The first oikos Curriculum Academy was hosted by the oikos Prague Chapter. The three days workshop focused on reform of economics and management education and was a result of close collaboration of local oikos Prague chapter and oikos International Curriculum Initiative team. Its main purpose was to reflect and learn about innovative economics and management programs and teaching approaches that are designed to address current global environmental and social challenges. During this first and pilot project, the organisers decided to test following organisational approaches and learning methods.
Online and Onsite Interaction
The Academy was hosted both onsite and online, which proved to be beneficial for the participants. It also allowed to involve diverse groups and participants into the conversation about curriculum reform. 10 onsite participants from the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland thus interacted with around 10 online participants from Italy, Germany, Austria, USA, Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
On the first day, the interactive debate with faculty and students about curriculum reform was held. After four short presentations (Dr. Dušan Kučera, University of Economics Prague, Prof. Dr. Judith Walls, University of St. Gallen, Baptise Crozat, Rethinking Economics Geneva and Michela Ciscotosto, Rethinking Economics Torino) all the participants actively engaged into 1,5 hour long discussion about the future of economics and management education and its sustainable perspective. Throughout the second and third day, various sessions combining online and onsite participation were held. On Saturday, a workshop on curriculum reform was run by J. Christopher Proctor from oikos International team and on Sunday two workshops focused on curriculum action were facilitated by Lenka Kepkova from oikos International.
Active Participation and Informal Learning Methods
The oikos Curriculum Academy was participant’s driven event. Each participant had a chance to present or discuss a project they were involved in. oikos St. Gallen members, oikos Cologne representative as well as oikos Prague members presented the status of curriculum at their university with respect to sustainability, Phd students from Masaryk University and Wageningen University run an interactive session on alternative economic models. Representatives of oikos International introduced the Exploring Economics Platform during their hands on workshop. Representative from oikos Cologne organised reflection and warm up sessions.
Action Focus and Follow up
The main goal of the Academy was to kick start a discussion about the economics and management curriculum reform which would have several follow up activities with tangible results. During the Academy, two workshop tutorials were developed in order to bring the various concepts of heterodox economics as well as discussion about the curriculum innovation further.
One tutorial was used during the oikos LEAP Meeting in November in Leysin, during which two interactive sessions on degrowth and circular economy were held. Furthermore, the second workshop tutorial was used to run the workshop with 90 international participants on core building blocks of economics and management education during the oikos FutureLab in Geneva. Later this workshop was run again at the conference on Sustainable Innovation 2020 at ESCP Berlin.
What was kick started in Prague will continue in April in Lausanne. Based on the experience made during the first oikos Curriculum Academy the follow up event has been planned in April the the Business School Lausanne. See more information here.
We would like to cordially thank the University of Economics in Prague for supporting the first oikos Curriculum Academy and thus providing the space for the discussion about sustainable economics and management education.
