TEACHING SUSTAINABILITY COMPETENCES THROUGH PARTICIPATORY ACTION-RESEARCH

Sandro Serpa
Prof. Dr., University of the Azores, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences,
Department of Sociology;
Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences – CICS.UAc/CICS.NOVA.UAc;
Interdisciplinary Centre for Childhood and Adolescence – NICA – UAc. PORTUGAL, sandro.nf.serpa@uac.pt
 
Abstract

We live in a digital society in which sustainability competences are increasingly valued. For example, the concept of Society 5.0 shows that the application of Artificial Intelligence in the control of industrial production processes (Industry 4.0) is currently, and with a very active dynamic, shaping the processes of social relationship at both micro (interaction), meso (organisation) and even macro social (society) level. However, in general higher education this dynamic has not yet influenced the necessary changes in the teaching-learning process that takes place there and which is, to a large extent, the reason for its existence. This communication seeks to contribute to answer the following question: what’s the contribution of action-research to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of a learning process of Sustainability Literacy, as an ability to apply the competences related to the promotion of Sustainability in everyday life? Currently, learning must rely on the active participation of students or trainees, mobilizing, for this purpose, their knowledge and starting from them for a participatory action-research process in which the great object of research is the very promotion of the learning of the trainee's competence. This communication culminates discussing the potential, but also the (many) limitations and difficulties that the development of participatory action-research implies.

Keywords: Sustainability, action-research participatory, higher education.