Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Universities as Transformative Spaces for Sustainable Futures 9783031071911, 3031071913

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SDG: 4 Quality Education

Mustafa Öztürk   Editor

Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education Universities as Transformative Spaces for Sustainable Futures

Sustainable Development Goals Series

The Sustainable Development Goals Series is Springer Nature’s inaugural cross-imprint book series that addresses and supports the United Nations’ seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. The series fosters comprehensive research focused on these global targets and endeavours to address some of society’s greatest grand challenges. The SDGs are inherently multidisciplinary, and they bring people working across different fields together and working towards a common goal. In this spirit, the Sustainable Development Goals series is the first at Springer Nature to publish books under both the Springer and Palgrave Macmillan imprints, bringing the strengths of our imprints together. The Sustainable Development Goals Series is organized into eighteen subseries: one subseries based around each of the seventeen respective Sustainable Development Goals, and an eighteenth subseries, “Connecting the Goals,” which serves as a home for volumes addressing multiple goals or studying the SDGs as a whole. Each subseries is guided by an expert Subseries Advisor with years or decades of experience studying and addressing core components of their respective Goal. The SDG Series has a remit as broad as the SDGs themselves, and contributions are welcome from scientists, academics, policymakers, and researchers working in fields related to any of the seventeen goals. If you are interested in contributing a monograph or curated volume to the series, please contact the Publishers: Zachary Romano [Springer; zachary.romano@ springer.com] and Rachael Ballard [Palgrave Macmillan; rachael.ballard@ palgrave.com].

Mustafa Öztürk Editor

Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education Universities as Transformative Spaces for Sustainable Futures

Editor Mustafa Öztürk School of Foreign Languages Hacettepe University Ankara, Turkey

The content of this publication has not been approved by the United Nations and does not reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or Member States.

ISSN 2523-3084     ISSN 2523-3092 (electronic) Sustainable Development Goals Series ISBN 978-3-031-07190-4    ISBN 978-3-031-07191-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

Color wheel and icons: From https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/, Copyright © 2020 United Nations. Used with the permission of the United Nations.

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. Albert Einstein

We have lived as social and moral beings for ages and been in close interaction with nature. This interaction starts with birth, continues with childhood, and grows more in later periods. Throughout this process, which is intense during the early years, we get to know nature and all living beings in nature more closely. Later, we naturally focus on what we are experiencing out in nature. We leak emotions to nature and anticipate nature’s movements as reactions to our actions. When we’re in sympathy or agreement with nature, we feel safer. When we appreciate its restorative power and become more aware that the contact with nature serves both physiological and psychological well-being of people, we begin to realize our own responsibility for nature. Our cognitive ability and sustained attention regarding the fact that the Earth is in need of protection for its and our survival leads us to internalize this responsibility more deeply and to take action for nature, which is the ultimate goal that needs to happen for the integrity of the Earth. Taking action has never been so relevant and needed as it is today, because “talking the talk” does no longer create the intended response among the young generation; instead, the youth would like to see the “walking the walk” cases. We, as educators, need to engage them not only into conversation but also into practical opportunities because they are not gratified with the existing function of a university in preparing its graduates for a variety of roles and jobs in a society. They rather expect a higher mission from the twenty-­ first century universities to drive innovation and entrepreneurship for finding solutions to global and local challenges that matter to the Planet. Universities promoting entrepreneurial programs and activities that are in line with this mission would create more opportunities for its students and staff to envision sustainable futures. As critical spaces for research, development, and innovation, higher education institutions are fundamental change agents for societal transformations. Therefore, their role in disseminating sustainability through different paths is undeniable, and it is worth discussing the dimensions that surround the concept of sustainability within universities. Considering the unquestionable role of policy, curriculum, practice, teaching, research, and development paths in universities, this edited book looks at the contributions of higher education sector to the much-needed vision of sustainable development. With the help of v

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this publication, readers could have a chance to look at different higher education institutions’ engagement with sustainable development through political, managerial, curricular, and practical steps. Wishing all individuals and all institutions to be on the same side with nature. Ankara, Turkey January 2022

Mustafa Öztürk

Acknowledgments

As the second volume I have edited under Sustainable Development Goals series, this book is a wonderful product of an international cooperation bringing together approximately 40 experts from different contexts having the vision of sustainable development. I sincerely thank each and every contributor for making this book inclusive and diverse with their contributions. Secondly, I would like to thank my dear colleagues and friends Abdullah Bağcı, Aylin Albayrak-Sarı, Burtay Hatice İnce, Neşe Sosyal, and Seçil Dayıoğlu-Öcal for their encouragement, support, and cooperation during my struggle to make this publication possible. I am also grateful to the reviewers – Aerin Benavides, Afeefee Assalihee, Allison Freed, Amber Webb, Cesar Topia Fonllem, Comfort Ateh, Diogo Reatto, El Farahaty El Sayed, Emiliano Bosio, Janeth Marwa, Jiawen Wang, Joanna Leek, Kevin Cataldo, Lacey D.  Huffling, Luiza Olim de Sousa, Minghui Yang, Nathan Postma, Nicolas Cote, Nuwan Gunarathne, Renu Madhavi, Sakine Koca-Sincer, Samanthi Senaratne, Semen Son-Turan, Shahid Mughal, Taina Figueroa, Thi Phuong Le, Tobias Schnitzler, Uma Rao K., and Yusop Boonsuk – for strengthening the overall quality of this publication by joining in the double-blind review process. Additionally, I need to acknowledge the educational settings that are represented by the contributions to this volume. The individuals, teams, institutions, and organizations from Brazil, China, Colombia, Ghana, the Netherlands, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Peru, Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, and the USA are all well appreciated. I am also thankful to Oren Pizmony-Levy, Director of Centre for Sustainable Futures at Teachers College of Columbia University, for the guidance he has provided me since 2015 and Tamer Atabarut, Director of Lifelong Learning Centre at Boğaziçi University, for his support. I would also like to express my special thanks to the Subseries Advisors, Arjen Wals and Nicole Ardoin, for their valuable feedback. Finally, I would like to thank Zachary Romano and Herbert Moses for their kind and patient support during the editorial process as well as the other staff at Springer Nature for their interest and hard work.

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Contents

1 S  ustainable Development Goals and Universities: Higher Education Engagement Through the Global Master’s in Development Practice Programme����������������������������   1 Amber Webb and Lucia Rodriguez 2 E  ngagement with Sustainable Development Goals in Accounting Education: The Case of a Public University in Sri Lanka��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  19 Thilini Cooray, Samanthi Senaratne, and Nuwan Gunarathne 3 ( Un)Sustainable Development in Poland’s Teacher Education Programme: Experiences from a Post-communist Country����������������������������������������������������  39 Joanna Leek, Renata Góralska, and Malgorzata Kosiorek 4 C  ritical Evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals and Circular Economy in (Business) Education: Reflections on a Long-Term Sustainability Strategy of Degrowth ����������������������������������������������������������������������  51 Helen Kopnina and Julia Benkert 5 R  eforming Religion-Based Higher Education for Sustainable Development: The Case of Islamic Studies International Program at Prince of Songkla University����������������������������������������������������������������������  67 Muhammadafeefee Assalihee and Yusop Boonsuk 6 N  on-hegemonic Views of Sustainability in Science Teacher Education: The Case of a University-School Collaboration in Brazil��������������������������������������������������������������������  83 Laísa Maria Freire, Tainá F. Figueiredo, María Angélica Mejía-Cáceres, Felipe L. Braz, and Mariona Espinet 7 S  tudent Outreach and Engagement for Sustainable Development: North-West University’s Green Team Experience������������������������������������������������������������������ 105 Luiza Olim de Sousa

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8 H  igher Education for Sustainable Development in China: Policies, Curriculum, Research, and Outreach Activities, and Campus Practices ������������������������������������������������������������������  121 Minghui Yang, Jiawen Wang, and Gaoyi Li 9 S  tudy Abroad Programs at the Vanguard for Education for Sustainable Development: A Teacher Education Case Study��������������������������������������������������������������������  133 Aerin W. Benavides, Allison Freed, and Lacey D. Huffling 10 E  ngaging Students of Business Management to Face Collective Social Dilemmas: Contribution of Sociology of Emotions ��������������������������������������������������������������  151 Diogo Reatto and Janette Brusntein 11 E  ngaging Students in Global Endeavours Through Partnerships Promoting Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of a Small Liberal Art College ������������������������������������  169 Comfort M. Ateh 12 T  eacher Competencies and Readiness for Education for Sustainable Development: A Case from Teacher Education in Turkey����������������������������������������������������������������������  183 Nese Soysal and Ahmet Ok 13 E  mbracing the Global South: Educators’ Understanding on the Role of Global Citizenship Education in Brazil, South Africa, and Ghana��������������������������������������������������������������  199 Emiliano Bosio 14 A  Proposal to Assess Civic Capacities in Higher Education: A Case from the Western Balkans – North Macedonia��������������  209 Cassie L. Barnhardt and Artan Limani Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  227

Contents

List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Sustainability-­related undergraduate research������������������������  31 Fig. 5.1 Forms of learning implemented by International Program in Islamic Studies��������������������������������������������������������������������  77 Fig. 5.2 Pedagogical strategies for teaching Islamic Studies ��������������  78 Fig. 6.1 Structure of Brazilian education system ��������������������������������  89 Fig. 7.1 A schematic presentation of the place of the NWU Green Team within the faculty and the university������������������  109 Fig. 9.1 Transformational Learning and Critical Pedagogy of Place leading actions towards SDGs. (This diagram is based upon a diagram in Freed et al. (2021). https://sdgs.un.org/goals)��������������������������������������������������������  136 Fig. 9.2 Pedagogy for Action towards SDG# 2, 4, 13, 14, and 15. (This diagram is based upon a diagram in Freed et al. (2021). https://sdgs.un.org/goals)����������������������������������  145 Fig. 10.1 Geographical regions of interviewees������������������������������������  156 Fig. 10.2 Representation of dynamics addressing professors’ response to collective social dilemmas ����������������������������������  163 Fig. 13.1 Critical pedagogical framework for Global Citizenship Education in Global South������������������������������������������������������  205

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List of Tables

Table 2.1 Incorporation of sustainability concept into curriculum: External reporting dimension ����������������������������������������������  24 Table 2.2 Incorporation of sustainability concept into curriculumCurricula: Management accounting dimension��������������������������  26 Table 2.3 Incorporation of sustainability concept into curriculum: Governance and ethics dimension����������������������������������������  27 Table 2.4 Learning activities����������������������������������������������������������������  28 Table 2.5 Continuous assessment��������������������������������������������������������  28 Table 2.6 Accounting degree programme’s contribution to SDGs������  30 Table 3.1 Learning outcomes referring to sustainable development in “knowledge” domain��������������������������������������������������������  45 Table 3.2 Learning outcomes referring to sustainable development in “skills” domain����������������������������������������������������������������  46 Table 3.3 Learning outcomes referring to sustainable development in “social competencies” domain ����������������������������������������  46 Table 5.1 Key learning outcomes and expected characteristics of graduates������������������������������������������������������������������������������  73 Table 5.2 Course structure of International Program in Islamic Studies ����������������������������������������������������������������  74 Table 5.3 General courses of Islamic Studies curriculum to cultivate twenty-first-century skills����������������������������������������������������  75 Table 6.1 School neighbourhoods and science clubs as educational contexts��������������������������������������������������������������������������������  95 Table 9.1 Curricular alignment with SDGs������������������������������������������  137 Table 9.2 Participants of Manu program����������������������������������������������  139 Table 9.3 Dedoose data analysis priori codes��������������������������������������  140 Table 10.1 Triggers for addressing community outreach projects ��������  158 Table 10.2 Community outreach project themes and dilemmas������������  159 Table 10.3 Strategies for engaging students in extension actions����������  160 Table 11.1 Sample projects in S-Lab aligned to SDGs��������������������������  171 xiii

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Table 12.1 Number of participants by institution����������������������������������  189 Table 12.2 Characteristics of participants����������������������������������������������  189 Table 12.3 Eigenvalue, percentages of variance and cumulative percentages for factors����������������������������������������������������������  190 Table 12.4 Reliability analysis and descriptive values of the scale��������  190 Table 12.5 Competency in emotions������������������������������������������������������  191 Table 12.6 Competency in values and ethics ����������������������������������������  191 Table 12.7 Competency in systems-thinking ����������������������������������������  191 Table 12.8 Competency in knowledge ��������������������������������������������������  192 Table 13.1 Participant educators from Brazil, South Africa, and Ghana������������������������������������������������������  203 Table 14.1 Comparison of ACE-HES dimensions to PSRI dimensions��������������������������������������������������������������  218

List of Tables

About the Editor and Contributors

Editor Mustafa  Öztürk  is an instructor at Hacettepe University, Turkey and an international research fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Futures at Teachers College of Columbia University, New York, USA. He holds a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Middle East Technical University, Turkey. He completed a non-degree postgraduate study in learning, learning environments and educational systems at the University of Turku, Finland. He conducted his postdoctoral research at Teachers College of Columbia University on empowering ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) competencies in teacher education. With his research initiatives on ESD, he was awarded the Human Development Research Award by Koç University UNESCO Chair, Turkey. In his project entitled Teacher Education for Sustainable Development through Flipped Learning Model, he provided 1600 teachers working in different regions of Turkey with a professional development program on sustainability vision and the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). In 2019, he was given the title of Associate Professor by Turkish Council of Higher Education owing to his publications and research activities. He worked as the Country Chair and Research Manager in the Global Schools Piloting Project led by the UN SDSN (United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network) in support of UNESCO’s GAP (Global Action Program) on ESD and the SDGs. He is also a Peace Fellow at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand as a recipient of 2021 Rotary Peace Fellowship. He has worked in various EU projects on sustainability, environmental education, social inclusion, inclusive education, special education and teacher development. He is engaged in designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating continuous professional development programs for in-service teachers in Turkey. He has a lot of articles and book chapters published in national or international journals and books. He co-authored forty-two K-8level educational books approved by the Ministry of National Education, Turkey. Previously, he coedited the book entitled Examining the Teacher Induction Process in Contemporary Education Systems published by IGI Global and edited the book entitled Educational Response, Inclusion and Empowerment for SDGs in Emerging Economies: How do education systems contribute to raising global citizens? published by Springer Nature.

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About the Editor and Contributors

Contributors Muhammadafeefee  Assalihee  is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Islamic Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. He holds a PhD in development education from the Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. His research interests include teaching Islamic education, development education, international and comparative education, curriculum and instruction, and parental education. Comfort  M.  Ateh  holds a BS in natural sciences from the University of Yaoundé Cameroon and an “Ingenieur Agronome” diploma from “Ecole Normal Superieur d’Agriculture,” Cameroon. Comfort worked as an agronomist in a USAID-­funded project in the Republic of Cameroon, Africa, before graduating from the University of Wisconsin Madison (MS and PhD Agronomy) and held a postdoctoral position at the University of California Davis before switching career and graduating from the University of California Davis in 2011 (PhD Science Education). Comfort is currently an associate professor in the secondary education program in Providence College, Rhode Island. Comfort believes in a system’s framework in exploring and confronting global problems and implements the framework in her scholarly work that embodies formative assessment, social justice, and global education. She is currently a 2021–2022 Global Teacher Education Fellow of the Longview Foundation Organization. Cassie L. Barnhardt  is an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Educational Policies and Leadership, and she is a senior fellow with the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Iowa. Her scholarship explores the relationship between higher education and democracy, and how campuses adapt and change when faced with controversies and challenges. She teaches courses in higher education policy, administration and management, organizational theory, and student affairs. She was a 2019 Fulbright Scholar to the Republic of Kosovo, and a 2020–2021 fellow with the University of California National Centre for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. Aerin  W.  Benavides  is an adjunct research assistant professor in the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a NC certified Environmental Educator (EE). The National Science Foundation–funded research team she works with focuses on equitable and consequential social engagement in environmentally sustainable science education. She also works for accessible EE study-abroad programs to Peru in tandem with her role as a founder and president of the Board of Directors of JBQ Charitable Foundation. Julia  Benkert  is Lecturer in Responsible Leadership at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

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Yusop  Boonsuk  holds a PhD in applied linguistics from the Centre for Global Englishes, University of Southampton, UK. He is currently an assistant professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. His research interest focuses on global Englishes, world Englishes, English as a lingua franca, English as an international language, intercultural and transcultural communication, intercultural awareness, English language teaching, English medium instruction, and English language beliefs, attitudes, and identity. Emiliano  Bosio  is an educator, author, and public intellectual. Holding a PhD, he is currently teaching at Toyo University in Japan. He is the editor of Conversations on Global Citizenship Education (Routledge), guest editor of UNESC Prospects, and a research committee member at the Centre for Global Nonkilling (CGNK) in the USA. Professor Bosio is also a contributor to the Academic Network on Global Education and Learning (ANGEL), a UK-based network established in close cooperation between the Global Education Network of Europe (GENE) and the Development Education Research Centre (DERC) at the University College London Institute of Education. Felipe  L.  Braz  holds a Bachelor of Biology and Teaching Biology and a Master of Ecology and Evolution of Populations and Communities. He is a science teacher at Escola Municipal Chile in the city of Rio de Janeiro and a supervising teacher at PIBID/UFRJ.  His interests include promoting pre-­ service teacher training processes and teaching science and biology at school. Janette  Brusntein  is a researcher and professor of the postgraduate program in business administration at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo/Brazil. She has also taken the role of Provost for Undergraduate Education since 2020. Her work focuses on education, transformative learning, and development of competences for sustainability in environmental, academic, and organizational contexts. Thilini  Cooray  is a lecturer in the Department of Accounting at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. Luiza Olim de Sousa  is a senior lecturer at the North-West University in South Africa. She leads the Environmental Education for Sustainable Development in Communities subgroup in the Community-based Educational Research (COMBER) Focus Area. Her research examines pre- and in-service teacher training in education for sustainable development. Mariona  Espinet  is a professor in the Department of Science and Mathematics Education at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. After teaching Science in middle and secondary schools, she earned a master’s degree in inorganic chemistry at UAB and a PhD in science education at the University of Georgia thanks to a Fulbright-La Caixa scholarship. She is the coordinator of two research groups, ACELEC (School Science Activity: Languages, tools and contexts) and Gresc@ (Education for

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About the Editor and Contributors

sustainability, school and community), and a member of the ESERA Board (European Science Education Research Association). Her research and innovation interests focus on science teacher education for sustainability, classroom discourse, critical literacy in multilingual science education contexts, and community learning in school agroecology. Tainá  F.  Figueiredo  is researcher at the Limnology Laboratory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She holds a Bachelor of Environmental Sciences and Biology, and a Master of Science and Health Education. She is a PROEX/CAPES scholarship holder in Doctor of Science and Health Education (NUTES/UFRJ) program. She has teaching and research experience in the field of environmental education, science teaching, and training of educators. Her research interests include teacher training processes, environmental education, and community education. Allison Freed  is the director of teacher education and Associate Professor of Science Education at the University of the Ozarks. She has led study-­abroad programs for pre-service teachers for 10 years. She is dedicated to providing opportunities for future teachers to explore new and exciting places in order to be more culturally aware and serve students from a variety of backgrounds. Laísa Maria Freire  is Professor of Environmental Education and Science Education in the Biology Institute at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She coordinates the research group on environmental education and science education in the Limnology Laboratory, Ecology Department. She holds an MSc and a PhD in science and health education. She is the coordinator of the PIBID/UFRJ program in the area of biology. She has led and collaborated in some internationally funded projects, published in refereed journals, and coedited academic books. Her research interests include teacher training processes, teaching ecology and environmental education related to climate change, conflicts in mining areas and other environmental impacts in Latin America, as well as the role of public policies and educational processes for social transformation and sustainability. Renata Góralska  is an assistant professor in the Department of Theory of Education, Faculty of Education, University of Lodz, Poland. She holds a PhD in humanities. Her research and publications focus on the theory of education, university didactics, and pedeutology; she conducts research on the issues of emotional aspects of educational processes. Nuwan Gunarathne  is Senior Lecturer in Accounting in the Department of Accounting at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. His research focuses on integrated and sustainability reporting, environmental management accounting, waste management in developing countries, sustainability innovations and performance measurement, and sustainability education.

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Lacey D. Huffling  is Associate Professor of Science Education at Georgia Southern University in the Middle Grades and Secondary Education Department. Her research focuses on the intersections of environmental sustainability, agency, and teacher education in order to afford all students and communities access to science and environmental education. Helen Kopnina  is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, and (co)author and (co)editor of 17 books on interrelated topics of environmental sustainability, circular economy, biological conservation, environmental ethics and animal ethics, and environmental education. Malgorzata  Kosiorek  is a researcher, lecturer, and teacher trainer at the University of Lodz, Faculty of Educational Studies. Her research interests include educational policy, education socialization system, pedeutology, and teacher education. She is leading pedagogy courses for students in the area of educational policy, ethics, and theory of education. Joanna Leek  is a researcher, lecturer, and teacher trainer in the Faculty of Educational Studies, University of Lod (Poland), and holds a PhD in social sciences (Education). Her research interests include international education, global citizenship education, multicultural education, mobility of students and teachers, digital mobility in Europe, curriculum development, early school leaving, and teacher education. She is leading pedagogy courses for students in the area of educational law and international education. Gaoyi  Li  is a research fellow at the Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology. She received her Master of Accounting from the Ohio State University. Her research areas include business ethics, responsible innovation, and higher education for sustainable development. Artan Limani  is a higher education expert based in the Republic of North Macedonia with more than 17 years of experience in the field. His work centers around improving organizational capacities related to post-secondary teaching and learning, curriculum, and research. He has assisted universities and educational organizations nationally and internationally. His current projects explore the relationship between universities and democracy and dimensions of global citizenship in the Balkans and around the world. María Angélica Mejía-Cáceres  is a Doctor of Science and Health Education at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is a member of the research group Languages and Media in Science and Health Education and Environmental Education and Science Education in the Limnology Laboratory at the UFRJ. She is also a member of the research group Science, Education and Diversity and Science, Actions, and Greeting at Universidad del Valle in Colombia. Currently, she is doing her postdoc at Federal Rural University of Pernambuc about climate change education.

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Ahmet Ok  is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the Department of Educational Sciences, Middle East Technical University (METU). He graduated from the Department of Chemistry Teaching and undertook his master’s and PhD in the area of curriculum and instruction. He is basically interested in carrying research on teacher education, curriculum evaluation, curriculum development, accreditation, environmental education, teaching, learning, and plagiarism. Diogo Reatto  has a PhD in business administration, human and social management from Mackenzie Presbyterian University and research interests in critical and social transformative learning, individual and collective learning in organizations, human and social management in public and private educational organizations, and qualitative research. He also works on higher education teaching and is Professor of Development Methodologies. Lucia Rodriguez  is an adjunct assistant professor in the bilingual/bicultural education program at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. In her capacity, she teaches a course on qualitative methods and co-manages the graduation-required capstone project. She also serves as the director of the Global Master’s in Development Practice (MDP) Secretariat, a project within the Sustainable Development Goals Academy. In this position, she is responsible for expanding the number of academic institutions that are members of the network of MDP programs, fundraising, and developing innovative interactive programs for its members. For the past 20 years, she has been involved in the field of international education and administration. Lucia completed her undergraduate work at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and received her doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Samanthi  Senaratne  is Professor of Accounting in the Department of Accounting at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. Nese Soysal  is an independent researcher and the director of Edu4Globall Consultancy in London. She graduated from the Department of Foreign Language Education, Faculty of Education, Middle East Technical University. She holds a master’s degree in educational administration from Trakya University and a doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction from METU in Turkey. She worked as a lecturer at Atılım University and Marmara University in Turkey. She is interested in carrying out research on teacher education, education for sustainable development, curriculum development and evaluation, teaching, and learning. Jiawen Wang  is a senior lecturer at the Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology. She obtained her master of commerce from the University of Sydney, specializing in big data in business and logistics and supply chain management. She is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. Her research interest focuses on sustainability in higher education and socioeco-

About the Editor and Contributors

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nomic policy. Her research was published in the Polish Journal of Environmental Studies and Sustainability. Amber Webb  is an adjunct assistant professor in the international education policy program at the University of Maryland where she teaches a course on education for global peace. Her previous professional roles have included work with the UN SDSN (Sustainable Development Solutions Network), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Office, and the US Institute of Peace. She holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and a PhD from the University of Maryland. Minghui Yang  is an associate professor at the Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology, with an adjunct research fellowship at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Hradec Kralove. He holds a PhD in business and a visiting assistant professorship at Stockholm University. His research interests include corporate social responsibility, environmental accounting, business ethics, and sustainability in higher education. His work has previously appeared in journals including the Journal of Cleaner Production, Ecological Indicators, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, Healthcare, and Sustainability.

Abbreviations

AAC&U Association of American Colleges and Universities ACE-HES Alliance for Civic Empowerment through Higher Education Survey AICHI Targets Developed in a Place Called Aichi in Japan AISHE Auditing Instrument for Sustainability in Higher Education ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations Bed Bachelor of Education BTJRC Berkeley-Tsinghua Joint Research Centre C2C Cradle to Cradle CAPES Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) CDP Carbon Disclosure Project CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CESDEV Centre for Sustainable Development CGUN China Green University Network CMA Institute of Certified Management Accountants COD Centro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible para América Latina y el Caribe (Centre for Sustainable Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean) COP Community Outreach Project CPP Critical Pedagogy of Place CRS Catholic Relief Services CSR Corporate Social Responsibility CSTL Critical Social Transformative Learning EE Environmental Education EESD Environmental Education for Sustainable Development EMA Environmental Management Accounting EMAN Environmental and Sustainability Management Accounting Network ESD Education for Sustainable Development ESDGs Education for Sustainable Development Goals EU European Union GAP Global Action Programme GCE General Certificate of Education GCU Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology GDP Gross Domestic Product xxiii

xxiv

GEM GRI GSAP HEIs HHS ICCS IEA

Global Education for All Meeting Global Reporting Initiative Global Sustainable Aid Project Higher Education Institutions Hague University of Applied Sciences International Civic and Citizenship Education Study International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement IFAC International Federation of Accountants IIRF International Integrated Reporting Framework IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IRB Institutional Review Board IUCN International Union of Applied Sciences ISTE International Society for Technology in Education MCOD Multicultural Organizational Development MDGs Millennium Development Goals MDP Master’s in Development Practice MFCA Material Flow Cost Accounting MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology MoE Ministry of Education MoNE Ministry of National Education MOST Ministry of Science and Technology NETH Nucleus of Educational Technology for Health NGO Nongovernmental Organization NUTES Núcleo de Tecnologia Educacional para Saúde (Nucleus of Educational Technology for Health) NWU North-West University PIBID Programa Institucional de Bolsas de Iniciação à Docência (Institutional Scholarship Program for Teaching Initiation) PISA Programme for International Student Assessment PSRI Personal and Social Responsibility Inventory PTS Program for Teaching Scholarships R&D Research and Development RACHEL Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning RFCDC Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture SASB Sustainability Accounting Standards Board SBS Sustainability Balanced Scorecard SDGs Sustainable Development Goals SMEs Small and Medium Enterprises SRI Socially Responsible Investing SROI Social Return on Investment SRT Student Research Training STEM Science Technology Engineering and Math SWOT Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats TCFD Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures TERI SAS TERI School of Advanced Studies TLT Transformative Learning Theory Triple Ps People, Profit, Planet

Abbreviations

Abbreviations

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UFRJ UGC UI UIS UN UNCED UNDESA UNDP UNECE UNEP UNESCO USAID WHO WSSD

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro University Grants Commission University of Ibadan United Institute for Statistics United Nations United Nations Conference on Environment and Development United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs United Nations Development Program United Nations Economic Commission for Europe United Nations Environment Program United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization United States Agency for International Development World Health Organization World Summit on Sustainable Development

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Sustainable Development Goals and Universities: Higher Education Engagement Through the Global Master’s in Development Practice Programme Amber Webb and Lucia Rodriguez

Abstract

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have ushered in an era of renewed global cooperation. The goals have united efforts to make progress against daunting challenges like climate change, deteriorating human rights standards, and widespread poverty. Among those efforts are a movement to educate and train a new generation of sustainable development practitioners and globally aware citizens. In this regard, higher education institutions (HEIs) hold significant potential to contribute to the SDGs. As engines of knowledge and innovation, they can advance research to monitor progress, develop practical solutions for complex problems, encourage learning, promote values, and bring local relevance to the UN’s global development agenda. In this study, three HEIs attempting to integrate the SDGs into a graduate-level programme called the “Global Master’s in Development Practice” are profiled. Findings display how each HEI has taken up the task of SDG integration and, moreover, deepening institutional commitments to sustainable development principles. Across the cases, holistic approaches that touch on teaching,

A. Webb (*) · L. Rodriguez University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

research, community engagement, and university operations emerge. Reflections on the case studies convey insights on the obstacles to engaging a holistic approach and factors inhibiting university-wide transformations.

