IN-PERSON MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY. SECTION A

Abstract

Despite the escalating impacts of climate change and limited federal progress on effective mitigation strategies, the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources (RSENR) has experienced sustained growth in student enrollment in recent years. This trend suggests a persistent sense of hope among young Americans for a sustainable future, as well as an attraction to RSENR’s focus on experiential learning and its pedagogy of education as a means for problem-solving and transformation. This pedagogy, however, has become increasingly complex to implement. Some of the challenges include a politically charged environment where climate denial is the default from federal sources, the emergence of artificial intelligence, and evolving student expectations for undergraduate education. This discussion addresses these challenges through pedagogical insights from Environmental Problem-Solving, the capstone course in RSENR’s core curriculum. As a community-engaged, service-learning course, the course emphasizes critical thinking, active learning, stakeholder engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration through authentic projects with community partners. The analysis argues that sustainability education centered on student agency and civic engagement can equip students with the skills and values needed to create positive change, but must adapt to the challenges mentioned above. Ultimately, pedagogical models grounded in local engagement and oriented toward developing reasonable, winnable, and actionable solutions foster both competence and hope. By situating learning within the context of community-based problems and cultivating students’ confidence in their capacity to contribute to real-world solutions, sustainability education can prepare graduates to navigate an uncertain future with both expertise and optimism.