Co-creating environmental and sustainability education courses: the possibilities and pitfalls of collaborative course design

Purpose Collaboration is critical for navigating environmental and sustainability issues; however, translating this competency into participatory approaches to environmental and sustainability education (ESE) remains elusive. The process of designing ESE courses represents an under-examined space for modeling this transformative practice at higher education institutions (HEIs) toward sustainability. This paper aims to examine barriers, enablers and outcomes of course co-creation, including co-teaching, co-designing and co-learning, to support transformative ESE. Design/methodology/approach Using a collaborative autoethnography-inspired approach, this paper critically re-examines the authors’ co-creation efforts across four ESE courses. It structures their analysis around the personal, political and practical “spheres of transformation for sustainability” (O’Brien and Sygna, 2013). Findings The paper presents how the authors’ values and worldviews, their collaborative and pedagogical practices and the institutional policies that framed their course design and teaching interacted to support or hinder transformative approaches to ESE. The outcomes highlight: the power of identifying and refining shared values; the transgressive potential of translating these values into codesign processes; the need for coproductive agility to navigate stuck systems; and the institutional barriers that need to be transformed. Practical implications This work offers concrete practices to transform ESE course and program design by addressing opportunities in the personal, political and practical spheres and sharing obstacles to transformation. Originality/value The paper offers insights into disrupting the ESE course design process and the systemic barriers that impede such participatory contributions at HEIs. It contributes to the literature on co-creation as an important aspect of transformative ESE that can foster sustainability transitions.