University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Sustainability Faculty Fellowship

Beginning in 2022, University of Saskatchewan (USask) appointed six Sustainability Faculty Fellows for a two-year term to support faculty in designing, instructing, and assessing in ways that build student competencies for sustainability. In the first year, Fellows worked to embed teaching practices in their own courses such that students will be able to reflect, share, and act on key competencies for sustainability (designed by the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning at USask).

In the second year, Fellows have worked within their colleges to support other faculty to make an impact through open educational practices and furthering learning for sustainability. This is approached in ways that meet the needs of each academic unit and align with USask priorities such as experiential learning through community-engaged or work-integrated learning, student wellness, or other priorities.

Top 3 Learnings

1. We learned that identifying faculty champions and empowering them with the tools and knowledge to integrate sustainability into their curricula produced remarkable returns in the dissemination of these skills across multiple faculties at the university.
2. Enabling the development of sustainability knowledge and skills in our Faculty Fellows produced enough passion and desire to spread the lessons learn to produce an entire open access book for any other educators to use.
3. We learned that even two short years of the program were able to produce enough curricular change to inspire student action across the Saskatoon community.