1.1 Introduction Humanity now faces daunting environmental, social, and economic challenges. The interconnectedness of these fields means solutions must address the “wicked” and complex nature of our global problems (Pryshlakivsky & Searcy, 2013). Environmental destruction has become especially alarming. Human activities increasingly influence the Earth’s climate (Solomon et  al., 2007), and scientific projections display a declining environment incapable of supporting human life if we surpass our planetary boundaries (Rockström et al., 2009). Driven by the pursuit of economic growth, humanity has exploited the natural world and is moving dangerously close to exceeding climate targets that keep us within safe operating limits. Consequently, humanity must navigate dynamic and ever-changing relationships between people and planet. Progress relies on changing attitudes, values, and behaviours, as well as training a skilled workforce and influencing political leadership. It is widely agreed upon that to meet the needs of our planet and promote prosperity, the world must come together in a

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_1

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movement centred on environmental sustainability, inclusive rights, and prosperity for all. The field of sustainable development is grounded in these principles. Supporting the “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and prosperity, sustainable development is envisaged as an integrated approach that accounts for the complexity of promoting economic growth while also protecting human rights and the environment. A central theme in sustainable development is understanding how dynamic systems coalesce in harmonic ways to ensure progress now and into the future. According to Sachs (2012), success in any one of the three broad categories of sustainable development – environmental sustainability, economic development, and social inclusion  – will certainly depend on success in the others. In addition to a systems approach, sustainable development promotes a long-term outlook that seeks to protect intergenerational rights. A concept popularized by Gro Harlem Brundtland, sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 43). The field of sustainable development has emerged as a valuable method to address our world’s deepening crises but requires significant commitments, investments, and transformative actions to produce success. Premised on concepts of sustainable development, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established to organize development efforts and track and measure progress across 17 global goals. The inception of the SDGs in 2015 marked a new era in international cooperation. As part of the UN’s Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the goals sought to expand on previous agendas and frameworks, with a focus on inclusion, a promotion of systems theory approaches, and long-term outlook. In building upon the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the SDGs emphasized change in developed and developing countries alike, as well as an understanding that linkages between goals would be central to progress. Achieving the

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ambitious but vital agenda would be a 15-year initiative with successes measured at the culmination of the goals in 2030, but progress necessary for decades to come. Education is uniquely situated to support the SDGs. Mawonde and Togo (2019) state it is “one of the bedrocks of SDG implementation” (p.  933). It is enshrined in Goal 4 for Inclusive and Quality Education, which includes ten targets that represent diverse priorities around issues of access and quality. Expanding on the MDGs, priorities are viewed through lenses of equity and inclusion. However, education is also foundational to a wide range of knowledge communities. It can equip learners with skills and learning to further the development agenda across multiple sectors. According to Mori Junior et  al. (2019), “The education sector is one of the few sectors that can support, promote and contribute to all SDGs” (p. 129). It is specifically listed in the targets of five goals, though it is certainly linked to the full range (Leal Filho et al., 2019). It has become evident that education has the capacity to provoke societal transformation by enriching learning with progressive principles and innovative ideas. For decades, education has been considered a valuable part of development efforts, in terms of both enhancing education and education’s potential to buttress other sectors. However, only certain areas within education have received emphasis. Since the era of the MDGs, primary and secondary education have been promoted in development agendas, largely due to studies displaying stronger returns on investments in those sectors than in other forms of education (Boissiere, 2004; Keller, 2006). As a result, higher education, despite its potential, has largely been left out (Owens, 2017). Although highlighted as an important consideration in the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action, for having the capacity to train a new generation of global citizens, it received little focus over the decade and a half of mobilizing support for the MDGs. Yet, in 2015, higher education re-emerged as a central component to improving education worldwide and making progress across sectors. The establishment of the Higher Education

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Sustainability Initiative (HESI), a partnership of several UN agencies and partner organizations, is evidence of the importance of post-secondary education in the present development agenda. According to Owens (2017), “After a long wait, higher education is finally formally at the development table” (p.2). As universities have begun to rise to the challenge of achieving the SDGs, studies of best practice and organizing frameworks are emerging. For higher education institutions (HEIs), this knowledge is essential to collate and share for purposes of efficiency and to meet the approaching deadline of the SDGs. Universities can engage in collaborative learning and offer models of SDG integration in curricula and institutional policies, as well as display modes of partnerships and community involvement. Unfortunately, according to Leal Filho et  al. (2019), literature that evaluates how universities are engaging with the SDGs is still in its infancy. “There is a research gap as far as how the inclusion of the SDGs in the context of universities’ activities are concerned” (p.  3). Mawonde and Togo (2019) note, “Not much guidance is available on how [higher education institutions] can contribute to SDG implementation” (p. 932). The present gap is inhibiting progress for a sector that can act as an enabler for all the global goals (Kang & Xu, 2018). In this regard, this article is offered as a vehicle of knowledge sharing to help build momentum for progress. More specifically, through profiles of three university programmes, we offer an analysis and discussion of how schools are organizing their efforts and strategies for effective programming. Our presentation of case studies involves three institutions deeply involved with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and provides a picture of the diverse ways through which schools are supporting the global goals. Since the inception of the SDGs in 2015, each of these institutions have embraced the new agenda in different ways, with varied approaches to teaching, learning, research, and other methods of extending ESD. It should be noted that this research views SDG-related learning and ESD as inherently connected. ESD is understood as the field of knowl-

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edge, while the SDGs are topics within the field and a mechanism for organization and measurement. As such, investigating how schools in this study are advancing progress towards the SDGs involves a deeper examination of university commitments to ESD. Profiled are universities in India, Nigeria, and Colombia that have adopted diverse priorities and methods of SDG integration, displaying how contextually driven ESD can be not only successful but essential. Moreover, a cross-case analysis concludes how holistic approaches are a challenging but important trend. Each of the universities profiled belong to a consortium called the Global Association of the Master’s in Development Practice (Global MDP). This consortium was founded in 2012 on principles of sustainable development with an aim to educate and train future practitioners. The Global MDP conveys a curriculum that spans four disciplines: health sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, and management. The programme seeks to foster the acquisition of critical knowledge, skills, and behavioural attributes needed to solve complex development problems. It is a flexible programme, adaptable at the institutional level, unified by key concepts and a broad curricular structure. In 2015, several universities in the consortium began to reorient their programmes to mainstream the SDGs. Already grounded in sustainable development principles, the university programmes incorporated the SDGs as a further organizing framework in a variety of ways discussed in later sections. These universities have sought to localize the goals, mobilize and train a new workforce, and press for progress at all levels of university and community governance.

1.2 Conceptual Underpinnings This section conveys an overview of higher education engagement with the SDGs providing a foundation for understanding how higher education has approached our global goals and offers an organizing framework to discuss subsequent case studies. Conceptually, the research draws on

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various literature. To begin an inquiry into ESD, a grounding in sustainable development is an initial step. While this chapter offers several common discourses and definitions within the field of sustainable development, it centres on the work of Jabareen (2008), whose critical review of the field elicits key concepts embraced by sustainable development scholars and practitioners. Most relevant to this study are the concepts of ethical paradox, equity, and integrative management. Jabareen claims ethical paradox to be at the heart of understanding sustainable development noting, “On one hand, ‘sustainability’ is seen as a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained indefinitely. On the other hand, however, development is environmental modification, which requires deep intervention in nature and exhausts natural resources”. The concept of ethical paradox is a push to create, as Sachs (1993) states, a rapprochement between ecological and economic interests. Moreover, the concepts of equity and integrative management were embraced as core to how researchers viewed sustainable development. Equity was understood both inter- and intragenerationally, while integrative management referred to taking holistic approaches to advance progress. With this understanding, the study sought to tease out some of the ethical paradoxes of various sustainable development concepts, such as integrative management or inter−/intragenerational equity, among the institutions profiled in the study. The work of Reunamo and Pipere (2011) also provided key concepts foundational to the study. Their inquiry into how researchers prioritize areas for investigation within the field of ESD elicited questions on how ESD is understood temporally and across contexts. They note, “The lack of consensus as to what constitutes ESD can be partly explained by the complex, contested and constantly evolving nature of [sustainable development]” (p.  111). Given the complex understandings of sustainable development, ESD is bound to be convoluted in nature. Ultimately, this study adopted Reunamo and Pipere’s central thesis that ESD is beyond the transfer of knowledge and aims to grow the potential of individu-

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als and organizations to confront change and transformation, as an indicator of success for implementing ESD at HEIs (2011).

1.2.1 SDGs and Higher Education Higher education holds immense potential to contribute towards achieving our global goals. According to Kioupi and Voulvoulis (2020), “Universities can play an important role in the realization of the SDGs, as they have long been powerful drivers of global, national, and local innovation into society” (p.  1). Institutions of higher education can nurture future citizens and provide them with the skills and knowledge essential to provoke sustainable change. Higher education has also grown immensely in the last two decades. Worldwide, from 2000 to 2015, the number of students enrolling in HEIs more than doubled, jumping from 100 million to 213 million (Owens, 2017). Growing enrolments produce greater influence in society, including among political leadership and an expanding workforce, placing higher education as an increasingly pivotal actor in the current development agenda. Although HEIs hold significant potential in the field of sustainable development, realigning academic programmes and institutional cultures has proven challenging. The principles and philosophies of sustainable development can be quite agreeable in theory, but practical integration into existing higher education systems can be a daunting effort. Disparate fields and departmental silos keep narrow the goals of universities, and many schools remain unmotivated for the changes that need to occur (Kang & Xu, 2018). According to Kioupi and Voulvoulis (2020), recent research “indicates that universities are making progress towards integrating the SDGs into curricula, but that this is done in an ad-hoc way and application is not guaranteed, mainly because of the broad focus and complexity of integrating the SDGs into teaching” (p.  2). The lack of a comprehensive and critical approach results in an infusion of knowledge and concepts

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into teaching and learning exercises, but learning outcomes can be minimal. Ad hoc approaches serve to provide some awareness but lack critical understandings of the field, therefore limiting the potential for progress. Such superficial actions mean transformation within the higher education industry remains slow. The interdisciplinary nature of sustainable development and the SDGs provides yet another challenge. Sustainable development calls for a reorientation of programmes at a structural level, which many institutions are ill-prepared for or have too many constraints to easily accomplish. To fully embrace the philosophies of the field, individual disciplines need to understand their place in the broader ecosystem of global development. For example, economists must recognize how GDP growth can affect climate change, and scientists and engineers must understand the social impact of innovation on communities. Disciplines must look beyond their traditional bounds, which can be daunting given the new expertise that must be acquired to accomplish this. Consequently, institutions tend to leave SDG integration to departments and programmes that have historically been siloed, allowing for student exposure to sustainable development principles but lacking more critical understandings when core philosophies within the institutional structure are neglected. Moreover, the various activities of a university, such as research, teaching, or informal educational experiences, should be integrated to increase effectiveness of learning programmes. An interdisciplinary approach that promotes cross-departmental collaboration is just one step that must be accompanied by a rethinking, and linking, of all university functions. Leal Filho et  al. (2019) state it best, “The problem is that sometimes the functions of learning and teaching, research and administration/governance are approached separately, when in reality they are interconnected” (p.  5). Universities engage in a variety of activities that can all support progress towards the SDGs. Linking research with communities or connecting skills with learning outcomes creates a holistic approach that can maximize education’s potential. University func-

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tions can be seen as complementary in the effort to promote ESD. According to Owens (2017), higher education must not only produce excellent teachers but “uncover ground-breaking research, and connect services to communities” (p.  418). The challenges of implementing truly comprehensive ESD are deep; but as universities continue to develop programmes and reform organizational structures, a roadmap is being created. To maximize potential and move beyond simplified understandings of ESD as belonging solely to the realm of teaching and learning, scholars have put forth key mandates for HEIs to support the SDGs. Nhamo and Mjimba (2020) cite three mandates, namely, teaching and learning, research and development, and engaged scholarship (sometimes referred to as community engagement). Bhowmik et al. (2018) offer a similar set of “pillars” with the addition of a fourth: operations and governance. These mandates are intended to work collaboratively, although the interactions may be “complex both conceptually and practically” (Nhamo & Mjimba, 2020, p. 3). Aligning institutional structures and functions produces a holistic approach where ESD has moved beyond knowledge transfer to full embodiment of sustainable development philosophies. Specifically, teaching and learning involves curriculum revisions, the development of new courses, and pedagogical adaptations. Research and Development (R&D) refers to the establishment of much-needed baselines in countries in order to evaluate progress, as well as creating innovative solutions to our global challenges. Engaged scholarship supports linkages to the community, and governance and operations means institutions can model the principles they promote. These mandates offer broad contours for how higher education institutions can reorient themselves towards sustainable development and the SDGs. They provide both a guidebook on how to get started and a framework through which to evaluate progress at the institutional level. Beyond the key mandates for ESD in HEIs, there has been a movement to build competencies as a valuable part of education. A growing body

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of literature promotes this concept (Cebrián et al., 2020; Mochizuki & Fadeeva, 2010; Sims & Falkenberg, 2013). Extending knowledge to link with broad skills is a critical piece in ensuring our development agenda is successful. According to Rieckmann (2012), “Competencies may be characterized as individual dispositions to self-­ organization which include cognitive, affective, volitional (with deliberate intention) and motivational elements; they are an interplay of knowledge, capacities and skills, motives and affective dispositions” (p. 5). Competencies build problem-­ solving skills and help students to adapt to complex situations. Competencies-based learning helps to ensure learned knowledge can transition into action. Although the SDGs in HEIs are still in their infancy, work has started to accumulate on how a competencies approach can enhance learning and produce practical outcomes (Chineme et al., 2019; Dlouhá et al., 2019). In particular, competencies theorists have promoted participatory pedagogies that can incorporate both formal and informal learning and methods that address students’ own sphere of influence and desires (Adomssent et  al., 2007). According to Rieckmann (2012), “Higher Education for Sustainable Development aims at enabling people to not only acquire and generate knowledge but also to reflect on further effects and the complexity of behaviour and decisions in a future-oriented and global perspective of responsibility” (p. 3). Rieckmann’s research addresses the question, what key competencies are most essential to promote? The author notes that “key competencies” represent broader skills than what would be found in domain-specific competencies. Such key competencies are then seen as “transversal, multi-functional and context-overall competencies which are considered to be particularly crucial for implementing societal goals important in a defined normative framework” (p.  5). Reickmann concludes with 19 key competencies generated from experts around the world. Some examples include systemic thinking, concern and acting for justice, and planning and realizing projects. A next step in Reickmann’s research, an area for future scholarly pursuits, is to understand

how these competencies can be incorporated into the organization and structure of higher education programmes. Although competencies were not assessed in this research study, it is a topic increasingly valued in literature and discussed in the concluding section, as an area for future examination.

1.3 The Cases In this section of the chapter, the research methodology that details the mode of inquiry and the institutional profiles is provided to address how SDG integration, and more broadly ESD, has occurred in specific contexts. The objective of the study is to examine the development of ESD programmes at three HEIs since the inception of the UN’s 2030 Agenda. The inquiry is intended to draw out foundational concepts, innovative practice, and pitfalls to programme development and implementation. To accomplish this, the study explored multiple cases within a bounded system (Creswell 2017). In this instance, the bounded system was the Master’s in Development Practice programme, and cases were individual institutions, which subscribe to the programme. Given the limited knowledge and literature on the topic, the study utilized an exploratory approach (Yin 2009). Regarding the sample, the institutions were selected to represent diverse countries across Asia, Africa, and South America. Interviewees from each institution were recruited by purposeful sampling and targeted those most involved with the programmes. In particular, the data were captured across the following stakeholder groups: professors, department chairs, students, and alumni. In total, eight interviews were undertaken for the study. The data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews, conducted via phone or online platform. The interview protocol aimed to address several areas of ESD with a focus on “key mandates for HEIs” (hereby key mandates). The key mandates offered a broad framework to begin to organize the inquiry and findings and are elaborated upon in the next section. Ultimately,

1  Sustainable Development Goals and Universities: Higher Education Engagement Through the Global…

the analysis consisted of coding and interpretation processes, followed by member checks. The following sections convey three case studies of universities that have undergone their own transformations to support the SDGs. They offer insights on how HEIs are reorienting themselves to support the 2030 Agenda and, more broadly, advance the field of sustainable development. A reflection on the mandates put forth for HEIs is conveyed. Each case provides unique considerations for other institutions and serves as an example of localization efforts. Concluding thoughts offer commentary on holistic versus ad hoc approaches and the need for further research on competencies-based learning in ESD.

1.3.1 TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi, India The TERI School of Advanced Studies (TERI SAS) is a university, located in New Delhi, India, that displays how integrated efforts can deliver effective and comprehensive ESD. The university stands apart from many institutions since it is grounded structurally, philosophically, and academically in sustainable development principles. Furthermore, expanding on its academic rigour and institutional structure, the university encourages practical work and community interaction. Although TERI SAS was established just over 20 years ago, it has quickly become a veteran in the practice of ESD.

1.3.1.1 Launch of MDP Programme In 2010, TERI SAS launched its Master’s in Sustainable Development Practice in the school’s department of public policy. The university was one of ten initial institutions selected to join the Global MDP.  The Master’s programme has become TERI SAS’ flagship academic offering and is designed to be completed in 2 years with annual cohorts of approximately 20–25 students. Initially intended to train working professionals, the programme expanded its scope to recent undergraduates and now educates a diverse student population. The mix of working professionals and young scholars has proven to enrich

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learning with a wide spectrum of perspectives. The programme has four core faculty and several affiliated faculties in other departments. Systemic thinking and an interdisciplinary approach characterize the organization of the programme. In the first year of study, students take foundational courses on economics, environmental science, and law and society. They also begin a heavy practicum component that includes community needs assessments and a capstone project. Students are encouraged to select electives that cater to their particular interests, which could include urban development, climate change, health finance, or gender rights. Graduating students go on to a wide variety of fields that have included energy policy, social work, communications/journalism, and economic development. Five years after the launch of the MDP programme at TERI SAS, the SDGs were announced, adding further content and organization to course offerings. After a workshop on the integration of the SDGs into the core curriculum, it was found that much of the current programme’s content was already touching upon several of the goals. Consequently, the SDG framework has been enriching rather than transformational to the programme. Since 2015, the SDGs continue to be mainstreamed through inclusion in course work and encouraging professors to link their research with SDG targets and indicators.

1.3.1.2 TERI SAS’ Work Across HEI Mandates Since its establishment, TERI SAS has been well equipped to convey comprehensive ESD and contribute to the global development agenda. Its unique inception, elaborated on in this section, has allowed it to grow along sustainable development principles, while also building linkages between academic work and practice. Founded in 1998, TERI SAS was established with support from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a non-profit organization dedicated to research on energy, the environment, and sustainable development. According to professors interviewed for this research, it was envisaged that TERI SAS, as a university, could

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bring academic rigour to the institute’s application-­focused research and, alternatively, the institute would bring practitioner perspectives to the more theoretically grounded work of the university. The relationship of TERI to TERI SAS was intended to be symbiotic, integrating academic and practitioner perspectives, while translating empirical work into practical interventions. This founding principle is infused into the university’s MDP programme through its practicum component, which emphasizes community engagement. TERI SAS has invested significant focus in this area. Beginning in the second semester of the programme, students must complete a community needs assessment where they travel to underserved villages and work in teams to understand and document issues across multiple sectors. For 2 weeks, they are embedded in communities to gather data. Utilizing knowledge gained in their first year of study, students examine issues with a systems perspective. The experience “exposes the students to field realities that help to demystify community engagement and understand the importance of working with local population” (TERI SAS, 2020). Students follow this experience with a course in their third semester that assists them in analysing the data collected and subsequently designing a contextually relevant intervention for the community they researched. The intent is to offer students building blocks to become “researcher, innovator, and implementer” (TERI SAS, 2020). It provides them exposure to the various components in the development process. In the final semester, students submit a capstone project. The project is the result of the practicum component of the MDP and involves students working in close partnerships with community-­based organizations. For 8  weeks, students participate with selected organizations. They become involved with projects and develop research that could benefit work in the communities. Students are supervised and mentored by instructors at TERI as well as the placement organization. The relationships between students and organizations are intended to be mutually beneficial, simultaneously pro-

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viding key learning experiences and valuable resources for community impact. The practical components of the TERI SAS programme are an extension of its interdisciplinary academics. Engaging with local communities assists students in transitioning knowledge to action and skills. Students learn key competencies through community-based experiences that, according to some students, include empathy, cultural appreciation, coordination, and problem-­ solving. Such competencies are critical since, according to Dlouhá et al. (2019), “sustainability science is expected to provide a framework to address uncertain problems with value-based solutions” (p.  3). The opportunity to work with real-life problems provides key points of reflection for students as they undertake their courses and, moreover, prepares them to be sustainable development practitioners. The commitment to practical work is woven throughout the programme from the first year to the second. Beyond the integrated vision of academic pursuits and professional practice, TERI SAS offers interdisciplinary perspectives through its university-­wide course offerings. TERI SAS’ academic programmes are envisioned to provide students with a holistic perspective of the subjects offered (TERI SAS, 2020). All courses and programmes of study at TERI SAS are organized around four thematic areas: biotechnology, policy, natural resources, and energy and the environment. Within these areas, students can gain degrees in law, business, technology, economics, and several other diverse fields including the MDP. Where the university truly stands apart is its efforts at reflecting sustainable development in its governance and operations. Beyond the organization of programmes, principles of sustainable development are also present in the school’s infrastructure. The buildings are located on a “green campus” that “provides a setting that enhances learning while simultaneously showcasing the concept of modern green buildings” (TERI SAS, 2020). Such a comprehensive approach means that students at TERI SAS learn, experience, and uniquely participate in sustainable development as part of their daily lives and

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studies. TERI SAS has made strides towards being a “sustainable university”, described by Kang and Xu (2018) as “achieving sustainability of the university and leading sustainable development of the society” (p.  340). This duality is apparent in TERI SAS’ incorporation of sustainability principles in everything from infrastructure to community research. Structurally, TERI SAS is well suited to developing and offering programmes to advance the cause of the SDGs. The infrastructure, organization of departments, and governance and operations stem from an integrated strategy, inherited from its parent institute, that embodies the systemic approach core to sustainable development philosophies. This unique advantage has served to enhance learning in the MDP programme in ways unseen at other institutions. Consequently, a distinct feature of the MDP programme at TERI SAS is that it is embedded in a university taking a whole-school approach towards achieving the SDGs. Touching on all four mandates (teaching/learning, research, governance/operations, and community engagement) cited by Bhowmik et al. (2018), the university’s range of activities is strategically linked to sustainable development. Over the last two decades, since the school was founded, it has ensured all programmes and disciplines include perspectives on social, economic, and environmental impacts and that the school itself embodies sustainable development principles and philosophies. Its linkages to its parent institute have helped guide a university structure conducive to promoting sustainable development via multiple avenues. As Kioupi and Voulvoulis (2020) state, “it is important to look at the contribution of university educational programmes to sustainability from a systems perspective” (p.  2). In addition, the university’s modelling of sustainability principles contributes to changing students’ attitudes and behaviours. Personal commitments to support sustainable development can be shaped by universities because “lifestyle choices are often the outcome of external influence by institutions, structures and practices that are beyond the control of the individual” (Kioupi & Voulvoulis, 2019, p.1).

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Although several institutions of higher education, including those in the MDP consortium, offer effective ESD and embrace mainstreaming of the SDGs, TERI SAS has the unique advantage of a comprehensive university structure and mission aimed to further sustainable development. These principles ground the establishment and growth of infrastructure, programme/course development, and research at the university. In addition, a legacy of its parent institute has meant a firm commitment to shifting theory to practice and ensuring community engagement. TERI SAS displays how a holistic approach can increase effectiveness of ESD programming. As one of the more newly established schools in the MDP consortium, TERI SAS has benefited from building their programmes from the ground up rather than retrofitting sustainability measures to existing departments and programmes, as many universities have done. TERI SAS finds itself unique, since its programme extends the sustainable development principles already embraced by the university rather than using the programme to build momentum for change at an institutional level, an obstacle faced by many universities now trying to mainstream the SDGs.

1.3.2 La Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia La Universidad de los Andes (UniAndes), located in Bogotá, Colombia, is a leading university in the field of sustainable development in Latin America. Founded in 1948, the university has a tradition of innovative leadership and a commitment to transforming society. It was the first private university in Colombia independent from political or religious movements or parties. Consequently, it was able to develop and pursue a mission of “avant-guard educational programming”, while other universities remained bound by political strife (Universidad de los Andes, 2021). According to a founder, UniAndes “did not just spring from the desire to found another university, or from a purely educational interest, but from the intention of building a new country with the purpose of shaping and educating the

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new generations for a new nation” (Universidad de los Andes, 2021). Grounded in this philosophy, the university’s programmes aim to enhance awareness of social and citizenship responsibilities. Incorporating the MDP programme is an extension of this philosophy, intended to address society’s current challenges. In particular, the programme has emphasized translating global development objectives into an agenda specific to Latin America and a firm commitment to diversity and inclusion of students, knowledge, and expertise.

1.3.2.1 Launch of MDP Programme In 2012, UniAndes launched its MDP programme in the context of national disputes, violence, and unrest. For more than 50  years, Colombia has engaged in civil conflict, which has left as many as 220,000 dead, 25,000 missing, and 5.7 million displaced (Council on Foreign Relations website). In 2016, a truce was reached between the government and insurgents, although peace remains tenuous. The internal armed conflict has negatively impacted the country economically, environmentally, and socially. The government is doing all it can to bring stability to the country, and graduates of the MDP programme are seen as a significant force for change since the intent of the programme is to address the country’s current challenges through a knowledgeable and skilled workforce. Thus, the mandate for the MDP has the backing of a government that is in need of leaders who are able to address the complex and interdisciplinary challenges of sustainable development. According to the director of the UniAndes MDP programme, the university is doing everything possible to infuse a transformative type of education not only at all levels and programmes of the academic institution but also at the highest level of national and regional leadership. To date, many of the graduates have gone on to occupy high-level decision-making positions in private, public, and civil society organizations. Therefore, the programme aims to convey necessary knowledge and skills while also motivating students to be change makers in society.

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Uniquely, the programme is one of the first blended learning models in the consortium of MDP schools, where students experience both virtual and in-person classes. Housed in the school of management, the programme is designed to prepare practitioners entering multiple sectors to lead in developing sustainable solutions. Conveyed as a three-semester programme, students take courses on a variety of topics, including strategic management, economic analysis, global health, and more. The majority of enrolled students are nationals of Colombia, and approximately 80% of them have more than 2 years of work experience in their fields, making most of UniAndes’ MDP students mid-level career professionals. Upon launch of the SDGs, the MDP programme mounted a significant effort to reorient programmes to link to global objectives. At the time, the programme’s leadership sought to align with the university’s existing Centro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible para América Latina y el Caribe (COD), a centre focused on supporting the SDGs, helmed by a former minister of health and social protection for Colombia. The alignment has encouraged a comprehensive undertaking to infuse the SDGs into course work and, moreover, to define their relevance in the Latin American context.

1.3.2.2 UniAndes’ Work Across HEI Mandates As a long-standing university, UniAndes has several programmes that have existed for decades in a relatively static formation. Like many traditional institutions, academic disciplines are housed in separate departments, and although collaboration is increasing, this has historically not been the trend. The university was not structured on sustainable development concepts, making a university-wide transformation towards supporting the SDGs a challenge. Nonetheless, UniAndes’ mission and core philosophies offer an enriching space for ESD to flourish. The institution was founded on principles of innovation and social responsibility (Universidad de los Andes, 2021) that lend well to meeting our global development goals.

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Among the mandates of HEIs, UniAndes has made progress across all, but in particular has given significant attention to teaching/learning and community engagement. Not to be discounted, the MDP programme has also made great strides with university governance. In 2021, the programme accepted 60 Indigenous members of Colombia’s African and Indian heritage population to deepen efforts at diversity and inclusion. The move to offer scholarships to these students dramatically increased the size of the annual cohort, up from 35 in prior years. More notably, UniAndes has focused on enhancing academics by restructuring teaching and learning strategies and increasing engagement through a practicum component. With regard to teaching and learning, work has been largely guided by the COD, which has been committed to localizing the SDGs for the Latin American context. According to a former director of the centre, it was born out of the urgency to abandon the “clichés” and the “rhetoric” when it came to economic development, social progress, and sustainability so that one could concentrate on the “implementation of ideas and actions that are based on a realistic context of the region, country and communities” (personal communication, 15 April 2021). Thus, in 2018, the centre focused on prioritizing the SDGs most urgent for Latin America and the Caribbean and, after much thought and research, identified the following as its foci: SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG15 (Life on Land), SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG13 (Climate Action), and SDG16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions). In the last 2 years, these SDGs have become mainstreamed in the MDP programme’s course offerings. The centre has also begun work on an action plan for the next 5  years, which will include developing online courses focused on the SDGs. Several existing online courses taught by prominent experts on sustainable development and the SDGs will also be translated, contextualized, and made available to the centre’s alliances and networks. This effort to contextualize materials assists the university’s effort to translate global goals into local contexts. In addition, podcasts,

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news bulletins, public debates, and competitions on environmental issues, among other initiatives, are being created and diffused, incorporating informal education strategies into the action plan. Aside from efforts to realign academic offerings with the SDGs and contextualize the goals, UniAndes’ programme has placed a heavy emphasis on the practicum component central to the Global MDP curriculum. Similar to other MDP programmes, practice or field work forms the backbone of the programme at UniAndes, so much so that in 2019, the credits gained from such endeavours were increased to eight from two. According to notes from the MDP director, the objective is to combine academic processes with the realities of applied projects. Practice is built into the entire curriculum; students complete course work and two field experiences in the summer during which they can apply their knowledge and skills. As a result, students are offered a chance to integrate theories, models, and tools to make decisions on real development challenges. Their efforts contribute to improvement in the living conditions of vulnerable communities and ecological systems. In addition, during the field experience, students must show how the SDGs are related to their areas of study, and they must also discuss how the proposed solution is related to the SDGs. One example of past field experiences is the design of a leadership school for a community council in La Plata, Bahia Malaga, which is a group of Black communities formed in 1998 that is one of the most financially underresourced regions of the country. The goal of this community council was to promote and preserve sustainable ways of life. UniAndes continues to improve and evolve its MDP programme to embrace progress towards the SDGs. The programme has made great strides in increasing access to education via scholarships for Indigenous and other under-represented groups, as well as a shift towards online education. Notably, its academic offerings are increasingly linked to specific SDGs, guided by the localization efforts of the COD.  Moreover, its practicum component continues to emphasize community action and an acquiring of competen-

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cies and skills that students can carry with them into their professional fields. These advances are largely attributed to new leadership at the university. The appointment of a new rector in recent years has helped facilitate changes such as the scholarship programme and a look inwards at sustainable development practice within the university. The new rector formerly served as the director of COD, which has helped transition principles held by the centre into institutional commitments.

1.3.3 The University of Ibadan, Nigeria The University of Ibadan (UI) in Nigeria was established in 1948. It is referred to as the first university in Nigeria and is recognized as the country’s leading public university. Its vision is to “be the world-class institution for academic excellence geared toward meeting societal needs” (University of Ibadan, 2021). In 2010, UI established the Centre for Sustainable Development (CESDEV), which is mandated to address the complex challenges of sustainable development from an interdisciplinary lens. CESDEV is now a centre offering eight academic and outreach programmes, including the MDP. Since the launch of the SDGs in 2015, UI has committed to make progress towards the global goals, and a unique component to their approach has been to establish partnerships among other universities and with government agencies. UI has made efforts at both internal transformation within the university and high-­ level partnerships to increase impact. In 2020, UI was ranked the number one institution in Nigeria by the Times Higher Education World University Impact Rankings, which assesses university performance against the SDGs.

1.3.3.1 Launch of the MDP Programme Recurrent leadership challenges in the country, ethnic plurality, social diversity, and corruption present specific challenges to socioeconomic development in Nigeria, as well as many parts of Africa. The UI MDP programme is a

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leading initiative in the sustainable development efforts of both the country and continent. Its 18-month MDP curriculum, which was launched in 2010, helps students think globally about the developmental needs of the world and act locally to address problems in their communities. Most courses are classified according to one of the four pillars of the global MDP programme  – health, natural, social, and management sciences  – although interdisciplinary approaches are integrated into the programme as a whole. One individual, a professor of economics, directs both CESDEV and the MDP programme. Similar to other MDP programmes, UI students undertake field training and internships, during which they are placed with organizations that engage in development practices aligned with interests and backgrounds. In 2020, more than 45 students enrolled in the programme. According to the director of the MDP, 75% of enrolees enter the programme after obtaining their undergraduate degrees, while the remaining 25% are midlevel professionals.

1.3.3.2 UI’s Work Across HEI Mandates In 2016, UI re-aligned the MDP curriculum to better reflect the SDGs and make them contextually relevant. Today, students are required to take two classes that explicitly address the SDGs: “Sustainability Science” and “Political Economy of Social Policy”. Those who teach in the MDP programme are also directed to relate the SDGs to the content of their courses. Efforts to reorient teaching and learning towards the development agenda are ongoing, but integration has been consistent over the last 5 years. Regarding research, UI is a leader in publishing on sustainable development in Africa. As the publisher of the peer-reviewed African Journal of Sustainable Development, the university has shared articles across a wide range of sectors, including the survival of Indigenous enterprises in western Nigeria (Awofeso & Obemeat, 2019), climate-smart agriculture (Akinyemi et  al., 2018), and the interrelationship of economics, inflation, and growth in Nigeria (Aigheyisi & Ebiaku, 2016). The journal publishes two issues

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per year and offers open access to ensure a greater global exchange of knowledge. MDP students also conduct field work or complete practicums wherein they develop knowledge that is context specific and informs one or several of the SDGs. The output of students’ research is often relevant both locally and broadly because they can carry out their field studies in Nigeria or as far away as South Africa. The MDP director noted that students have published several key online research papers as a result of their field experiences. These papers, which come with policy briefs, provide a service not only to civil society in Nigeria but also to the broader regional community, including governments, businesses, and donors. One example is a UI MDP student’s report entitled Assessment of Climate Variability, Post-Harvest Losses and Household Food Security in Kayonza District, Rwanda. The report was presented to the leadership of the Kayonza District with information that could benefit the area in their future agricultural practices. As such, the university strives to encourage impactful research for the African region among both students and faculty. Most notable of UI’s efforts has been an emphasis on creating partnerships. The director works with students and other like-minded university colleagues around the world, speaking of the importance of connecting with people who are interested in the SDGs. When the UI MDP programme revamped its curriculum in 2016, faculty members from UniAndes and Ireland’s University College Dublin visited CESDEV to discuss the SDGs. Since then, UI’s director has continued this information exchange, meeting with other academic institutions that are interested in the SDGs, including the University of Ghana, the University of Pretoria, the University of Nairobi, and the University of Zambia. For the director, learning about the SDGs is a continuous process that involves connecting with others who are working on sustainable development issues. In addition, UI has established links to the government with an aim to influence policy. In particular, the country’s Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the SDGs collaborates with CESDEV and the MDP pro-

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gramme through consultancies, conferences, and trainings. MDP programme alumni are also referred to government agencies for employment. The director notes that several have become employed, exemplifying the programme’s influence beyond the university. UI has strived to develop a diverse array of partnerships in an effort to have an impact in Nigeria and across the continent, including with business leaders and non-governmental groups. It has harnessed the community of the Global MDP consortium for expertise and guidance to facilitate this and has made a goal to generate community engagement at the local level and beyond. This approach has led to partnerships with several global institutions, government ministries, and actors at the local, regional, and international levels. UI’s strategy of diversifying partnerships offers potentially another mandate to those already guiding ESD progress. Moving forward, the MDP programme seeks to deepen engagement across the university. The director advocates that everyone in the community must be involved in implementing the SDGs in the classroom, on campus, and beyond. He feels that the individual efforts and achievements of a few directors or departments are laudable but insufficient. The integration of the SDGs into mandates for teaching and learning, research and development, and community engagement requires multiple stakeholders. For instance, the director proudly stated that UI was filling the zoological and botanical gardens on the campus with endangered animals and plants. Such action shows interest in sustainability, but the director questioned if a campus-wide plan on the SDGs, one that had the support and involvement of everyone at UI, could be created. His efforts at facilitating such a mission have unfortunately been stalled due to resource constraints and, most recently, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, progress towards gaining comprehensive institutional commitments has been slow. In 2021, UI dropped from first to second place among African academic institutions appearing in the Times Higher Education World University Impact Rankings. Commitment to, and support of, ESD requires financial investments and other

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resources that have been challenging for UI to garner. Examples of how the leadership at academic institutions can drive progress include developing a strategic campus plan, compensating staff for their efforts, offering incentives for the integration of the SDGs into all programmes, and collecting data and reporting on a university’s progress in satisfying these goals (Nhamo & Mjimba, 2020). According to a student who was interviewed, these actions are still an unachieved vision at UI. Nevertheless, CESDEV’s efforts to transform education at the institution are being noticed and increasingly receiving positive reviews. The director mentioned that the Office of the Special Advisor on the SDGs consults with them on such goals. Diverse groups have also more frequently issued invitations to CESDEV for talks and training on the SDGs. Finally, the MDP programme is becoming the go-to avenue for potential employers interested in hiring graduating students who can assist them in their sustainability efforts. Thus, although a comprehensive, university-wide plan on sustainable development or the SDGs has yet to be developed, the director of the MDP  – through CESDEV and the MDP programme  – remains one of UI’s strongest champions for SDG implementation and optimistic for future progress.

1.4 Discussion This section teases out ideas on how these cases might enrich learning and practice in higher education institutions worldwide, specifically with a focus on holistic approaches and institutional transformations. According to Kioupi and Voulvoulis (2020), “Sustainability is envisioned as a system state that our society is constantly trying to define and reach, guided by the SDGs, and the contribution of education is thus to create the enabling conditions for this vision to emerge” (p.  2). Within the field of education, HEIs have taken up the charge to support the SDGs in a variety of ways. As seen in the case studies, schools are endeavouring to make progress across multiple avenues. When examined through the frame-

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work of the “mandates of higher education” (Nhamo & Mjimba, 2020), HEIs in this study are strategizing and engaging across university functions to take a more comprehensive, holistic approach. Each of the cases profiled displayed integrated efforts to engage with ESD. Although all the universities sought to take a comprehensive approach, priorities still varied. While some institutions, such as UniAndes, incorporated significant efforts at diversity and inclusion of the student population, others focused more outwardly on influencing policy and establishing partnerships, as was the case with the University of Ibadan. Although the priorities differed, it is clear that all institutions profiled in this research made efforts at teaching/learning, research, governance/operations, community engagement, and beyond. The unique scenarios that each case provides serve to exemplify that there is no “one-size-fits-­ all” model for conveying ESD. Priorities and methods of engagement differ by context and constraints. Yet, all universities profiled strove for a holistic strategy, with varying levels of success, that transcended teaching to focus broadly on other factors that can affect students’ learning, knowledge, and skills. From this trend emerges a question: is a whole-school approach necessary to convey effective ESD? Or, alternatively, can ESD be isolated to certain functions such as teaching and learning and still be effective? According to Kitamura and Hoshii (2014), “ESD aims at changing the approach to education by integrating the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development and needs to be incorporated into all forms of learning and education” (p.  209). Their definition alludes to an agreement that, indeed, effective ESD requires holistic approaches and integrated strategies across the university. Isolating sustainability to curricula and coursework fails to embrace the principles of interconnectedness emphasized in the field. Several authors have noted the value of “whole-­ school” (or the more frequently cited “holistic”) approaches and have conducted work to advance the notion (Amaral

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et  al., 2015; Kang & Xu, 2018; Leal Filho, 2011; Mitchell, 2011). Unfortunately, universities can experience immense constraints when attempting to transform their multitude of functions to align with sustainable development principles. A lack of institutional interest, limited resources, or staff involvement may deter progress. In many instances, institutional change is inhibited by the confluence of such factors. Stakeholders such as faculty, staff, students, and university leadership can be motivated but lack support. Limited resources result in competing interests, and sustainable transformations often fall in priority. Moreover, university leadership may find sustainable development to be a nebulous concept, difficult to implement in practical ways. According to Leal Filho (2011), “Since it is not classified as being the domain of any given science – rather a component which may be incorporated into all disciplines – there tends to be a trend towards perceiving it as an abstract concept” (p.  24). More practically, universities are often siloed in their organization, and interdisciplinary efforts can be challenging to provoke. No doubt, myriad factors can deter change. Nonetheless, advancing progress in all functions and at all levels of the institution remains important. Regarding the domain of teaching and learning, Disterheft et  al. (2015) discuss the “built-on and built-in” approaches and elaborate that “the first builds on extra sustainability courses and programmes for sustainability literacy improvement, the second fosters an integration of sustainability in all courses and research, and underlines the necessity of curricula renewal, new learning methods and reorientation in teaching” (p. 2). The approach advocates to go beyond ad hoc approaches of ESD integration, cited by Kioupi and Voulvoulis (2020), to a more transformative teaching and learning methodology. Extending this principle, ESD should move past the focus on coursework to include a university-­wide transformation. For this to occur, “universities need to break down structural constraints of the prevailing unsustainable systems of traditional HEIs” (Kang & Xu, 2018, p. 341). Dated methods of organization must give way to

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more innovative structures. Ferrer-Balas et  al. (2010) beautifully argue this point with a quote from Einstein, stating, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” (p. 608). As such, for universities to effectively make progress towards the SDGs and sustainable development, the organization of programmes, disciplines, and research centres, as well as other core functions including governance and operations, must be re-thought. Without such action, disciplines and fields move forward alone, neglecting spillover effects to other fields and abandoning commitments to the triple bottom line. The role of institutional leadership is critical in this regard. Without support from those with decision-making capacity, efforts at comprehensive ESD are relegated to piecemeal endeavours that can be superficial, have limited effectiveness, or simply be an act of greenwashing, described by Furlow (2010) as vague or misleading claims that present an environmentally responsible public image. For universities to undergo transformation at their core levels of operation and organization, institutional leadership must be an active and motivated stakeholder. The recent progress of UniAndes exemplifies this point. Once a new rector was installed, the university was able to extend the innovative work that the rector commenced as the former director of the Centro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible para América Latina y el Caribe. This centre has been at the forefront of calling for an infusion of the SDGs into all aspects of university work and has sought to connect their relevance to the Latin American and the Caribbean context. The promotion of the former director of the centre to rector, a senior leadership position at the university, has served to facilitate more rapid transformation. TERI SAS has been a further example of how leadership and an amenable university structure can advance comprehensive ESD. The university recognized the value of grounding a school in principles of sustainability since its inception. The case study of the institution elaborated on how students learn, experience, and uniquely participate in sustainable development as part of

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their daily lives and studies. The programmes, university structure, and physical space have all been developed to align with sustainability principles. Consequently, TERI SAS has not been in the position of retrofitting strategies to existing, more traditional structures, as was the case with the University of Ibadan or UniAndes. Learning from all cases displays how the foundational structure of HEIs can ease or complicate efforts towards comprehensive ESD. Ultimately, complications can affect the priorities of universities attempting to engage with ESD, as was noted by the director of the University of Ibadan, whose plans for a university-wide transformation have stalled. As such, the director has focused increasingly on partnerships and strengthening work with the university’s Centre for Sustainable Development. Returning to the question, is a whole-school approach necessary to convey effective ESD, or can ESD be isolated to certain functions and still be effective? The answer is fluid. As scholars and those interviewed for this research have emphasized, a holistic approach should be the goal of HEIs. However, as the cases have illustrated, institutional constraints can prevent that from occurring, but students can no less still receive a rich education and embrace sustainability principles.

1.5 Conclusion The data for this project provoked interesting questions on how HEIs are organizing efforts to support sustainable development and, consequently, the SDGs. Each of the universities profiled offered a glimpse into the priorities and efforts of institutions across different countries and circumstances. The University of Ibadan engaged with the constraints of a traditional HEI that included capturing the interest and support of higher levels of leadership. Alternatively, UniAndes was founded on the principles of innovation and social responsibility that are leading to progressive changes instigated by new leadership at the university. Lastly, TERI SAS was an institution conceived on sustainable development

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principles, and efforts have centred on expanding that mission. A review of these institutions concluded that holistic approaches to ESD should be the goal, but nonetheless, quality learning can still occur when efforts are limited and bound by structural or financial constraints. Reflections on the research elicited new avenues for future consideration. More specifically, ruminations on the topic of competencies in ESD are thoroughly worth exploring. Particularly, how institutions are defining and facilitating key competencies in local contexts could convey a deeper picture of how ESD is unfolding to address local needs. These questions were provoked by data displaying the universities’ robust commitments to praxis. The Global MDP curriculum calls for a practicum component, so this commitment was anticipated, though competencies were not a central focus of the initial inquiry. Nonetheless, as faculty and students discussed their experiences, it became clear that each programme endeavoured to build competencies and motivate future action. In the case of TERI SAS, students widely noted developing empathy for communities as they assessed needs across multiple sectors. One student was so impacted by her experience that she returned to the community and started an NGO.  At the University of Ibadan, a student developed a proclivity towards advocacy after finishing fieldwork involving sustainable agriculture. Across the cases, descriptions of practicum experiences consistently involved discussions of building competencies, and consequently, a deeper examination of this topic is a worthwhile endeavour. Although the literature on competency-based learning is growing rapidly, we see a gap in understanding competencies acquisition outside of teaching and learning exercises. Our data point to a need to consider how competencies can be developed beyond the scope of classroom learning or practicum experiences. An emphasis in literature has been on “participatory approaches” and what students can gain from project-based learning or community practicums. Clearly there is importance to this since participants in this study discussed the impact of such experiences. However, more broadly, it cannot be neglected

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that all functions of the university can build competencies. This was seen in reflections by students who emphasized the social responsibility of schools to operate sustainably. Scholars have discussed a need to build “new cultures” within universities (Adomssent et al., 2007; Rieckmann, 2012), emphasizing learning and engagement across university functions. Adomssent et  al. (2007) state, “a ‘new learning culture’ is necessary, which moves away from a culture of learning based on the principle of indoctrination and is ‘enabling-oriented, based on self-organization and centred on competence’” (p. 419). Rieckmann (2012) states, “absolutely essential is a new learning culture which does not confirm academic tradition but examines its potential for a sustainable future” (p.  3). The learning cultures emphasized by these scholars are linked to the holistic and “whole-school” approaches that many HEIs are seeking to take. Competencies can be developed through multiple avenues of exposure to sustainability concepts, from university operations to community engagement, and further research could shed light on how this is unfolding. As HEIs move forward in developing programming for ESD, holistic efforts are essential for embracing and modelling the principles of sustainable development. Learning is enhanced by research, engaged scholarship, and being part of a community that models sustainability. Such a whole-school approach can consequently enable rich learning environments for knowledge, competencies, and action to grow. The models of ESD offered in this research and discussion of findings are offered as guidance on how HEIs can contribute to supporting sustainable development and the SDGs, though they also serve as examples of the diverse conditions where ESD must be adapted to advance progress.

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Aigheyisi, O. S., & Ebiaku, K. C. (2016). Interrelationships among unemployment, inflation and economic growth in Nigeria. African Journal of Sustainable Development, 6(2), 1–38. Akinyemi, O., Olaniyan, O., Mwongera, C., & Eitzinger, A. (2018). Implementation, performance and outcomes of climate-smart agriculture in the climate change agriculture and food security climate-smart villages in Uganda. African Journal of Sustainable Development, 8(1), 49–65. Amaral, L. P., Martins, N., & Gouveia, J. B. (2015). Quest for a sustainable university: A review. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Awofeso, O. A., & Obemeat, A. A. (2019). Post-founder survival of indigenous enterprises and employment sustainability in south West Nigeria. African Journal of Sustainable Development, 9(3), 43–74. Bhowmik, J., Selim, S.  A., & Huq, S. (2018). The role of universities in achieving the sustainable development goals. International Centre for Climate Change and Development. Boissiere, M. (2004). Rationale for public investments in primary education in developing countries. World Bank, IEG. Cebrián, G., Junyent, M., & Mulà, I. (2020). Competencies in education for sustainable development: Emerging teaching and research developments. Creswell, J.  W., & Creswell, J.  D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications. Chineme, A., Herremans, I., & Wills, S. (2019). Building leadership competencies for the SDGs through community/university experiential learning. Journal of Sustainability Research, 1(2). Disterheft, A., Caeiro, S., Azeiteiro, U. M., & Leal Filho, W. (2015). Sustainable universities–a study of critical success factors for participatory approaches. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, 11–21. Dlouhá, J., Heras, R., Mulà, I., Salgado, F.  P., & Henderson, L. (2019). Competences to address SDGs in higher education—A reflection on the equilibrium between systemic and personal approaches to achieve transformative action. Sustainability, 11(13), 3664. Ferrer-Balas, D., Lozano, R., Huisingh, D., Buckland, H., Ysern, P., & Zilahy, G. (2010). Going beyond the rhetoric: System-wide changes in universities for sustainable societies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 18(7), 607–610. Furlow, N.  E. (2010). Greenwashing in the new millennium. The Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 10(6), 22. Jabareen, Y. (2008). A new conceptual framework for sustainable development. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 10(2), 179–192. Kang, L., & Xu, L. (2018). Creating sustainable universities: Organizational pathways of transformation. European Journal of Sustainable Development, 7(4), 339–339. Keller, K.  R. (2006). Investment in primary, secondary, and higher education and the effects on economic growth. Contemporary Economic Policy, 24(1), 18–34.

18 Kioupi, V., & Voulvoulis, N. (2019). Education for sustainable development: A systemic framework for connecting the SDGs to educational outcomes. Sustainability, 11(21), 6104. Kioupi, V., & Voulvoulis, N. (2020). Sustainable development goals (SDGs): Assessing the contribution of higher education programmes. Sustainability, 12(17), 6701. Kitamura, Y., & Hoshii, N. (2014). Education for sustainable development at universities in Japan. In Emerging international dimensions in East Asian higher education (pp. 207–225). Springer. Leal Filho, W. (2011). About the role of universities and their contribution to sustainable development. Higher Education Policy, 24(4), 427–438. Leal Filho, W., Shiel, C., Paço, A., Mifsud, M., Ávila, L. V., Brandli, L. L., … Caeiro, S. (2019). Sustainable development goals and sustainability teaching at universities: Falling behind or getting ahead of the pack? Journal of Cleaner Production, 232, 285–294. Mawonde, A., & Togo, M. (2019). Implementation of SDGs at the university of South Africa. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Mitchell, R. C. (2011). Sustaining change on a Canadian campus: Preparing Brock University for a sustainability audit. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Mochizuki, Y., & Fadeeva, Z. (2010). Competences for sustainable development and sustainability: Significance and challenges for ESD. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 11(4), 391–403. Mori Junior, R., Fien, J., & Horne, R. (2019). Implementing the UN SDGs in universities: Challenges, ­opportunities, and lessons learned. Sustainability: The Journal of Record, 12(2), 129–133. Nhamo, G., & Mjimba, V. (2020). The context: SDGs and institutions of higher education. In Sustainable development goals and institutions of higher education (pp. 1–13). Springer.

A. Webb and L. Rodriguez Owens, T. L. (2017). Higher education in the sustainable development goals framework. European Journal of Education, 52(4), 414–420. Pryshlakivsky, J., & Searcy, C. (2013). Sustainable development as a wicked problem. In Managing and engineering in complex situations (pp. 109–128). Springer. Reunamo, J., & Pipere, A. (2011). Doing research on education for sustainable development. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Rieckmann, M. (2012). Future-oriented higher education: Which key competencies should be fostered through university teaching and learning? Futures, 44(2), 127–135. Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin, F.  S., III, Lambin, E., & Foley, J. (2009). Planetary boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecology and Society, 14(2). Sachs, W. (1993). Global ecology and the shadow of development. In W.  Sachs (Ed.), Global ecology. A new arena of political conflict (pp. 3–20). Zed Books. Sachs, J.  D. (2012). From millennium development goals to sustainable development goals. The Lancet, 379(9832), 2206–2211. Sims, L., & Falkenberg, T. (2013). Developing competencies for education for sustainable development: A case study of Canadian faculties of education. International Journal of Higher Education, 2(4), 1–14. Solomon, S., Manning, M., Marquis, M., & Qin, D. (2007). Climate change 2007-the physical science basis: Working group I contribution to the fourth assessment report of the IPCC (Vol. 4). Cambridge University Press. TERI SAS. (2020). Placement brochure: M.A. sustainable development practice. Universidad de los Andes. (2021). History. https://uniandes.edu.co/en/university/general-­information/history. University of Ibadan. (2021). Vision and mission. ui.edu.ng World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Our common future. Oxford University Press. Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (Vol. 5). Sage.

2

Engagement with Sustainable Development Goals in Accounting Education: The Case of a Public University in Sri Lanka Thilini Cooray, Samanthi Senaratne, and Nuwan Gunarathne

Abstract

Various calls have been made for accountants to possess the knowledge and skills pertaining to sustainability and various sustainability accounting aspects. However, the manner in which universities engage in sustainability accounting education is primarily unknown. This chapter presents how a public university in Sri Lanka engages with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its undergraduate-­ level accounting degree programme through accounting-related courses. It presents the gradual introduction of the sustainability concepts into the curriculum of the programme through external reporting, management accounting, governance and ethics, and research dimensions. The degree programme’s increased dose of sustainability coverage has been combined with various teaching, learning, and assessment activities. With these educational interventions, the degree programme has directly contributed to the achievements of several SDGs, such as SDG4 (quality education), SDG8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG9 (industry

T. Cooray · S. Senaratne · N. Gunarathne (*) University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

and innovations), SDG12 (sustainable consumption and production), SDG13 (climate change), and SDG16 (promoting peaceful, just, and strong institutions). This chapter also discusses some of the challenges encountered by the educators of this degree programme during these interventions. These challenges highlight the need for urgent and comprehensive educational reforms and policy-level interventions to ensure sustainability education in similar institutions.

2.1 Introduction Owing to the current environmental and social problems, there is a growing demand from various stakeholders for organisations to be sustainable. These demands have compelled organisations worldwide to adopt sustainability practices that focus on improving ecological conservation and social equity while contributing to economic development (Gunarathne & Lee, 2019; Zhang & Zhu, 2019). The need for accountants to take up an active role has often been highlighted when organisations pursue sustainability practices, as the sustainability information provided by accountants is utilised by top management for decision-making (Evans et  al., 2011; Schaltegger & Zvezdov, 2015). Accordingly, various calls have been made within the society and the business world for accountants to possess

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_2

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the knowledge and skills pertaining to sustainability as well as its various internal controls and accounting aspects (Botes et al., 2014). There is growing evidence that accountants are unaware of organisational processes’ sustainability impact and do not possess the knowledge or skills necessary to contribute to the corporate transition to improve sustainability performance (Cho et  al., 2020; Gunarathne & Rajasooriya, 2020; Schaltegger & Zvezdov, 2015). Since education is imperative to achieve sustainable development in any profession (Filho et  al., 2018; Huckle, 1991), studies have investigated the role of accounting education concerning sustainability, particularly at higher education institutions (HEIs) (Botes et  al., 2014; Dyball & Thomson, 2013). While these studies have provided various insights into sustainability accounting education in universities, they are mostly confined to developed countries (Botes et  al., 2014; Cho et  al., 2020; Hazelton & Haigh, 2010). Hence, the manner in which universities engage in sustainability accounting education, particularly in embedding UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is mostly unknown to date. Thus, this chapter aims to present how a public university in an emerging economy has engaged with the SDGs in its undergraduate-level accounting degree programme. Specifically, it focuses on the first academic accounting degree programme offered by the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. Although the students of the programme learn and are exposed to various facets of the SDGs through many accounting and non-accounting courses and other extracurricular activities, the chapter focuses on the accounting courses with the intention of providing a focused discussion. Considering the fact that sustainability education is essential in various disciplines, educational systems must respond to the pressing need to create new skills, values, and attitudes that lead to the creation of a more sustainable society (UNESCO, 2017). To do this, educational systems should set and define new learning objectives and content, introduce pedagogies that empower learners, and use instructions to include sustainability in their management structures. Furthermore, there is an increasing international

recognition of ‘education for sustainable development as a vital element of quality education and a significant facilitator for sustainable development’ (UN-DESA, 2021). This idea was further acknowledged in various international agreements, such as Agenda 211 and Muscat Agreement.2 The necessity of integrating sustainable development into formal, informal, or non-­ formal education at all levels is also emphasised in the SDG4. Furthermore, the education sector has the potential to facilitate, encourage, and aid many, if not all, of the SDGs (Junior et al., 2019). In the education sector, universities can play a vital role in two ways. Firstly, they can develop the future generations with the requisite sustainability skills, knowledge, and value systems to address the sustainability challenges and opportunities. Secondly, universities have the potential to conduct research that enhances sustainable development at local, regional, and global scales (Ahmadein, 2019). Hence, universities have a vital role in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), owing to the pressing need for sustainable development in developing economies, such as Sri Lanka.

