Assignment 3: Leading Insitutional Change Projects

As a facilitator in the SSATL-ESD programme, one of your most important roles is to mentor and support Teacher Leaders as they develop their institutional ESD Change Projects. These Change Projects are at the heart of the Sustainability Starts with Teacher Leaders course and represent each institution’s contribution to strengthening ESD in teacher education.

A good Change Project is more than a set of activities — it is a collaborative, visionary, and context-specific institutional initiative that takes shape through reflective dialogue, shared leadership, and meaningful engagement with sustainability challenges.

Tiffany’s short video, What Makes a Good ESD Change Project, provides clear and practical guidance on the qualities, principles, and leadership approaches that make Change Projects successful. As a facilitator, this video will help you recognise:
• what strong Change Projects look like,
• where Teacher Leaders may need guidance,
• how to mentor participants through each stage of the Change Project Pathway, and
• how digital tools can support project collaboration, documentation, and innovation.

Please watch the video below before continuing:

Assignment Instructions

Step 1: Reflect on your institutional context

Think about:
• One sustainability-related challenge in your institution,
• One opportunity where ESD leadership could make a difference,
• One area where collaboration across programmes or departments is possible.

Step 2: Draft a short Change Project concept (150–250 words)

Your concept should include:

  1. The sustainability issue or opportunity
    (What problem or need are you addressing?)
  2. The purpose of the Change Project
    (What change do you want to enable?)
  3. Who would be involved
    (Your potential Community of Practice: colleagues, units, departments)
  4. Why this matters for teacher education
    (How does it strengthen ESD in your institution?)
  5. How digital tools could support collaboration and documentation
    (ChatGPT, Descript, Padlet)

You do not need to design the full project. This is only a concept-level exploration to help you understand the process you will guide others through.