Critical attributes of Sustainability in Higher Education: a categorisation from literature review

Abstract

Sustainability in Higher Education has been investigated mainly through examining institutional approaches, curricula content, or students’ and teachers’ perceptions of sustainability in practice. However, a deep characterisation of the foundations of this phenomenon is lacking. This article aims to address the existing lack of depth and comprehensiveness by identifying and categorising the critical attributes of Sustainability in Higher Education. Categories are the basic levels for knowledge classification, and critical attributes relate to the main perceived characteristics within categories. Both were structured through a literature review and a systematic analysis using the Proknow-C method. A set of 2,513 studies on sustainability in education and related fields, published between 2000 to 2015, enabled the identification of 259 as appropriate for devising four categories: foundations, knowledge, personal, and integrative assets with 4, 4, 4, and 3 attributes respectively. From these, 129 papers presented at least four relationships among attributes of all categories. An assessment between the attributes identified for the selected studies delivered 85 analyses, with the following findings: (i) epistemologies of Sustainability in Higher Education develop in learning context; (ii) creativity should better link foundational and personal assets; (iii) transdisciplinarity is an epistemic transgression; (iv) resilience of active learners emerges in knowledge and personal assets relationships; (v) knowledge deconstruction and affectiveness form active learning; (vi) personal assets need to fit to complex dynamics of reality. Our analysis provides a means of benchmarking existing practice for Sustainability in Higher Education, and can be used as the basis for building capacity in a systematic way

Educating Students and Their Future Employers to Minimise Environmental and Climate Impacts Through Cost-Effective Environmental Management Strategies

“…Incorporating the framework into both teaching and assessment allows educators to encourage the development of student's personal values and support the development of their confidence in the inherent complexity of environmental management problems and solutions. This can contribute to closing the environmental skills gap identified by IEMA (2014) and Viegas et al (2016).…”

“…However, EfS programmes frequently exclude such proactive approaches to the inherently complex environmental sustainability (Viegas et al 2016). Ferreria, Lopes and Morais (2006) suggest this pro-active, integrated learning develops by combining environmental management with project-based learning to provide a holistic view of reality.…”

Education for Sustainability: Current Status, Prospects, and Directions

“…The students do not have the basic elements of education for sustainable development (ESD). A number of studies highlight the fact that students do not have the sustainability knowledge (Viegas et al, 2016;Chaiwichit, 2016). In Barth's and Rieckmann study in 2012, it is noted that students should acquire skills for sustainable living and be able to understand the link between interaction and consequences over a long period of time.…”

“…Lately this business behaviour began to change, with the focus on sustainability and aligning with European requirements on environmental, social and economic dimensions. In recent studies (Baleanu et al, 2014;Viegas et al, 2016) it is pointed out that companies are starting to become increasingly involved in the sustainable development and understand the meaning of the concept in its entirety.…”

Connecting SLCE with Sustainability in Higher Education: Cultivating Citizens with an Ecocentric Vision of Justice

“…Associated activities include making sustainable practices the benchmark in higher education; facilitating efforts to integrate sustainability into teaching, research, operations, and public engagement; creating and sharing knowledge and best practices across disciplines; increasing collaboration between the many partners on and off campuses; and shaping education policy so sustainability is a focus at all levels. The range of contributors to SHE is vast, as is seen in the many journal articles dedicated to sustainability and education (see Viegas et al, 2016 for a review).…”