In 2021, the inaugural cohort of Provostial Fellows began a series of year-long projects that would take meaningful action on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs play a central role in the University Academic Plan, which includes a call for the community to create positive change through the goals. Now that their terms have ended, here is a look back at what the Fellows have achieved.
Cheryl van Daalen-Smith, who is an associate professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies and the Childhood and Youth Studies Program, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies as well as in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health is working towards Embedding the SDGs in York curriculum.
Daalen-Smith’s vision was to collaboratively seek ways to infuse the UN SDGs into interdisciplinary classrooms across the University. Her project “More than Bees and Trees” sought to inspire and amplify curricular SDG initiatives and advance York University’s commitment to interdisciplinarity. Through a community development approach, this Fellowship spawned an SDGs in the Classroom Community of Practice, which continues to grow and add to the more than 60 educators who are involved from across the University.
Members of the community of practice thought that a toolkit would help further realize van Daalen-Smith’s vision. Two community members, Tracy Bhoola, an instructor at YUELI, and Nitima Bhatia, a PhD student and research assistant, took the lead in creating content for the SDGs-in-the-Classroom Toolkit website. Through diligent leadership, this interdisciplinary resource is now available to educators both within York University and around the world, further supporting the University’s commitment to open access.
The SDGs-in-the-Classroom Community of Practice also brought together University partners and stakeholders who were engaged on the UN SDGs. The group listened to members who had already found some success with integrating the SDGs in classrooms and to students who shared who would share their learning experiences and recommendations.
York’s list of UN SDG Curricular Champions were identified among instructors who had found innovative ways of connecting the SDGs to diverse interdisciplinary topics, concepts and disciplines.
Finally, the first-ever SDGs in the Classroom Teach-In was hosted in conjunction with the Teaching Common’s Annual Teaching in Focus conference, on May 10, drawing together 90 national and global registrants. The session hosted panel discussions, drop-in live coaching sessions and interactions with curricular champions and toolkit creators. With a vibrant, three-year Academic Innovation Fund grant now underway, the work of this Fellowship will continue to be led by School of Nursing Assistant Professor Sandra Peniston, with a myriad of interdisciplinary instructors guiding the development of simulations, apps, games, and other ways to continue to bring the “wicked problems” addressed by the SDGs into York’s classrooms.
Originally published in YFile.