Research seminar by Wim Lambrechts from Open Universiteit, invited by Valérie Swaen
Research on sustainability in (higher) education has been focusing on the definition and conceptualisation of individual sustainability competencies, such as systems thinking or anticipatory thinking. Yet, it appears that the academic field has made only limited progress in realizing sustainable higher education in practice. Several reasons can be identified for this. First, there has been an excessive focus on definition rather than operationalization. Second, the debate has remained conceptually blurred, lacking analytical clarity. Third, institutional barriers persist, alongside the absence of—and difficulties associated with—adopting whole-institution approaches.
Moreover, while the literature devotes considerable attention to how these competencies are developed and embedded within educational contexts, far less attention is paid to how they are connected to professional practice. In other words, there is limited insight into whether and how these competencies effectively contribute to sustainability transitions in professional settings, and into what is required to strengthen the role of competencies in supporting such transitions, thereby bridging the worlds of education and the workplace.
This seminar will address several of these key challenges and, through selected examples, demonstrate how individual sustainability competencies are addressed in research on educational and professional contexts, as well as how certain dimensions, such as empowerment, resilience, and the role of learning communities are often overlooked.
Wim Lambrechts is Associate Professor at Open Universiteit in the Netherlands and Visiting Professor at Hasselt University in Belgium. His research explores the (historical) complexity of sustainability in education, work and leisure to inform future-oriented perspectives. He leads a Dutch Research Council (NWO)-funded project on sustainability-related competencies, empowerment and resilience in learning communities related to supply chain management, contributed to the development of GreenComp, the European sustainability competence framework and authored a background paper for UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative.