Munich University of Applied Sciences Towards a “Whole Institution Approach”—Illustrations Along x-Disciplinary Perspectives to Education for Sustainable Development

Zinn, Sascha; Isenmann, Ralf

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-47889-0_16

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Given these concerns, there are calls for “whole-of-university” approaches to improve campus sustainability engagement and governance (Hancock and Nuttman, 2014; Mcmillin and Dyball, 2009; Zinn and Isenmann, 2017) “towards the common goal of sustainable development” (Niedlich, 2020, p. 1816). Many elements contribute to this holistic approach, including compulsory and voluntary reporting, sustainability plans, environmental policy [1], faculty and student programs and built environment design guidelines and outcomes (Francis and Moore, 2019).…”

Section: Introduction: the State Of Sustainability Reporting And Planning In The Higher Education Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Campus sustainability in the Australian higher education sector: divergence and convergence in planning, reporting and tactics

Melles

Lodewyckx

Hariharan

2021

IJSHE

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Purpose This study provides a country-specific and sector-wide study of campus sustainability. Campus sustainability is a key consideration for the higher education (HEI) sector, and campus sustainability officers and managers manage its reporting and planning. Global and country-specific studies to date have focussed on individual organisation narratives, interviews with faculty and management and content analysis of reports and plans. Findings show wide divergence on scope and scale of formalised planning and reporting, few references to sustainability officers and managers’ perspectives and limited reference to organisational theory to explain tactics and strategies adopted. As a result, there are a few country-specific and sector-wide studies. The purpose of this paper is to address the scarcity of country-specific and sector-wide studies into campus sustainability practices in HEI by combining qualitative and quantitative analysis. Design/methodology/approach The authors provide the first sector-wide overview of formal campus sustainability commitments for the Australian public sector HEI (n = 41) in terms of several key indicators – plans, reports and other indicators. Second, the authors use reflexive thematic analysis of interviews (n = 21) with current and former sustainability officers and managers to examine sector organisational reasons for such variation. Third, the authors analyse HEI sector isomorphism and divergence on planning and reporting of campus sustainability from the perspective of institutional theory of organisations. Findings This study finds some convergence on the need for plans, reporting and other engagement elements, albeit without any sector-wide standards being followed. The authors observe a trend towards carbon-neutral (CN) declarations before 2030 although with nuances on emissions scope and increasing inclusion of renewable energy. Interviews identify a range of strategies and tactics adopted for campus sustainability relative to internal and external organisational pressures. Overall, the sector still exhibits weak institutionalisation of sustainability. Research limitations/implications This study interviews a specific and limited cohort (n = 21) and presents an overview of sector reporting, planning and target setting although not a detailed content analysis. Other interview cohorts may have different views on the strategic and tactical purposes of reporting practices, and more in-depth analysis of formal plans and reports should be conducted in the future. Practical implications This study concludes that the Australian HEI sector should consider greater public transparency of its data and reporting actions. Common standards and a benchmarking platform for the sector would improve overall engagement with all internal and external stakeholders. At present, the HEI sector’s message to its key internal and external stakeholders is mixed and needs to change towards a more in-depth institutionalisation of sustainability on campus. Originality/value Particular insights are the value of organisational strategies and tactics as an interpretive framework for HEI campus sustainability and how interviewees attribute sector competitors and self-different motives and tactics. Albeit limited, this is the first mapping of sector approaches to sustainability reporting and planning.

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Section: Introduction: the State Of Sustainability Reporting And Planning In The Higher Education Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Campus sustainability in the Australian higher education sector: divergence and convergence in planning, reporting and tactics

Melles

Lodewyckx

Hariharan

2021

IJSHE

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“…The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) increased the engagement of Higher Education (HE) Institutions with sustainability issues, including the Sustainable Development Goals (2015) (Findler et al , 2019; Wu and Shen, 2016). Fostering sustainability is one of the crucial challenges of the 21st century and universities are of particular importance in this context (Azeiteiro et al , 2015; Zinn and Isenmann, 2016, 2017), as they foster sustainability not only by setting sustainability standards at an organizational level but also through their educational mandate. Education in and for sustainability (EfS) that addresses students worldwide regardless of gender and social background is now part of many university programmes (Isenmann et al , 2020; Tang, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards effective e-learning on sustainability: a case study-course on participatory processes in environmental politics

Perbandt

Heinelt

Nicolau

et al. 2021

IJSHE

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Purpose Distance universities are of great importance for establishing sustainability literacy, as they operate as multipliers for thousands of students. However, despite several advantages of e-learning environments compared to traditional class-teaching, there are still challenges regarding suitable e-learning tools and didactical models. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of several e-learning tools on students’ knowledge and skills growth and to compare two learning paths, synchronous vs asynchronous, exploring how each affects the level of students’ knowledge achievement and skills acquisition. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis is based on an online course “Participatory processes in environmental politics”. International MSc and PhD students who enrolled in the course were from FernUniversität in Hagen (Germany) and Aberta University (Portugal). The course was designed as the flipped classroom, applying different e-learning tools and activities, some synchronous and others asynchronous. A pre- and post-evaluation questionnaire was applied to evaluate students’ knowledge and skills. Descriptive statistical analyses were carried out on this data. Findings Results showed that in the synchronous group, knowledge about theoretical approaches to citizen participation and sustainable environmental governance improved to a greater extent, whereas the asynchronous group showed greater improvement in nearly all skills related to intercultural communication and e-learning. Also, in the synchronous path, students enhanced their knowledge on “research application” to a greater extent. Originality/value Evaluating the effectiveness of different e-learning tools on students’ sustainability knowledge and information and communication technologies skills is a fundamental issue. The study discusses these issues, contributing to enhancing the use of adequate and grounded e-learning models on sustainable development in higher education.

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Morphologischer Kasten zur Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung – Orientierung für Hochschulen zur Umsetzung von Nachhaltigkeit in der Lehre

Isenmann

Landwehr-Zloch

Zinn

2019

Aktuelle Ansätze Zur Umsetzung Der UN-Nachhaltigkeitsziele

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Munich University of Applied Sciences Towards a “Whole Institution Approach”—Illustrations Along x-Disciplinary Perspectives to Education for Sustainable Development

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

Campus sustainability in the Australian higher education sector: divergence and convergence in planning, reporting and tactics

Campus sustainability in the Australian higher education sector: divergence and convergence in planning, reporting and tactics

Towards effective e-learning on sustainability: a case study-course on participatory processes in environmental politics

Morphologischer Kasten zur Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung – Orientierung für Hochschulen zur Umsetzung von Nachhaltigkeit in der Lehre

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