Nachhaltigkeitskompetenzen

The submission form for the BOKU Sustainability Award in the category “Education for Sustainable Development” asks which sustainability competence is the focus of the submitted project/thesis. We refer to the following competencies according to Brundiers et al. bzw. Wiek et al.[1]:

 

  • Systems-thinking competence: Systems-thinking competence is the ability to collectively analyze complex systems across different domains (society, environment, economy, etc.) and across different scales (local to global), thereby considering cascading effects, inertia, feedback loops and other systemic features related to sustainability issues and sustainability problem-solving framework (Wiek et al., 2011, page 207)
  • Anticipatory / Future thinking Competency: Anticipatory competence is the ability to collectively analyze, evaluate, and craft rich ‘‘pictures’’ of the future related to sustainability issues and sustainability problem-solving frameworks. (Wiek et al., 2011, page 207/209). Futures-thinking competency to be able to iterate and continuously refine one’s own futures thinking (visions, scenarios, etc.), in productive and explicit tension to the status quo; recognizing the “implicitly held (and largely unrecognized) assumptions about how society works" and how they influence the status quo and critically reflecting how they might influence futures thinking (Brundiers et al., 2021, page 22)
  • Normative competence / Values-thinking competency: Normative competence is the ability to collectively map, specify, apply, reconcile, and negotiate sustainability values, principles, goals, and targets (Wiek et al., 2011, page 209). Values-thinking competency to be able to differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic values in the social and natural world; to recognize normalized oppressive structures; to identify and clarify one’s own values; to explain how values are contextually, culturally, and historically reinforced; to critically evaluate how particular stated values align with agreed‑upon sustainability values; and to differentiate between espoused values and practiced values (Brundiers et al., 2021, page 22, shortened)
  • Strategic competence: Strategic competence is the ability to collectively design and implement interventions, transitions, and transformative governance strategies toward sustainability (Wiek et al., 2011, page 210). Strategic-thinking competency to be able to recognize the historical roots and embedded resilience of deliberate and unintended unsustainability and the barriers to change; to creatively plan innovative experiments to test strategies (Brundiers et al., 2021, page 22, shortened).
  • Interpersonal competence: Interpersonal competence is the ability to motivate, enable, and facilitate collaborative and participatory sustainability research and problem solving (Wiek et al., 2011, page 211). Interpersonal competency to be able to apply the concepts and methods of each competency not merely as “technical skills,” but in ways that truly engage and motivate diverse stakeholders and to empathically work with collaborators’ and citizens’ different ways of knowing and communication (Brundiers et al., 2021, page 22, shortened).
  • Intrapersonal competency bzw. Mindset: links with the other competencies the same way as interpersonal competency does, e.g. by being aware of one's emotions related to futures, self-awareness of one’s values, empathy, etc. (Brundiers et al., 2021, page 25, shortened).
  • Implementation competency: collective ability to realize a planned solution toward a sustainability‑informed vision, to monitor and evaluate the realization process, and to address emerging challenges (adjustments), recognizing that sustainability problem solving is a long‑term, iterative process between planning, realization, and evaluation (Brundiers et al., 2021, page 21).
  • Integrated problem-solving competency is a meta‑competency of meaningfully using and integrating the five key competencies for solving sustainability problems and fostering sustainable development (Wiek et al. 2016, p. 243 in Brundiers et al. 2021). Integrated problem-solving competency to be able to combine and integrate steps of the sustainability problem‑solving process or competencies, while drawing on pertinent disciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and other ways of knowing (Brundiers et al., 2021, page 22, shortened).

 

[1] Brundiers, K., Barth, M., Cebrián, G., Cohen, M., Diaz, L., Doucette-Remington, S., Dripps, W., Habron, G., Harré, N., Jarchow, M., Losch, K., Michel, J., Mochizuki, Y., Rieckmann, M., Parnell, R., Walker, P., & Zint, M. (2021). Key competencies in sustainability in higher education—toward an agreed-upon reference framework. Sustainability Science, 16(1), 13-29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-00838-2  

Wiek, A., Withycombe, L., & Redman, C. L. (2011). Key competencies in sustainability: a reference framework for academic program development. Sustainability Science, 6(2), 203-218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-011-0132-6