2.2 Context Sri Lanka is a South Asian emerging economy that has experienced rapid economic growth after ending the civil war in 2009 (World Bank, 2020). The country has a significantly influential accounting profession with a global presence. It is recognised as a global hidden gem that produces finance and accounting professionals, who work in different regions, including the Middle This is a resolution of the UN about the encouragement and implementation of sustainable development. This agenda was a result of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 (UN, 2021). 2  Muscat Agreement is the final statement of UNESCO’s Global Education for All Meeting (GEM), which was held in Muscat, Oman, in 2014. This agreement outlines the proposed overarching goal (i.e. ensure equitable and inclusive quality education and lifelong learning for all by 2030) and global targets of the post-2015 education agenda (UNESCO, 2014). 1 

2  Engagement with Sustainable Development Goals in Accounting Education: The Case of a Public…

East, the Asia-Pacific, and Africa (Senaratne & Gunarathne, 2017; World Bank, 2015). Along with professional accounting bodies, some accounting degree programmes in Sri Lanka have played a key role by promoting ESD, such as environmental accounting, sustainability reporting, and integrated reporting in the corporate sector (Cooray et al., 2021; Gunarathne & Senaratne, 2018;  Senaratne et  al., 2022). The peculiar feature is that Sri Lanka has only government-­ funded public universities. At present, there are 17 public universities, and 11 offer accounting degree programmes.

2.2.1 University-Level Accounting Education in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka is a small island nation in the Indian Ocean with a population of just over 20 million. Despite its small geographical area and population, the country’s rich history of accounting practices traces back to many centuries (Liyanarachchi, 2009, 2015); there is evidence that accounting education with well-placed systems and structures has existed for over two millennia (Senaratne & Gunarathne, 2017). However, this indigenous accounting education system waned during the British colonial rule (1815–1948). During this period, Sri Lanka was transformed into a plantation economy from an agriculture-based society (Wickramasinghe & Cameron, 2004), creating significant changes in the country’s political economy. These changes laid the foundation for introducing professional accounting education in 1941 (Senaratne & Cooray, 2012a; Senaratne & Gunarathne, 2017; Yapa, 2010). These changes catered to the ­plantation economy and, thereafter, strongly influenced accounting education in the post-­independence period (Yapa, 2010). Consequently, the first indigenous professional accounting body  – the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka  – was established in 1959, emulating the education model of the Chartered Institute of Accountants of England and Wales. It created the necessary

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environment for the growth of two British professional accounting bodies3 in the country. Higher education system in Sri Lanka was established in 1942 by following the British university education system to focus on science and liberal arts education (Fonseka et  al., 2019). However, accounting was introduced as a subject in Sri Lankan universities only in the 1960s, in the economics and management undergraduate degree programmes, when the university system in the country expanded. Hence, it took another three decades for the Sri Lankan university system to establish its first academic accounting degree programme. It was only in late 1992, the Department of Accounting at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura was established to offer a bachelor’s degree in accounting (Fonseka et al., 2019; Senaratne & Gunarathne, 2017). The peculiar characteristic of Sri Lanka is that it has only state-funded public universities, and presently, there are 17 state-funded universities in the country (University Grants Commission (UGC), 2021). The UGC4 selects students for these universities based on their performance (measured in terms of z-scores) at the G.C.E. Advanced Level Examination conducted at the national level by the Department of Examinations of the Ministry of Education. At present, accounting undergraduate degree programmes are quite popular in Sri Lankan universities, and there are 11 state universities offering accounting degrees in the country. Another notable characteristic of the current accounting education system in Sri Lanka is the parallel development of academic and professional accounting education (Senaratne & Cooray, 2012a; Wijewardena & Yapa, 1998; Yapa, 2000), and this is similar to the situation in The two bodies are Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. It is interesting to note that Sri Lanka has the highest number of UK-qualified accountants outside the UK due to the long-standing presence of these bodies in the country (Gunarathne & Senaratne, 2018). 4  This is the apex body of Sri Lankan universities and handles the student admission to all the universities at a national level. 3 

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the UK due to the British colonial impact (Yapa, 2010). Accordingly, a profession-centric model, wherein a university degree is not compulsory for students to enter into a professional accounting body, is followed in Sri Lanka as in the UK (Annisette & Kirkham, 2007; Byrne & Flood, 2003; Gammie & Kirkham, 2008). Due to this anomaly in accounting education in Sri Lanka (Perera 1975; Senaratne & Cooray, 2012b), professional accounting bodies and universities are engaged in general and professional accounting education, resulting in a duplication of the work for students (Senaratne & Cooray, 2012b; Senaratne & Gunarathne, 2017; Watty et  al., 2012) as they concurrently study professional accounting courses (Gunarathne et  al., 2021; Watty et al., 2012). Often, they enrol in these professional programmes before starting university in order to secure work-related claims (Senaratne & Cooray, 2012a). Due to the non-existence of a graduate accounting profession, two groups of accounting professionals are available in the country: ‘academic professionals’ (those with an accounting degree and a professional qualification) and ‘professionals without an accounting degree’ (Senaratne & Cooray, 2012b). Further, these groups compete for employment opportunities while constantly seeking internal differentiation within the profession (Gunarathne et  al., 2021; Senaratne & Cooray, 2012b). This has caused the accounting degree programmes to differentiate between their graduates (i.e. ‘academic professionals’) from the members of professional accounting bodies without a degree (i.e. ‘professionals without an accounting degree’) by incorporating new developments in accounting into the degree curricula  (Senaratne et  al., 2022). These differentiation strategies have a significant bearing on the role that some accounting degree programmes in Sri Lanka have previously played in promoting the new developments in accounting, such as sustainability accounting and integrated reporting through education and research (Gunarathne & Senaratne, 2018).

2.3 The Case This study presents the case of the accounting degree programme of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, which pioneered the introduction of management and accounting education into the country’s university system. The accounting degree programme (i.e. B.Sc. Accounting [Honours]) of the Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, has been selected as the context of the study. It was the first accounting degree programme in Sri Lanka; it started in 1992 and has produced the highest number of accounting graduates in the country so far. They now work both locally and globally in regions such as the Middle East, Africa, Australasia, and South East Asia (Fonseka et al., 2019; Senaratne & Gunarathne, 2017). Furthermore, this accounting degree programme in Sri Lanka has been considerably impacted by introducing areas, such as corporate sustainability, sustainability accounting and reporting, and integrated reporting into the university curriculum for nearly two decades (Gunarathne & Senaratne, 2018). This 4-year degree programme is placed at the level six (Bachelors Honours) of Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework. Currently, the department has an annual intake of around 200 students. The students selected to follow the degree programme have obtained high z-scores on the university admission examination – G.C.E. Advanced Level (Fonseka et  al., 2019; Senaratne & Gunarathne, 2019). At present, this accounting department consists of 28 academic staff members, including permanent and visiting lecturers with both academic and professional qualifications in the field of accounting. This also includes two endowed chairs created by EY and KPMG, two of the big four global public accounting firms. At the introduction time of this accounting degree programme in 1992, there was a consensus among the employers in Sri Lanka’s private

2  Engagement with Sustainable Development Goals in Accounting Education: The Case of a Public…

sector that the graduates of state universities were not work-ready for several reasons: a lack of practical experience about the application of theories/concepts learnt at the university, several shortcomings in their English communication skills (both written and oral), and their inability to adapt to the business sector environment (Fonseka et al., 2019; Ranasinghe, 2011). Hence, this degree programme followed an outcome-­ based education model5 from its inception to meet the demands of the accounting profession (Gunarathne et  al., 2019; Gunarathne & Alahakoon, 2016; Senaratne & Gunarathne, 2019) in the context of the liberalised economic policies introduced in 1977 and the resulting expansion in the private sector (Fonseka et  al., 2019). Thus, it has been offered as an academic degree with a professional orientation containing several salient features: (a) a 2-year accounting and finance-related internship programme, (b) accounting courses embedded with information technology, (c) English-based business communication skills, and (d) English medium of instruction. These features were mostly uncommon in the university education system of the country in the early 1990s (Gunarathne et  al., 2021; Senaratne & Gunarathne, 2019). These salient features, which were introduced in the beginning, have been improved and maintained at the degree programme, and presently, it adopts a whole-person development approach in its curriculum development, which is in line with the stakeholders’ expectations and the requirements of the Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework, the Subject Benchmark Statement on Accounting of the University Grants Commission, and the international educational standards of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) (Gunarathne et  al., 2019). A notable feature is that this accounting degree programme has been proactive in meeting the changing expectations of the stakeholders. Among these proactive changes, the introduction of areas such as sustainable development and sustainability reporting into the degree curricula (Gunarathne & A model where learning outcomes guide what is taught and assessed (Spady and Marshall 1991) 5 

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Rajasooriya, 2020) from early 2000 is an important dimension; at the time, these areas were not considered in accounting degrees in Sri Lanka. Since then, the curriculum of the degree programme has been continuously revised to respond to the new developments in corporate sustainability accounting and reporting and environment management accounting, and these changes have also been supported with the use of appropriate teaching, learning, and assessment methods, which is elaborated in the following section.

2.4 Incorporation of SDGs into Curriculum of Accounting Programme This section explains the degree programme’s approach of incorporating the sustainability concept into the accounting courses in the degree curriculum. The coverage of sustainability in these courses will be described along with learning and assessment activities in the subsequent sections.

2.4.1 Coverage The concepts of sustainability (or aspects of the SDGs) are principally incorporated into the curriculum of the accounting degree programme under three main dimensions: (a) external reporting dimension, (b) management accounting dimension, and (c) governance and ethics and research dimension.

2.4.1.1 Incorporation of Sustainability under External Reporting Dimension Initially, some aspects of sustainability were embedded under the ‘external reporting’ dimension through the Advanced Financial Accounting and Reporting course of the degree programme as a specific topic in the year 2000 (see Table 2.1). Advanced Financial Accounting and Reporting was a compulsory core course for all accounting degree students. The focus and scope of this topic had gradually expanded in order to suit the new

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24 Table 2.1  Incorporation of sustainability concept into curriculum: External reporting dimension Period 2000 to 2002 2003 to 2006

Course and status Advanced Financial Accounting and Reporting (compulsory core course)

2007 to 2012

Financial Reporting (compulsory core course)

Topic Preparation of additional reports New trends in financial reporting and future directions Corporate social responsibility reporting

Contemporary issues in financial reporting and future directions Separate module – ‘Corporate social responsibility reporting’

2013 to 2016

2017 to date

Corporate Reporting (compulsory core course)

Separate module – ‘Corporate sustainability and integrated reporting’

2009 to 2017

Advanced Accounting Theory (compulsory core course)

Extended systems of accounting – Incorporation of social and environmental factors within external reporting

2018 onwards

System-oriented theories

Coverage Social reporting Sustainable development Sustainability reporting and GRI guidelines Sustainable development Sustainability reporting and GRI guidelines AccountAbility standards on sustainability assurance Growing emphasis on climatic reporting Business reporting models

Sustainable development Sustainability reporting and GRI guidelines/ standards and assurance on sustainability reporting Integrated reporting and International Integrated reporting Framework (IIRF) Application of sustainability and integrated reporting in a Sri Lankan company – a session conducted by the industry experts Corporate social responsibility and reporting requirements Sustainable development, UN Global Compact Principles, and SDGs Sustainability reporting and GRI standards Assurance on sustainability reporting with ISAE 3000 and ‘AccountAbility’ standards Integrated reporting and IIRF Application of sustainability and integrated reporting in a Sri Lankan company – a session conducted by the industry experts Organisations’ accountability Different non-financial reporting practices [e.g. social reporting, GRI and IR, etc.] to emphasise the practical application of system-oriented theories such as legitimacy, stakeholder and institutional theories discussed in the previous sessions Application of system-oriented theories (legitimacy, stakeholder, and institutional) is discussed in relation to voluntary reporting practices such as sustainability reporting and integrated reporting

Source: Department of Accounting records (syllabi books and course specifications)

developments in sustainability reporting about the generally accepted guidelines such as Global Reporting Framework (GRI) guidelines/standards and AccountAbility standards, as well as in relation to reporting on the SDGs and integrated

reporting. This gradual expansion also reflects the extensive importance placed on the sustainability dimension in the degree programme’s financial accounting and reporting courses. More specifically, sustainability reporting aspects had

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been initially introduced as an entirely separate topic under ‘additional corporate reports/new developments in accounting’. Later, these were expanded into a separate module under the Financial Reporting/Corporate Reporting courses. Along with these developments, the Financial Reporting course has been retitled as Corporate Reporting since 2017 to represent the essence of its coverage. While this gradual evolution in the Financial Reporting and Corporate Reporting courses has taken place, an expansion in the focus on sustainability had already occurred in other courses of study. For example, a sustainability focus was incorporated into the Advanced Accounting Theory course in 2009. This included a discussion on the extended systems of corporate reporting by incorporating social and environmental factors and related theories such as legitimacy, stakeholder, and institutional. However, this topic was refocused in the Advanced Accounting Theory course to create and emphasise the theories providing a basis for voluntary reporting practices, such as sustainability and integrated reporting, from 2017. This is mainly because these reporting practices are comprehensively discussed under the Corporate Reporting course.

2.4.1.2 Incorporation of Sustainability under Management Accounting Dimension In the degree programme, the sustainability concept was incorporated into the curriculum under the ‘management accounting’ dimension to emphasise the importance of sustainability management accounting and its related internal practices. As given in Table 2.2, the initial concepts related to sustainability were discussed as an emerging issue titled ‘Harmonising with the environment: Environmental management accounting’ under the elective course entitled Contemporary Issues in Management Accounting in 2009. Following that, in the new curriculum revision of the accounting degree, a new elective course, Sustainability Management Accounting, was introduced in 2013 to broadly discuss the different aspects of sustainability management

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accounting. This course was designed by following a pragmatic approach with many practical-­ oriented learning and assessment items (see the next section for more details). Later, it was renamed as Corporate Sustainability Accounting in 2017, and it was offered as an elective course, thereby allowing students to further specialise in this area. In order to disseminate the core knowledge on sustainability management accounting to students who do not follow this elective course, a separate topic was included in the two compulsory courses, Advanced Management Accounting and Strategic Management Accounting, since 2013. In the current curriculum revision, which is to be implemented from September 2021, a notable change has been the introduction of Corporate Sustainability Accounting as a compulsory course along with other core courses such as Advanced Accounting Theory, Corporate Reporting, and Corporate Governance and Ethics that focus on sustainability. This change to the syllabus has been made to reflect the increasing importance of internal sustainability processes and related accounting and control aspects for the accountants.

2.4.1.3 Incorporation of Sustainability under Governance and Ethics and Research Dimension In addition to the two main dimensions mentioned above, the inclusion of sustainability aspects into the degree programme has occurred by means of ‘Corporate Governance and Ethics’ (see Table 2.3). It highlights how sustainability is embraced within corporate governance and emphasises on environmental and social considerations in business ethics. Furthermore, the students have the option to conduct their final year research project on an area relating to sustainability. Hence, the knowledge gained on the sustainability aspects through the courses taught in accounting is regularly utilised, when students engage in the compulsory research study (i.e. Research Report in Accounting) as an integral component of the degree programme in the final year. The research project has been made compulsory from 2018.

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Table 2.2  Incorporation of sustainability concept into curriculumCurricula: Management accounting dimension Period 2009 to 2016

Course and status Contemporary Issues in Management Accounting (elective course)

Topic Harmonising with environment: Environmental management accounting

2013 to 2017

Sustainability Management Accounting (elective course)

New developments in management accounting for sustainability

Environmental management accounting (EMA)

Accounting for the social dimension in sustainability

Integration of three pillars of sustainability Frameworks available for reporting sustainability

Sustainability management accounting theory

2017 to date

Corporate Sustainability Accounting (elective course)

Sustainability management accounting: A Sri Lankan perspective in the global setting All topics taught under ‘Sustainability Management Accounting’ course

Coverage Critical issues in environmental management accounting Methods to overcome those critical issues Techniques for environmental management accounting Need for sustainability management accounting Corporate sustainability Sustainable business Triple bottom line movement Sustainability triangle SDGs Scope, applications, drivers, benefits and roadblocks Environmental costs Energy and materials accounting Capital budgeting analysis Accounting for ecological, carbon, and water foot-printing Life cycle analysis/assessment (ISO 14040 series) Environmental audit (environmental impact assessment) Material flow cost accounting (ISO 14051) and waste management Activity-based costing Design for sustainability EMA and cleaner production Social accounting and social management accounting Social audit Socially responsible investing (SRI) Social return on investment (SROI) Sustainability balanced scorecard (SBS) Addressing the economic bottom line The role of an accountant in sustainability ISO 14000, 19011, 22000, 26000, and 50001 standards Sustainability reporting based on GRI guidelines AA1000 stakeholder engagement standard SA 8000 standard Integrated reporting Importance of having theoretical frameworks Institutional theory, stakeholder theory, and legitimacy theory Global scene and the Sri Lankan status

All areas covered under ‘Sustainability Management Accounting’ course

(continued)

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Table 2.2 (continued) Period

Course and status

Topic Emerging themes in corporate sustainability

Coverage Sustainable supply chain management Sustainability assurance Sustainability risk management

2013 to date

Advanced Management Accounting (compulsory core course) Strategic Management Accounting (compulsory core course)

Introduction to sustainability management accounting

Core areas of sustainability management accounting

Sustainability management accounting

Different corporate sustainability strategies Corporate-level sustainability strategy implementation Accounting information uses in support of corporate sustainability strategies Different ways of integrating sustainability into corporate management and performance measurement

2013 to date

Source: Department of Accounting records (syllabi books and course specifications) Table 2.3  Incorporation of sustainability concept into curriculum: Governance and ethics dimension Period 2017 to date

Course and status Corporate Governance and Ethics (compulsory core course)

Topic Corporate social responsibility and sustainability

Coverage Changing expectations in corporate governance The impact of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development leading towards integrated corporate governance systems Environmental and social considerations in business ethics

Source: Department of Accounting records (syllabi books and course specifications)

2.4.2 Learning Activities The courses mentioned above use a variety of teaching and learning activities. They include interactive lectures sessions, tutorials and workshops, field visits, guest sessions by practitioners, group-based discussions, role plays, and presentations. In addition to these standard activities, teaching and learning processes within these courses are further nurtured through the special learning activities presented in Table 2.4.

2.4.3 Assessment Activities The assessments of the sustainability-related aspects of the courses are carried out continu-

ously and at the end of the semester. Usually, a practice-based assignment (such as examining the adoption of integrated reporting and the SDGs in Sri Lankan public-listed companies) under the Corporate Reporting course and a case study development under the Corporate Sustainability Accounting course is given as the continuous assessment. Further, the sustainability aspects are tested at the end semester examinations through case study-based questions under Corporate Reporting, Advanced Accounting Theory, and Corporate Sustainability Accounting courses. Table  2.5 presents the continuous assessments given on the sustainability aspects.

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28 Table 2.4  Learning activities Course Sustainability Management Accounting/Corporate Sustainability Accounting Sustainability Management Accounting

Period 2013 to date 2014

2015

Financial Reporting

2013 to 2017

Corporate Reporting

2017 to date

Advanced Accounting Theory

2017 to date

Activity Conducting field visits to sustainability-oriented organisations Illustrating case studies on different aspects of sustainability management accounting during the lectures Special activities (Conducted as one-off activities) Organising a sustainability forum with the participation of industry practitioners Publishing the Journal of accounting panorama (the students’ journal of the Department of Accounting) first volume on the topic ‘Cases in sustainability management accounting – Sri Lanka’ Preparing a documentary video on ‘Waste undertakers – The story of waste management in Sri Lanka’ Publishing a book on the topic an Accountant’s approach for energy efficient practices – with special emphasis on SMEs and households Publishing a book on Environmental management accounting guidelines for Sri Lankan enterprises (sponsored by the Institute of Certified Management Accountants [CMA], Sri Lanka) Organising the Environmental and Sustainability Management Accounting Network (EMAN) research conference Conducting a waste management project at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura Publishing a book Environmental management accounting in Sri Lankan Enterprises Conducting a consultation on Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) for a leading apparel manufacturing organisation Conducting workshops on the topics ‘sustainability accounting and reporting’ and ‘moving towards integrated reporting’ of Sri Lankan companies in collaboration with industry practitioners Illustrating case studies and research outcomes on sustainability and integrated reporting practices during the lectures Special activities (Conducted as one-off activities) Conducting workshops on the practical application of sustainability reporting, integrated reporting, and reporting on the UN SDGs of Sri Lankan companies in collaboration with industry practitioners Workshop on the application of system-oriented theories on accounting practices, which include areas relating to sustainability accounting and reporting

Table 2.5  Continuous assessment Period 2013 to date

2013 to 2017 2017 to date

Course Sustainability Management Accounting/ Corporate Sustainability Accounting Financial Reporting

Corporate Reporting

Continuous assessment Group assignment is given to developing a case study based on a sustainability-­accounting aspect of an organisation. Usually, students visit an organisation, observe their sustainability practices, and interview responsible personnel when developing the case study. Group assignment was given under the title ‘corporate reporting practices in Sri Lankan companies’, which allowed some groups to study either ‘sustainability accounting or reporting’ or ‘moving towards integrated reporting’. Group assignment is given under the theme ‘practical applications of ‘sustainability accounting and reporting, ‘integrated reporting of Sri Lankan companies’, or ‘reporting on SDGs’, where each group examined companies in a particular industry segmenta.

For example, during the academic year 2020, the students examined how the companies adopting integrated reporting have embraced SDGs in their business activities. In the academic year 2021, the students studied how Sri Lankan public-listed companies report on SDGs

a

2  Engagement with Sustainable Development Goals in Accounting Education: The Case of a Public…

2.5 Contribution of Degree Programme to SDGs The accounting degree programme contributes to the SDGs in several ways. Firstly, the 11th programme learning outcome of the accounting degree states ‘demonstrating an understanding of social and civic responsibilities, human rights and matters of sustainability’, which depicts its commitment to the SDGs. Secondly, the degree programme has had a long-standing focus on achieving the abovementioned programme learning outcome by incorporating the concepts of sustainability into its curriculum since 2000 through various courses. Thirdly, and more specifically, the SDGs are comprehensively discussed in the Corporate Sustainability Accounting and Corporate Reporting courses. In particular, the first learning outcome of the Corporate Sustainability Accounting course is dedicated to this purpose (i.e. to discuss the developments in accounting to support the SDGs). Furthermore, the third learning outcome of the Corporate Reporting course (i.e. to analyse and appraise the current practices adopted by companies in sustainability reporting and integrated reporting) is indirectly linked to the SDGs. In addition to these direct and explicit references, the degree programme contributes to several SDGs through these courses, as indicated in Table 2.6. The summary presented in Table 2.6 is further discussed as follows. SDG4: Ensure Quality Education This accounting degree programme aims to provide inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all its students through the subjects in the curriculum. All the courses that cover the sustainability aspects presented in Sect. 4 contribute to achieving Target 4.7 – ‘By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development’. The Corporate Sustainability Accounting course, in particular, plays a significant role in this respect. The structure of this course captures the broad concept of sustainable development. It emphasises what type of accounting and other internal practices

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should be followed by an organisation to achieve long-term sustainable development. As presented in Table  2.2, this course covers environmental and social dimensions of sustainability (the economic dimension is covered through many other courses such as macro and microeconomics) and the integrations of the three dimensions. Through this course and other related courses as presented in Tables 2.1 to 2.3, the students are given the opportunity to learn the aspects mentioned in Target 4.7 with the help of various pedagogical approaches, such as learner-centred approach, action-oriented learning, and transformative learning. SDG8: Promote Decent Work and Economic Growth The accounting degree programme directly contributes to sustainable economic growth and full-­ time productive employment by producing accounting graduates with appropriate knowledge and skills. In this direction, the degree programme offers a 2-year internship programme to produce highly employable graduates. This programme ensures that the students have practical exposure and improve employability while developing new skills related to sustainability. Besides, the sustainability concepts are taught through various courses as mentioned in previous sections and thereby creating a solid foundation for graduates to contribute to green growth through future employment. SDG9: Build Industry, Infrastructure, and Innovations As emphasised in the SDG9, the accounting degree programme focuses on promoting innovations through research and development to achieve inclusive and sustainable industrial development and strong infrastructure and innovation. Specifically, it contributes to achieving Target 9.5 – ‘enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities’. The knowledge gained through the courses such as Sustainability Management Accounting/Corporate Sustainability Accounting, Corporate Reporting, Advanced Accounting Theory, and Corporate Governance and Ethics inspires the students to

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30 Table 2.6  Accounting degree programme’s contribution to SDGs SDG# Aim 4 Ensure quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities

Focused specific targets Target 4.5 – ‘Ensure equal access to all levels of education’ Target 4.7 – ‘Ensure that all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development’

8

9

Promote sustainable economic growth, productive employment, and decent work Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation

12

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

13

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts Promote peaceful and inclusive societies and build accountable and inclusive institutions

16

Target 9.5 – ‘Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors, particularly in developing countries’. Target 12.6 – ‘Encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle’ Target 12.8 – ‘Ensure that people have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development’ Target 13.3 – ‘Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change’. Target 16.5 – ‘Reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms’ Target 16.6 – ‘Develop accountable and transparent institutions’ Target 16.7 – ‘Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels’

Relevant courses • Sustainability Management Accounting/Corporate Sustainability Accounting • Corporate Reporting • Corporate Governance and Ethics • Sustainability Management Accounting/Corporate Sustainability Accounting • Internship Programmea • Sustainability Management Accounting/Corporate Sustainability Accounting • Research Report in Accounting • Sustainability Management Accounting/Corporate Sustainability Accounting • Corporate Reporting

• Sustainability Management Accounting/Corporate Sustainability Accounting • Corporate Governance and Ethics

The degree programme offers a 2-year internship programme in accounting and finance with the purpose of producing employable graduates by enhancing their accounting and financial management skills, management and personal capacity skills, and communication skills

a

investigate research issues related to sustainability in the final year’s mandatory research project. As shown in Fig.  2.1, a gradual increase in sustainability-­related research conducted by the accounting students of this degree programme is observed. The research studies have covered an array of aspects such as sustainability reporting, environmental management accounting, and waste management. These studies eventually provide innovative solutions from an accounting perspective for the identified sustainability issues while developing the graduates’ skills and attitudes. In addition to these research studies, students have engaged in several publications related to

sustainability concept, as presented in Table 2.4 (such as ‘Cases in sustainability management accounting  – Sri Lanka’, ‘An accountant’s approach for energy-efficient practices  – with special emphasis on SMEs and households’, and ‘Environmental management accounting in Sri Lankan enterprises’). These publications have been carried out under the Sustainability Management Accounting course, and in due course, they help generate new knowledge on sustainability aspects for students and ­practitioners. Further, in 2015, the students who followed the Sustainability Management Accounting course engaged in an assignment on managing waste in one of Sri Lanka’s leading

2  Engagement with Sustainable Development Goals in Accounting Education: The Case of a Public… Fig. 2.1 Sustainability-­ related undergraduate research

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40% 31%

20%

0%

21%

2018

apparel companies by introducing the material flow cost accounting technique. This kind of academic and industry collaboration paves the way for sustainable industrialisation. The outcomes of the sustainability-related research projects conducted by the academic staff members are incorporated into the curriculum through relevant courses. For instance, the outcomes of integrated reporting-related research studies are discussed in the Corporate Reporting course. Similarly, the results of studies related to environmental management accounting are integrated into the Corporate Sustainability Accounting course. The research outcomes disseminate the knowledge on sustainability innovations to students, which inspires the students to focus on the sustainability concept. SDG12: Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Sustainable consumption and production have been identified as one of the three main objectives of, and vital requirements for, sustainable development, as per the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), 2002). This was recognised as the SDG12  in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN-DESA, 2021). The accounting degree attempts to contribute to fulfilling this goal through two targets: Target 12.6 ‘encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices and integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle’ and Target 12.8 ‘ensure that people everywhere have the rele-

25%

2019

2020

vant information and awareness for sustainable’. Notably, the students are taught waste management, life cycle costing, and other environmental management accounting practices under the Sustainability Management Accounting/Corporate Sustainability Accounting courses. Further, the physical and monetary information of different sustainability practices/aspects and their management techniques are extensively discussed in the above course. In addition, the reporting aspect of sustainability in an organisation is comprehensively covered through the Corporate Reporting course. As accounting students of this degree programme mainly gain employment in the corporate sector, they can effectively contribute to the accomplishment of the SDGs in these organisations with a firm foundation they receive beforehand. SDG13: Take Action to Combat Climate Change The developing countries suffer the harshest blows of climate change. These countries have a lesser ability to cope with the anticipated shocks to their social, economic, and natural systems (UN-DESA, 2021). As a developing country, Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (Gunarathne et al., 2020). Therefore, understanding the importance of climate change as per the Sri Lankan context, the accounting degree programme attempts to mitigate climate change through education and awareness-raising.

