Environmental Sustainability in Coursework: General

"In fall 2009, seven faculty members from different disciplines partnered to develop and teach a 15-week undergraduate course on sustainability. These disciplines are family and consumer sciences, geography, management, political science, psychology, recreation and tourism, and urban studies. A pilot project and a component of California State University Northridge's Institute for Sustainability's curriculum initiative, this course has helped to advance organizational change and will become a core course in a universitywide minor program in sustainability. "

"The author created and has been teaching a first-year seminar (FYS) called "Food for Thought: Rhetoric of the Edible" for the past three years. Sustainability and ethics in the production and consumption of food have been tangential topics that have arisen in the course. While her academic background is composition and rhetoric, food has become a research interest in recent years as she has learned alongside her students in this course. The interdisciplinary aspects of the course have changed significantly each time she has taught the course. Here, she focuses on connections with political science, sociology, and chemistry faculty. The aforementioned Food Politics serves as a framework for the political science connections as teachers discuss how politics influence food sustainability. In her partnership with a sociology course, she and the teachers examine how social and cultural customs affect sustainability, specifically how adherence (or lack of adherence) to social codes impacts the ethics of sustainability. In addition to her teaching partnership with political science and sociology, she has also integrated course content with an introductory chemistry class, examining how genetically modifying the chemical composition of food affects sustainability as well as the benefits and drawbacks of chemical-free farms."

"Educators are increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability and the need to educate for sustainable change within higher education. This article addresses the growing need to focus on how teaching and learning can be re-oriented towards sustainability, and more specifically how educators can effectively address increasingly well-known sociocultural and ecological problems in ways that transform learners and empower them to make change based on a sense of civic responsibility and sustainability. This research study draws on the Burns Model of Sustainability Pedagogy, which integrates ecological design, systemic and interdisciplinary learning, multiple perspectives, an active and engaged learning process, and attention to place-based learning. Focusing on the implementation of sustainability pedagogy within two different university courses, this study highlights the importance of sustainability learning that is thematic, introduces diverse and non-dominant perspectives, and is experiential. Pedagogical implications and practical suggestions for teaching sustainability in higher education are discussed."

"Organizations are facing increased pressure from various stakeholders to address issues of sustainability, resulting in a growing demand for sustainability education and training. Procurement groups remain the key drivers of many sustainability-related strategies, placing pressure on universities to integrate sustainability concepts into the business curriculum. This article describes a replicable educational model that allows students to learn about sustainable procurement while concurrently promoting sustainability within the university community."

"Universities play a fundamental role in addressing global environmental challenges as their education, research and community involvement can produce long-lasting environmental effects and societal change. By demonstrating best practice in their operations, research and teaching, universities have both multiple and multiplier effects on society. For universities to comprehensively address sustainability, a 'learning for sustainability' approach needs to be embedded across every aspect of institutional operations in a synergistic way. Using semi-structured interviews, this research explored the factors that influence the integration of sustainability into the operations, teaching and research activities of universities in Australia and England. The research found that individuals, committed to the goal of a more sustainable world, play a vital role in the success of integrating environmental sustainability into universities. The factors critical to enabling universities to undertake the transformational changes necessary to embed environmental sustainability into all university areas included: a strong policy environment, resourcing of strategies, and encouragement of leaders and environmental sustainability advocates. Educating and building the awareness of university staff of the importance of environmental sustainability to future generations was key to a successful strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]"

This research investigates the ways in which undergraduate courses dealing with the environment address sustainable development (SD), and contribute to the development of sustainability learning outcomes (SLO). The participants in the study were 13 instructors, and 360 students who were enrolled in 13 courses that addressed the environment in a technical university. Mixed methods were used for data collection and analysis. We found that courses that address the environment are varied in the way that they address sustainable development, and in the pedagogy they use. We also found links between teaching methods and the pattern of reported SLOs: skills development was promoted mainly in courses with a high degree of participatory learning; changes in awareness and attitudes were reported mainly in courses that addressed sustainable development, and motivation to promote sustainable development was reported mainly in courses that addressed sustainable development and also provided opportunities for active and participatory learning. The implications of our research are discussed.

Institutions of higher education play a fundamental role in the effort to reach sustainability; there are different ways to achieve it. The objective of this work carried out in 2017 was to design, implement and evaluate a course-workshop that will provide teachers of the Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Administration at the Autonomous University of Guerrero (UAGro) tools to incorporate the environmental axis into their learning unit programs, in the context of environmental education. It was a study with a qualitative and transversal approach, based on constructivism and transversality. It was structured with its foundation in institutional documents. The design and selection of the themes was carried out in conjunction with a team of experts. Twenty-four teachers participated. The initial and final evaluation was carried out through guiding questions and surveys; the initial result showed an economistic vision of the environment, as well as ignorance about strategies to incorporate the environment as one of the dimensions of sustainability; this contrasts with the final evaluation, in which knowledge and willingness to incorporate the environment into their respective learning unit programs was observed, as well as satisfaction with the course-workshop that had developed. It is concluded that it is necessary to strengthen the processes of teacher training and give continuity to them for the incorporation of the environment as a contribution to sustainability.