this forum by sharing current examples of how they are implementing transformative learning in sustainability-related programs, courses, or initiatives as a way to inform and inspire one another with practices at UofT. 

Notes from this forum

This in-person retreat day for U of T faculty and doctoral students was organized to mark of the Autumnal Equinox and honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. As many of us return to teaching and learning on the St. George campus, this retreat provided an opportunity to learn about, discuss and rethink the spaces around us – the significance of Indigenous histories within the institution and across campus grounds, as well as recent responses to the Truth & Reconciliation Calls to Action for dedicated Indigenous spaces and opportunities to support teaching, research, and community at U of T.  Led by Dr. Jon Johnson and Brooke from First Story
.  List of resources from this retreat.

Since catching fire in the late 20^th century, the notion of sustainability is now firmly set as a recognizable and necessary design principal in virtually all aspects of modern society, from food to textiles to tourism. Some argue that this dawn of sustainability has been nothing less than revolutionary, while others consider the notion to be vague, easily exploitable, and largely a new packaging of business as usual. In this talk Dr. Loring will ask you to consider that both can be true at the same time. He will discuss how culture and world-view change works, explore the recent trajectory of sustainability, ways that it has been redefined and reimagined over the last few decades, and offer thoughts regarding lessons learned and prospects for the future—such as its relationship with the emerging notion of regeneration. 

UofT faculty and doctoral students are invited to this in-person forum to discuss the fall webinar “From Sustainability to Regeneration or Bust?” (taking place on Oct. 30, 2023, led by Dr. Philip Loring). Join colleagues to reflect on Dr. Loring’s talk and engage in rich discussion about the implications of sustainability in academia and teaching. A light vegetarian lunch will be provided. The forum is taking place at Trinity College from 12-2 pm. 

Prompted by informal Faculty conversation about the challenges of sustainability teaching, this forum emerged to bring together UofT Faculty across multiple divisions and units to reflection on the what and the how of teaching sustainability in comprehensive, coordinated and transdisciplinary ways. This first event invited interested Faculty to engage in critical discussion and reflection.

Dr. Nicole Bell (Trent University) joined us to share how Indigenous knowledge and worldviews can inform our understanding and teaching of sustainability. Opportunities for how to actualize an ethic of interconnection and responsibility in post-secondary education was discussed in small groups.

Symposium Summary Notes

This panel discussion focused on how intersections with anti-Black racism and Black liberation can strengthen sustainability curricula and pedagogy in courses and programs across multiple disciplines. The panellists included Dr. Fikile Nxumalo, (Assistant Professor, OISE, University of Toronto), Dr. Ingrid Waldron (HOPE Chair in Peace and Health, McMaster University), and Dr. Jennifer D. Adams (Associate Professor, University of Calgary).

Panel Discussion Readings & Resources

Video Recording of the Webinar 

UofT faculty & doctoral students attended this in-person forum to continue dialogue on aligning pedagogies used to teach sustainability with equity, inclusion, and transformation, with a specific focus on the larger themes from the last two CoP symposia (Anishinaabe teachings and Black inclusion in sustainability pedagogies).

CoP members interested in Land-based pedagogy, community engaged learning and decolonial practices and gathered at the UofT Scarborough campus for a day of learning and community building. The day began with an opening circle facilitated by members of the Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag at the UTSC campus farm and learned about agricultural practices from Indigenous Plant and Agricultural Knowledge Keeper Isaac Crosby while harvesting late September vegetables. We followed this by travelling through the valley trail to see UTSC’s vision for creating an edible campus and taking an ecological approach to developing the campus grounds. Along the way, we foraged for seasonal edibles under the guidance of resident experts and brought the harvested and foraged items to the Culinaria Centre. Seasonal foods were prepared collaboratively and enjoyed together. Thank you to all our community partners for your collaboration in making this amazing day possible!

List of Resources from this event

Our students are experiencing ever-increasing levels of eco-anxiety as they grapple with the realities of growing up in a climate crisis. How can we support students’ critical engagement with the complexities of climate justice and sustainability motivated by a sense of hopefulness about their future? Dr. Kari Grain (UBC, author of Critical Hope) and Dr. Elin Kelsey (author of Hope Matters) spoke about their research as part of a panel discussion about the ways in which hope can be manifested to support students’ visioning and actions towards an equitable, just and sustainable planet. 

Link to recording of this webinar

Notes from this panel discussion

How are faculty supporting students to shift from climate anxiety to climate action? Inspired by the November webinar ‘Bringing Hope into Sustainability Teaching’, this retreat, took place at Trinity College, and aimed to share promising practices in sustainability teaching at UofT, and explore how the narratives of hope and optimism are being brought into sustainability-related education. UofT faculty, staff and doctoral students shared current examples of how they are implementing a pedagogy of hope in sustainability-related programs, courses, or initiatives as a way to inform and inspire one another with practices already in existence at the university.  

List of Resources from this event