Education for Sustainable Development Competencies in a Community-Engaged Art Workshop

Abstract

In this case study, I aimed to help solve community sustainability problems through a university-led, community-engaged art workshop called First Responder Art Collaboration Training (FACT) that led students and first responders in learning and transformation through education, dialogue, and weaving. I used a framework of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to examine expansive learning in communities and how this knowledge is interconnected to cultural and historical frameworks such as education for sustainable development (ESD). I found an intersection between the CHAT points of consumption, exchange, and community and the EDS strategic, future, value, interpersonal, and intrapersonal competencies. I recommend incorporating an experiential and expansive learning model into every discipline and further studies to show how the FACT workshop impacts different types of communities.