Fostering the Next Generation of Sustainability Leadership: Graduate Student Experiences with Ecohealth Communities of Practice

Autor/in	Feagan, Mathieu Lawrence
Titel	Fostering the Next Generation of Sustainability Leadership: Graduate Student Experiences with Ecohealth Communities of Practice
Quelle	In: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 19 (2018) 4, S.681-698 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1467-6370
DOI	10.1108/IJSHE-11-2016-0202
Schlagwörter	Graduate Students; Ecology; Public Health; Communities of Practice; Knowledge Level; Innovation; Interdisciplinary Approach; Student Participation; Research; Barriers; Teaching Methods; Sustainability; Foreign Countries; Leadership; Canada; Africa; South America + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Ökologie; Gesundheitswesen; Community; Wissensbasis; Fächerübergreifender Unterricht; Fächerverbindender Unterricht; Interdisziplinarität; Schülermitarbeit; Schülermitwirkung; Studentische Mitbestimmung; Forschung; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Nachhaltigkeit; Ausland; Führung; Führungsposition; Kanada; Afrika; Südamerika
Abstract	Purpose: This paper aims to explore graduate student experiences of ecohealth communities of practice in Canada, West and Central Africa and Central America, to better understand the role of student knowledge in advancing innovative practices in transdisciplinary, participatory and equitable research approaches. Design/methodology/approach: This ethnographic analysis builds on observations of graduate student participants in ecohealth communities of practice activities, along with 26 in-depth interviews conducted in 2011 with graduate students and professionals trained in ecosystem approaches to health. Interviews are transcribed by the author, and coded and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Findings: Although ecohealth communities of practice open new space for students to experiment with innovative practices in transdisciplinary, participatory and equitable research approaches, the surrounding disciplinary, top-down structure of academic and professional careers continue to pose significant obstacles to how students can take up the principles of ecohealth in practice. Through their collective experiences of these obstacles, students have considerable knowledge about the opportunities and constraints that the ecohealth communities of practice afford; however, this student knowledge has not yet been systematized or adequately mobilized. Practical implications: Student knowledge gained through shared experiences of ecohealth communities of practice appears to be a critical, necessary and underused component in working on systemic change in the structure of sustainability leadership in higher education. However, more research is needed to understand how greater emphasis could be placed on putting students in charge of confronting the conditions of their own training, to collectively produce alternatives that challenge dominant structural norms. Originality/value: The ethnographic approach re-centers student voices within debates about the relevance of ecohealth communities of practice for realizing the aims of transdisciplinary, participatory and equitable research approaches within the context of international sustainability challenges and graduate training. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01