Arjen Wals

Wageningen

Arjen Wals is a Professor of Transformative Learning for Socio-Ecological Sustainability at the Education and Competence Studies Group of Wageningen University. He also holds the UNESCO Chair of Social Learning and Sustainable Development. He is the Carl Bennet Guest Professor in Education for Sustainable Development at Gothenburg University in Sweden and an adjunct professor at Cornell University. His teaching and research focus on designing learning processes and learning spaces that enable people to contribute meaningfully to sustainability. A central question in his work is: how to create conditions that support (new) forms of learning which take full advantage of the diversity, creativity, and resourcefulness that is all around us, but that so far remain largely untapped in our search for a world that is more sustainable than the one currently in prospect? In 2014, he was the lead author of an article published in Science on the role of citizen science in bridging science education, environmental education, and sustainability. He is editor and co-editor of a number of popular books including: Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability (Kluwer Academic, 2004), Creating Sustainable Environments in our Schools (Trentham, 2006), Social Learning towards a Sustainable World (Wageningen Academic, 2007), Learning for Sustainability in Times of Accelerating Change (2012), and of Routledge’s International Handbook on Environmental Education Research (2013). He has (co)authored over 250 publication, of which 60 are in international peer reviewed journals. He writes a regular research blog that signals developments in the emerging field of sustainability education: www.transformativelearning.nl