From Harvard to Bradford - experiences of running a peer education for sustainable development project

Abstract

There has been a signifi cant growth of interest and recognition in fi nding ways to bring sustainable development into the formal curriculum of UK students (Hopkinson et al., 2008, Sterling and Scott 2007, Roberts and Roberts 2007, Blewitt and Cullingford 2004). However, student learning can take place in many different settings and the ‘student experience’ comprises many diverse infl uences (refs). In this paper we provide a case study of an informal curriculum project – the Ecoversity ambassadors funded as part of a Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) Subject Centre small grant in 2006/7 and subsequently funded as one element of a Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded programme known as Ecoversity StuDent (2007-2010). The paper describes the origins of the StuDent ambassador scheme, its management, emergent data related to the impact on students and the ways in which the project evolved with time.