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Specifically, it focuses on achieving Target 13.3 – ‘improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning’. The impact of climate change and the remedial actions employing environmental management accounting techniques are comprehensively discussed throughout the Corporate Sustainability Accounting course. Apart from what is taught in class, students are encouraged to watch the relevant video clips/movies and read case studies. Moreover, through the field visits, the students who follow this course have the opportunity to understand the actions undertaken by the companies to mitigate climate change. Further, the students can identify these actions with the assignments they carry out under this course. In addition to this, the students are exposed to reporting aspects of climate mitigation strategies when companies present their case studies in the workshops organised as part of the Corporate Reporting course.

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making when they achieve top positions in organisations in the future.

2.6 Challenges Encountered As explained in the previous sections, the accounting degree programme contributes to the sustainable development agenda by equipping the next generation of accountants with the skills, knowledge, and understanding necessary to address sustainability challenges and opportunities (Ahmadein, 2019). However, the pursuance of teaching, learning, and assessment activities described above has encountered several challenges throughout the process. These significant challenges are described below.

2.6.1 Inadequate Institutional Support

As per the strategic plan of 2017–2021, the University of Sri Jayewardenepura has shown its SDG16: Promote Peaceful, Just, and Strong commitment to sustainable development and the Institutions 17 SDGs. Accordingly, its mission statement While the SDG16 has many aspects to consider includes ‘developing globally competent citizens through the courses discussed above, the account- through our education for a sustainable future, ing degree mainly focuses on three elements: drawing inspirations from our cultural heritage reduction of corruption and bribery (Target 16.5); and wisdom’. It has focused on the 3Ps (people, development of effective, accountable, and trans- planet, and prosperity) in utilising education for parent institutions (Target 16.6); and ensuring the sake of a sustainable future along with strateresponsive, inclusive, and representative gic goals. Even though it reflects the university decision-­making (Target 16.7). In this respect, and its higher-level administration’s interest in the Corporate Governance and Ethics course achieving sustainable development, its methods plays a crucial role. This course has been com- of translating these interests into operational pulsory for all the students in the degree pro- activities are questionable. In particular, when gramme, as governance and ethics are essential introducing a novel course, such as Corporate for future accountants throughout their careers. Sustainability Accounting, limited support was The ethics component taught in this course helps received from the academic staff members due to to inculcate the right values and attitudes in the their lack of interest in and awareness of the substudents. It also helps to safeguard their profes- ject matter. The Corporate Sustainability sional conduct by avoiding corruption and brib- Accounting course, an elective in the current curery. The corporate governance component riculum, has not been offered by the department teaches the students to develop accountable and in certain years. This is due to limited staff availtransparent organisations when they start work- ability and reduced student demand. Despite the ing. Furthermore, the appropriate knowledge on contemporary importance of this subject, higher corporate governance assists in better decision-­ administration and some staff members have

2  Engagement with Sustainable Development Goals in Accounting Education: The Case of a Public…

shown less interest in offering the subject and convincing the students of its significance. This highlights that even though the higher-level university administration is committed to achieving sustainability, some staff members are reluctant to implement these strategies (Bellou et al., 2017; Filho et al., 2017). Furthermore, some of the courses’ teaching, research, and development activities focusing on sustainability have not been well supported by some academic members in the department. Therefore, the introduction of course contents on sustainability to the degree programme has been driven by a few staff members’ interest and commitment, without adequate institutional support.

2.6.2 Lack of Awareness and Excessive Workload According to Ahmadein (2019), this is another critical issue when incorporating the concept of sustainability and the SDGs into the degree curriculum. In the Department of Accounting, a lack of awareness has been noted among academic members and students. In particular, only a few academicians are interested in sustainable development and the related concepts and their relevance to the accounting discipline. These members have always endeavoured to integrate these concepts and contemporary developments into their teaching and research activities. However, a majority of the academic staff have inadequate knowledge and are less enthusiastic about the SDGs, their potential benefits, and their role in the accounting discipline. In addition, most of the staff members are overburdened with the workload of the traditional accounting courses. Therefore, they not only pay limited attention to embed sustainability aspects or the SDGs in the courses they teach but also resist the initiatives of other staff members. On the other hand, there is a lack of interest and awareness among the department students, leading to fewer students opting for these elective subjects. Due to the novel teaching, learning, and

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assessment activities in the courses like Corporate Sustainability Accounting, the students have exhibited reluctance to select these subjects from the elective subject list. Instead, they usually opt for subjects that offer traditional accounting knowledge in a conventional classroom setting, with less demanding assessment requirements. This can also be attributed to these accounting students having to undergo training while reading for their degrees. Although workplace exposure acts as a drive for selecting these subjects, they often ignore it to choose a relatively easy path for completing the degree. Further, the excessive workload of traditional courses and practical training hinders the students from following these contemporary courses.

2.6.3 Lack of Training and Development Opportunities Another limitation closely associated with the two factors discussed above is the lack of training and development opportunities for the staff members regarding the contemporary developments in sustainability agenda and sustainability education. Despite the global developments in the subject and the inclusion of the SDGs in the strategic plan, the university has provided only a few training opportunities to increase the awareness of sustainable development among the staff. For instance, only a handful of workshops on the concept of sustainability has been conducted as a part of the faculty staff development programme in the last few years. Furthermore, there has been scant discussion in these workshops on the importance of incorporating the SDGs into the degree curriculum and the role of universities in contributing to sustainable development. Specifically, these aspects have not been considered while developing the learning outcomes of different degree programmes. Instead, the academics, who are interested in these aspects, tend to follow free online courses offered by the institutes such as SDG Academy.

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2.6.4 Inadequate Financial Assistance As per the SDG9, research and development comprise a vital contribution to sustainable innovations. Since Sri Lanka is a developing country, the government allocates limited funds to research and development activities, owing to the other urgent priorities include health, infrastructure development, and housing (Gunarathne et al., 2020). On the other hand, the academics in the management studies field have a lesser chance of receiving funds from the international funding bodies or government institutions (such as the National Research Council or National Science Foundation), as they generally prefer scientific projects focused on medical or applied science fields. Therefore, there is less funding available for research and development activities in the social science aspects of sustainable development. Even though the academic staff members of the Department of Accounting have the opportunity to obtain research grants through the university’s research council, the amount of those funds is usually inadequate for conducting large-scale research projects. Due to the insufficient relationship between public universities and the private sector, no proper mechanism has yet been developed to receive funds from the private sector for research activities. Although the Department of Accounting obtained financial assistance from several professional accounting bodies for some research publications, no private sector organisation has provided funds for major research projects. This inhibits academic staff members’ opportunities in the accounting field for conducting research and development activities that would develop new knowledge that would benefit students and the industry.

2.6.5 Insufficient Interdisciplinary Focus of the Degree Programme ESD could be promoted through an interdisciplinary collaboration (Chiotha et al., 2019). Since

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sustainable development calls for going beyond disciplinary boundaries to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge in order to construct a common dialogue, ESD should also provide students with interdisciplinary knowledge (Lamberton, 2005). However, it is often suggested that management education has followed a disciplinary focus, thereby making students unaware of the details of operational processes (Gunarathne & Alahakoon, 2017). The same phenomenon is evident in some courses of the degree programme (such as Corporate Sustainability Accounting and Corporate Reporting) that emphasise the importance of sustainability aspects mainly from an accounting viewpoint. Accordingly, fewer attempts have been made to integrate the interdisciplinary sustainability perspectives into the design and pedagogy of these courses with the help of relevant academics in the non-accounting fields (such as environmental science and agriculture). While this is mainly attributable to the rigid disciplinary nature of the management degree programmes at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, it also reflects a lack of interdepartmental or interfaculty dialogue in managing education. The same limitation could be observed when the undergraduates of the department conduct research related to sustainability. As per the current university policies and regulations, only a supervisor from the department can be appointed when students engage in an undergraduate research project. Yet, proper procedures and systems have not been developed to get the supervision of non-accounting academics for the research topics such as waste management, climate change reporting, cleaner production, and circular economy, which require significant knowledge inputs from other disciplines. Consequently, this discourages accounting undergraduates from engaging in interdisciplinary research in the short run. In the long run, it also fosters siloed thinking when these graduates become professional accountants at their places of work. It then becomes a source of limited coordination at workplaces between the accounting department and other departments that engage in sustainability practices (Burritt, 2004).

2  Engagement with Sustainable Development Goals in Accounting Education: The Case of a Public…

2.7 Conclusions and the Way Forward This chapter presented how a public university in Sri Lanka engages with the SDGs in its undergraduate-­ level accounting degree programme through accounting-related courses. It also demonstrated how this degree programme has gradually introduced the concepts of sustainability (or the aspects of the SDGs) into the curriculum through external reporting, management accounting, and governance and ethics dimensions. Over two decades, the degree programme has gradually increased the coverage of sustainability as well as the growing developments in the sustainability agenda. This increased coverage has been accompanied by various teaching, learning, and assessment activities. With these educational interventions, the degree programme has directly contributed to the achievements of several SDGs, such as SDG4 (ensuring quality education), SDG8 (promoting decent work and economic growth), SDG9 (building industry, infrastructure, and innovations), SDG12 (ensuring sustainable consumption and production), SDG13 (taking action to combat climate change), and SDG16 (promoting peaceful, just, and strong institutions). Additionally, the challenges encountered by the educators of this degree programme in these interventions include inadequate institutional support, lack of awareness and interest of students and staff members, lack of training opportunities, limited financial support, and the insufficient interdisciplinary focus of the degree programme highlight two aspects. First, they show that the changes made to the education system in developing countries such as Sri Lanka are driven by interested individuals without systematic policy-level interventions. Second, these challenges further resonate with the need for urgent and comprehensive educational reforms at the higher education institutions of developing countries, in particular for sustainability education. Since the countries similar to Sri Lanka face the most significant sustainability-related challenges, educational reforms in all the disciplinary areas are essential to leapfrog the unsustainable

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pathways that developed countries previously followed in their pursuits of development.

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2  Engagement with Sustainable Development Goals in Accounting Education: The Case of a Public… Senaratne, S. & Cooray, M. (2012b). The case of the absence of a graduate accounting profession in Sri Lanka. Accounting Education Special Interest Group (SIG5) Symposium, the Accounting and Finance Australian and New Zealand Conference. Senaratne, S., & Gunarathne, A. D. N. (2017). Excellence perspective for management education from a global accountants’ hub in Asia. In N.  Baporikar (Ed.), Management education for global leadership (pp. 158–180). IGI Global. Senaratne, S., & Gunarathne, A. D. N. (2019). Outcome-­ based education (OBE) in accounting in Sri Lanka: Insights for teacher education. In R. Setty, R. Iyengar, M. Witenstein, E. Byker, & H. Kidwai (Eds.), Teaching and teacher education. South Asian education policy, research, and practice (pp. 23–47). Palgrave Macmillan. Senaratne, S., Gunarathne, N., Herath, R., Samudrage, D., & Cooray, T. (2022). Institutional pressures and responses to the introduction of integrated reporting into accounting curricula: the case of Sri Lankan universities. Accounting Education, 1–31. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/09639284.2022.2032775 Spady, W.  D., & Marshall, K.  G. (1991). Beyond Traditional Outcomes-Based Education. Educational Leadership, 49, 67–72. UN. (2021). Outcomes and frameworks. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/outcomedocuments/ agenda21. Accessed 19 Sept 2021. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA). (2021). Key topics. https://sdgs.un.org/ topics. Accessed 25 May 2021. UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2014). Joint Proposal of the EFA Steering Committee on Education Post-2015. https://unesdoc. unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000227658. Accessed 19 Sept 2020. UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2017). Education for sustainable development goals- learning objectives. Paris, France. University Grants Commission (UGC) of Sri Lanka. (2020). Universities and higher educational insti-

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(Un)Sustainable Development in Poland’s Teacher Education Programme: Experiences from a Post-communist Country Joanna Leek, Renata Góralska, and Malgorzata Kosiorek

Abstract

As the most important document concerning the education and development of teachers in Poland, the latest teacher education programme is expected to reflect and implement an ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) perspective by building necessary knowledge, skills, and competencies among Polish teachers. This chapter focuses on the presence of the ESD perspective in the latest teacher education programme of higher education in Poland through an evaluative case study. The first section of the chapter introduces the historical background and contextual basis of ESD and focuses on the sociopolitical aspects of education in Poland and the methodology adopted to evaluate this case. Drawing upon the findings, the second section illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of the current teacher education programme in terms of the prerequisite knowledge, skills, and competencies of pre-service teachers. This evaluative case study suggests that despite the sociopolitical changes and the transition from a communist country to a democratic state in

J. Leek (*) · R. Góralska · M. Kosiorek University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

the 1990s, the ESD perspective has not been adequately prioritised to facilitate the preparation of teachers in higher education programmes in Poland. The programme was found to put more emphasis on ethical rules for teachers’ on-site work, skills like interpersonal communication, and conflict resolution rather than competencies related to autonomous, independent decision-making and critical assessment of one’s own actions. This may stem from the fact that the Polish schools function in unique sociopolitical conditions that limit the autonomy and independence of teachers, which contributes to their unsustainable development.

3.1 Introduction Different discussions have taken place, and different demands been made with regard to alternative courses of action that would lead to rapid attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the implementation of UNESCO’s (2016) Global Action Programme (GAP) for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). One of them advocates challenging higher education institutions to engage with policymakers to promote the integration of the SDGs and ESD into current educational policies to adopt more comprehensive approaches and to contribute to capacity building among educators and trainers.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_3

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While research on higher education for sustainable development has intensified significantly in recent years, there are apparently still no studies on how the SDGs and ESD have been incorporated into teacher education within higher education in European post-communist countries like Poland. Sustainable development as a term was first used in the 1970s during the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm (Heinberg, 2007; Kirsch, 2010) and referred to human practices that are reputed to be more environmentally friendly and supportive. In the 1980s, taking the definition proposed by the Brundtland Commission (Brundtland, 1987), the understanding of sustainable development was extended to cover social and economic challenges (Wolff & Ehrström, 2020). Later, the comprehensive global action plan known as Agenda 21 raised expectations about actually achieving sustainable development by including wider aspects of human activity, thus making every person individually responsible for the world (UN, 2015; McCowan, 2019; Menton et al., 2020). With the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda, a universally applied vision was adopted to protect the planet and humanity (UNESCO, 2015), and education was given a critical role to promote the SDGs. In educational settings, the idea of sustainable development refers to school curricula; new competencies, such as self-knowledge; learning how to achieve both physical and mental well-being; and ways to better understand the natural ­environment (Bałachowicz, 2016). In the area of practice, it is claimed that on-site activities should sensitise people to diversity and, in consequence, different ways of perceiving the world (Jarkiewicz, 2019). In other words, learning to live in a sustainable way means developing a reflective approach to life, building a value system, and developing intra- and interpersonal competencies including (1) to understand the self and the world around, (2) to develop one’s own value system and lifelong learning skills, and (3) to understand others through empathy, cooperation, and civic competencies (Griffiths, 2020).

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For this evaluative study, we distinguished the “hard” and “soft” dimensions of sustainable development. The “hard” dimension includes socio-economic issues, natural resources, and the environmental and economic dimension of living with others, while the “soft” dimension includes interpersonal relations, care for the environment, and care for others. Looking closer at the “soft” dimension, we focused on the 2030 Agenda, with its main commitment to support the protection of human rights; universal access to quality education at all levels; respect for race, ethnicity, and cultural diversity; and equal opportunities permitting the full realisation of human potential and contributing to shared prosperity (2030). In our understanding, this educational goal supports a comprehensive area of education and training and is crucial for the discussion on sustainable development in the context of teacher education. Poland has several special features that make this country relevant to this study. The first one stems from the fact that during the communist era the teacher education system was subjected to heavy conditioning by communism and communist ideologies. Starting with the Solidarity movement in the 1980s, teacher education in Poland followed global changes and internationally significant issues. On the other hand, the legacy of the authoritarian political system required decisive remedial actions and set new goals for the education policy in the form of new programmes and organisational concepts. One of the priorities was to introduce reforms for the whole education system including teacher education (Regulation, 2019). Secondly, certain changes, guidelines, and so-called teacher education standards implemented from 1990 to 2020 were superficial. Poland, as a post-communist state, did not cope well with the challenges of the emergent democracy of the 1990s, and even to this day, most decisions in the field of education are made top-down (from the level of the Ministry of Education, in the same way as under communism), which proves that even today centralisation and statism are still going strong in Poland. The rapid pace of disintegration of the authoritar-

3  (Un)Sustainable Development in Poland’s Teacher Education Programme: Experiences…

ian system in the 1990s and the transition to a new sociopolitical order brought hope for changes in education policy, but looking back over the past few decades, it should be stated that adjusting to the challenges of sustainable development in the field of education requires further reforms in Poland. When the idea of responsibility for humans and their living conditions was developing in the West from the 1970s onwards, Poland was under Soviet influence. Monocentric politics was not open to the new challenges that the Western world was announcing. Changes in the perception of sustainable development coincided with the sociopolitical changes in Poland in the 1990s. In our study, we aimed to present how current knowledge, skills, and competencies have been represented as elements of sustainable development in teacher education programmes of higher education (Rozporządzenie, 2003; 2019)  since the sociopolitical transformation that took place between 1990 and 2020  in Poland. The data source of our analysis was the latest teacher education programme (valid from 2019), which is the most important Polish document concerning teacher education and is intended to implement a sustainable development policy. We adopted the “soft” dimension, which is a humanistic vision of sustainable development formulated in the Brundtland (1987) report under the supervision of G. Harlem as “development that guarantees to meet the needs of present generations, without threatening the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Pawłowski, 2006, p.  23). In this understanding, sustainability mainly concerns the social and moral sphere of humans, including relations between people, generations living today and in the future, and man’s relationship with the environment. We believe that thus defined, this sustainable development has a deep pedagogical dimension because it affects not only care for the environment but also (or, rather, above all) care for the successful development of a human being (Holden et al., 2018; Campbell et al., 2019).

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3.2 Historical and Contextual Framework The idea of education for sustainable development in the Polish education system is linked to the reforms that took place after many years of functioning under the socialist system. Sustainability in educational settings has never been a priority in Polish educational policies. The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s were periods of dynamic global changes in Poland. The systemic transformations that started in 1989 presented the whole society with new challenges. On account of the political and social events taking place, civic society started to emerge. In social sciences, it is assumed that “the starting point for any discussion on civic society is the self-realised man, who is autonomous, approving, and seeks the approval of others. He takes part in economic, cultural, domestic, associative, and any other activity that emerges and develops in  local environments” (Sasinowski, 2012, p.  32). Similar categories are included in one of the documents drawn up by the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy (Strategy, 2009), which describes a civic society as a space for the activity of institutions, organisations, social groups, and individuals, extending to the family, the state, and the market. People freely engage in debates about values that constitute the common good and work together voluntarily to promote common interests. Civic society is made up of active citizens who think about the best interests of society, political relationships based on principles of equality, and social relationships based on trust and cooperation. The strategy adopted in 2009 clearly indicates changes that took place in Poland with regard to the perception of the relationship between the authorities and citizens. After more than 40 years of living under communism, people started talking about involved and active citizens sharing common interests and having a greater sense of responsibility for the good of the community. The process of Polish political transformation was also manifested significantly in the area of

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education, which experienced many years of crisis. It was not just that the infrastructure and facilities of educational institutions required fundamental reform but also that the level of education had to be raised. Moreover, the legacy of long years under communism had built up a strong ideologisation in didactic and educational terms (Kosiorek, 2020b). The situation demanded that decisive corrective action be taken to adjust the quality and forms of education to suit the changing economic environment and labour market. To confront these transformations, it was necessary to make brand new assumptions about education policy and, at the same time, develop fresh curricular and organisational concepts. Work along these lines started with the development of new school laws and a draft reform of the education system. The directions of the reforms proposed were to result in a considerable transformation of the education system, making it democratic and, most importantly, free from socialist ideology and politics. Changes indicating the emerging democracy in Poland were made by the Act of 7 September 1991 on the Educational System (The Act 1991). Its provisions included guarantees like increases in the autonomy of schools, permitting legally entitled private citizens the right to establish non-­ public institutions, the extension of social competencies of educational bodies, and the practice of competing for managerial positions. The education reform was introduced by the Act of 8 January 1999 on the provisions enacting the Education System Reform (Journal of Laws of 1999, no. 14, items 124–134). Thus, for the first time since 1968, the organisational structure of the education system (6-year primary school, 3-year lower secondary school, 3-year general secondary schools, 3–4-year vocational-technical schools, and 3-year basic vocational schools were introduced) was modified, and curricula, educational management and supervision, student assessment and examinations, and the system of teacher education, promotion, and remuneration were reformed. The reforms mainly concerned the change in the length of education levels (8-year primary school, 4-year secondary school, and 5-year technical secondary school

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were reinstated) and new types of schools (firstand second-degree vocational schools), and the system of external examinations was reinstated. An essential element was implementing a new core curriculum due to the demand for newly prepared textbooks introduced for individual subjects. As a result of the above changes, features related to sustainable development appeared in the educational process. Education reforms raised people’s expectations about the teaching profession. Key changes for this professional group were introduced by the 1999 reform, which provided for the so-called teacher promotion, education, and training system. From that moment, it was possible to change the professional and remuneration status by introducing four levels of teacher promotion: from a practice teacher to a contract teacher, then a nominated teacher, and finally, onwards to a certified teacher. The crowning of a teacher’s professional career is the title of Honorary Professor of Education granted by the Minister of Education upon the request of the Chapter of School Education Professors. In the Polish education system, the preparation of teachers is regulated by provisions called teacher education standards. They were first defined in the ordinance of the Ministry of Education and Sport of 23 September 2003. Since then, three new documents have been adopted, replacing previous ordinances passed in 2004, 2012, and 2019. It should be emphasised that subsequent documents contain more and more detailed learning outcomes, which entails a risk of limiting the teacher’s freedom because the more specific the directives are, the less space for the teacher’s initiative and freedom remains. Nevertheless, with the document from 2019, the idea of education for sustainable development began to be implemented in the professional preparation of teachers. Poland’s activities in caring for the quality of education and raising the level of teacher education are also in line with the assumptions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. SDG4, among other reasons for low-quality education, takes into account the lack of trained teachers, poor conditions in schools, and unequal

3  (Un)Sustainable Development in Poland’s Teacher Education Programme: Experiences…

access to schools for children from rural areas. It should be emphasised that all the elements mentioned above were the priority assumptions of the education system reforms carried out in Poland in the last 30 years. According to the Agenda forecasts, by 2030, it is planned to significantly increase the number of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation (The 2030 Agenda). In connection with the above, many activities are currently being undertaken in Poland to improve education, with particular attention being paid to the professional training of teachers. The teaching profession obliges one to be an expert in various areas, as it requires openness, innovation, and responsibility. A category related to the features mentioned above, which includes in-depth self-analysis, is awareness of acting in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. An element that facilitates the professional operation of teachers in the rapidly changing social, economic, and information reality is the idea of ​​key competencies, which are defined as tools that allow a person to understand the world, achieve specific goals, and interact well with others. Work on defining the canon of European key competencies was initiated at the meeting of the Council of Europe in 2000  in Lisbon. At that time, it was determined that it was necessary to formulate a framework defining the basic skills acquired in the process of lifelong learning (Recommendation, 2006). From the sustainable development perspective, it is important to develop knowledge and skills as well as personal, social, and civic competencies. These competencies are described in European or global reports and other political and educational documents (Future Work Skills, 2020) formulating educational objectives and are frequently referred to as key competencies. Catalogues of key competencies provided in the documents reflect social requirements and refer to competencies connected with broadly understood sustainable development (Góralska & Solarczyk-Szwec, 2012). On account of this, in order to find elements of sustainable development in teacher education programmes, we

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looked for personal (intrapersonal), social (interpersonal), and civic competencies in these documents (Kopińska & Solarczyk-Szwec, 2017). These competencies cover all kinds of behaviour that prepare one for full, effective, and constructive participation in social and professional life; they also prepare us to undertake activities related to building a democratic society. Basic skills with regard to personal and social competencies include a number of skills connected with the human emotional sphere, such as the ability to recognise, understand, and express emotions constructively; the ability to deal with stress and frustration; assertiveness; empathy; tolerance; and the ability to express and understand different points of view (Góralska & Madalińska-Michalak, 2017). These competencies are closely related to interpersonal skills: the ability to negotiate (engage in a dialogue) combined with the ability to create the atmosphere of trust and the understanding of generally accepted rules of conduct and rules of behaviour in working environments and societies. What is equally important is the awareness of basic terms concerning people, groups, professional organisations, gender equality and non-discrimination, society, and culture (Madalińska-Michalak & Góralska, 2012). Civic competencies are based on the knowledge of the notions of democracy, justice, tolerance, equality, citizenship, and civil rights, along with the way they are formulated in international documents and declarations and applied on local, regional, national, European, and international levels. Civic competencies also include knowledge of contemporary events, both in the context of a given country and in the context of European and world history. In this case, it is also important to know the aims, values, and policies followed by social and political movements. Skills related to civic competencies include the ability to effectively get involved in public activities and demonstrate solidarity and interest in solving problems faced by local and broader communities. These abilities include critical and creative reflection and the readiness to play a constructive role in  local and neighbourly activities and

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decision-­making processes on all levels: local, national, and European (Kopińska & Solarczyk-­ Szwec, 2017). Personal, social, and civic competencies are of great significance for sustainable development as they are manifested in respecting human rights, demonstrating tolerance as the basis for democracy and recognition and understanding of differences in the systems of values, of different religions and ethnic groups. These competencies also include civic engagement and activity for sustainable development (Recommendation, 2006).

3.3 Methodology In this chapter, we adopted an evaluative case student approach to the teacher training programme in Poland as proposed by Shallcross et al. (2006). Following Stake (1995), we treat our research as an instrumental case, playing a supplementary role aimed at understanding something more than the case itself, because, for Stake, the case illustrates a point that is significant from the perspective of the researcher. Our case study is the idea of education for the sustainable development of teachers included in the current school curriculum. This document describes in detail the effects of teacher education in terms of knowledge, skills, and competencies that should be acquired by people preparing for this professional role. The case here is the latest teacher education programme in Poland as a post-communist country and is evaluated with a focus on the ESD perspective with the knowledge, skills, and competencies for pre-service teachers. Through the following main research question, this research attempts to determine whether Polish teacher education standards include the elements of ESD and in which categories: Does the teacher education programme in Poland include elements of ESD (in terms of knowledge, skills, and social competencies), and what are they? Our research project and data interpretation focus on teacher education, while analyses are based on the study of the latest teacher education

programme. The object of analyses and, at the same time, the source of the data is the regulations of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MoSHE) on the standards of education for preparing teachers. The research is limited to learning outcomes in the teaching profession, omitting standards of education in the professions of a preschool and early school teacher, a special needs education teacher, and a school psychologist, which are discussed in the document separately. The authors conducted the research in January 2021. As the source of our study was the teacher education programme, we developed an original research tool that allowed us to address the research problem. For this reason, there was no need to use computer-aided data analysis tools as the authors analysed their analytical categories. We used them to search for indicators that were base to determine analytical categories, which we used to look for indicators of sustainable development in Polish teacher education standards. Analytical categories were divided into three areas (knowledge, skills, and competencies), per the division proposed in the training programme analysed. In each area (knowledge, skills, and competencies), we distinguished indicators referring to sustainable development, such as knowledge of ethical rules of conduct; knowledge of human and civil rights; knowledge of environmental protection; skills: how to cooperate; ­critical thinking; critical assessment of legal and political solutions; competencies pertaining to readiness to undertake actions aimed at environmental protection; readiness to undertake responsible actions aimed at the local environment; and readiness for political involvement.

3.4 Results Based on the methodological assumptions, the results exerted three major categories: knowledge, skills, and social competencies. Most of the learning outcomes were identified in the area of knowledge (five general and seven specific learning outcomes). The detailed list related to the knowledge area is presented in Table  3.1.

