ERIC Number: EJ1466024
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0309-8265
EISSN: EISSN-1466-1845
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Sustainable and Inclusive; Transforming Residential Undergraduate Fieldtrips in an Age of the Climate Crisis
Adrian Gonzalez1
Journal of Geography in Higher Education, v49 n2 p245-268 2025
The Higher Education sector has a critical role to play in shaping our global response to "wicked problems" and nowhere is this more evident than in university research, teaching, and public engagement on sustainability that seeks to tackle the increasingly perilous environmental situation. However, despite this critical civic mission, the Global North HE sector faces growing scrutiny and critique over the mechanisms, cultural norms and practices in which staff, students, research partners, and others operate. This paper explores one facet of this scrutiny by focusing on the recent internationalisation of residential undergraduate fieldtrips within geography, earth, and environmental science programmes. Using a UK Department as a case study, it will document the significant carbon emissions and necessary offsetting costs associated with residential undergraduate fieldtrips, particularly those overseas. It will finish by discussing the Department's revision to its fieldtrip design through the creation of a value-based fieldtrip framework grounded in the twin agendas of sustainability and Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI). This "sustainable and inclusive" fieldtrip framework becomes an important way for the Department to reduce the environmental impacts of this teaching activity and strengthen its accessibility and social justice work, thereby ensuring that the Global North HE sector leads by example.
Descriptors: Undergraduate Study, Field Trips, Inclusion, Environmental Education, Global Approach, Geography Instruction, Earth Science, College Science, Foreign Countries, Pollution, Conservation (Environment)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York, UK