Embracing conflicts for interpersonal competence development in project-based sustainability courses
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 2 December 2019
Issue publication date: 9 January 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Advanced skills in communication, teamwork and stakeholder engagement are widely recognized as important success factors for advancing sustainability. While project-based learning formats claim to advance such skills, there is little empirical evidence that demonstrates how interpersonal competence is being developed. This study aims to describe and explains teaching and learning processes of project-based sustainability courses that contribute to the development of interpersonal competence as one of the key competencies in sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
This study on an international project-based learning course adopted a multi-method case study approach, triangulating observations, semi-structured interviews and focus groups supported by Photovoice method through which students tracked their learning processes. Data collection and analysis followed a grounded theory approach.
Findings
Learning through and from conflicts within a learning community can foster competence development in teamwork, communication and stakeholder engagement. This study identified inner and outer conflicts (within individuals versus between individuals or groups) as potential drivers of learning processes, depending on strategies applied to address these conflicts.
Originality value
The value of this study is fourfold: it demonstrates how conflicts can be leveraged for students’ competence development; it provides in-depth empirical data from multiple perspectives, it discusses the findings in the context of teaching and learning theories, and it demonstrates an application of the Photovoice method to track and improve teaching and learning processes.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture and Volkswagen Foundation for the grant “Educating Future Change Agents – Higher Education as a Motor of the Sustainability Transformation” (A115235) through the program “Science for Sustainable Development.” The authors would like to thank their colleagues Jodie Birdman, Jan–Ole Brandt, Jana Timm, Marie Weiss and in particular, Aaron Redman from Leuphana University of Lüneburg (Germany) for support on the research presented in this study as well as for comments on the manuscript and editing support at various stages. Last but not least, the authors would like to thank the students and instructors of the GSR project course 2016-2017 for their openness, trust and time in support of this research.
Citation
Konrad, T., Wiek, A. and Barth, M. (2020), "Embracing conflicts for interpersonal competence development in project-based sustainability courses", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 76-96. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-06-2019-0190
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited