FLKM4110 Introduction to International Development, Education, and Sustainabilities Course description

This first course of the MIED program introduces different approaches that interpret and suggest action to meet the present challenges and crises in the following three fields: economic and social development, environment and climate change, and international education. During the course, students learn to critically examine mainstream approaches to mass education, international development, and climate change, as well as a range of critical alternatives to global development trends. All the topics covered in the course are of great importance both for students who have chosen the specialisation of International Education and for those who have chosen International Development Studies.

Language of instruction: Norwegian

In this course, the students will acquire knowledge and competence in clinical research and professional development, including in the critical assessment of nursing practice. Key areas of nursing research will be elucidated and the consequences of different concepts and forms of knowledge analysed on the basis of clinical practice. The relationship between theory and empirical data will be explored and discussed by examining different positions in science and research.

Students will acquire knowledge of the main approaches to evidence-based practice, and the relationship between clinical experience, user participation and research will be discussed. The student is expected to develop competence that enables them to perform independent and thorough literature searches on the basis of relevant topics. Critical assessment of sources and academic writing and argumentation are also emphasised in the course.

;The course also addresses educational and organisational challenges relating to the implementation of new practices on the basis of research and professional development. This includes highlighting key functions such as supervising and teaching colleagues and students, as well as initiating and leading professional change processes.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

Students have knowledge of and insight into:

• theories about economic and social development strategies historically and today;;
• theories about periods of economic growth and crises;
• theories about the historical phenomenon of international mass education, its content and official purposes, and its current status;;;
• the United Nations ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDG) Agenda and its implications for international education and sustainable development.;
• perspectives on the Anthropocene, the Capitalocene, and sustainable development;
• green change choices with their goals and relations to larger development approaches;
• the global climate crisis and examination of climate justice of various climate mitigation options;
• multiple goals for sustainable development, such as economic growth, human rights, environmental and climate justice, and the right to quality education; and
• the intended, actual, and potential roles and contributions of education to sustainable development goals, especially in the Global South.

Skills

Students demonstrate their capacity to:

• competently understand and explain relevant topics in the field;
• critically consider and compare research-based knowledge of the course topics;
• competently examine how various development strategies and change options are aimed at different goals; and
• and produce written responses to course topics and assignment tasks in accordance with the required academic standards.

General competence

Students demonstrate their capacity to:

• explain and problematise relevant theories and approaches about: international education, development, green change choices, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and climate mitigation options;
• independently evaluate and apply new knowledge to prescribed problems; and
• communicate academic issues relating to the major themes of the course.

The course introduces different approaches and theories about economic and social development, including present mainstream directions based on neoliberalism, economic growth, technological changes, and market-solutions in combination with governmental regulations. There is also a focus on the history of ideas of development as well as demonstrated practices, and the students are introduced to the history of economic growth and crises.

In the topic of environmental and climate change we focus on explanations of the gradually evolving environmental and climate crises, with discussion of concepts such as ‘the anthropocene’ and ‘the capitalocene’, as well as examination of the broad spectre of different approaches to sustainable development. Green change choices are introduced, such as green growth/green economy and various versions of Green New Deal, ecomodernisation, and degrowth. The agenda of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is discussed in terms of the emphasised goals and strategies. The course introduces the students to the academic debate on whether or not decoupling between economic growth and global warming is possible. The students learn how to critically examine consequences of different climate mitigation options for climate justice for future generation and with special and social variations of consequences for people today.

This course highlights and critically examines characteristics of the mainstream approach to mass education, seeking to produce ‘good workers’ and ‘good citizens’, underpinned by human capital theory and promises of poverty reduction through education. The Global-Local dialectic at play is explored in the ‘education and development’ nexus, and its social, political, economic, and historical context. This includes understandings of how models of education and their curricular and pedagogical systems have historically and continue to be transferred between and within countries, and their relationship to global and local conceptualisations of development. The course includes an examination of;how education is approached as one of the SDGs (no. 4), and the ways that the SDGs are presented in the global initiative Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Project as well as in other academic approaches to education on sustainable development. The review of ESD critically examines the program in terms of its alignment with and/or break from the conditions that generated the problems that the SDGs seek to solve: the global climate crisis, the crises of the anthropocene, cyclical and cumulative crises of the global economy, poverty, and significant crises and failures of international education.

Throughout the course, opportunities are created to consider the focused issues at multiple levels of scale (local, regional, national, global) and across time. Student assignments in the course may include consideration of: Mainstream and alternative theories and approaches of development, green change, climate mitigation options, and alternative approaches to mass education and its purposes.

After completing the course, the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

;

Knowledge

The student

• can describe nursing as a profession and a science
• can critically assess different views of knowledge and the importance of contextual relationships for research and professional development
• can analyse evidence-based practice and the values and perspectives on which such practice is based

;

Skills

The student

• can perform systematic literature searches, critically assess available knowledge and use findings to analyse clinical issues
• can analyse and take a critical approach to various sources of knowledge and use the sources in academic argumentation
• can use knowledge of educational approaches in supervision and dissemination

;

General competence

The student

• can initiate, participate in and conduct change and development work
• can create engagement in order to initiate research and professional development
• can analyse and critically reflect on issues relating to the field of nursing
• can communicate with colleagues and the general public about problems, argumentation and conclusions relating to the field of nursing

The course will use varied, student-active work methods. Work and teaching methods include lectures, group work, seminars with presentations of assignments and self-study.

The following must have been approved in order for the student to take the examination:

;

• Written assignment with oral presentation. ; Carried out in groups of three to four students. Scope: 2,500 words (+/- 10%). Documentation of literature selected by the student: 200 pages.;Oral presentation of the assignment to fellow students and lecturer(s). Peer assessment and feedback from the lecturer.

Individual home examination over three days. Scope: 2,500 words (+/- 10%).;

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

Grade scale A-F.