Follow-up on international volunteering
Thanks again to Jisung and the S&S team for having me on the show! I’d like to use this space to clarify two clumsy statements I made on the podcast, and then offer a short reflection about where...
View ArticleYouth & Sustainability
2011 will be remembered as a year of protests. From Tahrir Square and Zuccotti Park to the streets of Santiago and Homs, protest movements have gained more traction than at anytime in recent memory....
View ArticleCalifornia Prisons: Does Realignment Mean Reform?
Today’s guest blog is by Karin Drucker. Karin has worked in juvenile justice advocacy and research in California with the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and the Ella Baker Center for Human...
View ArticleShould we subsidize higher education? A response to Jeff Sachs
Willy Oppenheim is a doctoral student in the Education department at Oxford University, and the founder and director of Omprakash. Willy’s research has included fieldwork-based projects in Tibet and...
View ArticleHuman Capital in the World’s Newest Country
For many Americans, college is the new high school—a rite of passage, but not an earth-shaking one. In South Sudan, where the literacy rate is below 30%, students are training to be the doctors,...
View ArticleProfessor Eric Hanushek on the Economics of Education
Topic: The Economics of Education, Incentive-Based Pay, and the Links between Educational Achievement and Economic Growth Institution: Stanford University, Hoover Institute Bio: Eric Hanushek is the...
View ArticlePodcast response: Where’s the ‘value’ in ‘value added’ testing?
Willy Oppenheim is a doctoral student in the Education department at Oxford University, and the founder and director of Omprakash. Willy’s research has included fieldwork-based projects in Tibet and...
View ArticlePodcast response: Moving beyond performance pay
Today’s guest blogger is Abi Adams, a doctoral student in Economics at Oxford University. She is an economics lecturer at Oriel College, Oxford and has worked on the Public Finance team at the...
View ArticlePodcast response: What makes teachers (or Jeremy Lin) great?
Lindsay Whorton is a doctoral student studying teachers and education in the Comparative Social Policy program at Oxford University. She has previously worked for the education division of the...
View ArticleAldo Leopold and The Land Ethic
Topic: Aldo Leopold and “Sustainability” through a Historical Lens Institution: The Center for Humans and Nature, The Aldo Leopold Institute Bio: Dr. Curt Meine is a conservation biologist and writer...
View ArticleThe Perils of Privatization 101
Canada recently witnessed its largest act of civil disobedience — ever. On May 22, a reported 400,000 students, teachers and their allies marched through downtown Montreal in a brazen show of...
View ArticleS&S is looking for interns!
Sense & Sustainability (S&S) is offering a limited number of internships to undergraduates and qualified high school students who demonstrate an interest in sustainable development. There are...
View ArticleThe Educational and Inspirational Value of Renewable Energy
In early 2009, I visited my alma mater middle school, Rachel Carson Middle School (RCMS) in Herndon, Virginia, to talk about a grant opportunity and a potential project idea. The grant was part of...
View ArticleEndangering Prosperity: Education, Economic Growth, and the Failings of...
Endangering Prosperity: Education, Economic Growth, and the Failings of Modern American Schooling Guest Bio: Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of...
View ArticleGreening Schools
To America’s school boards, What if I could you offer you a reliable path to: Improve educational results Improve student, teacher, and staff morale Improve student, teacher, and staff health Create...
View ArticleEducation’s Overlooked Purpose
In her earlier post, Lindsay Whorton laments education researchers’ failure to do little more than affirm the obvious: teachers matter. Students in great teachers’ classrooms consistently land in the...
View ArticleTruth and Reconciliation
On a recent visit, the UN’s special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, said that while Canada is among the most developed countries in the world, the living conditions of its...
View ArticleWater Policy and Sustainable Development, Part Two: Careers in Development...
Water Policy and Sustainable Development, Part Two: Careers in Development and Public Policy In part two of our interview with Professor Briscoe, the former Senior Water Adviser at the World Bank and...
View ArticleEducational Resolution
Conflict is a daily ritual for nearly any K-12 student, ranging from minor playground squabbles to vicious bullying. Schools often write policies and make decisions that suppress conflict because they...
View ArticleSpeak Friend
Language understanding is a critical aspect of modern society. The ability to speak and write critically has become increasingly important as the economy shifts from manual skill jobs to the service...
View ArticleWorkforce Education
In 2014, a worker making the national average minimum wage would have to work full time for 49 weeks to afford the average in-state tuition and fees at a public university. In a year, that leaves only...
View ArticleThe Broader Picture Behind the “People’s Climate March” and “Flood Wall...
Giant balloons, costumed women on stilts, giant cardboard butterflies, and marching bands galore – the People’s Climate March on September 21st was startlingly similar to a circus in many respects....
View ArticleClean Energy in India: Opportunities for Solar Microgrids
Part two of a series on clean energy in India. In part one of this series, I introduced solar microgrids as a way for clean energy to reach India’s most rural and remote corners. The benefits of...
View ArticlePrivate Benefits
Where is the line between imperialism and conservation? With so many of the most biologically diverse and ecologically sensitive places remaining on the planet located in developing countries this is...
View ArticleSustainable Sanitation
Editors note on our Health & Development series: The correlation between access to first-rate healthcare and least developed countries is striking. That correlation is more than superficial....
