Brookes placed in the Global Goals SDG Teach In 2023 – again!
Brookes gained a well-deserved place again this year in the UK’s top ten universities for the number of educators who pledged to embed the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their teaching and learning during the largest ever ‘Global Goals Teach In’.
In March 2023, more than 1280 educators pledged to include the SDGs into their education, across 23 countries globally, reaching over 121,000 students across 128 institutions, having a great impact on moving the sustainability agenda forward (SOS UK, 2023).
It was heartening to see so many different pledges showcased on the OBU Pledge Padlet from across faculties and programmes, evidencing a broad range of examples of how colleagues across the university have engaged with the campaign. A huge thank you to those who went the extra mile after pledging with SOS UK (online and therefore unseen) by adding a description of their SDG pledge to the OBU Padlet to inspire and motivate other educators.
Learning is a social endeavour, so it was great to share what is happening across the university under the SDG umbrella! Pledges also included critiques of the SDGs, their shortcomings and the tensions they contain. As sustainability is so broad, and its challenges hugely complex and interconnected, it was also encouraging to see a range of disciplines, subjects and approaches developing learning that is orientated towards a more sustainable and just society.
However, before we risk feeling smug, it is worth remembering that we now have only seven and a half years left to achieve the SDGs (UNEP, 2023) and that progress has fallen far short of that needed. For many if not all of the global challenges outlined by the SDGs, the impacts of Covid and the war in Ukraine have cranked up the dials on social inequality, economic disadvantage and environmental degradation.
So, while the Teach In offers a chance to celebrate the ‘changemaker educators’ making a difference, let us all redouble our efforts to orientate our teaching, learning and research to challenge and change the social inequity, economic injustice and environmental degradation the Global Goals seek to dismantle.
Cathy d’Abreu, 2023