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Table 3.1  Learning outcomes referring to sustainable development in “knowledge” domaina Categories General learning outcomes

Specific learning outcomes

Learning outcomes referring to sustainable development with regard to knowledge In terms of knowledge, the graduate knows and understands:   Norms used in pedagogical activity   Issues of inclusive education and methods for applying the principle of inclusion   The legal basis of the education system necessary to correctly perform educational activities   The rights of children and people with disabilities   Processes of interpersonal and social communication as well as their regularities and disruptions In terms of knowledge, the graduate knows and understands:   The professional ethics of teachers; the teacher’s professional regulations: rights and obligations of teachers; the rules of legal responsibility of the carer, the teacher, and the educator; and responsibility for the health and safety of students)   Social behaviours and their conditions; the interpersonal situation; empathy; assertiveness; aggressive and submissive behaviour; attitudes, stereotypes, and prejudices; and ways of coping with them   Human communication in institutions, rules of cooperation, communication processes, barriers to communication, styles of communication between students and teachers, and different forms of communication − self-­presentation, active listening, non-verbal communication, emotional communication in the classroom, and communication in conflict situations   The issues of self-reflection and self-development: own resources in the work of a teacher – identification and development and individual strategies for coping with difficulties, stress, and teacher burnout   Psychological and pedagogical support at school – legal regulations, forms and rules of providing support in educational institutions, and the significance of cooperation between the student’s family and the school and between the school and the external environment   The issues of intra-school laws and educational and preventive activities   National and international regulations concerning human, children’s, and students’ rights and the rights of people with disabilities

Based on MoSHE regulations on educational standards for preparing teachers (Rozporządzenie, 2019)

a

Accordingly, learning outcomes concern knowledge of norms and rules of the educational practice and knowledge of legal aspects of the work of a teacher, and they refer to the issues of children’s rights both in local and international contexts. Educational aims in the area of knowledge also concern the professional ethics of teachers, their rights and obligations, knowledge of social behaviours, and interpersonal communication. There are also aims connected with the rules of cooperation and communication. The next category is skills. A detailed presentation of outcomes concerning this category can be found in Table 3.2. Learning outcomes referring to sustainable development in this area mostly concern the teacher’s skills and tools connected with work with students, i.e. organisation of teaching and educational work adjusted to the students’ abilities. It should be emphasised that this group also includes outcomes related to the area of communication with students and activi-

ties intended to prevent discrimination, aggression, and violence. Moreover, it covers outcomes concerning the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and mental health in particular. The last area we analysed included learning outcomes in the area of social competencies, described in detail in Table  3.3. Learning outcomes in this category refer to the readiness to follow ethical rules and norms and to build relationships based on respect and trust. Moreover, there are references to a significant teacher’s competency which is a reflection on one’s own professional development and the ability to cooperate and resolve conflicts in a dialogue. In response to the research problem concerning the presence of personal, social, and civic competencies connected with sustainable development in the education of teachers, we can say it is limited. However, there are some categories (indicators) related to knowledge, skills, and social competencies. It has to be emphasised that

J. Leek et al.

46 Table 3.2  Learning outcomes referring to sustainable development in “skills” domaina Categories General learning outcomes

Learning outcomes referring to sustainable development with regard to skills In terms of skills, the graduate is able to:   Properly select, create, and adjust to the diverse needs of students’ materials and means, including those related to information and communications technology   Work with children with special educational needs including children with adaptive problems connected with migration experiences, children from different cultural environments, and children with a limited knowledge of Polish   Organise in a responsible way the in-school and out-of-school work of students, respecting their right to rest

Specific learning outcomes

In terms of skills, the graduate is able to:   Communicate in an effective and conscious way   Communicate in conflict situations   Cope with stress and employ strategies for dealing with difficulties   Intervene in conflict situations (mediate) and crisis situations (provide crisis intervention   Work with teachers and specialists to improve their own skills and tools   Diagnose the student’s educational needs and design appropriate support   Select work methods and teaching means, including those connected with ICT, considering the diverse educational needs of students   Promote a healthy lifestyle among students including development and mental health (develop emotional resilience and conduct interpersonal training courses and courses for coping with stress and emotion management)   Act for the prevention of discrimination, aggression, and violence

Based on MoSHE regulations on educational standards for preparing teachers (Rozporządzenie, 2019)

a

Table 3.3  Learning outcomes referring to sustainable development in “social competencies” domaina

Categories General learning outcomes

Specific learning outcomes

Learning outcomes referring to sustainable development with regard to social competencies In terms of social competencies, the graduate is prepared to:   Follow universal ethical rules and norms in their professional activity, guided by respect for every person   Build relationships based on mutual trust between all educational and teaching entities   Communicate with people from different environments and in different emotional states, resolve conflicts in a dialogue, and create a good atmosphere for communication in the classroom and outside it   Cooperate for the good of students and the environment In terms of social competencies, the graduate is prepared to:   Self-reflect on their own professional development   Show empathy to students and provide them with support and help   Build a system of values, develop the ethical attitudes of students, and shape their communication competencies and cultural habits

Based on MoSHE regulations on educational standards for preparing teachers (Rozporządzenie, 2019)

a

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most indicators were found in the category of expected to find them in the area of social compeknowledge (five general and seven specific out- tencies that form the central assumption of human comes) and skills (three general and nine specific sustainable development. Detailed analysis indioutcomes). The least number of learning out- cated that the training programme only includes comes connected with sustainable development issues concerning ethical rules of conduct, interdefinitely refers to social competencies (four personal communication, cooperation between general and three specific outcomes). This dis- students and teachers, and the ability to resolve proportion between knowledge and skills and conflicts. However, it lacks competencies consocial competencies reflects the character of nected with autonomous and independent Polish education at all levels. This results in decision-­making and critical assessment of one’s teacher education which is mostly oriented own activities and practices with regard to the towards equipping teachers with extensive sys- political and legal system. A study by Karousiou tematic general knowledge (Nowak-­ et  al. (2019) showed that teachers’ professional Dziemianowicz, 2014). commitment, emotions, or autonomy are changing while being negotiated within the working environment. In the context of Poland, teacher 3.5 Discussion and Conclusion autonomy is not prioritised in pre-service ­training, so during their time at university, teachFirst of all, the very notion of “sustainable devel- ers do not have the opportunity to explore its opment” is not referred to directly in the docu- theoretical context or practical implications at ment. It also lacks the most characteristic and work. The lack of these aspects not only indicates significant notions and categories that are vital that teacher education programmes in Poland for sustainable development such as environmen- stem from behaviourism and are technological in tal protection, knowledge of human rights, the character, but omitting these important elements legal and political systems of Poland and the of teacher professionalism also means limiting European Union, and knowledge of democratic opportunities for teachers’ full development in decision-making processes on local, national, line with the idea of sustainable development: and European levels. Issues concerning the pro- critical thinking and autonomous activity. In contection of human rights, the ability to live and sequence, this may pose a risk to the freedom and work in a cultural environment, and the preven- autonomy of both educational institutions and tion of discrimination were identified to a small future teachers. In the theory of education and extent. The lack of any direct reference to sus- pedeutology in Poland, researchers frequently tainable development is particularly surprising in draw attention to the fact that the primacy of the context of the crucial role teachers play in the effectiveness and efficiency and the need for a process of transformation and implementation of perfect adjustment to the expectations of the sustainable development (Andić & Vorkapi, external world dominate in training programmes, 2017). Eslamian et  al. (2018), Korsun (2017), marginalising the possibility of providing condiand Reid and Horváthová (2016) state that tions for development and self-development. achieving sustainable development requires com- According to Nowak-Dziemianowicz, “these are petent teachers and that attention to improving the greatest problems of contemporary Polish the professional competencies of teachers is con- schools at all levels of education” (2014, p. 107). sidered a step towards their sustainable Thirdly, despite the many changes that have development. occurred in Poland over the last 30-plus years, Secondly, from the point of view of the main the Polish school still functions in specific sociothesis of the chapter, according to which indica- political conditions, in which the autonomy of tors of sustainable development of teachers are teachers is limited and their sustainable developpersonal, social, and civic competencies, we ment and civic involvement are rarely mentioned.

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Appeals to integrate ESD into national policies (e.g. UN Decade) at the same time emphasise the role of educators (UNESCO, 2014). Nevertheless, ESD is not yet included in most countries’ teacher education programmes and is often disregarded (Evans et al., 2017), as is the case with Poland. Education  – and particularly education for sustainable development (ESD)  – plays a central role in forming society’s capacity to address some of the most pressing challenges being faced today (Barth et al., 2016). Achieving the sustainable development of teachers requires adequate implementation of ESD within teacher training both in a university setting and in the workplace in the form of continuous professional development (Redman et al., 2018). Some of the key assumptions of the social and political transformation and education system reforms in Poland were decentralisation and socialisation of education. However, despite the changes introduced, educational institutions are still stuck in the centralised order (Kosiorek, 2020a). This is a consequence of many years of functioning in a socialist system. After more than 30 years of freedom, the decisions, activities, and attitudes of Poles are still marked by the “homo sovieticus” syndrome, the main characteristics of which were shaped by the communist system. Habits from the past, opportunism, avoiding responsibility, and such factors as hierarchisation or excessive bureaucracy are reflected in the present activities of educational authorities, which effectively limits the possibility of implementing the idea of sustainable development. Therefore, educational authorities still claim the right to have control over individuals (their development, identity, and knowledge). They absolutise their own assumptions and reserve the right to provide the only correct, verified, and confirmed truths, and thus they contribute to the unsustainable development of teachers. This is why, despite the passage of time, personal, social, and civic competencies connected with the sustainable development of teachers are still very limited in teacher education programmes. As contemporary pedagogues emphasise, another reason for this is that the Polish school “is still archaic, reflecting the

old social order that no longer exists” (Nowak-­ Dziemianowicz, 2014, p.  107). As our research shows, teacher education programmes lack (or only include to a very small degree) objectives and content that refer to autonomy, responsible and critical thinking and actions, and civic engagement in sociopolitical life. To conclude, there is an urgent need in Poland to prepare teachers for the challenge of implementing ESD at the school level and to design university and teacher education programmes that embrace pedagogies fostering competencies that enable teachers to serve as competent agents of change (Bertschy et al., 2013; Rieckmann, 2018). The habits of homo sovieticus with regard to practice show a completely different image of the situation in Poland. Implementation of Polish training programmes that support educational management (e.g. the International Baccalaureate programme) might provide some form of compensation for teachers who have received or are receiving limited pre-service leadership training and support them in their taking up of leadership roles intuitively within in-service activities (Leek, 2020).

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4

Critical Evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals and Circular Economy in (Business) Education: Reflections on a Long-Term Sustainability Strategy of Degrowth Helen Kopnina and Julia Benkert

Abstract

Circular economy and Cradle to Cradle (C2C) attempt to address unsustainable consumption as part of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These “closed-loop” production systems promise absolute decoupling of natural resource consumption from economic activity. However, while absolute decoupling, ideally, can aid the SDGs’ “inclusive economic growth” strategy, critical scholars have noted that absolute circularity of material goods, such as food or textiles, is impossible due to the laws of thermodynamics. Also, in the SDGs’ formulation, “future for all” applies only to one species and that the stated “inclusion” in fact excludes nonhuman species, with the SDGs exhibiting little concern with animal welfare or intrinsic value of biodiversity. Rather than prioritizing “inclusive economic growth” touted by sustainable development proponents, a truly inclusive approach focusing on environmental sustainability demands a complete societal transformation towards “degrowth”. The degrowth framework emphaH. Kopnina (*) · J. Benkert Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK e-mail: [email protected]; julia. [email protected]

sizes the need to reduce production and consumption of resources (as well as the need for non-coercive, voluntary population reduction). These objectives need to be balanced with maintaining a socially just and ecologically sustainable society with social and environmental well-being indicators replacing the gross domestic product (GDP) measure of prosperity. In this chapter, we argue that transformation towards degrowth needs to start with teaching it as part of (business) education, linking it to the literature on critical pedagogy. Following a brief discussion of circular economy and C2C principles in relation to the SDGs, this chapter provides a literature review of sustainability-focused educational practices in business schools in the Netherlands. This is followed by a brief survey of several case studies of supposedly “circular” or C2C products that were written by Bachelor business students following an elective minor in Sustainable Business at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. One of the key learning outcomes of the programme described in this chapter is the development of critical thinking about the economic growth bias within the SDGs. A particularly challenging aspect is how to combine, both theoretically and practically, degrowth and business in education. We recommend that business school curricula

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_4

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include the subject of degrowth instead of normative teaching of win-win scenarios or pretend optimism of the SDGs.

4.1 Introduction The 17 interlinked Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) intended to be achieved by 2030 were designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all” (https:// sdgs.un.org/goals). The first SDGs are “No Poverty (SDG1), Zero Hunger (SDG2), and Good Health and Well-Being (SDG3)”, followed by “Quality Education (SDG4)”. The terms “sustainable and inclusive economic growth”, while especially prominent in SDG8, “Decent Work and Economic Growth”, are used in most of the SDGs. The SDGs follow the well-known triple Ps of People, Profit, Planet, which promise to combine and balance social, economic, and environmental objectives. While critics have suggested that these triple Ps are highly unbalanced  – as there are no People and Profit without a Planet – many business schools teach that Profit (and not Planet) is the ultimate bottom line (Kopnina & Blewitt, 2018; Washington & Maloney, 2020). Critics have also pointed out that the SDGs fail to distinguish between the primary aim of sustaining the Planet first to enable People and even Profit to be accommodated. The belief in the perfect balance of the triple Ps downplays the long-term effects of industrial growth on natural resources, the integrity of ecosystems, and biodiversity, failing to recognize that the Planet is the essential bottom line (Kopnina & Blewitt, 2018; Victor & Jackson, 2015) and excluding nonhumans from consideration (Kessel, 2012). Progress has mostly been seen in social areas (e.g. SDG1 and SDG2) such as the reduction of child and maternal mortality globally (WHO, 2019). Yet, while some social and economic issues have been successfully addressed, as some of the SDGs are already met, climate change remains unresolved (IPCC), and none of the AICHI biodiversity targets, as presented in Appendix (https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/), are met (IUCN, The Economist, 2021).

The chart indicates that while social and economic priorities can be successfully captured and addressed by the SDGs, none of the ecosystem and species-sustaining measures have been adequate to reverse the human-caused extinction, habitat conversion to industrial and agricultural land, and ecosystem degradation. To reduce the consumption of natural resources, various policies have been enacted globally to stimulate waste management (Ghisellini et  al., 2016). The European Union committed to circular economy to meet this goal. The European Commission proposed Circular Economy Closing the Loop (European Commission, 2015) as an alternative to the linear economy. The closed-loop or circular systems share a commitment to measures that address unsustainable consumption as resource loops are closed or, at least more realistically, slowed, to deliver on the increasing demands of a growing world population (Bocken, 2021). Traditional production frameworks and business models are now being challenged by alternatives characterized by natural cycles. An American architect William McDonough and a German chemist Michael Braungart (2010), in Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, criticize the current method of production as a linear, “cradle to grave” (take, make, waste) process that manufactures “monstrous hybrids” – products combining non-recyclable materials. By contrast, the closed-loop system is based on ecosystem models, supporting shifting from linear to a regenerative production system that can address material and energy efficiency by reducing the total volume of raw materials for manufacture (Brennan et al., 2015). While existing sustainability models, such as eco-efficiency and recycling, promote, at best, downcycling, ideal circularity promotes (infinite) reuse. C2C suggests that some materials, for example, fossil fuels or plastics, should not be made more “efficient”, as they make a “bad system last longer” (McDonough & Braungart, 2010). C2C proposes a production system that is “100% good” by applying three key principles. Firstly, the “waste equals food” principle states that organic or biodegradable materials can be seen as nutrients

4  Critical Evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals and Circular Economy in (Business) Education…

that flow through “metabolisms” enabling cycles of production, use, recovery, and remanufacture (Ibid). The second principle emphasizes the exclusive use of renewable energy such as wind and solar power but does not allow for “partial” renewables such as biofuels derived from organic matter (such as wooden pallets) or incineration of mixed garbage. The third principle, “celebrating diversity” refers to natural ecosystem/biodiversity interdependencies, stressing the need for reliance on local materials, and interconnected and regenerative systems within industrial processes (Ibid). The circular economy approach expands these C2C principles that reach beyond the conventional 3-R framework (Reduce, Refuse, and Recycle) by constructing a hierarchy of nine (or more) dimensions arranged as levels of increasing circularity (Potting et al., 2017). At the highest level of the 9-R hierarchy is the R of Refuse, or avoidance of production and buying, and is followed by Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, and Recover (Potting et al., 2017). This hierarchy generally requires a product-service shift and de-­ materialization (Kumar & Suganya, 2019). The most service-oriented business models are expected to deliver the greatest environmental impacts (Bocken, 2021). These service-oriented business models are aided by life cycle assessments that evaluate the manufacturing and delivery inputs, as well as production outputs, use, and disposal of the product (Ünal & Shao, 2019). As a customer does not need to buy but can borrow a drill to make a hole in the wall, the products for lease would be made of materials that last, allowing for degrowth in material production. The concept of degrowth compares with C2C and circular economy’s promise of absolute decoupling of economy from resources but is also aware of pragmatic limitations, thus arguing for the need to radically reduce the total demand. In reviewing the history and emerging literature on degrowth, Hankammer et al. (2021) state that this term was brought into an international setting during the First International Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity, held in Paris in 2008. Degrowth

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came to signify doubt whether the growing economy, dependent on increased energy and material throughput, can sustain the welfare of future generations (Hankammer et  al., 2021; Köves & Bajmócy, 2022; O’Neill, 2012). However, even though the concept of degrowth is increasingly used in social debates, it is still largely invisible in (business) education. As noted by Bobulescu (2021), the degrowth literature leaves educational issues largely unaddressed. As researchers at Utrecht University stress, there is a need to question the desirability of continuous economic growth in education, as the “ecological benefits of a circular economy are simply offset by the negative effects of economic growth. As the ecological limits of the Earth have already been overshot, an ecologically sustainable future requires a reduction of global GDP” (https:// www.uu.nl/en/background/ is-­a-­circular-­future-­compatible-­with-­economic-­ growth-­ideas-­for-­a-­degrowing-­circular-­society). In translating the concept of degrowth into educational practice, Pradanos (2015) calls for a “green critical pedagogy” to challenge “ingrained commonplaces about economic growth, technology or progress”. He also calls for engaging in “deep critical discussions about posthuman environmental ethics and alternatives to growth that are socially desirable and environmentally sustainable” (p. 153). The paucity of degrowth literature in education stands in stark contrast to the proliferation of curricula and educational standards that embrace the SDGs, circular economy, and other conventional sustainability models (Kopnina, 2021). This chapter aims to address this gap by discussing various sustainability frameworks in the context of (business) education and briefly surveys case studies of companies or products that were selected as study objects for their claims to fulfil the criteria of either circular economy or C2C.  These case studies served as learning opportunities to discuss larger issues concerned with “responsible production and consumption”, addressing students as future responsible business leaders. Responsible leadership is understood as a social-relational and ethical phenomenon (Maak & Pless, 2006).

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The sections below outline the case studies of corporate practice which were examined by Bachelor students of International Business at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (HHS) as part of the minor course of sustainable business. Unlike many courses connected to a circular economy in The Netherlands (a brief overview of some of these programmes is provided below and in Kopnina (2018)), this minor targeted critical thinking to enable students to make transformative decisions. Building on the student assignments with applications of cradle to cradle and circular economy principles, this chapter recommends that a sustainable business curriculum should also focus on degrowth and the steadystate economy. Implications for education for sustainability and circular economy are presented in the Discussion and Conclusion section.

4.2 Inclusive Economic Growth and SDGs: A Cognitive Dissonance? The idea that circular economy is the solution to achieving the “inclusive economic growth” objective outlined in the SDGs requires absolute decoupling of resource consumption from economic growth. However, decoupling any kind of consumption, including food and clothes, is going to be challenging. In combination with the continued growth of the global population (The Economist, 2015, 2020f), the moral imperative of the SDGs to achieve decent living standards for all based on materialism implies increased consumption of natural resources, unless absolute decoupling can be achieved. This creates problems for sustaining future generations (O’Sullivan, 2020; Washington, 2015; York & Rosa, 2003). Another moral imperative of the SDGs is the fair distribution of resources, raising thorny questions about redistribution of resources if resource consumption overall was to be capped or reduced. Generally, with the redistribution, the economic

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pie, with its limited resources, stays the same; only it is redistributed more equally. None of these complex moral and empirical questions are discussed in the SDG documents or sustainability curricula of business schools. Rather, within the SDGs, the wicked problems associated with population growth and the expansion of material demands are assumed to be solved simultaneously with environmental problems through economic growth (Washington et al., 2018). The SDGs seem to promote the win-win scenarios in the attempt to maintain a large, wealthy, and healthy human population and yet keep the “life on land” and “life on sea” intact (Adelman, 2018; Kopnina, 2016; Washington et al., 2018). This cognitive dissonance of the SDGs resembles the publications of The Economist journal, with various authors stressing the science of climate change and biodiversity loss on the one hand and yet praising the liberal economic models and corporate giants that support growth. Particularly Science and Technology sections, written by journalists other than those that write economy and society sections, note deterioration of environmental conditions, such as deforestation (Economist, 2020d), biodiversity loss (The Economist, 2018a, b, 2020a, 2021), and climate change (The Economist, 2019) and multiple issues since at least 2009. The lead article on the COVID-19 pandemic in The Economist (2020b) understandably celebrates the steady food supply, also in developing countries, where supplies remained relatively constant. As the lockdowns began, the journal article enthusiastically reported, consumers “can binge-eat as you binge-­watch” (Ibid p. 13). The praise was given to the global operations of multinational corporate food suppliers such as ADM, Bunge, and Cargill (The Economist, 2020b). Remarkably, most of the companies selected for praise tout their commitment to circular economy (e.g. https://thecirculareconomy. com/2020/04/16/adm-­announces-sustainability-­ goals/; https://www.cargill.com/2020/cargillinvests-­to-­promote-­circular-­economy-­with-­its-­

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first). Cargill’s contribution to massive deforestation does not find any mention here, even though it has been discussed in a different edition of the journal by – presumably – a different journalist (The Economist, 2020d). The pandemic also revealed a reliance on animals for food  – “supply marches on, and animals born must, at some point, be slaughtered” (Economist, 2020b, p.  15)  – and for medical advances, e.g. for experimentation for the development of a COVID-19 vaccine (Economist, 2020e). This can be seen as progress of the SDGs (fighting mortality and hunger) discounting (nonhuman) costs. Without degrowth in population and consumption, the demand for natural resources will only increase (Daly, 1991; Rammelt & Crisp, 2014; Washington, 2015). The growth imperative implied in the SDGs fosters the “illusion of combining endless economic growth on a finite planet, social justice, and environmental protection” (Adelman, 2018, p. 14), with circularity used as a ruse to support more economic growth while ignoring the real impacts on biodiversity (Buchmann-Duck & Beazley, 2020). Multiple definitions of circular economy create openings for subversion of its practice to business as usual (Kirchherr et  al., 2017; Kopnina, 2019a, b). Circular design can be negated by consumer behaviours, for example, when certain products are supposed to be returned to producers or passed on to other consumers but are discarded for convenience instead (Bocken, 2021). Further, De Man and Friege (2016) note that waste can rarely be equated with “food” or other material inputs as all production and consumption lead to the downgrading of materials (e.g. eaten and excreted food can be used as fertilizer but is not of the same value as original nutrients). It is also assumed that most of the natural nutrients cannot be returned to the ecosystem regardless of their quantity. Finally, they note, our knowledge about the harmful effects of substance flows on the environment is limited. To address these limitations, the concept of degrowth and a steady-state economy is helpful (Washington & Maloney, 2020).

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4.3 Alternative Vantage Points: Degrowth and Steady-State Economy The premise of a steady-state economy is the transformation of the economy to thrive in a resource-constrained world without needing more resources (Czech, 2013; Daly, 1991; Washington, 2015). This type of economy can be conceived as an open subsystem that fully functions within the limits of a finite environment (Daly, 1991). In other words, a steady-state economy aims to maintain a stable level of consumption with the throughput maintained within ecological limits (Washington & Maloney, 2020). Degrowth can facilitate the transition to a steady-state economy (O’Neill, 2012). The degrowth indicators are derived from social welfare indicators and allow for development to be assessed independently of any links to GDP (O’Neill, 2012). This implies shifting the focus from economic growth onto meeting basic human needs and improving quality of life while reducing the ecological impact of the economy – something that might require what Köves and Bajmócy (2022) term “clumsy solutions” refer to. Clumsy solutions, in their analysis, require “highly different viewpoints” (Ibid, p. 228) that economists and policymakers need to embrace to shift their focus from pursuing endless growth towards viewing development from degrowth perspectives. The premise and challenge of degrowth is the reduction of natural resource use and waste while maintaining human well-being (and, in more ecocentric interpretations, other species’ well-being). Admittedly, one of the problems with the concept of degrowth is that it invokes negative connotations of decline, contraction, or decrease, rather than improvement of welfare, sustainable future, safer environment, and multispecies flourishing (Drews & Antal, 2016). Presumably, this is one of the reasons why degrowth is ignored in the SDGs: as limits and restraint are inherent to the concept, it does not match the optimistic rhetoric of “inclusive economic growth” promoted by company leaders.

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In a telling title “Wake up, managers, times have changed! A plea for degrowth pedagogy in business schools”, Bobulescu (2021) states that critical pedagogy is needed to develop the necessary skills for questioning the relevance of the infinite economic growth on a finite planet. This critical pedagogy, teaching philosophy, and practice that encourages lecturers and students to challenge existing power structures becoming aware of and questioning the societal oppression and status quo (Freier, 1981; Fromm, 1953) can be applied to teaching degrowth in production/ consumption practices. Critical pedagogy was developed to include a clear focus on environmental sustainability by ecopedagogical scholar Richard Kahn (2010) who discusses Fromm’s and Freire’s work in the context of modern capitalist society and sustainable development discourse. Kahn’s work stresses the importance of future-oriented, ecological, and political alternatives, which expose unreflective acceptance of neoliberalist or industrial ideologies while also attempting to foment education used to be prominent after the Belgrade charter, including eco-literacy. Alternative pedagogical approach will be based on the key principles of critical pedagogy and ecopedagogy, being critical of the prevailing view of society, in this case, unquestioning assumptions about the benefits of following the SDGs or the belief in the unlimited potential of absolute decoupling through circular economy. To engage in comprehensive and potentially transformative education for sustainability and circular economy, business schools and other education providers need to tackle the economic growth assumptions that continue to underpin curriculum development. While the notion that business success and societal success require continuous economic growth has been normalized throughout (business) education, this is by no means a values-neutral stance. It presents a subjective value judgement that has come to dominate over alternative perspectives and frameworks. If we want students to become leaders who develop innovative and responsible solutions, their education needs to facilitate the development of their criticality by confronting students

with the full sustainability debate beyond the optimistic SDG rhetoric. If education is complicit with presenting only one side of the coin and ignores the implicit value judgements that have been dominating, in particular, the business school curricula, then providers fail not only their educational mandate but also future generations. Bobulescu’s (2021) research that links degrowth theories and critical pedagogy provides some important implications for education for and about the SDGs and/or circular economy.