View ArticleSouth Asia’s Youth Demographics
Part one of a series on youth demographics in South Asia. Population growth and demographic trends play a key role for the economic and geopolitical status of nation-states. In South Asia, the growth...
View ArticleHealth Systems Failure 1: Ebola Basics
Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a cross-post from The Rounds Table podcast. The Rounds Table is a free weekly podcast that runs every Friday and provides an informative and irreverent discussion of...
View ArticleSouth Asia’s Youth Demographics: The Way Forward for Policy and Development...
Part three of a series on youth demographics in South Asia. It is clear that South Asia faces mounting challenges in realizing its potential demographic dividend in the coming decades. India and...
View ArticleThe Politics of First Place
Iceland takes first place in the Global Peace Index and the Global Gender Gap rankings, and has ninety-five percent of its power supplied by renewable energy. Sweden provides paid paternity leave to...
View ArticleInvesting in Preventive Medicine
The logic of preventive medicine is tangible: Spend a little on prevention now to reduce the later risk of coming down with a serious illness whose treatment is much more costly. That logic becomes...
View ArticleCreative Education
“It is time for Asia to transition from a perspiration economy to an inspiration economy,” executive director Jisung Park stated in his opening to the K.E.Y. Platform 2015: Education in Sweden breakout...
View ArticleThe Burden of Proof
Debunking deceit is difficult business for many reasons: deceit and dishonesty is easier than thoughtful, substantive, truthful engagement. As Winston Churchill put it, “A lie gets halfway around the...
View ArticleWorkforce Education
In 2014, a worker making the national average minimum wage would have to work full time for 49 weeks to afford the average in-state tuition and fees at a public university. In a year, that leaves only...
View ArticleTeaching Climate Consensus
The expert scientific community is near unanimous: Climate change is occurring and human action is driving this change. To wit: “Over 97 percent of climate scientists have independently concluded...
View ArticleEducation’s Overlooked Purpose
In her earlier post, Lindsay Whorton laments education researchers’ failure to do little more than affirm the obvious: teachers matter. Students in great teachers’ classrooms consistently land in the...
View ArticleS&S in Seoul: Take Three
This week a group from S&S took a break from Cambridge, Massachusetts and flew to Seoul, South Korea. The primary purpose of the trip, was to attend the 2016 K.E.Y. Platform at the Conrad Hotel...
View ArticleOf Genes and Vacuums [Part I]
Early last year, at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), noticeably pale yellow fruit flies darted around their plastic homes inside of a genetics laboratory. These were no ordinary flies:...
View ArticleThe Challenges of Redistribution
Inequality is a primal threat to sustainability. For evidence of this, one can look to politics: the notion that a shrinking middle class threatens American progress is central to presidential...
View ArticleS&S Expanding Access to Knowledge
As part of our on-going efforts to close the knowledge-practice divide, we’re launching a new S&S working paper series. One of the biggest obstacles to the more rapid spread of academic knowledge...
View ArticleIDJ articles re-published on Harvard University’s Sense & Sustainability...
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the International Development Journal, an online journal offering a platform to engage in debate and discussions on global policies and current affairs....
View ArticleAn Interview with former Vice President Al Gore
During his recent visit to Tufts University, The Fletcher Forum had a chance to sit down with former Vice President Al Gore to discuss the political, social, and environmental implications of climate...
View ArticleAn Interview with Heather Henriksen, Harvard’s Chief Sustainability Officer
Julian Rauter interviews Harvard’s Chief Sustainability Officer Heather Henriksen on greening higher education. She highlights the environmental dimensions of human health and the importance of making...
View ArticleAn Interview with Terry Tempest Williams
Maria Park interviews Terry Tempest Williams — an environmentalist, activist, and writer currently in residence at the Harvard Divinity School. Williams shares stories of her upbringing, personal...
View ArticleThe Connection Between Nature-Based Recreation and Sustainable Behaviors
The Organic Act, the Congressional Act that created the National Park Service in 1916, mandates that the National Park Service preserve the natural, scenic, and historic components of the areas they...
View ArticleLand Conservation Part 2: Land Trusts
Julian Rauter interviews Rand Wentworth, President Emeritus of the Land Trust Alliance and Louis Bacon Senior Fellow in Environmental Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Wentworth discusses...
View ArticleMeet Sivendra, the Pacific’s Climate Change Hero Without the Cape: Part 1
Editor’s Note: This is the first of two articles on Ken’s interview with Sivendra – part 1 provides some background on Sivendra and his work in Pacific, while part 2 focuses on how Sivendra addresses...
View ArticleMeet Sivendra, the Pacific’s Climate Change Hero Without the Cape: Part 2
Editor’s Note: This is the second of two articles on Ken’s interview with Sivendra – part 1 provides some background on Sivendra and his work in Pacific, while part 2 focuses on how Sivendra addresses...
View Article3 Features Sustainability Leaders of Tomorrow Have in Common Today
This article was first published by the Environmental Defense Fund, an organization focusing on creating economical policies to support clean air and water; abundant fish and wildlife; and a stable...
View ArticleGoing Deforestation-free: What’s the Role of Corporations?
Editor’s Note: This article was first published by GreenBuzz, an association that supports sustainability on regional and international levels through research, education and networking. The article...
View ArticleOnline Learning for a New Higher Education
Editor’s Note: This article was first published on AACSB. It has been republished here with the author’s permission. The more we can apply lessons from pandemic-era teaching to the programs we...
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