Pursuing the promise of case studies for sustainability and environmental education: Converging initiatives

Today’s global environmental problems defy simple solutions and are often characterized as “wicked,” signaling that we have arrived at a moment in human history when we can no longer proceed with business as usual. In higher education, changes in approaches to teaching, learning, and research are needed to address these wicked problems. In particular, bridging disciplinary divides and the divide between research and practice are essential to find feasible solutions. These transformations require engaging practitioners from outside university communities, as practiced in transdisciplinary research.They also require equipping students with the necessary competencies to engage in truly integrative, interdisciplinary work. Although interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary works are on the rise, these approaches still run counter to traditional research practices that necessarily impose boundaries due to the disciplinary structure of most academic institutions, from metrics for success, to the way that we teach. Despite general agreement on the direction the ongoing transformations in society and scholarship should lead, the pedagogical approaches required to achieve this vision have been less defined. Broadly, there is clarity on the need to shift away from the strict lecture-based approach that has been the predominant instructional method in higher education for centuries and toward the increased use of active learning methods, which have been shown to produce better student outcomes. While some instructors continue to see a role for lectures in higher education, the call to move toward active learning has gathered momentum over the last decade, particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields such as biology. Within the broad approach of active learning, however, there is less clarity on best practices and methods for teaching about complex environmental problems. The fact that each of our organizations has independently invested in developing case studies and focused our attention on case study teaching is noteworthy: our collective convergence reflects a broader recognition of case studies as a promising approach. As articulated by Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Wil Burns, in the prospectus for this journal, case studies are a natural fit for the inductive way that most students learn. They also promote critical thinking and give students opportunities to practice defining a problem, recognizing stakeholders, and crafting solutions. These are all critical elements for effective teaching about complex environmental problems, and therefore, case studies offer great promise for educating and training environmental problem solvers. In this commentary, we introduce each of our efforts to develop case study teaching materials and pedagogies, and we highlight common challenges, solutions, and lessons learned from our collective experiences in leading our respective initiatives.