SystemsChange.Now (5 cr)
Integrating Futures Thinking and Systems Thinking into Climate Education
SystemsChange.Now focuses on systems thinking as an approach to understanding how we can respond to the scale and scope of current and future impacts of Climate Change on the Earth System and the human societies that depend on it.
This course looks critically at how models can be used to better appreciate the implications of our interventions in systems, as well as the roles different types of actors can play in bringing about structural changes toward more sustainable way of living. An important goal of SystemsChange.Now is building students’ competences for positioning themselves within and appreciating their own agency in processes of systems change. In addition to the other new knowledge and tools introduced by the course, this requires that students reflect on their emotional reactions to environmental change and future uncertainties, addressing both climate anxiety and the capacity for hope. This 5 ECTS course will be offered at the Master’s level for interested students across all disciplines.
In addition to University of Turku, partners contributing to this course are affiliated with Aalto University, University of Helsinki, Tampere University, and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
The process of planning this course as a research activity has given FFRC the opportunity to actively engage with connections between futures thinking and systems thinking approaches. Interdisciplinary learning processes within the team of collaborators could be a model for researchers’ professional development. This project also explores strategies for supporting the development of sustainable futures in educational contexts and our society at large, in line with FFRC’s core strategic aims.
