Revolutionizing Sustainability Education

Stories and Tools of Mindset Transformation

Ekaterina Ivanova, Isabel Rimanoczy, Ekaterina Ivanova, Isabel Rimanoczy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000533965
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Economics

There is growing awareness among leading responsible management scholars and practitioners that understanding global wicked problems is insufficient in effecting lasting engagement and changed behaviors. Research indicates that to impact behavior, the mindset has to shift, which leaves the question: How do you shift a mindset?

This book guides educators and practitioners, their students and colleagues to take action on finding urgent solutions to the grand challenges stated in the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. A Sustainability Mindset is a way of thinking and being that results from a broad understanding of the ecosystem, from social sensitivity and an introspective focus on our personal values and higher self, which finds its expression in actions for the greater good. By promoting a mindset shift, educators in very diverse contexts are laying the foundation for a resilient future. The book presents a collection of over 150 student voices depicting a transformative experience and a shift in their mindset. Seventeen educator/student teams of contributing authors from across five continents describe the activity that prompted those students' reflections, and the conceptual frameworks that played a role in the selection of the learning goals and activities.

The book is written with academic and corporate educators, reflective practitioners, consultants, coaches, trainers and students in mind, and is invaluable in guiding the process of developing a sustainability mindset among participants in the training process.

PART I Individual transformational experience

1 Just be thereThe inconvenient exercise of being with oneself and doing nothing

DOI: 10.4324/9781003229735-2

Isabel Rimanoczy

Prologue

We design courses with the outcomes in mind. So I want to start this chapter with the outcome reached, in the voices of the students. These three essays were written by undergraduate students¹ for an assignment given in a face-to-face course called “Understanding Self and the Contemporary World,” that I taught in Spain and in Morocco in 2019. I decided to start this chapter with their words, because when I ask myself why I am an educator, my personal answer is to provoke, foster, support and accelerate the personal transformation of the mindset.

Student reflection 1, female, Spain

I waited the whole week for a day with good weather to do this adventure, but as days went by and the sunny days didn’t come, I decided to face the exercise with bad weather.

I don’t have a car, so I couldn’t go to a fully natural place. I walked up to a place close to my home that could be seen as nature, a pine forest a bit away of everything.

I thought it was a nice exercise. There were some people walking their dogs, and I thought it would be nice to have a dog, that would oblige me to walk in nature at least a few times a day. Also, with a dog I would feel accompanied, I don’t like to be alone.

I was anxious because I didn’t feel the weight of my mobile on me. I felt unprotected, naked. At the same time, I felt very light, as if I wouldn’t be carrying anything. In fact, I was not carrying anything, but I don’t know how to explain it.

The silence felt awkward. It was disquieting in the beginning, I didn’t know what to do. Then I started to get used to. I realized that I never am in silence, I am always listening music, or class, or talking to someone, or studying (although studying happens in silence, it’s not a real silence because your brain is going at 100%).

I noticed that I almost, almost was afraid to be alone with myself. What should I do next? How boring. I thought of what everyone says these days, we hear a lot that we have to learn to be alone with oneself. This is something I haven’t mastered, but I would like to, I think it’s important. Perhaps exercises like this one help me. But I also think it’s difficult and almost impossible to go on your own account to a place in nature, without anything and anyone. I have the feeling that it is an exercise you wouldn’t do until the day you are very unhappy, with yourself and everything, and you seek a way to escape, and so you finally do what everyone has told you: mindfulness, meditation, and time in nature … However, it’s a paradox. Because probably (I actually don’t know for sure), if meditation, nature, to be with yourself, appreciate silence, the fresh air … would be part of your routine, you might never get to the point of feeling bad and seeking an escape.

I enjoyed disconnecting from everything for a little while, but I also realized how dependent I am with my mobile, and I thought it’s horrible, I would like to change that. I thought it would be also good to go out without my watch, I also depend so much on my watch. But that really would have made me feel naked and super lost. Step by step.

…

Well, to end this I would say that this activity has brought me peace. More than anything. What we all need these days is to have a time to meditate, to reflect, to be quiet. If that time is in nature, it’s a plus. However I believe that if we could do these small moments of meditation and step away from our mobile phones and everything, for a little while, be it in nature or where you can, we all would get this experience of peace. And with this feeling of peace many other things come along, like reflecting on what is important and what is not, a moment to stop and process what we are doing, and what is happening to you, peace with other people … And I think that truly, if someone is happy and at peace with oneself, it’s easier to have a sustainable way of life.

Student reflection 2, female, Morocco

In order to fulfill the requirements of this experiment, I have undergone 1 hour of meditation in a garden that is 10 minutes from where I live, deprived of social interaction, technological distraction or any form of recreational activity. This experience was quite unique for me and was therefore a bit enlightening. In the lines to follow I will elaborate more on my thoughts and feelings towards this, dare I say, adventure.

The prologue of this experiment was a bit rough, due to the unusual nature of the task at hand. I’d like to address some of problems I ran into, what I learned from them and what my overall thoughts on this experiment are.

I will start with the very first issue that I encountered: the disconnection. While I did enjoy the peaceful, tranquil environment that surrounded me; the cool summer breeze was especially welcome, I did feel a sense of “anxiety” overcome me. I found myself creating different tragedies and highly disturbing scenarios that could all transpire in the absence of my phone. While I must admit that I entertained those tall tales for longer than I initially anticipated, I was ultimately able to dispatch them from my consciousness. This allowed me to focus more on the moment I was experiencing, which leads me to my next point: the lack of stimuli.

