Promoting ESD in Dentistry

“Greening” of academic curricula is becoming an ever more prominent trend in the UK HE sector. In alignment with the University of Manchester 2020 Strategy and the Sustainable Development Strategy for Health, Public Health and the Social Care System 2014-2020 the Division of Dentistry shows a commitment to sustainability by embedding sustainability issues into its formal and informal curriculum. For the last four years, we have been promoting and running various initiatives concerning Education for Sustainable Development.
Some initiatives are teacher-led, and others are more student-led. A number of projects aim to encourage undergraduate students to explore Environmental Sustainability, so that later on in their professional career they will have a greater commitment to making dental clinics more environmentally friendly and sustainable. We also facilitate initiatives that encourage undergraduate students to experience the sense of Social Responsibility in order to integrate this also in their dental practice.
Thus, as a part of my presentation I would like to share the students’ attitudes towards sustainability and then to explore the teaching and learning approaches, which we utilise to increase the number of sustainability-literate dentistry graduates. It is envisaged that attendees will engage in an exchange of ideas and experience with regard to strategies of embedding/ delivering Sustainability topics in their subject areas.