The Chicken or the Egg?

 

This seems to be a classic issue with new ventures. What comes first? The chicken or the egg? In the case of environmental and sustainable education, there seems to be the challenge of programs and students, the chickens and the eggs.  Often, schools want to offer a course or class in a sustainability topic but they may find they do not have teachers who are well versed in the full subject matter.  From the alternative perspective, teachers may want to continue their education in the sustainability field to offer such classes, but cannot find institutions to offer them a degree, or an endorsement.

 

From a personal perspective, I have found two situations in which this has come up in the environmental and sustainability front.

 

One is Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) and the other is the new Washington State specialty endorsement for Environmental and Sustainability Education that was announced last spring.  BGI took the proactive approach to sustainability education, a “If you build it, they will come” sort of philosophy. They made a MBA program focusing on sustainable business and social justice, at that time, seven years ago, with only a handful of students, most of those invited and asked to come. Now, the school is a nationally accredited program with huge wait lists and an active student body.

 

The second example is the Washington State special endorsement for Environmental and Sustainability Education. After attending BGI, I will be fully qualified to teach this subject. However, after talking to a few institutions, I am unable to get that endorsement because no one offers it (yet). The main question has been is if we offer teachers this endorsement, will they find a position? No school has a Sustainability class- how can they get placement? But so often is forgotten is the opposite- how can a school offer a subject without a qualified teacher?

 

So let us take an example from BGI and say, Let us build it. They will come.