Why Learning Environments Matter
'How' and 'where' Education for Sustainability takes place are just as important as 'what' you teach (Vogel et al., 2023). The learning environment - whether it brings together multiple disciplines, involves external partners, or uses simulations - shapes students' ability to understand and act on complex sustainability issues.
Interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity means integrating principles, theories, and methods from different disciplines to address problems that cut across subject boundaries. Students working in interdisciplinary groups can integrate perspectives more effectively than when working within a single discipline - but only if courses, learning activities are designed carefully around interdisciplinarity (Vogel et al., 2023). Interdisciplinary courses typically involve larger teaching teams. Some teams divide responsibilities - with content experts delivering material and facilitators leading discussions - while others redesign courses around a shared theme that helps students connect ideas across disciplines. The key is providing a clear holistic framework upfront that shows how different disciplinary perspectives illuminate a shared question - with the framework showing students where these perspectives complement or conflict with each other. Proper planning and collaboration within your teaching team are therefore essential, and you may want to involve additional teaching staff to avoid overloading current staff (Vogel et al., 2023).
LSE100 - the LSE’s flagship interdisciplinary course for first year undergraduates - brings students together from across the social sciences to build their capacity to tackle multidimensional problems through research-rich education, giving students the opportunity to explore transformative global challenges in collaboration with peers from other departments and leading academics from across LSE. Since its inception in 2010, LSE100 has been considered a globally leading example of embedding interdisciplinary education into cross-institutional curricula. Find out more on LSE100 Interdisciplinary approach.
In the book Interdisciplinary Pedagogy in Theory and Practice, LSE fellows - Lukas Slothuus, Dave Ashby, Catherine Duxbury – and other LSE colleagues reflect on lessons from teaching and contributing to LSE100. If today's problems (climate futures, AI, social inequality) spill across the borders of any one subject, then university teaching should spill across those borders too. The book shows what it looks like to create a single learning space where economics, politics, law, and sociology come together - so students can understand the full shape of a problem and practise doing something about it.
Check out the LSE100 complete video-catalogue on interdisciplinary education practice with LSE100 Co-Directors Dr Jillian Terry and Dr Chris Blunt to learn more about LSE100’s approach to interdisciplinarity and the benefits of interdisciplinary learning for our students. Link to video
In her blogpost for the LSE Higher Education blog, Dr Jillian Terry sheds light on four qualities central to effective interdisciplinary teaching: intellectual humility, open-mindedness, pedagogical adaptability, and the capacity for synthesis across disciplinary boundaries.
Transdisciplinarity
Transdisciplinarity goes beyond interdisciplinarity by extending the learning environment to involve mutual learning between universities and wider society. Students, educators and external stakeholders define problems together and sometimes work jointly to create and implement solutions. These settings expose students to the social and cultural dimensions of sustainability while strengthening their commitment to action by reducing the gap between theory and reality (Vogel et al., 2023). Collaboration with community organisations, businesses, or government bodies provides authentic contexts where students see how sustainability challenges play out in practice.
To explore more teaching and learning opportunities that connect students with real world examples, data, individuals and organisations, visit the Civic Engagement page on the Eden Centre website.
Examples from LSE
Watch how LSE and Ardhi University (Tanzania) students collaborated virtually over six weeks to explore planning tools for sustainable cities.
The transdisciplinary project brought together perspectives from different geographical contexts, culminating in an international symposium where students presented their findings to experts worldwide.
Working with Complexity
Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning environments come with inherent complexity: student scepticism about the relevance of other disciplines to their core degree; unequal students’ participation in group work; coordinating timetables and priorities when courses involve staff from multiple departments; bringing humanities perspectives into discussions that often centre on science and policy; finding staff with both specialist knowledge and capacity to facilitate interdisciplinary connections; and finally, difficulties in working with partners, and the time required for effective collaboration. These challenges aren't reasons to avoid these approaches - they're part of what makes them valuable and reflective of real-world sustainability problems (Vogel et al., 2023). With the right framing and facilitation, you can help students see conflict and difference as necessary to tackling sustainability challenges.
For example, when working with external partners, you can provide structured methods for students to identify key aspects of the problems they're asked to address, since partners vary widely in their sectors and cultural backgrounds. You might also want to manage expectations early on both sides to prevent later disaffection and reduce the risk of trust breaking down (Vogel et al., 2023).
Case studies, games, role-play, and fieldwork also help simulate real-world complexity and prepare students for the ambiguity they'll encounter in sustainability work, creating space to practise navigating different perspectives and competing priorities (Vogel et al., 2023).