Learning across: pedagogical development funding for teachers

Last changed: 10 May 2019

Are you a teacher in the field of sustainable urban development at SLU with an interest for working with interdisciplinarity in education? Or are you a teacher in another field, but with interest to include urban sustainability issues in your education? Now you can apply for funding to develop a course, a learning activity or your own pedagogical competence to support interdisciplinary teaching and learning in higher education. Up to five applications will be granted a maximum of 50 000 SEK each. The last day to apply is June 14.

SLU Urban Futures

SLU Urban Futures is a strategic research platform with the mission to inspire and support the faculties of SLU to initiate, develop and strengthen multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary research, education and collaboration within the field of sustainable urban development.

SLU Urban Futures’ thematic focus

The thematic focus of the platform includes spatial and socio-ecological sustainability perspectives on urban environments as habitat for various groups of humans as well as other-than-human actor, and on urban-rural and urban-hinterland dependencies and interactions.

What do we mean by interdisciplinarity?

We defined interdisciplinarity as knowledge making processes (in research, education and collaboration) where different disciplines and knowledge fields meet and integrate. For an elaborated introduction to interdisciplinarity in higher education, the following texts can be of help:

Spelt, E. J. H., Biemans, H. J. A., Tobi, H., Luning, P. A., & Mulder, M. (2009). Teaching and learning in interdisciplinary higher education: A systematic review. Educational Psychology Review, 21(4), 365–378.  

Nikitina, S. (2006). Three strategies for interdisciplinary teaching: Contextualizing, conceptualizing, and problem-centring. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(3), 251–271. 

Ivanitskaya, L., Clark, D., Montgomery, G., & Primeau, R. (2002). Interdisciplinary Learning: Process and Outcomes. Innovative Higher Education (Vol. 27). Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1023%2FA%3A1021105309984.pdf 

Who can apply?

The main applicant must be employed by SLU and active in education. People who do not work at SLU are welcome to participate in projects and activities. Projects and activities must have SLU as a sender. The budget can include:

  • Working time for SLU employees
  • Travel costs for project participants
  • Consultants (f.ex. for bringing in an expert)
  • Costs for materials, food and venues

Evaluation

Applications are evaluated based on the following criteria:

1.     The extent to which the project can be expected to contribute to the development of interdisciplinary education at SLU within the thematic focus of the platform. This includes both developing interdisciplinary activities in education in urban sustainability and integrating urban sustainability issues into educations focusing on other issues. This is assessed based on a) the focus and process of the project, and b) expected impact.

2.     The applicants engagement in educational issues, where priority is given to applicants with more substantial responsibility and/or activity in education.

3.     The feasibility of the budget.

How to apply

Click on the green button above to get to the application form. The application can be written in Swedish or English. You can choose English language by clicking on the flag. If you do not already have an account you need to first create one. For your convenience use the template in word to write the application and then transfer the information to the application form.

If you have any questions, please e-mail urbanfutures@slu.se.

  • Last day to apply is June 14.
  • Decision day is June 26.