Roos Wemmenhove and Wouter T. de Groot
As part of their commitment to sustainable development, the “greening” of curricula is a major objective of universities world‐wide. This paper describes the process of…
Abstract
As part of their commitment to sustainable development, the “greening” of curricula is a major objective of universities world‐wide. This paper describes the process of identifying principles for the (re)design of courses and programmes towards this aim within the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. These principles were elicited bottom‐up, from staff’s and students’ own visions of the issues involved. In their most condensed form, the principles thus found are: environment for development; in interaction with Tanzanian society; and in a student‐activating style. This contrasts with the usual conceptualisation of environment and development as normatively separate issues, with the trend to globalise the environmental issue, and with the top‐down teaching style that still dominates most universities. Both the study’s methods and its findings may be relevant for many more universities in the developing world.