Planning competencies and transformative pedagogy for sustainable development

Understood as “a means by which society decides collectively what urban [and rural] change should be like and tries to achieve that vision by a mix of means.”, there is broad consensus that planning should fully incorporate the notion of sustainable development. Planners have a critical role in envisioning and driving local transitions to sustainable development. This requires transforming what planners learn and how they learn in higher education. This study is the first to identify a set of planning competencies for sustainable development. It proposes in three areas planning competencies for sustainable development, including (a) knowledge to understand human settlements, (b) skills to plan sustainable settlements, and (c) values to stand for sustainable communities. Following a conceptual analysis of transformative pedagogy as a superior theoretical approach to teaching for sustainable development, this study is also the first to identify types of transformative learning activities, including (1) unlearning- relearning activities, (2) learning through new experiences, and (3) ill-structured problem solving. The study therefore makes original contributions to both planning and education literature, in addition to its interdisciplinary methodological contribution through an original design of ‘framing and sensemaking + reframing’ applied for knowledge recombination between two fields – i.e., sustainability competencies, and planning competencies. The study presents case examples submitted by planning schools around the world to demonstrate transformative learning activities that enhance planning competencies for sustainable and resilient urban development.