Case Study: Education for Sustainable Development

Thematic Group

Walking at the Margins of the Anthropocene: A Critical Pedagogy

Academics and Institutional Affiliation:

Gerard Mullally (1,2) and John Barimo (2,3)

1-Dept of Sociology and Criminology, 2-Sustainability Institute, and 3-Office of Sustainability and Climate Action, University College Cork

Background:

UCC, a sustainability-focused university in Ireland, confronted the challenge of teaching abstract, intergenerational concepts like the Anthropocene and sustainability. Conventional pedagogies struggled to bridge the gap between global crises (e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss), just societal transition, and local contexts. A walking curriculum was designed to foster critical place-based learning, integrating ecology, sociology, and geology. The approach used Cork’s urban landscape as a "living lab," with stops at symbolic sites such as 175-year-old sequoias, medieval Ogham stones, fossilized ammonites which grounded theoretical concepts with tangible experiences.

Impacts, outcomes, and key learnings:

• Enhanced Holistic Learning: Participants (students, staff, international delegations) reported deepened understanding of sustainability via the “head-heart-hands" model which corresponds to cognitive, affective, and psychomotor development. Walking mindfulness along the River Lee and discussions of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring connected environmental ethics to actionable hope.

• Expanded Temporal Perspectives: Giant sequoias (2,000-year potential lifespan) and Haudenosaunee 7-generations principle reframed participants’ sense of responsibility across deep time. Additionally, a 66-million-year fossil ammonite opened discussion of the last mass extinction event ending the Cenozoic Era.

• Critical Engagement with Urban Sustainability: Contrasting natural riverbanks with Cork’s channelized waterways and evaluating CityTree project (€350,000 moss-filtered air purifiers) sparked debates on nature-based vs. engineered approaches.

• Policy and Curriculum Integration: The pedagogy informed UCC’s Connected Curriculum, emphasizing transdisciplinarity and SDG localization. It was adopted in postgraduate sociology modules, teacher training (TESTEd project), and doctoral workshops.

What were your own key learnings?

• Metaphors as Bridging Tools: Liminal spaces, river transitions, and tree networks connected by mycorrhizae made complex policy concepts such as SDG interlinkages accessible.

• Localizing Global Agendas: Walking routes visualized Cork’s colonial history, flood management conflicts, and urban renewal, demonstrating how global frameworks like the SDGs or Paris Agreement manifest locally.

• Embodied Advocacy: The practice fostered policy literacy; participants linked Cork’s Love the Lee campaign to broader rights-of-nature movements, influencing campus sustainability governance.

• Challenge to Techno-Optimism: Critiquing Robot Trees versus planting real trees underscored the need for policy aligned with ecological intelligence over quick fixes.

Key Insight: Walking pedagogy transforms abstract Anthropocene challenges into emplaced, sensory experiences, cultivating the socio-ecological imagination and futures thinking needed for just sustainability transitions.