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“There is no use reciting the definition of sustainability in class; rather, we must live it and integrate it as a habit of life.” -Gabriela Ortiz
In our July webinar, Professor Gabriela Ortiz of Tecnológico de Monterrey, a finalist in the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2019, shared her experience in the project, “Creating Today’s Change Agents,” made in conjunction with the Global Consortium for Sustainability Outcomes (GCSO).
In terms of sustainability, this project represents the desire to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for teachers, students, and parents. The participation of these three actors restores the social fabric that suddenly feels weakened or fragmented because they are involved in practical projects of sustainable entrepreneurship from the earliest stages.
“We have a single planet that we share with millions of human beings. It is our responsibility to keep it habitable for the generations to come.”
In this session, teacher Ortiz explained to us that within a collaborative environment, she sought to empower teachers to be agents of change in the training process and continuous feedback with other colleagues. For this project, she created the 3Ts Model (Transmit, Translate, and Transform). The features of this model are:
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It involves the development of skills related to sustainability issues.
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It is a training project, not a seminar or a theoretical course.
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Various academic and non-academic actors collaborate.
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This model commits the professors tangibly and interactively to sustainability, which they transfer directly to the classroom.
The main objective of this project is to design an activity that aligns with the curriculum and the subject, its execution, and the measurement of its success. To achieve this, they had the support of Tec students enrolled in professional programs. The students shared with the professors a portfolio of suggestions for action plans (curricula) derived from previous work they did. The students worked actively with the teachers to move their proposals forward.
Professor Gabriela mentions that a successful sustainability project has three key factors: its purposefulness, the interconnectivity of the community, the government, and the educational sectors, and finally, the dissemination of projects to authorities in educational institutions and government bodies to give seriousness to the plans.
It is very encouraging to know that, starting from these initiatives, children begin to develop a genuine taste for sustainable practices. These include simple ones such as separating garbage, constructing an orchard, and making objects with recycled materials. They also appreciate more complex strategies relevant to awareness of water consumption, energy consumption, and how to calculate their ecological footprint on the planet. As evidence of this project’s success, students developed four competencies:
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Systematic thinking. The student feels part of the environment.
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Reasoning for the long term. The student realizes that the actions he takes today have consequences in the medium and long term.
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Commitment, participation, and group collaboration. Sometimes students may feel discouraged, and we should teach them to build resilience.
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Empowerment of the professors and students. Both groups develop skills to be change agents oriented toward action.
Professor Ortiz proposes that we collectively support sustainability in our society through education that corresponds to the reality we live, and that incorporates the commitments set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Watch this available webinar at any time and learn about other educational resources related to sustainability.
Gabriela Ortiz Martínez is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey. With more than 25 years of experience in subjects related to environmental management and sustainability, she leads institutional initiatives such as MIC: Women in Engineering and Sciences, and the Xignux Challenge.
If your native language is not Spanish, you can activate the YouTube instant translation subtitles included in this article. To enable this option on YouTube, select the Subtitles option (the subtitles will appear in Spanish), choose the options Configuration ->Subtitles -> Translate Automatically and choose the language that you prefer.
Translation by Daniel Wetta.
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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
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