Integrating racial equity, social justice, and sustainability through general education learning outcome assessment
University of Utah
Project Overview
In 2014, the University of Utah administration received a poignant letter from a group of passionate students suggesting that granting an undergraduate degree to any student without ensuring that they understand sustainability was profoundly irresponsible. Knowing this to be true and recognizing we had to act, the University of Utah joined colleges and Universities across the country attempting to figure out the best plan for integrating sustainability content while navigating barriers including traditional academic silos, disciplinary boundaries, and funding constraints. At the same time, the interdisciplinary faculty team at the core of this project recognized that the concept of sustainability is too often reduced to ecological science with little attention paid to the inextricable systemic link between the degradation of ecosystems and the devaluation of black and brown bodies. We recognized we needed to make this link explicit and measurable in order advance racial equity, social justice, and sustainability understandings on our campus.
Our thinking was that rather than content, perhaps we needed to embed the skill of thinking in systems in our curriculum. More than 2,000 higher education institutions are currently using VALUE rubrics created by the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AACU) to evaluate the cross-cutting capacities students develop across courses and programs. These rubrics measure skills such as critical and creative thinking. Thus our team created a systems thinking VALUE rubric, modeled after those of the AAC&U. Our rubric was designed to assess systems thinking with dimensions including “limits” and “socioecological problem solving” using performance descriptors such as “analyzes systemic limits and the ways in which human systems...threaten ecological systems and impose social difference.” Another dimension was “synthesizing ecology, economy and equity’” with a performance descriptor calling for students to “analyze how historical patterns of domination and control over marginalized groups are connected to patterns of domination over the land and reflect relationships of power that continue to produce multiple sites of marginalization.” Ultimately, this rubric clarified and made measurable the ways that systems thinking is integral to understanding social justice and racial equity as foundational to sustainability.
The project took on a life of its own as the general education team reimagined all learning outcomes moving from 21 to just 5. While the current learning outcomes themselves are very general e.g., “actualize and contribute” the dimensions that describe students’ abilities in these areas are more explicit i.e., “judging the value of a system according to how it accounts for equity and inequity created by human actions,” and “analyzing a system focusing on the interdependence of people and planet.” Ultimately, we see this project as innovative and impactful in its conveyance of the inseparability of racial equity, social justice, and sustainability.
Background
This project was born out of the desire of many student and faculty stakeholders across campus to require a sustainability course, or set of courses, for all students graduating from the University of Utah. The model of having all students take a course from a list of those designated to cover specific content is a popular method for sustainability curriculum across the United States and is used in other areas of the University of Utah’s curriculum, such as diversity. In this case, our team was concerned that adding another requirement would provide untenable hurdles while creating a situation in which exposure to this important content may be reduced to checking a box on a list of courses. As described above, the team was also concerned about notions of sustainability that relegate equity as an add-on to sustainability science rather than two sides of the same coin. As we brainstormed, we recognized that a systems thinking rubric was needed for students and faculty to clearly articulate and assess the integral nature of these elements. With this in mind, the group discussed how all students could be engaged in this type of thinking throughout their college experiences, rather than designating a single required sustainability course nested within the traditional disciplinary academic landscape. We recognized systems thinking as a more foundational and necessary outcome of higher education, akin to critical thinking.
Goals
-Integrate systems thinking as a general education learning outcome available for undergraduate students at the University of Utah.
-Ensure students understand the inseparability of equity and sustainability.
-Increase the chances that faculty would select outcomes with systems thinking dimensions thereby exposing students to engage with systems thinking in multiple courses
Implementation
This project has been in development for several years now and will be implemented for the Fall of 2021. From this time forward, faculty whose courses are evaluated for general education designations will select one of the five learning outcomes which have been shaped by the initial systems thinking rubric. For example, much of the systems thinking work will be measured as a dimension of an “actualize and contribute” learning outcome with dimensions including: “judging the value of a system according to how it accounts for equity and inequity created by human actions, and “analyze a system focusing on the interdependence of people and planet. Other dimensions of our initial systems thinking outcome will be measured in a “persist in addressing complex problems” learning outcome in which students must “develop a broad system of people and resources to support creative problem solving.”
Timeline
In 2015 -2016, an interdisciplinary team of faculty researched systems thinking and designed a rubric that was approved through the Sustainability Education Advisory Committee (link?) and discussed how sustainability might be added to all 21 rubrics.
In 2017 - 2018, a subcommittee of the General Education Curriculum Committee was introduced to the rubric and discussion began around adopting the rubric or altering existing rubrics.
From 2018 - 2021, the General Education Curriculum Committee re-envisioned the University’s learning outcomes to fit a new learning framework, reducing the number of outcomes from 21 to 5.
Currently, performance indicators are being created to assess dimensions of the new learning outcomes including those that were shaped by the initial systems thinking learning outcome.
Financing
No costs were associated with this project
Results
This project has the potential to directly impact roughly 25,000 undergraduate students , as well as faculty at the University of Utah. While not all students will be mandated to take courses based on this learning outcome, given that just 5 learning outcomes underpin the 9 general education requirements, there is a strong likelihood that students will take more than one course with this outcome embedded. In addition, faculty teaching general education courses will need to familiarize themselves with systems that link equity, social justice, and sustainability.
Lessons Learned
As we researched the different ways that higher education institutions integrated sustainability across disciplines, we saw examples of adding requirements, interdisciplinary programming and of faculty workshops, but we did not see any work toward embedding systems thinking skills to order to elucidate the connections between racial equity, social justice and sustainability. Interestingly, as we were about to adopt a systems thinking learning outcome as one of 21 from which faculty could pick, the larger learning framework changed, giving us an opportunity to embed dimensions of sustainability and equity throughout our learning outcomes. I believe our main learning was about the value of thinking outside the box and being flexible. Higher education institutions wishing to take on similar endeavors can easily replicate our case study either by adopting our systems thinking rubric, which clarifies the inseparability of sustainability and equity, or create a similar systems thinking rubric that incorporates sustainability indicators into general education. Ultimately moving from thinking about sustainability as content to understanding it as a systems thinking as a skill allowed for diverse and ultimately more impactful connections to required coursework.