ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I report on a single case study as participant observer of a relatively
distinctive undergraduate course that I have taught for eight semesters. The course
is organized around aspects of sustainable development and primarily oriented
to teach technical students, mostly computer science (CS) majors, although the
course is open to all students at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML).
The course structure and content have been shaped by both the initial
considerations that motivated and facilitated the course offering and the experi-
ence of student/teacher interactions over the last four years. In addition to both
spontaneous and structured feedback on assigned material, the course emphasizes
class participation in the seminar-teaching style and the value of participation by
communities and affected groups in the process of setting goals and implementing
programs to achieve sustainable development. Students in the first courses began
requesting specific topics for inclusion, and this process was formally included as
an opportunity for student/teacher negotiations over course topics to be covered in
the last six classes. Introducing unanticipated final topics during the semester
was a challenge for instruction both in terms of the intellectual background of
the teacher and the time demand of researching topics and developing lesson
plans during the busiest part of the academic season. However, the pedagogical
payoff was the experience of empowering students to significantly define at least
a small part of their own educational experience, and it also provided a labor-
atory (without controls) for an initial assessment of several influences on the
negotiations. Specifically, the influencing factors include prior coursework; the
interests students brought to the course, and the dramatic events that occurred
during this period, particularly September 11 and the Iraq war and its aftermath.
The topicality of major national and international issues defined student interest
more than limited perceptions of the immediacy of any local application of the
lessons learned from studying the challenges facing the attainment of sustainable
development.
