Educating sustainable societies for the twenty‐first century

Abstract

Despite an increasing focus by post‐secondary institutions on incorporating sustainability concepts into research and operations there is little research that investigates the understanding, benefits, challenges, and driving forces for institutions that are integrating sustainability concepts into teaching. This paper is a summary of a qualitative cross‐case analysis of two post‐secondary American institutions that have demonstrated significant progress in integrating the concepts of sustainability into teaching.

IMPLEMENTASI TANGGUNGJAWAB SOSIAL INSTITUSI PENDIDIKAN TINGGI (Studi pada Politeknik Negeri Manado)

“…Baried, Septarini, dan Rahman (2012) Menurut Davis et al (2003), untuk menyebarkan university social responsibility dilakukan gerakan keberlanjutan kampus. Gerakan keberlanjutan tersebut berbentuk upaya untuk mengurangi limbah dan melestarikan ekologi.…”

“…Aspek lingkungan menunjukkan peran serta politeknik dalam menjaga kelestarian lingkungan. Seperti yang disampaikan oleh Alvarez dan Lazano (2012) dan Davis et al (2003), university social responsibility dilakukan oleh lembaga/institusi untuk menanggapi isu-isu keberlanjutan. Dengan adanya aspek sosial dan aspek lingkungan sebagai aspek dasar tanggungjawab sosial Politeknik Negeri Manado berarti politeknik ikut serta dalam mewujudkan pembangunan berkelanjutan,.…”

Sustainable spatial development in higher education

“…Many studies address issues related to sustainable development and curriculum content and whether they are embedded in a learning environment, but only a small number of studies explore students' conception of sustainable development (Carew & Mitchell, 2002;Kagawa, 2007) and teachers' conception of sustainable development (Cotton et al, 2007;Davis & Gerard, 2013). Students most frequently understand sustainable development in the narrow sense (especially environmental aspects), which can slow down the overall development of environmental literacy (Kagawa, 2007).…”

“…Some reasons that could explain the insufficient integration of sustainable development in higher education are lack of awareness of the importance of sustainable development (Davis et al, 2003;Lozano, 2006), excessive curriculum (AbdulWahab et al, 2003;Chau, 2007), lack of support (Velazquez et al, 2005), perceptions of sustainable development as an irrelevant topic, uncertainty in efforts required to participate in and integrate sustainable development (Lozano, 2010), object scarcity of organisational structure (Velazquez et al, 2005;Lambrechts et al, 2009), lack of holistic thinking at the academic and administrative levels, lack of motivation and skills for specific changes, terminological vagueness of the concept, conservatism, fear of losing control and lack of financial support (Dimitrova, 2014). The following measures have been proposed to overcome the resistance of higher education institutions to integrate sustainable development: implementing the principles of sustainable development into academic activities and into everyday life and work, including more realistic teaching methods, including the content of sustainable development in all subject areas with an appropriate degree of cross-curricular links, gradually integrating sustainable development into the curriculum, taking advantage of the multiplier effects of sustainable development (Ferrer et al, 2010), preparing high-quality educational resources in sustainable development, enabling teachers to have access to examples of good practice and teaching materials for sustainable development, establishing new models of professional development and continued education and teacher training in sustainable development (Lourdel et al, 2005;Fadeeva, 2010), facilitating the integration of sustainable development through cooperation and promotion by the ministry and other departments, cooperating with other higher education institutions at the local and global levels, maintaining a vision and implementation plan for sustainable development, stating the reasons for change (Lozano, 2006), increasing or improving communication and providing feedback, holistically addressing issues of sustainable development, integrating social and economic issues, and motivating teachers and students to become actively involved in the process (Huisingh & Mebratu, 2000;Rogers, 1995;Elton, 2003).…”

Transdisciplinarity in the class room? Simulating the co-production of sustainability knowledge

“…The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm asserted the primacy of education as a means to foster sound environmental management, and its declaration specifically called attention to the younger generation. Institutions of higher education have been singled out as an especially appropriate site for communicating and promoting sustainable development by virtue of its influence on society and academic freedom to explore ideas (Davies et al¸2003;Sherren, 2006). Accordingly, over the course of the last two decades, education for sustainable development (ESD) has become a new field of study as well as a worldwide movement (Irandoust, 2009;Osano and Corcoran, 2009).…”