4.4 Context 4.4.1 Sustainability Programmes in (Dutch) Education There are educational initiatives under the banner of “sustainability” aplenty, commonly with an inbuilt bias for socio-economic aspects at the expense of considerations for the natural environment. We find this, for example, with the ESD’s preoccupation with human welfare, from health to human rights, to gender equality, to actions such as recycling or transformative ideas concerning the circular economy. Education about/ for the circular economy [Educatie/onderwijs over/voor circulair economie]1 is rapidly developing in Dutch cities such as Amsterdam.2 At both school and university levels, this education often focuses on corporate case studies of “sustainable innovation” (duurzaam innoveren). At vocational schools, sustainability is increasingly integrated into courses ranging from facility management to business. For example, The Hague University of Applied Sciences (De Haagse Hogeschool), where this research was based, has a few faculties that the AISHE (Auditing Instrument for Sustainability in Higher Education, in Dutch: keurmerk Duurzaam Hoger Onderwijs) has accredited.3 This institution has https://www.etwinning.net/nl/pub/newsroom/highlights/ circular-economy-education%2D%2Da.htm 2  https://amsterdameconomicboard.com/en/circulairmanifest 3  AISHE is used as a general “sustainable school/university accreditation”. Various Dutch documents from insti1 

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integrated ESD into its education at many different levels.4 For example, Aeres Hogeschool5 runs a master’s programme on food systems innovation, which encourages students to think and act systemically as well as: • Learn how to define, organize, and evaluate the required changes which contribute to a healthier and more sustainable food system – together with important stakeholders • Learn how to connect different sectors and domains to spur innovation and implement cross-over solutions • After graduation, become a food systems innovator and combine large-scale systemic thinking with practical professional skills to co-create a sustainable and healthy food system6

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the Innovation Studies, Environmental Governance, and the Energy and Resources research group of the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development (https://www.uu.nl/ copernicus) at Utrecht University. Maastricht University also runs a Sustainable Finance programme.9 The typical curriculum at sustainable business departments at universities (compiled from the websites of universities mentioned above) include:

• Sustainability Leadership and Planetary Boundaries • Global Business Strategies • Sustainable Business Research Methods • Sustainability and Behavioural Ethics • Sustainability Challenges • Managing NGOs At the university level, Master of Business and • Corporations and Justice Sustainability programmes are expanding. For • Climate Change Strategy Role Play example, Erasmus University in Rotterdam • Sustainable Business Models describes its offerings as “Teaching of cutting-­ • Social Venture Creation edge of advancements in sustainable business • Cradle to Cradle and Circular Economy and underlying theory of leadership, issues man- • Steady-State Economy and Degrowth agement, corporate integrity, and responsibility”.7 • Innovation Management The University of Utrecht runs a similar pro- • Consultancy Project Sustainable Business and Innovation gramme.8 Their Sustainable Business and Innovation programme is closely affiliated with • Governance and Change Management for Sustainability • Environmental Assessment and Management tutions that have obtained AISHE certification include, Approaches among others, by audit/accreditation institute in the • Understanding and Assessing Technologies Netherlands called Hobeon. for Sustainability https://www.hobeon.nl/producten/certificeringduurzaam-onderwijs and some individual institutions https://www.hanze.nl/assets/Corporate/duurzaamheid/ Documents/Public/factsheetaisheenhetkeurmerkdho20131digitaleversie.pdf 4  https://www.thehagueuniversity.com/about-thuas/thuastoday/news/detail/2019/09/16/sustainable-developmentgoals-in-our-education 5  https://www.aereshogeschool.nl/opleidingen/voltijd/ bachelor/aarde-en-klimaat 6  https://www.aeresuas.com/programmes/master-programmes/food-systems-innovation 7  https://www.eur.nl/en/master/global-businesssustainability 8  https://www.uu.nl/masters/en/sustainable-businessand-innovation

It is commonly stated within the mentioned schools’ objectives that programmes in Business and Sustainability address the business’s complex sustainability challenges in an integrated manner. Lecturers who teach in these programmes typically engage in applied research or integration/application research that synthesizes new understandings or interpretations of knowledge or technology; develops new technologies, processes, tools, or uses; and/or refines, develops, https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/education/master/ master-international-business-track-sustainable-finance

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or advances new methods based on existing knowledge. Intellectual contributions in this category are normally intended to impact the practice of business and management (https://www. ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework). Some of these programmes are supported by corporate funding, with students willingly “headhunted” for jobs. The programmes include anything from leading truly sustainable change to mastery in greenwashing. But how much “beyond state of the art” do these programmes go, and how much of it is window dressing and  – in the words of Blühdorn (2007)  – “sustaining the unsustainability”? When taking a closer look at the Dutch higher education system, the first thing to note is how much it is geared towards competencies, as stated by Wesselink and Wals (2011, p. 72): Competence and competence-based education are increasingly in vogue, nationally and internationally. In the Netherlands, competency-based education has become a priority in designing and redesigning teaching and learning processes in higher education [...] Schools for higher education are changing their educational concepts towards competency-based education. In the field of environmental education, competency-based education has also received clear prominence […] An underlying idea of competency-based education is that students prepare themselves for becoming competent employees by participating in complex and authentic situations while still enrolled in school [...] This is one of the reasons why in vocational education in the Netherlands, competencies, rather than academic disciplines, are used as starting points for designing and redesigning study programs.

The “sustainability mindset” is mostly targeted towards sustainable development tends to prioritize economic and social issues, often presenting “environment” in instrumental terms (Kopnina, 2012). As Tauritz and Wals (2009, p. 256) state: Learning for sustainable development happens within the context of formal education and is, therefore, bound by a whole range of more or less ‘fixed structures’, not least of which the school curriculum. One question here is how we can provide some space for self-determination and autonomous thinking within such structures? But also, and perhaps more fundamentally, how can schools and the curricula they

teach be reoriented towards the communities they support, and which support them?

Another article in The Economist (2020g) has stated, “measuring sustainability” is difficult in the environmental, social, and governance (ESD) data, as it includes a multitude of often disconnected indicators. These include the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which demonstrates the corporate impact on society and environment, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) which includes ESG factors that have a material effect on a firm’s performance, the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), all of which focus on climate change. On the other hand, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) departments of large companies include anything from measuring and reporting child labour to the “share of women on boards” (The Economist, 2020g, p.  54). Most Dutch business courses surveyed also included a variety of ESD, CSR, and general triple P issues without a clear focus on key barriers to sustainability or degrowth. Do any of these programmes consider alternative economic models, such as steady-state economy and degrowth? One must hope circularity rhetoric is not just another popular buzzword, promising win-win solutions to sustainability crises, including “ecological modernization” or circular economy. As Corvellec et al. (2021) state: “Circular economy is based on an ideological agenda dominated by technical and economic accounts, which brings uncertain contributions to sustainability and depoliticizes sustainable growth” (p. 1). By contrast, critical pedagogy (Fromm, 1953; Freier, 1981) and ecopedagogy (Kahn, 2010) scholars have pointed out that while elements of indoctrination are unavoidable in educational practice, the lecturers and students should learn to discern which elements can be considered hegemonic, such as the SDGs, and which ones can be transformative, such as degrowth. Thus, integrating ESDs into the curriculum might not be as positive as it sounds when environmental sustainability is taken into consideration (Kopnina, 2012, 2018). For example, the following analysis based

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on the study of Dutch higher education’s embrace of the SDGs is made: Many challenges outlined by the SDGs are supposed to be solved by “inclusive” or “sustainable” economic growth, assuming that economic growth can be conveniently decoupled from resource consumption. Yet, the current hegemony of the sustainability-­ through-growth paradigm has increased inequalities and pressure on natural resources, exacerbating biodiversity loss, climate change, and resulting social tensions. With unreflective support for growth, far from challenging the status quo, the SDGs and consequently, the ESDGs, condone continuing environmental exploitation, depriving millions of species of their right to flourish, and impoverishing future generations […] The alternatives include Indigenous learning, ecopedagogy, ecocentric education,10 education for the steady-state and circular economy, empowerment and liberation. (Kopnina, 2020, p. 287)

This passage sums up our concern about the hegemonic tendencies and near-universal acceptance of the SDGs in institutional contexts, as well as offers alternative hope. As bell hooks (2003) suggests, a pedagogy of hope should enable learners to critically engage with challenges without losing motivation. The guidelines for sustainability education that reflect some of the alternatives named in the above quote were developed at the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. In 1975, responding to the need to address the environmental issues caused by human activities, the Belgrade charter (UNESCO, UNEP, 1976) was produced. It stated: The goal of environmental education is to develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations, and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones.

Kopnina, H., 2020. Ecocentric Education: Introduction to a Special Collection of Essays. 10(9), 217; https://doi. org/10.3390/educsci10090217 10 

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4.4.2 The Case Studies: Student Assignments The assignments were written by international, Bachelor students of International Business at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, following the elective minor in Sustainable Business. The minor commenced in 2010 and is presently (time of writing, November 2021) continuing. One of the five modules of this minor called Politics, Business, and Environment (PBE) developed a critical thinking curriculum based on some of the literature listed above (e.g. Drews & Antal, 2016; Isenhour, 2010; Kopnina & Blewitt, 2018; Washington & Maloney, 2020). This literature was discussed in a “flipped classroom” (Foster & Stagl, 2018) with students presenting one of the articles, followed by discussion questions for the audience (their classmates). Other didactic strategies used in PBE involved (during the COVID-19 pandemic, online) debate about the (im)possibility of decoupling of economy from natural resource consumption and the role play. This involved the Shell game when students assume different positions of CEOs of the oil company, the shareholders, the British and Dutch government, and the protestors. This Shell game could fit Maak and Pless’s (2006) “roles model” of responsible leadership and also the degrowth pedagogy, characterized by critical student engagement (Bobulescu, 2021). The students had to decide whether the company advertisement of select products could exemplify the case of greenwashing, or on the way to a circular economy, or the best-case study. The course involved cohorts of up to 30 students per semester, with groups of up to 4 students conducting case studies into the product or company of choice. The students were asked to apply the 9-R scale or on the C2C certification procedure by consulting the C2C Products Innovation Institute or corporate case studies on the website of Ellen MacArthur Foundation (http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/case_ studies/) and Cradle to Cradle® or Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM (www.c2ccertified.org). The C2C accreditation categories include material

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health, material reutilization, renewable energy, water stewardship, and social fairness. Some students took up food and drink producing companies. Most presenting groups have noted that the first R of the 9-R circular hierarchy, Refuse, is rarely addressed by the companies. Since the 9-R hierarchy requires a product-­ service shift and de-materialization, only companies with products that could be easily rented out and/or repaired or refurbished made it to what one student group called a “circular club”. In the C2C-certified companies, students have noted that not all sustainability aspects could be captured by accreditation categories. For example, transportation and energy, or take-back schemes, or leasing (product to service shift) were rarely explicitly mentioned in accreditation. The students often picked out one of the supposedly “best-case studies” from Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s website, that of Coca-Cola. Coca-­ Cola emphasized reducing plastic use (the students connected this “eco-efficiency” to “downcycling”). Another example was the “plant bottle” (which students noted was a case of “monstrous hybrid”). More generally, the students noticed that absolute decoupling of edible consumables is impossible without considering what happens to toilet waste. Similar observations have been made in connection to textiles (especially in the case of “fast fashion”) and transport (even in the case of electric cars, the students noted that electricity might still come from fossil fuels, and new cars are being churned out every year, using unsustainable resources, from metal to rubber). The students noted that none of the Ellen MacArthur companies had CSR departments that focused on root causes of unsustainability, e.g. the preoccupation with efficiency, lower costs, and growth, the continuously increasing production and consumption, or population growth. In analysing circular economy case studies in the context of the SDGs, the students were informed by some of the critical articles they have read and pondered whether some of the companies could spend part of their CSR budget differently. For example, as one group of students reflected, CSR investment in family planning

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programmes in countries where unwanted pregnancies, poverty, and environmental degradation go hand in hand could make a substantial difference to address both poverty and unsustainability. Whether such thoughts will be translated into action as future business professionals remains to be seen, but the ability to think critically and seek strategies that are both new and potentially transformative was already shown within these case reflections.

4.5 Discussion and Conclusion 4.5.1 Including Degrowth in Transformative Business Education Making “good” products more affordable for the global population is one challenge, but the key general question is whether the growth of global demand can sustain future human generations, let alone other species (Buchmann-Duck & Beazley, 2020), and whether waste can equal food (McDonough & Braungart, 2010). Multiple definitions of the circular economy create openings for subversion of its practice to business as usual (Kirchherr et  al., 2017; Kopnina, 2019a, b). Circular design can be negated by consumer behaviours, for example, when certain products are supposed to be returned to producers or passed on to other consumers but are discarded for convenience instead (Bocken, 2021). Further, De Man and Friege (2016) note that in reality, waste can rarely be equated with “food” as all production and consumption lead to the downgrading of materials (e.g. eaten and excreted food can be used as fertilizer but is not of the same value as original nutrients). It is also assumed that most natural nutrients cannot be returned to the ecosystem regardless of their quantity. Despite these difficulties, it is important not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and reflect on what can be learned, both by lecturers and students, about and from the case studies of the circular economy. Curriculum for developing degrowth business models can fit naturally within

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existing business courses, including finance, marketing, and branding. The long-term effects of critical and transformative learning might still need to “sink in”  – not just in class but during professional practice or follow-up academic study. While the formidable global challenges might feel like a very high mountain to climb for undergraduate students, developing the ability to question hegemonic goals such as the SDGs and the computability of circularity with the laws of thermodynamics (Rammelt & Crisp, 2014) seems like a good starting point of transformative education. To address these limitations, the concept of degrowth and a steady-state economy in education is helpful (Washington & Maloney, 2020). The students could then consider which products or processes and under which circumstances can indeed be seen as truly circular. If transformative business education could address degrowth, it has the greatest potential for real change towards sustainability. The plethora of socio-economic topics that fall under the term “sustainability”, including eliminating child labour and bridging gender pay gaps, while socially responsible, take away the educational focus on protecting the environment and do little to address degrowth (Trantas, 2021). Many of the programmes at the higher educational level by no means address central issues of ecological integrity but rather dwell upon intersections between environmental, social, and economic issues, often with an explicitly anthropocentric and economic focus. UK business schools typically centre the SDGs around inequality and other human development–related SDGs, as emphasized by Burchell et al. (2015). Our review of sustainability programmes or circular economy programmes in Dutch higher education reveals that these programmes hardly engage with the extinction crises caused by human population growth, overproduction, and overconsumption, but radical measures are needed to address this loss. Thus, the important question to ask about teaching circular economy for consequent research and practice is “What

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type of aims does this education target, and what are objectives teachers want to achieve?” If the answer is protecting biodiversity and trying to prevent the ecosystem collapse, the hundreds of so-called sustainability initiatives, ranging from equal pay to fighting racism and sexism to providing clean water to poor people, do little to address the root causes of the crisis. Ironically, by prioritizing social and economic issues, the longor even mid-term sustainability of natural resources for future generations is questionable. Some connections between social and environmental issues can certainly be drawn  – for example, the argument that women are much more vulnerable to natural disasters caused by climate change, but they are often marginalized from decision-making. In educational practice, students could ponder whether equal pay could help protect biodiversity. What if people were given shorter working weeks for caring responsibilities and care for the planet could be encompassed within that? In a similar way, fighting racism is also about engaging with other voices. However, if equal pay just means more purchasing power, without balancing salaries overall or changing the pattern of production and consumption, social and economic equality appear goods in and of themselves, independent of environmental factors. Put more crudely and simply, if women or people from various minorities are not inherently more environment-conscious in their attitudes and behaviour, social and economic fairness of course needs to be guaranteed, but these in no way guarantee more positive environmental outcomes. Ironically, socially marginalized groups are also more at risk from negative environmental impacts. Just as ethnic inclusiveness, diversity, and gender equality have been integrated in mainstream education programmes, so can an understanding of the need to halt environmental destruction be integrated and shared in mainstream education. Perhaps the ESDG is not the best vehicle for achieving this objective as it marginalizes the primary importance of the planetary integrity for both social and economic sustainability.

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4.5.2 Ways Forward As educators, we might need to turn back to the 1970s, e.g. Limits to Growth report (Meadows et al., 1972) and the Belgrade charter (UNESCO, UNEP 1976), and then proceed with building “competencies” in students grooming for unquestionably plugging into the global competition for high-paying jobs. However, some positive lessons from the case studies of Dutch sustainability programmes are also present. For example, the University of Amsterdam runs a unique module on degrowth, as part of the minor Sustainability and Economics. This module is unique in as far as degrowth can be seen as a radical departure from “business as usual” (Washington & Maloney, 2020) which is often taught at the intersection of corporate and sustainability studies (Kopnina & Blewitt, 2018). The questions driving this programme are as follows: “How is economic growth entwined with the social, environmental, and financial turmoil of the past few decades? How can we have a stable and prosperous economy that does not grow  – let alone one that shrinks to a sustainable level relative to existing planetary boundaries?” Similar questions are also addressed and emphasized in the course on degrowth offered by University of Amsterdam (https://www.uva.nl/en/programmes/open-­ programmes-­iis/degrowth/degrowth.html), the research of Utrecht University (https://www. uu.nl/en/background/is-­a -­c ircular-­f uture-­ compatible-­with-­economic-­growth-­ideas-­for-­a-­ degrowing-­circular-­society), and the critical course at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Such questions demonstrate the potential for developing strategy of business

education that engages with degrowth. Returning to Bobulescu’s (2021) reflection that critical pedagogy is needed to develop the necessary skills for questioning the relevance of the economic growth mentality, learning about limitations of circularity can serve as a starting point for both teachers’ and students’ reflection on new transformative business strategies.

4.5.3 Conclusion The charter clearly outlined that the way forward in education is through the development of ecoliteracy, a critical form of environmental education that highlights the need to radically reorient production processes (Kahn, 2010; MolinaMotos, 2019). This radical reorientation can also serve to empower students and to enable informed hope (Hooks, 2003). This chapter discussed the limitations of “responsible” circular production, one of the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals, and pedagogical lessons derived from examining these limitations as well as ways forward. The learning outcomes of critically examining the corporate cases of the supposedly circular economy include the development of critical thinking about the concepts of economic growth and realistic possibilities of absolute decoupling. Teaching circular economy as part of (business) education can be instructive in other ways, particularly in understanding how to conceive of alternatives and particularly how to apply steady-state economy and degrowth strategy to business. The challenge of including steady-state economy and degrowth strategies within business models promises a potentially transformative approach to sustainability.

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The Economist. (2020b). Briefing: Food security. The tables are not yet turned. May 9. P. 13–15. The Economist. (2020d). How big beef and soya firms can stop deforestation. June 11. https:// www.economist.com/the-­a mericas/2020/06/11/ how-­big-­beef-­and-­soya-­firms-­can-­stop-­deforestation The Economist. (2020e). Laboratory mice; Here’s one I prepared earlier. June 12. P. 60. The Economist. (2020f). Africa’s population will double by 2050. March 26. https://www. e c o n o m i s t . c o m / s p e c i a l -­r e p o r t / 2 0 2 0 / 0 3 / 2 6 / africas-­population-­will-­double-­by-­2050 The Economist. (2020g). Measuring sustainability: In the soup. October 3. The Economist. (2021). Technology can help conserve biodiversity. June 19. https://www.econom i s t . c o m / t e c h n o l o g y -­q u a r t e r l y / 2 0 2 1 / 0 6 / 1 5 / technology-­can-­help-­conserve-­biodiversity Trantas, N. (2021). Could “degrowth” have the same fate as “sustainable development”? A discussion on passive revolution in the Anthropocene age. Journal of Political Ecology, 28(1). Ünal, E., & Shao, J. (2019). A taxonomy of circular economy implementation strategies for manufacturing firms: Analysis of 391 cradle-to-cradle products. Journal of Cleaner Production, 212, 754–765. UNESCO, UNEP. (1976). Belgrade Charter. https:// www.gdrc.org/uem/ee/belgrade.html Victor, P., & Jackson, T. (2015). The problem with growth. In L. Starke (Ed.), 2015 State of the world report, confronting hidden threats to sustainability. Worldwatch Institute. Washington, H. (2015). Demystifying sustainability: Towards real solutions. Routledge. Washington, H., & Maloney, M. (2020). The need for ecological ethics in a new ecological economics. Ecological Economics, 169, 106478. Washington, H., Piccolo, J., Chapron, G., Gray, J., Kopnina, H., & Curry, P. (2018). Foregrounding ecojustice in conservation. Biological Conservation, 228, 367–374. Wesselink, R., & Wals, A. E. (2011). Developing competence profiles for educators in environmental education organisations in the Netherlands. Environmental Education Research, 17(1), 69–90. WHO (World Health Organisation). (2019). More women and children survive today than ever before  – UN report. https://www.who.int/news/item/19-­09-­2019-­ more-­women-­and-­children-­survive-­today-­than-­ever-­ before-­un-­report York, R., & Rosa, E.  A. (2003). Key challenges to ecological modernization theory: Institutional efficacy, case study evidence, units of analysis, and the pace of eco-efficiency. Organization & Environment, 16(3), 273–288.

5

Reforming Religion-Based Higher Education for Sustainable Development: The Case of Islamic Studies International Program at Prince of Songkla University Muhammadafeefee Assalihee and Yusop Boonsuk

Abstract

Twenty-first-century education has pedagogical influences on how Islamic Studies is taught, especially in Thailand, a home to Muslim minorities. While curricula are required to address national policies on career training, social uplifting, and economic prosperity, they are also expected to somewhat preserve core identities of Islamic Studies, which are to foster spiritual, moral, and ethical growth following the Islamic teachings. This study aimed to project critical milestones that the Faculty of Islamic Sciences has achieved as it reformed its curriculum and instruction by progressing away from traditional towards religion-based practices that match the educational needs for sustainable development. This study employed a qualitative approach, and the data were collected from the faculty administrators, the lecturers of the proM. Assalihee (*) Faculty of Islamic Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani, Thailand e-mail: [email protected] Y. Boonsuk Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani, Thailand e-mail: [email protected]

gramme, and the students (including both Thai and international students). The findings were projected to firstly unveil new perspectives for Islamic Studies teachings that lead to practical insights and guidelines on alleviating existing Islamic Studies programmes and redesigning instructional strategies in response to sustainable development and secondly offer suggestions to higher education institutions and relevant educational agencies on sustainable development for higher education providing Islamic Studies in Thailand and abroad.

5.1 Introduction Islamic Studies has a long history in the education of members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a field devoted to investigating Islam as a religion, as a way of life, and as a civilization (Bazzano, 2015; Khir, 2007). In Thailand, especially the three southern border provinces (Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat) with over 80% Muslim population and dominant Malay cultures, the courses on Islamic Studies are provided in formal and informal education from preschool to adulthood by public and private education institutions (Aree & Rahman, 2016; Assalihee et  al., 2020; Liow, 2010). Nevertheless, the educational provision of

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_5

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Islamic Studies is not confined within the three southern border provinces. The discipline is taught nationwide since Muslim citizens make up 5% of the 65 million Thai population and are distributed across the country. Islamic Studies was introduced to the Thai education system even before the Sukhothai Kingdom (1900). After the arrival of Muslims in the Southeast Asia in 846 (Jitmoud, 1988; Malulim, 1995), more Muslims also migrated to the Patani Kingdom, which is currently the area covering some of the southern provinces of Thailand. Back then, there were several routes for Muslims to transfer to Thailand. For instance, the Chinese migrants entered Northern Thailand; the Arab merchants entered by sea; and the migrants from Java, Aceh, and Sumatra travelled via the Malay Cape, geographically today’s Malaysia and Southern Thailand (Bajunid, 1999; Jitmoud, 1988; Scupin, 2000). After the Muslims’ arrival, Islamic Studies was initially taught informally. However, the forms of its educational provision were continuously revised and developed until Pondok, Madrasah, and private schools with an integrated curriculum were established. Now, Islamic Studies is provided as a discipline in higher education at public and private universities accredited by the Thai government. Since universities are given the freedom to provide education following local beliefs and needs, three public universities and a private university in the southern Thai provinces reportedly administer curricula in Islamic Studies. The paradigm shift in the twenty-first-century education, led by the advancement of the information and communication technology and the severe global pandemic, has transformed today’s education everywhere. Newly emerging priorities, which revolve around students’ competency enhancement, pedagogical integration with technology, and fulfilment for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), seem to have diminished the relevance of knowledge- and content-­ based instruction. Among these impacts, Thailand has adopted the SDGs as the guideline for national development. Consequently, the goals were included in the 20-year National Strategy (2018–2037) and the 12th National Economic

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and Social Development Plan (2017–2021). Furthermore, the SDGs were also added to the Thai national education plan for national education development (Sethakul & Utakrit, 2019), and its policies were translated to the missions of the relevant ministries and agencies, including the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, who are in charge of governing higher education institutions throughout the nation. The Faculty of Islamic Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus, was the first public institution in Thai higher education to provide education on Islamic Studies, and the effort has been ongoing for over three decades since 1989 (Alee, 2016; College of Islamic Studies, 2017). Consequently, the faculty has resolved to adapt itself based on the national policies that the government advocated and revised its curricula in Science and Social Sciences in order to address the contextual dynamics and meet the national development goals. Currently, the university offers Islamic Studies courses within the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programmes, admitting domestic and international students. The faculty’s primary goals are to foster research and academic endeavours on Islamic Studies, equip graduates with necessary knowledge of Islam, output moral and ethical global citizens using the Islamic conceptual framework, ensure graduates’ happy and quality future lives amid global dynamics and cultural diversity, and encourage international students to transfer the knowledge into their national and cultural contexts (Faculty of Islamic Sciences, 2020). The pedagogies in Islamic Studies are facing a major transformational challenge from the above social factors (Hashim, 2005; Tolchah & Mu’ammar, 2019). As current Islamic Studies curricula still adhere to traditional and Arabic-­ derived teaching styles and emphasize lecturer-­ led and lecture-based deliveries of knowledge and contents (Benya et al., 2015; Kuakul & Wae-­ useng, 2017), some graduates face narrow career paths compared to what the Thai society needs, especially when there are limited job vacancies in Islamic professions and seats in Islamic organi-

5  Reforming Religion-Based Higher Education for Sustainable Development: The Case of Islamic Studies…

zations. In other words, the curricula are out of tune with today’s social realities and needs with the expectation to see education as a road towards human, economic, and social development at national and international levels. To address the challenge, higher education institutions that train highly specialized human resources, such as Islamic Studies programmes, require reforms in line with the global society’s needs and the SDGs. Such reforms could be maintained within the Islamic concept of sustainability as the Islamic principles already contain the concept of sustainable development (Dariah et al., 2016). However, to retain the integrity of core knowledge and principles of Islamic Studies, the reform strategies that seamlessly blend between Islamic adherence and survivability should be considered for Islamic Studies programmes to ensure their sustainable social contributions. Such reforms are especially vital in Thailand since Muslims are a minority group with different identities from the majority of Thai citizens. Enhancing capacity among the graduates of Islamic Studies to apply the knowledge acquired in their professional ventures and ensuring that they could have a stable career and substantial living quality among others with linguacultural diversity both in the Thai and global contexts become a relevant driving force for sustainable development at national and international levels. This study aims to project critical milestones that the Faculty of Islamic Sciences has achieved when reforming its curriculum and instruction by progressing away from traditional practices towards a religion-based education that matches the educational needs for sustainable development (Al-Jayyousi, 2016; Hossain, 2014). In this qualitative study, the data were collected from three faculty administrators, five curriculum administrators (one from Indonesia, Liberia, and Guinea; and two from Thailand), and nine students (from Sri Lanka, China, Cambodia, Liberia, Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand). The participants were selected through purposive sampling with the inclusion criteria of (1) administrators with at least 10 years of administrative experience, (2) lecturers with a history

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of taking charge of a programme and at least 10 years of teaching experience, and (3) third and fourth year students coming from diverse countries who have already enrolled in no less than 70% of the courses required by the curriculum. The obtained data were analysed through a content analysis to describe the aspects and processes of curricular reforms addressing the educational needs for sustainable development in the Thai context. The following section starts with the context drawing the picture of the general history of Islamic Studies programmes in Thailand and provides the case through the history, vision, and mission of the Faculty of Islamic Sciences. Later, the curricular attempts in reforming these programmes towards sustainable development are presented along with the key learning outcomes, the expected characteristics of the graduates, and the new courses to promote sustainable development. Next, pedagogical strategies and advantages and barriers are discussed. Findings in this study are projected to firstly unveil new perspectives for teaching Islamic Studies that lead to practical insights and guidelines on alleviating existing Islamic Studies programmes and redesigning instructional strategies in response to sustainable development and secondly offer suggestions to higher education institutions and relevant educational agencies on sustainable development for Thai higher education.

5.2 Context Thailand is home to over 65 million individuals 5.4% of whom are Muslim (Thai National Statistic Office, 2018). The majority of the Muslims primarily reside in the southern provinces, especially in the three southern border provinces (a.k.a., the Deep South). Nevertheless, the Muslims in the Deep South have distinctive identities almost resembling those of the Malay culture. They were raised with unique historical backgrounds and live in a geographical area adjacent to Malaysia (Arismunandar et al., 2019; Engvall & Andersson, 2019; Munirah, 2018). Led by unique sociocultural identities, a lot of Muslims, especially those

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in the Deep South and some parts of Songkhla cultures simultaneously. While it is undeniProvince, live a different way of life and have difable that education and politics are somewhat ferent social, educational, and political orientacorrelated (Fuhrman & Elmore, 1990; Lo tions compared to other Muslims in the other Bianco & Freebody, 2001), local cultures and regions of Thailand. This phenomenon is backed contexts also play a vital role in shaping the by the evidence that there are various types of choices of educational approaches local educational institutions in the areas (Masemann, 2003). Hence, all these variables (Laeheem, 2012; Liow, 2009; Medrano, 2007; should be carefully considered to form a balOthman & Wanlabeh, 2012), including Pondok anced blend of strategies that would benefit all schools, private Islamic schools, Tadikas, Quran the relevant sectors. schools, faculties of Islamic Studies, and Islamic 2. The previous teaching of Islamic Studies had universities. Locals also prefer sending their chilprioritized lectures, Islamic teachings, and dren to private Islamic schools because they wish religious practices (Jusoh & Jusoff 2009), givtheir children to receive secular and Islamic eduing lower priorities to job acquisitions. When cation (Assalihee et  al., 2020; Baka & Islamic Studies curricula were adjusted to Narongraksakhet, 2009). promote more successful job acquisitions for Compared to a typical Thai individual, a lot of students, the time allocated to Islamic content residents in the Deep South possess distinctive was reduced. Hence, it has been challenging identities, cultures, and historical backgrounds to work with a limited time without comproand live in a unique geographic location. mising learning intensively. In other words, it Consequently, those locals developed their sepahas been challenging to help learners integrate rate worldviews, occasionally clashing with the technology with teaching, develop the thinkother groups (Satha-Anand, 2018; Satha-Anand ing processes according to Islamic Studies & Kenkyūjo, 2009). In many cases, their opincourses and increase the chance of job acquiions were in favour of the Thai government, sition at the same time. resulting in a prolonged and direct conflict 3. Since lecturers had been relying on convenbetween the state and some of the Deep South tional curricular concepts and utilizing residents. Some of the state policies were issued student-­ centred teaching methods (Baka & neglecting the locals’ needs, and thus the locals Narongraksakhet, 2009; Kuakul & Wae-­ considered this maltreatment led by the state or useng, 2017), they had difficulties embracing public administrators upsetting and unfair paradigm shifts and adopting newer teaching (Harish, 2006; Mahakanjana, 2006; Satha-­ approaches. It takes open-mindedness to think Anand, 2015). These conflicts are among the facoutside the box, accept changes, and adopt tors directly affecting the local lifestyles in the new pedagogical practices. Most of them Deep South. Hence, it has been challenging to seemed worried when the new curricula were teach Islamic Sciences and make curricular implemented, and they feared that they might adjustments to address local contexts and pronot be able to fulfil these new developmental mote sustainable development. Based on the goals. interviews conducted with administrators, lectur- 4. Higher education institutions had been on a ers, and students by one of the authors of the research race, participating in competitions chapter from February to April 2020, six primary for global university rankings and mass-­ challenges were identified: producing manuscripts for publications in internationally indexed journals. Since lectur 1. It was challenging to develop a curriculum to ers were too occupied with tasks necessary to address state policies (e.g. especially on prefulfil the aforementioned competition requireserving Thai identities and national economic ments and policies, it was challenging for development as well as Thai people’s needs of them to simultaneously provide quality eduquality life), Malay identities, and deep south cation on Islamic Studies.

