Teaching Pathways to Planetary Regeneration

Pivoting a teaching portfolio toward planetary regeneration requires intentional effort and innovation. Traditional teaching often focuses on disciplinary silos, while planetary regeneration demands an interdisciplinary approach that connects education to global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequities.

This shift involves rethinking course content and pedagogy to embed themes of sustainability and resilience. Educators must explore how their discipline intersects with planetary health and design experiences that inspire action beyond theory. It also requires collaboration—co-listing modules with colleagues across institutions or facilitating transnational project-based learning exposes students to diverse perspectives and interconnected solutions.

Such efforts take time and planning, from building relationships to aligning curricula. Yet, the rewards are immense. Students gain critical thinking skills, global collaboration experience, and a sense of agency in addressing planetary challenges. For educators, it transforms teaching into a meaningful contribution to ecological and social renewal.

Pathways to Evolving a University Teaching Portfolio Toward Planetary Regeneration

1. Reframe Your Teaching Philosophy

• • Integrate Regeneration Goals: Identify how your teaching, regardless of discipline, can incorporate themes of planetary regeneration, such as sustainability, resilience, or global citizenship. You may do this explicitly if your teaching job description allows you, or implicitly, if you do not yet have formal authorization to integrate planetary regeneration themes into your teaching.

  • Systems Thinking Approach: Encourage students to view challenges holistically, linking your subject to ecological and societal systems.

2. Build Interdisciplinary and Transnational Perspectives

• • Cross-Disciplinary Connections: Collaborate with faculty in environmental science, social policy, or systems innovation to enrich course content. Introduce video lectures that illuminate the intersectionalities.

  • Transnational Co-Listing: Partner with instructors at other universities—locally or internationally—to co-list modules or activities. For example, pair a sustainability-themed capstone with a similar course in another country to explore diverse contexts and solutions.

3. Design Experiential and Project-Based Learning

• • Community-Led Projects: Engage students in local regeneration initiatives, such as urban greening or waste reduction programs.

  • Transnational Collaboration: Facilitate online project-based learning with students from partner institutions in different countries. For instance, create cross-border teams to design solutions for shared challenges like climate adaptation or biodiversity loss.

  • Immersive Case Studies: Use real-world regeneration success stories to analyze strategies and failures.

4. Enhance Digital Pedagogy

• • Virtual Classrooms: Host joint lectures or discussion forums with international instructors.

  • Collaborative Platforms: Use tools like Miro, Slack, or Padlet to enable seamless collaboration across geographies.

  • Online Symposia: Organize virtual conferences where students present joint findings to a global audience.

5. Integrate Global Frameworks into Curriculum

• • SDGs and Planetary Boundaries: Use global frameworks as organizing principles to align learning outcomes with planetary regeneration goals.

  • Cross-Cultural Learning: Include materials and guest speakers from different regions to expose students to diverse perspectives.

6. Innovate Assessment Practices

• • Impact-Driven Projects: Shift assessment to focus on real-world impact, such as implemented solutions or awareness campaigns.

  • Collaborative Grading: Evaluate student contributions to transnational projects in coordination with partner instructors.

7. Foster Institutional and Global Partnerships

• • Regional Networks: Join or create networks of universities focused on sustainability and regeneration (e.g., University Global Coalition for SDGs).

  • Faculty Exchanges: Facilitate teaching exchanges with instructors from other institutions.

  • Multi-Campus Projects: Develop regeneration initiatives that involve multiple campuses working on interconnected aspects of a global problem.

8. Empower Students as Regenerators

• • Leadership Opportunities: Encourage students to lead regeneration-related initiatives within and beyond the campus.

  • Student-Driven Content: Include student-curated modules or co-teaching opportunities.

  • Career Pathways: Highlight professions and industries focused on planetary health and sustainability.

9. Evaluate and Iterate

• • Feedback Loops: Collect student and peer feedback to refine course offerings.

  • Scaling Success: Expand successful models (e.g., transnational collaborations) to include more institutions or disciplines.

  • Research Outputs: Publish on innovative teaching methods for planetary regeneration to inspire global adaptation.