Globalization and Education: Trends towards Sustainability

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions (IES) have a very relevant role in the path towards sustainability. The problem of the implementation of curricular sustainability is the disparity of solutions that can be adopted depending on the political and economic situation of each country. The study of a practical case in the south of Honduras allows the student to approach key decisions in a real scenario to bring improvements to a very disadvantaged population, lacking basic services, such as water and electricity, under the premise of sustainability, facing aspects as relevant such as sustainable mobility, water resources management, energy and construction models, in a context where globalization and technological innovation play a very important role. It is essential to know in depth the real context where structural changes will be applied to understand that there is no single reality, that actions are built adapting to specific situations and that the effectiveness of the measures that can be adopted to establish models that prioritize that part of sustainability that best weighs the balance between the environment, society and the economy for each case.

Social Impact through the SDGs: Case Studies in Higher Education

“…Higher education is a key sector to face global challenges and risks [2], where quality education (SDG 4) has the objective in universities of adequately training future leaders in sustainability, from theory and practice [8,9] as well as providing education to people in exclusion, since education is a universal right, as describes the Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN).…”

“…In fact, university staff and students are actively working towards a sustainable world [6]. Moreover, the integration of diverse disciplines improves students' problem-solving capacities, changing their minds to create solutions for different challenges [7], promoting coherence between theoretical discourse and action, and between theory and practice [8,9] to face global risks [2]. In other words, higher education also provides socio-ethical skills to students through projects with a social impact and connecting the classroom to the community [10] and developing learning activities with a social purpose [11].…”