“Student-led education for a better world?” Reflections in conversation

Abstract

This essay provokes who the “experts” are in discussions about education: why not the students who are most impacted by it? At the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS), a joint centre between Uppsala University and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, students are hired as Course Coordinators (CCs) to develop and facilitate freestanding university courses. This paper is an outcome of a collaborative reflection exercise in the form of a written dialogue between students, CCs, and a guest lecturer of a CEMUS course “Reimagining Education”. This course focused on approaching learning and education on a meta-level where students and their experience become the subject of collaborative learning. By comparing the experience from this course with other courses at CEMUS and beyond, we discuss whether and how CEMUS challenges traditional pedagogies based on teacher-student hierarchies. Both the capacity for CCs to influence the content and pedagogical arrangements as well as the opportunities for non-CC students to take responsibility in steering class discussions were highlighted as empowering experiences. We reflect upon how this and the use of arts-based pedagogies can lead to fostering community and how it motivates students to collectively engage in their personal learning experiences beyond curriculum goals.

Keywords

• sustainability education
• critical pedagogy
• student empowerment
• re-imagining education
• active student participation