14 Learning Through Doing: Lessons from Stakeholder Engagement in Media Education

Dr Kelly Fincham shares insights from a media education module that used design thinking and stakeholder engagement to help students connect sustainability theory with practice. The aim was to move beyond abstract discussions of climate change by empowering students to identify, analyse, and respond to sustainability challenges within their own lived experience.

Students were introduced to design thinking’s structured approach—empathise, define, ideate—encouraging them to start with stakeholder interviews and deep listening before developing potential solutions. Using empathy interviews with fellow students, learners explored how climate-related issues manifested in everyday life. Topics most frequently raised were housing, transport, and alcohol—issues that strongly affect the student experience and intersect with broader sustainability concerns.

The findings highlighted feelings of loneliness, disconnection, and isolation, particularly linked to long commutes, unaffordable or unsuitable housing, and social pressures around alcohol consumption. Students translated these insights into actionable proposals, such as a dedicated commuter lounge on campus, alcohol-free but attractive social events (“Beyond Cocktails”), and improved late-night public transport options.

While these initiatives may not directly solve climate change, they gave students a sense of agency and demonstrated how local interventions can contribute to sustainability and wellbeing. The process also helped reduce eco-anxiety by showing that problems could be broken down and addressed collaboratively.

Dr Fincham concludes that stakeholder engagement and design thinking provide powerful tools for sustainability education, building intellectual, emotional, social, and action-oriented learning while empowering students to see themselves as active change-makers.

About the author

name: Dr Kelly Fincham

institution: University of Galway

Dr Kelly Fincham is a member of the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies in Global Media at the University of Galway.