Saying my first impression of this meditation was “dull” would be an understatement. It was difficult to enjoy just being there. This was quick to change, after taking a deep breath, listening to my surroundings and emptying my mind from the previous negative premonitions, I suddenly discovered it was rather relaxing.

The serenity of nature along with the rustling of the trees was therapeutic, a stark contrast to the hustling lights and noises I was used to in my daily life. I believe that my view of such an activity was tainted by the fashion in which modern lifestyles have evolved. At every waking moment we find ourselves bombarded by visual cues or auditory ones leading us though our days. The constant beeping and buzzing of our phones urging us to respond to a conversation we may not want to be a part of us, signals for emails that pry us out of our breaks and remind us pending deadlines and the overlapping sense of urgency in our every move, loud music that drowns out our very own thoughts making it impossible to truly think and reflect on our actions etc. all those factors, in my opinion, relate to one simple idea: we’re more connected to the outside world, but not to ourselves. In that brief hour I spent away from those distractions, despite the initial setbacks, I felt truly at peace. I think that we’ve learned to busy ourselves so much that we’ve forgotten how important it is to, sometimes, have nothing trouble us. In that 1 hour there was no rush no real obligation and I think that would be something we should all experience regularly in order to be healthy both mentally and physically.

In conclusion, I’ll say that this experiment was eye opening for me and that it helped me shed some light on myself and the environment I live in. The overwhelmingly busy lifestyle of a student is always something that people try to deal with, but I think that this experience has helped cope with some aspects of it. It made me seriously consider making this a regular habit and I believe everyone should at least give it a try.

Student reflection 3, female, Spain

I just had a totally new experience. I say new because I cannot recall when it was that I last was able to disconnect from the routine and to re-connect with myself and with the world. It will be very difficult to put into words all the reflections and feelings that crossed my mind during these 45 minutes. Now that I look at my watch, it probably has been more than that, I think I changed the rules a bit of this game. I will start with what I feel was the main trigger for my reflections.

I remember stepping out the door thinking of this exercise as an obligation. All kinds of negative thoughts crossed my mind, towards the people that had taken the liberty to rob me of 45 minutes of my time, in a period so complicated like this one. With the finals around the corner, the grades I have to maintain to keep the conditions that allow me to study at this school, and the pressure to finish the course so that I can meet the expectations of the company that just hired me … I don’t have time for this silly thing, and now less than ever!

I have to smile as I recall my string of thoughts. I came back through this door convinced that someone has given me the biggest gift I have received in a long time. Over the past five years I have thought that people outside of my life were imposing on me a routine of obligations that it was impossible to escape from. Today, I realized that it was me who was converting the routine of not stopping into an addiction. Addictions are bad. Like addiction to tobacco kills you, the addiction to not stopping kills you too. For this reason, today I say I have received a gift.

After getting my mind to calm down and let go the rebel attitude, I just observed. We have been talking about sustainability and the planet for several days, how it affects us and what we can do. We looked at the human being as an external agent. We empathized with vegetation, animals, soil, etc and instinctively we had negative feelings towards human being. The human being is guilty and is the solution, at the same time. The first part is fine, but the human beings of the first world is also part of it. I am thinking of a new concept: the sustainability of people.

No one knows what I am doing here, sitting. Strangers walk by, some seem to be enjoying the sunny day going for a walk; others seem to be in a rush, perhaps they arrive late to the bus stop; there are a few sitting on the lawn, others are playing with a Frisbee. But I can only observe how they are physical, and imagine their stories. Each one has their story, and I have mine. And on top, I am too worried with my own issues, which probably are more complicated than anyone else’s. What a lie. A big fat lie.

The addiction to the routine of not stopping makes us selfish. It threatens our natural condition as social beings. We are so worried about our issues, that we forget there are others around us, we become individualistic, the main ingredient of sadness. Sustainability of people is essential for the sustainability of the planet. This sustainability starts with stopping to be pre-occupied and start occupying.

I want to yell into the wind, starting with myself, so that we all observe nature without the need to go for a walk. I mean to really see, to listen, to notice. Without the need to go for a walk means that nature is in the people with whom we share our obligations every day. We have around us stories that need our attention. I think the first grain of sand at our reach for the sustainability of the planet starts with the people around us. If we all collaborate in this, we will recover our social nature, and in this is embedded the sustainability of the planet. Because the care for the planet is embedded in us, but we have stopped being “us” and have become an addition of 7350 million of egos. The planet’s sustainability starts with no one feeling alone, because each one of those 7350 million persons is because it’s a part of the others.

I would like to finish expressing my gratitude for this gift I received. It’s a pity that the word “thank you” is a bit worn out, because of excessive use, perhaps the reader won’t be able to read behind it the feeling that this present has generated in me.

Ever since my dissertation findings (Rimanoczy, 2010) about the motivations of traditional business leaders who became champions of sustainability, I have been exploring ways to develop such a mindset for sustainability. To do this I developed the Sustainability Mindset Principles as the ‘scaffolding’ to design learning goals and find appropriate activities (Rimanoczy, 2021).

I find the principles serve as a helpful guide, deconstructing a complex reality into smaller components that can be better embedded into the teaching. Some exercises intended to illuminate the principles are more powerful than others, and potentially address several principles at once. This was the case of the assignment that inspired the essays shared in this chapter, and which I have selected because of its simplicity and transformational power.

The context

We live in a world of accelerating pace, where time may not be money anymore, but has become the precious resource needed just to get more thing...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Acknowledgments
• PART I Individual transformational experience
• PART II Action on the SDGs
• Index