Education for sustainable development in higher education institutions: an approach for effective interdisciplinarity

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to develop an improved and harmonized approach to interdisciplinarity in education for sustainable development (ESD)within higher education institutions (HEIs), focusing on maximizing the mobilization of students from all academic disciplines. An attempt is made to reconcile varying strategies for the implementation of interdisciplinary ESD content in HEIs, studying the relative merit and benefit of those strategies and crafting a new approach to combining them, where possible. Design/methodology/approach This work relies on a robust review and analysis of existing literature proposals on the implementation of ESD in HEIs to elaborate an integrated approach to interdisciplinarity. Specifically, a scoping literature review is applied, analyzing the existing approaches to ESD in HEIs as well as the challenges observed in their implementation. Using this theoretical framework, this paper evaluates the compatibility and efficiency of the approaches currently implemented. Based on this analysis, an integrative approach is outlined, building upon and combining existing proposals. Findings Building on existing literature, this study identifies two main trends for interdisciplinarity in ESD in HEIs: integration into existing disciplinary curricula and new, stand-alone ESD curricula. This paper suggests adopting the two approaches simultaneously, to reach students from all academic disciplines, especially those with minimal exposure to ESD through their own discipline. Furthermore, this paper stresses that these dual curricula strategies should be combined with further interdisciplinary research initiatives as well as extensive leveraging of technology and e-learning. Originality/value This study bridges the gap between diverging visions for ESD in HEIs, harmonizing strategies from the literature to outline a new, multilateral strategy. Furthermore, it extensively studies the need for increased engagement into ESD of students from underrepresented disciplines, including the humanities. This engagement has been little addressed in the literature, rendering the proposed approach original insofar as it outlines the ways to improve current approaches to ESD in HEIs.

Education for Sustainability—Some Bibliometric Insights

“…Cooperation and communication across diverse disciplines and faculties are a must. Therefore, the interdisciplinary approach assumes great significance as it enables universities to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills and implement ESD effectively [54].…”

Drivers and barriers in developing sustainability leadership – a case of natural scientists at Ugandan universities

“…Some scholars suggest that what sustainability science needs most is effective advocates with influencing skills to infuse the science into everyday policy priorities; and not have to sit back with their sustainability knowledge because of lack of influence in the face of workplace opposition to the science (Hull et al, 2018;Thomas et al, 2020). Extant literature suggests that one reason why leadership development is not ubiquitous in sustainability programmes at HEIs is a lack of practical frameworks highlighting specific approaches aligned to specific contexts (Hull et al, 2018;Leal Filho et al, 2019;Mokski et al, 2022), or what context-specific drivers and barriers influencing leadership learning must be accounted for to improve the effectiveness IJSHE 24,4 of any leadership development program (MacDonald and Shriberg, 2016). Consequently, graduates fail to demonstrate leadership in the workplace and struggle despite their technical sustainability expertise (Thomas et al, 2020).…”

“…Shriberg and MacDonald (2013) delineate the qualities needed in a sustainability leader as having a non-hierarchical conceptualisation of leadership, charismatic, open to change, demonstrating negotiations skills, communication skills and interpersonal relationships, all of which relate to soft leadership skills (Hull et al , 2018; Savage et al , 2015). However, many HEIs make trade-offs between broadening sustainability literacy and inspiring sustainability leadership through interdisciplinary approaches (Mokski et al , 2022).…”

“…Moreover, professionals in natural science fields such as water and sanitation, health, environment, climate, energy, infrastructure and agriculture – key sustainable development goal (SDG) areas (Franco et al , 2019; Purcell et al , 2019), require transformative approaches powered by leadership skills such as planning and decision making (Holmén et al , 2021; Leal Filho, 2015; Leal Filho et al , 2019). What is not clear to many HEIs, especially in Africa, is what context-appropriate approaches would develop effective leaders through integrating policy, curriculum and practice (Franco et al , 2019; Mokski et al , 2022). Specifically, extant literature appears not to have sufficiently examined the social context from the perspective of how attitudes, perceptions, industry practices and subjective norms impact leadership learning (Franco et al , 2019; Konrad et al , 2021; Savage et al , 2015).…”

Enhancing curricular integration of the SDGs: fostering active methodologies through cross-departmental collaboration in a Spanish university

“…Other suggestions are carrying out exploratory, transformative and action-oriented learning (Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), 2017, 2020; UNESCO, 2014). Said methodologies should connect competencies for sustainable development (SD) with research competencies (Lambrechts and Van Petegem, 2016) and should address ESD and the SDGs in a collaborative manner (Mokski et al , 2023; SDSN, 2020). All those proposals were considered in this cross-departmental collaboration to implement the SDGs in university teaching.…”