Award for Common Good Economy Seminar

Prof. Dr. Christian Herzig, Johanna Stöhr and the coordinator of the service learning unit at the University of Kassel, Dr. Imke-Marie Badur, were selected as a team by the Toepfer Foundation with their teaching project on the common good economy in the agricultural and food industry to take part in the 2020 specialist program "^LEHREn - The Alliance for University Teaching". In the seminar, students work with companies and other organizations from the Kassel region to create common good reports and balance sheets.

In the process, they are accompanied and supported by a certified common good consultant and a teaching team from the department. In small groups and accompanied by the Gemeinwohl advisor, they conduct several company visits after being theoretically introduced to the respective topics in courses and prepared for the discussions with organizational decision-makers. At the end, the results are presented in a final presentation and handed over to the organizations in the form of a draft report.

On the one hand, the project seminar has the character of a service learning module (students perform a "service to society", with a common good orientation), on the other hand, all participants in it act as multipliers of the common good idea and for sustainability topics. The didactic preparation, teaching support and increased integration of reflection should support and strengthen the development of competencies in the sense of education for sustainable development.

This year's focus of the Network of Excellence for University Teaching, which is co-financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Volkswagen Foundation, among others, is Teaching and Learning Sustainability and Social Transformation.

A total of 18 teachers from seven German universities were selected for the continuing education and experience exchange program.

"Taking stock for the common good", report from the university magazine publik 4/2019.