Teaching Climate Change and Resilience: CSU-Wide Faculty Learning Community
Historically, the central role of education has been to socialize the young and ensure continuity in society, whether indigenous, pre-modern, or modern. In stable conditions, this reproduction function is sufficient. But not in volatile and uncertain times, when the future will not be a linear extension of the past and when social innovation, creativity, and experimentation are critically important. The contradiction now is that the more we try to ensure continuity by doing more of the same, the greater the prospects for a discontinuous and chaotic future become.
— Stephen Sterling - "Educating for the Future We Want," May 2021
[THIS LEARNING COMMUNITY HAS COMPLETED. You may use this registration form to express interest in participating in the Spring 2024 CSU-wide FLC on Climate Change and Resilience]
Every discipline has a role in finding global climate change solutions, but what keeps us from discussing climate change in our courses?
The CTLT and Cal Poly's Facilities Energy, Utilities, and Sustainability team invite faculty to apply for the CSU-wide Faculty Learning Community (FLC) in Teaching Climate Change and Resilience. This FLC will help participants think about teaching and learning focused on climate change and resilience. The goals for participants in this FLC are to:
- Learn about and develop or modify course curriculum with a focus on climate change, climate justice, and resilience
- Gain collegial support for teaching sustainability across the disciplines.
- Work collaboratively to identify and design pedagogical approaches to teach students about sustainability problems paired with investigating possible solutions together
Conversations will be driven by the questions that emerge from participants’ particular course contexts. $500 stipends are available for eligible employees who complete the FLC requirements.
FLC Participation Requirements
- Committed preparation for and active participation in at least seven of the eight 90-minute sessions scheduled, with some reading and projects expected between sessions
- Engagement in consultation sessions in smaller teams where faculty can present ideas and receive feedback on course design related to their specific content (These small groups will support each other in course design and revision.)
Expected Deliverables
- The redesign of significant portions of a course (assignment sequence, assessment, syllabus, course activity, etc.) to integrate climate change and resilience into student learning outcomes
- A completed Model Course Redesign portfolio
- A recorded audio-visual “lightning talk."
An alternative option to the above deliverables is to write a paper on the course redesign and submit it for publication in The CSU Journal of Sustainability and Climate Change.
Stipend
Eligible Faculty (T/TT and lecturers) who complete the FLC, including the deliverables listed above, will receive $500 taxable income.
Apply: [THIS LEARNING COMMUNITY HAS COMPLETED. You may use this registration form to express interest in participating in the Spring 2024 CSU-wide FLC on Climate Change and Resilience]
Session Dates and Topics
[All times 9:00-10:30 a.m.; Meetings are provided in HyFlex classrooms, so participants may join either in-person or virtually on Zoom]
- Wednesday, Feb 9: Introductions and Goals of FLC
- Wednesday, Feb 23: Science and Policy of Climate Change
- Wednesday, March 9: Class Assignments, Activities & Research
- Wednesday, March 23: Campus-Based Check-In
- Wednesday, April 6: Climate Justice
- Wednesday, April 13: Campus as a Living Lab – Option #1
- Wednesday, April 20: Global and Civic Engagement – Option #2
- Wednesday, May 4: Redesign Presentations
Additional meetings
- Small group consultation meetings (coaching sessions)
- "This Way to Sustainability" Conference being held by CSU, Chico, both virtually and in-person, Thursday and Friday, March 24-25. The conference sessions will be open to all faculty on the CSU Chico campus, and FLC members are strongly encouraged to attend sessions focused on specific climate change and resilience issues.
FLC Facilitator
Dr. Mark Stemen is a professor of Geography and Planning at CSU, Chico, where he teaches environmental courses in sustainability and civic engagement. He and his students recently assisted in preparing a climate vulnerability assessment for the City of Chico and Butte County. Dr. Stemen has hosted over a dozen faculty development workshops at the annual California Higher Education Sustainability Conference (CHESC) on integrating sustainability into the college curriculum. Dr. Stemen will receive assistance with this FLC from the educational staff at Strategic Energy Innovations (SEI), including Dr. Elizabeth Bagley (formerly of Project Drawdown), and colleagues Sarah Ray (CSU, Humbolt), Daniel Fernandez (CSU, Monterey Bay), and Tracey Osborne (UC, Merced).
Apply: [THIS LEARNING COMMUNITY HAS COMPLETED. You may use this registration form to express interest in participating in the Spring 2024 CSU-wide FLC on Climate Change and Resilience]
Applications close on December 16th at 5:00 p.m. Applications will be reviewed by a subcommittee of the CSU, Chico Faculty Development advisory board. Preference will be given to new faculty (faculty in their first five years of teaching). Selection decisions will also be mindful of the need for cross-disciplinary discussions. Notification of acceptance will be sent by Jan 19th.
Questions?
For questions related to this FLC in general, contact Mark Stemen at mstemen@csuchico.edu
For local Cal Poly faculty participation questions, contact Kylee Singh, klsingh@calpoly.edu, or Dianna Winslow, diwinslo@calpoly.edu
