Sustainability in higher education: Implications for the disciplines

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Everett

Academic disciplines have a critical role to play in higher education's response to the planetary challenges of the 21st century. Many academics have embraced the call for a fundamental reorientation of higher education around the goal of education for sustainable development. Individual faculty members who prioritize such a pedagogical goal, however, may find themselves caught between claims of social responsibility on the one hand and traditional norms of their disciplines on the other. This predicament, I suggest, does not require resolution of theoretical debates over interdisciplinarity, but does require concrete practical action on the part of academics for institutional change in the disciplines. I highlight strategies currently being adopted by academic disciplinary associations to advance the mission of the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development.

Author(s):  
Kageeporn Wongpreedee ◽  
Karnitta Sinsahuang ◽  
Janjira Intanakom ◽  
Wanlaya Tanechpongtamb ◽  
Pansiri Phansuwan-Pujito

It has been long known that quality assurance (QA) is a system to develop quality standards in Thailand.  However, it is not easy to implement the concept throughout a whole organization, for example, to include in a university, faculty members, program specifications, management team, and so on.   This paper is to explain a case of strategic management of quality assurance using education for sustainable development (ESD) in the university with social enterprise concept.  An example of the university with the mission statement of “to serve society” can drawn more attention using ESD concept to faculty in stead of QA regulation concept.  The conceptual framework of the implementation was shown how QA can be developed in curriculum embedding with an ESD concept.  


Author(s):  
Sunaina Gowan

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the implications of COVID-19 to higher education and how universities and colleges can play a critical role in helping shape new ways for the world by adopting environmental sustainability as its academic mission. The effects of the pandemic have reached such proportions that the world may never be the same again. Even though educational institutions have been affected at different levels, there are some measures that can be undertaken to mitigate its impacts. The findings indicate the need for the integration of higher education for sustainable development. This study provides a unique and timely commentary about how coronavirus has altered in positive and negative ways higher education. It suggests that, due to its areas of influence, COVID-19 may also jeopardise the implementation of the sustainable development goals. It sends a cautious warning about the need to continue to put an emphasis on education for sustainable development, so that progress achieved to date is not endangered.


Author(s):  
Natalia Shchitova ◽  
Vitaly Belozerov ◽  
Julia Zolnikova

The article shows that education for sustainable development is of paramount importance for the implementation of the concept of sustainable development and the achievement of sustainable development goals. The use of sustainable development ideas in higher education is becoming a key factor in training specialists, which necessitates the development of effective forms and technologies for their implementation. The article considers the experience of forming the education system for sustainable development in the North Caucasus Federal University on the example of training students in the direction of “geography”, analyzes the ideology and methodology of forming competencies in the field of sustainable development in higher education. The process of practical transition of higher geographical education to a new level is shown. The main vector of such education is the task of creating an integrated interdisciplinary educational system based on inter-subject connections. Three main directions of formation of education for sustainable development are proposed — expansion of the content of basic courses due to the problems of sustainable development, development of new independent author’s courses devoted to certain issues of sustainable development, and inclusion of an independent discipline “Sustainable development” in the curriculum. The problem of sustainable development with reference to specific academic disciplines is presented in sufficient detail. It is emphasized that the success of developing competencies in the field of sustainable development depends directly on the use of new educational technologies, in particular, interactive and project-based learning methods.


2020 ◽  
pp. 121-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.V. Kotomina ◽  
A.I. Sazhina

Education is one of the key goals of sustainable development (SD), which establishes the basis for the improvement of the people’s living conditions. In this logic a special role is played by universities that create an institutional framework for educating citizens on sustainable development, offering a new understanding of social problems. On the one hand, universities can create and promote knowledge about SD by their educational, expert and research activities, hence developing relevant values among people. On the other hand, universities can become an active agent in implementing the concept of SD by introducing it into its own academic activities. The article considers stakeholder approach as one of the approaches to the implementation of the concept of education for sustainable development (ESD). Therefore based on this approach, the article explores the benefits of the key stakeholders of the sustainable university. Low awareness among key stakeholders is one of the significant factors that hindering the implementation of the SD concept. Due to the lack of a sufficient research focused on studying the interests of the main stakeholders in the framework of ESD, this article is an attempt to narrow this gap.


Author(s):  
Mohamed Jama Madar ◽  
Mustafa Din Bin Subari ◽  
Shadiya Mohamed Saleh Baqutayan

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a global initiative towards transforming education for sustainability. The integration of SD into the education portfolio is considered to be an important approach that ensures strategic alignment of higher education with SDGs. A document review was used to identify and discuss the difference between transmissive and transformative education in relation to SDGs and in the context of Somali education. In this trajectory, it is expected that the concept of ‘‘transformative education is likely to become more common to meet the emerging social, economic and environmental issues, yet practical challenges remain in Somaliland HE sector. The roadmap towards addressing transformative education for sustainability is not included in the Somaliland national portfolios; particularly ESD has not been presented. In this regard, this paper proposed a generic framework that spotlights the integration of HEIs and the national development goals (NDGs) in Somaliland. Meanwhile, developed and developing countries are prioritizing structural transformation in their HEIs that are tailored to national and regional development programs. Consistent with the Rio + 20 outcomes, the authors analyzed the concept of the ‘‘sustainable university’’ and identified the fact that it is practically divided into three interrelated and complementary categories, namely social-, environmental-, and economic-oriented university in pursuit of actualizing SD. The paper recommends major reforms in the education sector including availing investment portfolios for R&D, renovation of education goals and transforming universities for sustainability


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