Contribución de la educación superior a los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible desde la docencia

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become entrenched in higher education institutions (HEIs) for their commitment to training people with relevant key competencies to address them. The article examines how teaching has been configured as the dimension with the greatest potential to incorporate sustainable development and how, together with research, it is considered one of the main areas of contribution to the achievement of the SDGs, concretized in the integration of these objectives to the study plans of the official degrees that, as a training action, are carried out. From the review of the Report of the Second World Survey of the International Association of Universities on Higher Education, Research and Sustainable Development, the annual Report of the Agreement on the SDGs of the Global Alliance and the Dossier of the Spanish Network for Development Sustainable, each SDG analyzes the relevant actions of integration of these Global Objectives in the teaching function and references to experiences as case studies. The analysis of the results shows a high variability between the universities regarding the degree of approach of each of the SDGs and the tendency to identify as well-established work, the one carried out with SDG 4, as a priority from teaching. The case studies analyzed show a significant differentiation regarding the types of actions they carry out and their trends. The use of surveys such as those analyzed are insufficient to observe the development of integration in the curricula, more experiences such as that developed by REDS are needed, as well as online platforms in which teachers present their experiences of curricular redesigns and incorporation from the SDGs to the curricula and mapping of the new degrees that are emerging.

Students’ Perception about Sustainability in the Engineering School of Bilbao (University of the Basque Country): Insertion Level and Importance

“…However, it has been also promoted from the academic spheres, thus for example, the CRUE (Conference of Spanish Rectors), in 2005, raised already the need to include sustainable development competencies in university degrees all along the curriculum [8]. Subsequently, and thanks to UNESCO initiatives and the SDGs definition in 2015, the models that only included sustainability in higher education in the teaching sphere are being progressively surpassed by holistic inclusion models, which aim to insert the SDGs and, therefore, sustainable development, in all university settings [9], ( [10], p. 53), not forgetting teaching [11].…”

Sustainability in higher education in Ecuador- Universidad Técnica del Norte case study

“…Under the Ecuadorian constitution (2008), the new higher education law (2010) and the National Development Plan "Toda Una Vida" -2021SENPLADES, 2017), better known as the National Plan for Good Living [Plan Nacional del Buen Vivir (PNBV)], universities were forced to change their approaches and introduce policies to address Sustainability.…”

“…As a result, it is possible for individuals to recognize and evaluate the problems of ecological and socio-economic sustainability, so that they contribute to SD through their actions during the development of a sustainable lifestyle. The SDS is mobilizing systems and practices in different educational contexts; therefore, it takes the principles of SD and national and international policies as a basis for stimulating educational actions that transform reality and contribute to the solution of social, environmental and economic problems (Rieckmann, 2018;Ramos, 2021).…”

The Future We Want: A Learning Experience to Promote SDGs in Higher Education from the United Nations and University of Valencia

“…Ramos Torres [23], in the framework of the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America Latina and the Caribbean (IESALC UNESCO, from its acronym in Spanish (https://www.iesalc.unesco.org/, accessed on 28 July 2021), clearly expresses the role and the contribution of higher education to the SDGs from teaching. Higher education institutions generate and disseminate knowledge, and the SDGs themselves demand new knowledge and suggest future changes based on science.…”