Environmental sustainability in oral health professional education: Approaches, challenges, and drivers— ADEE Special‐Interest Group Report

Dixon, Jonathan, Field, James ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5462-4156, van Harten, Maria, Duane, Brett and Martin, Nicolas 2024. Environmental sustainability in oral health professional education: Approaches, challenges, and drivers— ADEE Special‐Interest Group Report. European Journal of Dental Education 28 (4) , pp. 969-977. 10.1111/eje.13033

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Abstract

Introduction: This paper reports on the scholarship activity of the ‘Sustainability in Dentistry’ Special‐interest Group (SiG), which met at the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE) annual conference in Liverpool on 25 August 2023. The aim of this study was to (i) identify current teaching practices and approaches to embedding Environmental Sustainability (ES) in the curriculum in ADEE attendee schools and (ii) explore existing barriers/challenges to incorporating ES in dental education and consider potential solutions. Methodology: A mixed‐methods approach was used to fulfil the aims of this study. A pre‐workshop questionnaire was used to explore current teaching practices, challenges and drivers of embedding ES in the curriculum. An interactive workshop at the in‐person meeting in Liverpool was used to propose key strategies to overcome the most frequent challenges to embedding ES in the curriculum. Results: The majority of respondents (56%) reported that their institutions do not currently teach ES. Traditional didactic forms of teaching were mostly reported to teach ES in non‐clinical environments, and a transition to more environmentally sustainable materials and instruments was the most popular response for clinical teaching. Key barriers to embedding ES in the curriculum were identified, including time constraints and the overloaded curriculum, a lack of expertise/knowledge to teach and lack of practical guidance to support educators, limited learning resources for staff and students and resistance from colleagues regarding the relevance of ES in dentistry. The special‐interest group participants proposed strategies to overcome these challenges that centred around 14 themes. Conclusion: This paper reports recent scholarship activity by ADEE's ‘Sustainability in Dentistry’ SiG. Key strategies for overcoming the most common challenges to embedding ES in the curriculum are also discussed.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Dentistry
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1396-5883
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 August 2024
Date of Acceptance:	25 July 2024
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2024 15:08
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/171393

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