Curriculum development for Sustainability, Climate Resilience and Energy Transition: A PESTEL-approach in the Floating Future Project

Traditional educational approaches often include disciplinary boundaries that operate in silo’s, not considering dynamic systems. These pedagogies are insufficient for preparing students to navigate real-world problems within rapidly evolving landscapes, potentially resulting in substandard learner outcomes and insufficient research outputs. This challenge is exacerbated by the increasing myriad of global pressures brought about by climate change, population growth, geopolitical changes and the need for sustainable development. To address these issues, higher education requires an innovative and integrative framework to educational practices that not only delivers adequate transdisciplinary education, but also fosters adaptive thinking and critical reflection. In an effort to enhance transdisciplinary education in Bachelor-level projects, Learning Community students are required to integrate a PESTEL-based approach in complex research activities. Through this integrated approach, we consider different values of PESTEL factors, as well as how education can navigate the complex relationship between subjective human needs and more objective interests. For this purpose, we suggest a step-by-step rebuilding of the current curriculum, towards an actionable knowledge base that contributes to the development of multi- and interdisciplinary processes. Student projects relate to the NWO-funded Floating Future project, of which the Hanze University of Applied Sciences is a partner. It provides an opportunity for students from different disciplines to contribute to collaborative research-based projects that aims to better understand the potential of large scale floating infrastructure and address challenges related to urban resilience, circularity, climate change and energy transition. This article explores the effectiveness of including the PESTEL-framework in the curriculum, and whether it contributes to achieving high quality research outputs that support transdisciplinary systems thinking. Since floating cities and hybrid infrastructure require future-proofing due to a rapidly changing climate, the Learning Community provides the ideal case study to apply this complex integrated approach together with students, researchers, experts, companies, and governments. We employ a mixed-method approach for data collection and analysis, comprising of qualitative and quantitative data. This includes an assessment of student awareness through the evaluation of weekly discussions and interactive presentations, as well as an evaluation of Bachelor projects. Findings indicate that PESTEL facilitates collective and collaborative interactions across different disciplines within the institution, but also provides students access to external experts and relevant stakeholders. This curricular strategy has therefore proven to support transdisciplinary thinking within a dynamic and complex system, and enabled students to appreciate diverse perspectives, thereby fostering a more holistic understanding of complex problems.