The Future of Sustainability: A Participant Motivation Model for Higher Education, Research, and Practice

Abstract

Environmental and sustainability education offer meaningful insights and instructive guidance for social-ecological systems. While some of the underlying concepts may be contested and even controversial, we submit that the overarching themes can contribute to healthy, balanced, and resilient individuals, organizations, and communities. Our study investigates student participation in a multidimensional Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program focused on building basic and applied research skill sets anchored in sustainable energy knowledge, and introduces use of a conceptual structure for evaluating outcomes: the Motivation, Core Competency, Research Skills and Sustainability (MCRS) Framework. We focus specifically on student motivation to pursue graduate education and sustainability careers. This is accomplished through an exploratory, multi-strand, case-oriented study, utilizing mixed methods to analyze qualitative and quantitative evaluation data. The literature foundations for the study include undergraduate research experiences and graduate education, learning contexts, and key sustainability education competencies. Findings suggest that the program impacted the desire of participants to attend graduate school and aided in their development of clarity around future sustainability-related career paths. Research concentrates on a group of undergraduates in a STEM-related sustainable energy program as part of an important approach which can be applicable to other programs in differing fields and contexts. Understanding learner motivations with respect to designated competencies and skills is a positive step in creating education systems supportive of equitable and sustainable societies. Expanded use of the MCRS Framework into a logic model for integrated problem solving and evaluating performance outcomes can provide direction for informed planning and decision making toward improved policies, programs, and projects now and into the future.

Sustainable Academic Motivation

“…"The performance of academic staff, both as teachers and researchers and also as managers, determines, to a large extent, the quality of the student experience of higher education and has a significant impact on student learning and thereby on the contribution that such institutions can make to society" [91] (p. 11). Naturally, "motivation is an essential factor in understanding student learning, performance, and behavior" [28] (p. 414) on the one hand, while "student motivation is correlated with the intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation, and associated processes on the other hand" [28] (p. 415).…”

“…Motivation for academic achievement is of great importance [14,[27][28][29][30]. Usually, academic motivation is a tridimensional phenomenon comprising the individual's set of beliefs about their abilities, intentions, goals, and the relevant emotional response needed to display some particular activity [31].…”

Values, Competences and Sustainability in Public Security and IT Higher Education

“…(1) The Introduction explains the current state of the researched area, justifies the importance of the paper, and points out its potential benefits. (2) The Theoretical Background presents the most important opinions of renowned authors on the topic of sustainability in higher education and experimentally defines the 10 key principles of sustainability that should be embedded in the mechanisms of every university. (3) The Materials and Methods present the used methodology, establish two scientific hypotheses, show partial results of the conducted survey, and subsequently verify the validity of the hypotheses.…”

“…Academic staff and managers, along with other stakeholders and especially students, have the competence and capacity to creatively move the HEI to a permanently advanced level. These actors can become a guarantee for sustainability [2][3][4][5].…”

“…Veronese and Kensler [5] and Brooks and Heffernan [30] focused on the tasks and practices of green school leaders. Griswold et al [2] developed the participant motivation model for future sustainability in higher education, and Patlins [3] directly linked sustainability with student motivation, etc.…”