Framing Transportation Planning Pedagogy for Sustainability Generalists
This paper describes a pilot graduate sustainable transportation course developed at the University of Oregon to provide hands-on project experience for students studying sustainability. New approaches to sustainability and transportation pedagogies will provide a galvanizing force for tomorrow’s graduates, who must respond to concerns about climate change and the environment, social equity, and an uncertain economy. They will require an aptitude for both technical skills and collaborative leadership and communication skills. The course was guided by a framework founded in five themes from the literature on sustainability education and transportation planning and engineering education: (1) leading with sustainability’s cornerstones of people, prosperity and planet, (2) sponsoring a systems thinking approach to analyze transportation issues and potential solutions, (3) incorporating knowledge from interdisciplinary resources, (4) promoting “softer” skills including communication and leadership, and (5) emphasizing applied learning. The themes aim to overcome institutional barriers and to better prepare students for the rapidly evolving challenges they will encounter in the sustainability and transportation fields. Although the purpose of the project was to develop a framework and institutionalize a sustainable transportation class at the graduate level, the student projects had unforeseen impacts upon the community in furthering innovative technologies and policies. Ultimately, the class was featured in the local progressive weekly newspaper as starting a "sustainable transit revolution.” This paper documents the process, the projects, and puts the experience in the context of literature on the framework themes and sustainability and transportation education.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABG20 Transportation Education and Training.
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Corporate Authors:
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001 -
Authors:
- Sweeney, Beth
- Scheerer, Ann
- Elmer, Vicki
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC
- Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
- Date: 2014
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: References; Tables;
- Pagination: 21p
- Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Curricula; Education and training methods; Graduate study; Interdisciplinary studies; Sustainable transportation; Transportation planning
- Identifier Terms: University of Oregon
- Subject Areas: Education and Training; Environment; Transportation (General); I10: Economics and Administration; I15: Environment;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01518639
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 14-0576
- Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Mar 20 2014 1:39PM