Type of course

Course content

Critical global challenges such as pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change have all reached crisis levels and threaten to dramatically undermine Earth’s life support systems. To tackle these challenges, ocean leaders need to a) understand key drivers and consequences of the crises, b) recognize their complexities and interconnections, c) have insight into current governance approaches, and d) be both willing and able to facilitate processes of change. Providing participants with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for understanding and addressing critical global challenges is the focus of this second course of the Ocean Leadership program.

The course provides an overview of the drivers and consequences of critical global challenges to ocean sustainability including pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change. The course also covers cybersecurity as an emerging global challenge relevant for ocean leadership, as well as inequity as a cross-cutting theme relevant for all challenges. Since global challenges require global approaches, the course provides insight into how these challenges are currently governed internationally, canvassing relevant international treaties, policy instruments, and global bodies. Given the nature and magnitude of the critical global challenges, this course also includes a focus on ethical dilemmas, handling ecological grief and anxiety, and the demands of leadership under conditions of complexity. It engages with the theory and practice of adaptive leadership and emphasises the importance of moving through cycles of observation, interpretation, experimentation, and adaptation to handle complexity and emergence.

As part of an experience-based master’s program, students will be expected to reflect on how the information and training presented relates to their own professional work context and share their knowledge and experience with the group in a collaborative learning environment.

Objectives of the course

Knowledge:

Upon completion of the course, participants will have developed:

• advanced knowledge of critical global challenges to ocean sustainability, including pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change.
• substantial insight into international law and policy on, and international bodies for, the protection and preservation of the marine environment in the face of critical global challenges
• awareness of key concepts and perspectives related to cyberthreats and cybersecurity
• advanced knowledge of the theory and practice of adaptive leadership
• awareness of the role diverse stakeholders play in creating and addressing critical global challenges, as well as how the challenges affect people and sectors differently

Skills:

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

• critically assess diverse sources of information
• identify and apply relevant theories and methods to analyze critical global challenges
• work as part of a team to plan and implement projects that engage with issues of complexity
• communicate effectively within a diverse team to develop and advance common goals

General competence and attitudes:

Upon completion of the course, participants will have the competence to:

• explain the significance of the critical global challenges and how they interface with inequities
• recognise eco-anxiety and ecological grief and handle it in ways that enable action in the face of complex challenges
• see interconnections between critical global challenges and the importance of engaging with them in an integrated and inclusive manner
• realise their potential to engage in adaptive processes of change through their own leadership practice

Language of instruction and examination

Teaching methods

The course is taught through a combination of (face-to-face) intensive sessions - in which participants come together to learn, share experiences, and practice skills - and online modules on topics of relevance that can be completed by participants asynchronously in their own time and at their own pace.

The intensive sessions run over 4.5 days, with one scheduled at the beginning of the semester and one towards the end of semester. These sessions will include lectures from faculty members, talks from international experts, roundtable discussions and interactive seminars on course topics. During the first session, participants will form teams that will support each other throughout the course and collaborate on a group project related to critical global challenges.

Between the two intensive sessions, participants will complete online modules covering relevant knowledge, concepts and perspectives across the domains of ocean sustainability, leadership and ethics, law and governance, digital ocean technologies, and information literacy. The online modules will include a range of different learning materials, which can include filmed lectures, instructional videos, podcasts, academic readings, discussion boards, and practical or reflective exercises.

The program has ambitious learning goals and requires substantial effort between the two intensive sessions. To support participants during this time, virtual meetups are offered about once a month to allow for reconnection, discussion of online learning materials, and/or feedback on works in progress.