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5. Administrators at national and higher educa- The five remaining programmes are offered at the tional levels gave lower emphases to Social undergraduate level including: Sciences, including Islamic Studies, and allocated resources to ​​ innovating income-­ 1. Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies (Thai generating measures. Although Islamic Program) Studies might not be a quantifiable endeavour 2. Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies (International or a money-making strategy, the faculty is still Program) obligated to balance their missions to satisfy 3. Bachelor of Arts Program in Islamic Law both the administrators and the operators, 4. Bachelor of Arts Program in Islamic including faculty members and employees. Economics and Management 6. Students prefer studying Islamic Studies to 5. Bachelor of Education Program in Teaching enhance knowledge of Islam and improve Islamic Studies their morals and ethics to studying for a job. Hence, it is necessary to adapt the thinking Note that the third programme, Bachelor of process to ensure that students are religiously Arts Program in Islamic Law, is a dual degree and professionally knowledgeable. Therefore, programme where students may opt to simultanethey must face the new learning processes dif- ously earn a bachelor’s degree in Laws at the ferent from the traditional one that their par- Faculty of Law, Hat Yai Campus. The fourth proents were exposed to. gramme, Bachelor of Arts Program in Islamic Economics and Management, has now been revised and offered as Bachelor of Business 5.3 The Case Administration Program in Islamic Business Innovation, admitting the first class in Academic The Faculty of Islamic Sciences is the only fac- Year 2021. Furthermore, the fifth programme, ulty for Islamic Studies supervised by a public Bachelor of Education Program in Teaching university across Thailand. The faculty began its Islamic Studies, is offered in conjunction with journey as a major Islamic Studies course ini- teaching profession’s licencing by the Teachers’ tially offered in 1981 within the Faculty of Council of Thailand. During the interviews, the Humanities and Social Sciences, Prince of administrators of the Faculty of Islamic Studies Songkla University, Pattani Campus (Waehama, (Excerpts 5.1 and 5.2) revealed crucial insights 2021). Subsequently, a decree was issued to offi- on the background and roles of the faculty in educially establish the School of Islamic Sciences on cational provision and community services as December 31, 1989, separating from the Faculty follows: of Humanities and Social Sciences. Eventually, the school was renamed as the Faculty of Islamic Excerpt 5.1 Sciences, as published in The Royal Gazette on The Faculty of Islamic Sciences is the first of its December 13, 2019. Currently, the faculty offers kind to provide the Islamic Studies education in a eight programmes in total (Faculty of Islamic public university of Thailand. It is a great opporSciences, 2020). Three of them are graduate pro- tunity for Muslims to have a state-operated grammes, including: Islamic education institution, giving them an option to pursue higher education without leav1. Doctor of Philosophy Program in Islamic ing the country and studying abroad. All faculty Studies members are well versed in Islamic studies and 2. Master of Arts Program in Islamic Studies hold doctoral degrees granted by universities in 3. Master of Education Program in Islamic the Middle East, Europe, and ASEAN, including Educational Administration and Management Thailand. Therefore, the quality of teaching and

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learning offered is competitively indistinctive to overseas educational sessions. (An interview with a faculty administrator) Excerpt 5.2 Apart from research and development in Islamic Studies and providing teaching sessions for undergraduate and graduate students, the faculty also provides a secondary education through a model school for Islamic integration. In addition to that, we also serve communities by teaching the Quran to youths at the Tadika school on Saturday and Sunday and at the child centre, which is the learning venue to many from children to senior citizens. (An interview with a faculty administrator) Besides, the Islamic Sciences Demonstrations School was also launched for higher secondary education, serving as a teaching laboratory for higher education students and a model school that offers an integrated secular-Islamic curriculum. Moreover, the faculty also provides academic services tailored to community needs in the form of a child development centre, a Quran learning centre, and a Tadika school. The faculty has the vision to position itself as “a regional academic centre for research in the Islamic arts and wisdom” and missions to “provide Islamic education based on the Wasatiyah principles (moderation in Islam), conduct research and generate accurate Islamic knowledge, offer academic services, and cultivate students with adequate knowledge of the Islamic principles and capacities to maintain quality life”. Since Prince of Songkla University has the aspiration to become a globally renowned research university, the Faculty of Islamic Sciences has taken a course of action to uplift itself, and one of the efforts was to align its curricula with the university’s vision and policies. More specifically, five curricular development strategies were formulated to ­ enhance the faculty’s operations, including: 1. Developing human resources and creating new learning solutions that involve Islamic morals and international competencies. 2. Enhancing research and innovation excellence in Islamic Sciences and Muslim Studies.

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3. Providing academic services for a peaceful and sustainable southern society. 4. Serving as a pillar of Islamic Sciences for Thailand. 5. Improving management system efficiency (Faculty of Islamic Sciences, 2020; Sabuding, 2021).

5.3.1 Curricular Attempts 5.3.1.1 Learning Outcomes and Expected Characteristics of the Graduates The International Program in Islamic Studies was developed based on the guidelines for sustainable development. In parallel, the programme sought to cultivate the graduates with the twenty-first-­ century competencies (Howlett et  al., 2016; Molderez & Fonseca, 2018; Svanström et  al., 2008) and the knowledge of Islam with moral and ethical emphases, considering economic, social, and cultural changes (Dariah et al., 2016; Hossain, 2014). Therefore, the current curricula went through a different design concept, moving away from the content-based design to the outcome-­ based design (Chan & Chan, 2009; Harden, 2002) in line with Prince of Songkla University’s policy on utilizing the outcome-­based design for all curricula. Hence, the key learning outcomes of the programme and the expected characteristics of the graduates were explored among various stakeholders (i.e. employers of the graduates, alumni, current students, lectures of the programme, support employees, religious leaders, and community leaders) for the International Program in Islamic Studies as elaborated in Excerpts 5.3 and 5.4, which are the example interview dialogues contributed by the students reflecting their needs for a curriculum development towards the twenty-­first-­ century competency enhancement. The data synthesis revealed that the graduates of the International Program in Islamic Studies were expected to adopt the following characteristics (Alhamuddin et al., 2020; Muluk et al., 2019): (1) a thinker with universal Islamic knowledge; (2) a tech- and digital-savvy English and Arabic communicator; (3) a leader with compassion; and (4) a

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Table 5.1  Key learning outcomes and expected characteristics of graduates Characteristics of graduates A thinker with universal Islamic knowledge

A tech- and digital-savvy English and Arabic communicator

A leader with compassion

A disciplined and public-minded global citizen

Programme learning outcomes PLO1: Demonstrating universal Islamic knowledge as an Islam-based thinker and diagnosing problems from a universal perspective to solve social problems creatively through three sub-PLOs, including  Having in-depth knowledge of Islamic principles with diverse and universal perspectives  Analysing and diagnosing fundamental and contemporary Islamic problems based on the principles of moderation in Islam  Applying relevant principles of moderation in Islam in solving social problems appropriately with local and universal contexts PLO2: Demonstrating Arabic and English communicative proficiencies and creating communication innovations for careers by utilizing digital technology creatively through three sub-PLOs, including  Using Arabic and English skills creatively to present the principles of moderation in Islam and disseminate correct Islamic knowledge to promote a peaceful society  Innovating media for Islamic Studies to solve social problems in line with global dynamics  Demonstrating abilities to operate according to businesses and careers domestically and internationally PLO3: Demonstrating leadership, accepting differences, showing compassion and empathy, and maintaining interpersonal excellences through two sub-PLOs, including  Possessing leadership, skills to lead, and abilities to work with others creatively  Having adequate interpersonal skills and showing empathy for others based on the understanding of multiculturalism PLO4: Demonstrating public-­mindedness in serving the Islamic society and sufficient potential to transition as a global citizen with an understanding of social and cultural contexts at the local and international levels through two sub-PLOs, including  Implementing Islamic thinking principles in serving the society through public-mindedness  Applying universal Islamic principles in maintaining roles as a local and international citizen

disciplined and public-minded global citizen. For the programme to provide such learning in line with the expected graduate characteristics, the key learning outcomes outlined in Table  5.1 were formulated. Excerpt 5.3 I would like the curriculum to intensively introduce me to leadership skills, the use of ICT, foreign languages, management skills, and business skills because it would give students more opportunities to secure jobs in the future. (An interview with a student in the programme) Excerpt 5.4 First of all, I would like to see in-depth teaching of Islamic Studies. There should also be language opportunities for students since some might be working abroad using knowledge of Islamic Studies in integration with other common fields of knowledge. (An interview with a student in the programme)

5.3.1.2 New Courses to Promote Sustainable Development The scope in most of the Islamic Studies courses focused on Muslim faith and practices (Boyle, 2006; Dhofier, 1992). However, in the age of social transformation, national educational policies (Abdullah, 2017), especially in Thailand, emphasize careers and employment opportunities for learners. Hence, the Islamic Studies curricula needed a revision to meet the national economic development and the need for quality life as well as sustainable development as included in Thailand’s key policies. The Thai National Economic and Social Development Plan and National Strategies have the vision to transform Thailand towards prosperity, stability, and sustainability. On this note, new courses and teaching strategies for the curriculum of the International Program in Islamic Studies were proposed in line with the national policies and sustainable development (Sethakul & Utakrit, 2019). Subsequently, the

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course structure, course content, and teaching strategies were determined and elaborated as follows: 1. The curriculum structure was stipulated as required by the Office of the Higher Education Commission with no less than 120 credits in a curriculum, and the courses were categorized into three groups: (1) general courses with no less than 30 credits enrolled; (2) specialized courses used as the core of the International Program in Islamic Studies with no less than 91 credits enrolled; and (3) elective courses with no less than 6 credits enrolled. In this revised curriculum, students could opt to take a cooperative or an internship course matching their needs (see Table 5.2). Note that the university requires that both courses earn different credits: the cooperative course earning seven credits and the internship course earning four.

2. The outstanding feature of the International Program in Islamic Studies is the blend between secular and Islamic education (Ali, 2020; Indra, 2020). Some interconnected courses were merged into one using the same content. Thailand does recognize ethnic minorities, especially Muslims. Hence, the government allows a curriculum to be developed tailored to Muslim identities and needs, given that it still contains the foundation courses as prescribed by the university. These courses are designed to provide training in essential twenty-first-century competencies perceivably beneficial to graduates in future sustainable social development. Courses within the general category focus on cultivating the twenty-first-century skills by encompassing sustainable development (Velazquez et  al., 1999). Based on this emphasis, many Islamic Studies students in Thailand possess a high level of knowledge and skills that are

Table 5.2  Course structure of International Program in Islamic Studies

Course category A. General education

Cooperative education (number of credits) 30

Internship (number of credits) 30

 (1) required general education courses

26

26

 (2) elective general education courses

4

4

B. Specialized education

91

91

 (1) Core courses  (2) Major courses  2.1. required major courses

10 74 64

10 77 64

 2.2. elective major courses

10

13

 (3) practical experience courses

7

4

C. Elective education

6

6

Total

127

127

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Table 5.3  General courses of Islamic Studies curriculum to cultivate twenty-first-century skills Course name The King’s philosophy and benefit of mankind New consciousness and living a peaceful life Citizenship and public consciousness Idea to entrepreneurship Thinking and decision making Leadership and management Smart thought, clever understanding Total

Credit 3 3 3 1 2 2 2 16

compatible with modern education and the Islamic way, a religious ideology that recognizes the importance of human resources development and believes that humans should holistically improve all aspects of competencies in a balanced progression (Muluk et al., 2019). All students in the university are required to pass the same set of general courses with a total of 30 credits. The students of the International Program in Islamic Studies are required to enrol in the courses shown in Table 5.3.

3. The specialized courses included the courses provided by the Faculty of Islamic Sciences and the major courses of the Islamic Studies Program. The Faculty of Islamic Sciences requires all students to enrol in the faculty’s core courses for the development of four characteristics (Abdullah, 2017; Alhamuddin et al., 2020; Gani, 2019; Sonita et al., 2021), including (a) the holistic understanding of Islam, (b) being a moderate Muslim (Wasatiyah), (c) appreciating and caring for society, and (d) entrepreneurship. To address the development of these characteristics, ten credits are allocated to four courses: • Islamic Worldview (3 credits): The course covers the holistic understanding of Islam from faith to practices; Islam with society, economy, politics, and public administration; and Islam with environments and sciences. • Wasatiyah and Peace Building (2 credits): It is a course that emphasizes the impor-

Course name Digital environment literacy Green consumption Smart math for smart life Hi! English Pen and post Thai language your language Aesthetics and sports

Credit 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 14

tance of Wasatiyah (moderation in Islam); peacebuilding in Islam; the application of the Wasatiyah principles in solving problems and conflicts in society; and Wasatiyah-­based projects to solve multicultural problems in society. • Social Awareness and Empathy (2 credits): This course encompasses the learning scope for the understanding of social needs; analysing social needs through the principles of social mapping; promoting the understanding of social problems; techniques for understanding others’ problems; attitudes in communicating with others; and taking actions for others’ benefits. • Islamic Social Entrepreneurship (3 credits): It covers the concept of entrepreneurship; strategies to start or invent a new business; crucial Islamic principles related to entrepreneurship; business plan writing; the application of social entrepreneurship for the Islamic society in the form of a social enterprise; relevant Quran verses; relevant Hadith texts; and examples of role models in the Islamic history related to social entrepreneurship. 4. The major courses of the International Program in Islamic Studies have changed considerably from single to modular courses. In the past, the curriculum employed single courses for Islamic Studies majors. For example, there were five single Quran courses: Ulum al-­Qur’an I, Ulum al-Qur’an II, Tajwid and al-­Qur’an I, Tajwid and al-Qur’an II, and Tafsir al-Qur’an. While each of these single courses was allocated with a small portion of

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credits ranging from one to three, the new combined module (i.e. the Al-Qur’an and Ulum al-­Qur’an Module) has eight credits. The primary goal for combining courses into the modules was to provide a more integrated learning experience where lecturers could team up and collaborate and students could have more time to do projects and participate in field activities when applicable. Hence, the core Islamic Studies courses were revised, and now there are five of them, including Al-­ Qur’an and Ulum al-Qur’an Module (8 credits); Al-Hadith and Ulum al-Hadith Module (8 credits); Aqidah Islamiyah and Sectarian Thought in Islam Module (8 credits); Islamic History and Civilization (6 credits); and Fiqh and Usul al-Fiqh (6 credits). In addition to the core courses on Islamic knowledge, the curriculum also offers another course on sustainable development, i.e. Islamic Sciences for Sustainable Social Development (4 credits). The course seeks to guide students through the application of Islamic principles for sustainable social development. Furthermore, there are major courses in this curriculum that serve as a tool for further applications of sustainable social development, including Islamic Education and Pedagogy (6 credits), Islamic Leadership and Management (3 credits), Social Science Research for Islamic Studies (3 credits), and Digital Technology for Islamic Learning Promotion (6 credits). 5. The elective courses were adapted to meet social context and needs, especially for the Thai society where Islamic Studies could be applied to developing and solving social problems. These courses included Application of Islam to Contemporary Social Issues (2 credits); Well-being and Gender Issues in Islam (2 credits); Strengthening, Building up Happy Families in Islam (2 credits); Islamic Child and Youth Development (2 credits); Islamic Sport, Leisure, and Art (2 credits); Islamic Elderly Care (2 credits); Islamic Early Childhood Education (2 credits); Minority Rights in Islam (2 credits); Translation for Communicating Halal Business (2 credits); Get to Know Islamic Business (5 credits);

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Zakat and Waqf Organization Management (5 credits); Halal Hotel and Tourism Management (5 credits); Internship (3 credits); and Cooperative Education (6 credits). Students are free to choose these courses to enhance their learning experiences in authentic workplace settings. The said curriculum development was considered highly challenging for the administrators and the lecturers (see Excerpts 5.5 and 5.6) because they reportedly had to take a leap of faith and much courage to move beyond the traditional work cultures and patterns in designing an Islamic Studies curriculum. Eventually, they decided to go above and beyond with their curriculum because they wanted to ensure that the students have adequate competency training to meet a social expectation: individuals should take responsibility for improving society both at the local and international levels for a sustainable future.

Excerpt 5.5 It is very challenging for a faculty for Islamic Studies to also provide career training. Compared to other Muslim countries, Thailand is facing limitations when it comes to Islamic Studies professions. What the faculty has been trying to do is to integrate Islam with common fields of knowledge and develop students with 21st-century competencies so that they could leave the university and live as a part of the society in the future. (An interview with a faculty administrator) Excerpt 5.6 The curriculum is now being revised following university policies which are to emphasize outcome-­based learning. This is very different from the methods employed in the previous revision of the curriculum, which positioned Islamic courses at the core of the curriculum. Now, we use characteristics of graduates and expectations as the curricular concept and select the corresponding Islamic Studies courses to for student development to address social needs and 21st-­ century citizenship. (An interview with a lecturer)

5  Reforming Religion-Based Higher Education for Sustainable Development: The Case of Islamic Studies…

5.3.2 Pedagogical Strategies Today’s pedagogies have tremendously changed compared to those of the past (Fornaciari & Lund Dean, 2014; Razali, 2019). Teaching for sustainable development is consistent with the twenty-­ first-­ century learner-centred education, where learning is managed in association with social issues so that students could learn to analyse real-­ world problems and innovate social solutions (Abu-Hola & Tareef, 2009; Pavlova, 2013). The International Program in Islamic Studies recognizes this concept and implements active learning by emphasizing the integration of in-class with off-class learning experiences through project-­ based learning (Nation, 2008; Yasin & Rahman, 2011). Moreover, additional experience enrichment is included through work-integrated learning, which provides opportunities for domestic and international work experiences. The programme also seeks to embrace the new normal via two forms of classes: onsite learning, including in-class and field experience sessions, and blended learning, as a combination of online and in-class sessions providing opportunities for students in remote areas or abroad to access ­ Islamic Studies classes of the Faculty of Islamic Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus. Findings revealed that the new programme was revised to contain two forms of learning, as elaborated in Fig. 5.1. The programme aligned its pedagogical strategies with the expected learning outcomes and the university’s policies on providing active learning for all courses and work-integrated learning for at least 50% of the courses. Considering the fact that most of the contents of the Islamic courses were designed for lecture-­ based learning, where lecturers’ explanations might be needed for enhanced learning accuracy,

Islamic Studies International Program (ISIP)

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pedagogies were consequently implemented in a blend comprising four primary strategies (Ahmad, 2019; Major & Palmer, 2001; McArthur, 2010; Oliver, 2015): • Critical learning, where students could actively engage in criticizing relevant issues • problem-based learning, where students could learn from authentic problems in the society, jointly invent a solution to the problem by applying Islamic knowledge, and develop a project to solve problems in their communities • Scenario-based learning, where students receive exposure to field experiences to look at real-world problems relevant the studied topics, associate them with the related Islamic teachings, help promote a better understanding for locals, and bridge between theories and real social contexts • Work-integrated learning, where students receive experience training or cooperative education to enhance their work experiences, create opportunities for future entrepreneurship and careers, and learn to apply all aspects of knowledge of Islamic Studies in real situations and contexts (see Fig. 5.2). In addition to the university’s policy on the curricular transition to outcome-based education, the Islamic Studies Curriculum (International Program) was also designed with elements to retain learners’ interest and happiness when studying Islamic Studies and create opportunities for future careers. The assertion is as reflected by some students in Excerpts 5.7 and 5.8 below: Excerpt 5.7 Studying here, you must always be busy thinking and sharing opinions. The lecturers would give

Onsite Program

3.5 - 4 Years (Onsite)

Blended Program

2 Years (Online) + 2 Years (Onsite)

Fig. 5.1  Forms of learning implemented by International Program in Islamic Studies

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78 Fig. 5.2 Pedagogical strategies for teaching Islamic Studies

Critical learning

Workintegrated learning

Pedagogical Strategies

Problembased learning

Scenariobased learning

examples of case studies and current social situations and ask us to criticize the issues and draw connections to Islamic principles while explaining. Islamic Studies can be used to explain everything, and there are plenty of suggestions to be used to solve social problems. (An interview with a student) Excerpt 5.8 Although I am enrolled in the Islamic Studies Program, I did an internship, provided services, and managed a Krabi hotel. I used my knowledge of Islam in halal, haram, management, Arabic, and English to provide services at the hotel. Muslim tourists were very pleased to see me as a Muslim student studying Islamic Studies but could also work in other work contexts outside an Islamic organization. (An interview with students in the programme)

5.3.3 Advantages and Barriers In this situation, two streams of philosophy were to be integrated into a balanced blend. The Islamic branch of philosophy, on one side, has goals for spiritual and moral growth, and

the secular branch of philosophy, on the other side, has goals to help individuals keep up with the pace of the world’s rapidly changing dynamics as modern occupations are not entirely following the same path as those of the past. Hence, revising the Islamic Studies Program creates benefits to key stakeholders, including students, lecturers, the faculty, and the university. 1. Students could study through the integrated Secular-Islamic curriculum (Lubis, 2015; Sahin, 2018), which would help them grow spiritually following the faith and teachings of Islam while exploring secular knowledge to support their occupational growth, which could enhance living stability. 2. The teaching of Islamic Studies could lead to real-world contextual applications (Hakim et al., 2020; Suleiman & Shihadeh, 2007). A problem in studying Islamic studies is that students had difficulties applying the principles to different contexts due to the lack of analytical and critical thinking skills. However, the newly revised programme is ready to bridge this gap by providing essential potential development for the students.

5  Reforming Religion-Based Higher Education for Sustainable Development: The Case of Islamic Studies…

3. Lecturers have embraced paradigm shifts and reconsidered new ways of teaching (Ajmain et  al., 2019; Kasim & Abdurajak, 2018). Lecturers in the faculty allowed time for self-­ development to ensure that they could implement modern teaching techniques. Additional self-preparation was undertaken to enhance the readiness to manage the integrated Islamic teaching based on contexts and applications. 4. The Faculty of Islamic Sciences became a model for enhancing the Islamic Studies programme in a changing social context (Said et al., 2018). The programme itself, including its structure and Secular-Islamic integrated courses, also serves as a noteworthy model as it presents curricular adaptation strategies by factoring in new teaching methods and current contexts. 5. Prince of Songkla University was able to push its faculties towards curriculum overhauls, especially in the field of Social Sciences, in an attempt to comply with ministerial policies. Furthermore, it was able to add value to programmes by increasing career opportunities for students. However, there were three significant development barriers to note: 1. The lecturers had psychological attachments with traditional teaching and Islamic pedagogical cultures influenced by Middle Eastern countries, focusing on lecture-based and teacher-centred instructions (Hakim & Zulkifli, 2021). Attitudinal transformations through understanding could consume much time and effort (Memon, 2011). 2. The time frame allocated by the university for the curriculum revision was limited. The change was considered an intervention because it came sooner than the typical 5-year revision interval. This intermittent transformation created flaws in operations and planning. Hence, further improvements and minor revisions are encouraged.

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3. Resources, including budgets and staff, are a success factor in implementing the new teaching approach (Afshari et  al., 2009; Badia et  al., 2017; Mifroh & Fatonah, 2021). Nevertheless, the availability of the resources was limited. The administrators and the university are suggested to provide essential support as needed by the programme.

5.4 Conclusion Any social transformation is known to shape educational paradigms in any context around the world. In the same vein, this is vital for Islamic Studies as it is a field including the knowledge revealed through the texts and practices of the messengers and the content to be adjusted to remain relevant. Therefore, the teaching approaches in Islamic Studies should be carefully selected to match the newly transformed society. In fact, the main essence of Islamic knowledge remains there at the heart of Islamic Studies, but the delivery methods should be reviewed, and contemporary knowledge should be considered and recognized because the local social situations progress as time goes by. The International Program in Islamic Studies at Prince of Songkla University was revised for enhanced compatibility with Thai contexts as Thailand is home to a lot of Muslim minorities. Since the state gave Muslims the freedom to study based on their faith and follow the Islamic teachings, and the Thai constitution protects this freedom, it is equally important for Muslims, as Thai citizens, to follow state policies if such policies are not against the Islamic principles. Furthermore, support and participation should be contributed to educational development that makes sense with the national context. Hence, the Islamic Studies Program at Prince of Songkla University sought to offer integrated secular-­ Islamic courses in response to the requirements raised by all parties and sectors. It aimed to preserve cultural identities embedded

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Non-hegemonic Views of Sustainability in Science Teacher Education: The Case of a University-School Collaboration in Brazil Laísa Maria Freire, Tainá F. Figueiredo, María Angélica Mejía-Cáceres, Felipe L. Braz, and Mariona Espinet

Abstract

The countries with extreme inequalities and socio-environmental vulnerabilities, as found in some contemporary Latin American Western societies, experience singular educational challenges that need localized solutions. In such a context, we present a case from pre-­ service science teacher education in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, framed within an innovative national teacher education initiative: the Program for Teaching Scholarships (PIBID/ UFRJ). In 2019, the programme focused on teaching and learning of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the area of Biology through the promotion of university-­ L. M. Freire (*) · T. F. Figueiredo · M. A. Mejía-Cáceres Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

school collaboration. The aim of this collaboration was to construct non-hegemonic views of sustainability in teacher education. The training programme was organized using an Eco-pedagogy framework including the phases of diagnosis, formative action, and generative dialogue. The participant pre-­ service science teachers designed and implemented school activities in two contexts: science clubs and school neighbourhoods, which facilitated the expansion of traditional school practices. As the outcomes of this collaboration, three competencies for teaching SDGs have been identified: (a) teaching science through socio-environmental conflict situations and social injustice to connect science and environmental content; (b) adhesion to processes of identification of social transformation in terms of individual or collective implications; and (c) valuing of aesthetic and affective dimensions in the process of teacher education.

F. L. Braz Municipal Chile School, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil e-mail: [email protected]

6.1 Introduction

M. Espinet Autonomous University of Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain e-mail: [email protected]

Current global issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, floods, poverty, inequality, and other socio-environmental problems result-

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_6

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ing from the overexploitation and the irrational culture-nature relationship (Ángel-Maya, 1997; Noguera, 2004) affect societies differently. Emerging countries with extreme inequalities and socio-environmental vulnerabilities, as found in some contemporary Latin American Western societies, experience singular educational challenges that need localized solutions. Historically, environmental crises generated social movements for the protection of nature, touching different dimensions of society, including education. According to UNESCO (ONU, 2015), Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aims at empowering learners of all ages with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to address the interconnected global challenges we are facing. ESD is recognized as an integral element of the SDG4 on quality education. The international guidelines on ESD explain that environmental issues need to consider the participation of all citizens and each person needs to have access to information and knowledge about the environment. Science teachers have an important role to play in the development of ESD interventions that question the interaction between science education and Environmental Education (EE). Mejía-Cáceres (2019) states that there are two different ways to establish relationships between science education and EE. The first is the inclusion relationship, which means that EE is inside of science education, aiming to offer scientific literacy and generate interest in science. The other is the association relationship, which is based on the consideration that EE is a field that is in dialogue with the science education field and whose final objective is the exercise of citizenship. From this last perspective, we can discuss the limitations of the concept of environmental citizenship as stated in Latin American literature and support the notion of ecological meta-­ citizenship (Gudynas, 2009). This notion embraces a diversity of visions having common non-hegemonic views of sustainability that establish deep connections between the ecological context and the social practices. In this regard, it is necessary to provide a discussion on non-­ hegemonic views on sustainability and environ-

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mental citizenship and on the way to enforce a critical interpretation of the SDGs. While doing so, we can help science teachers understand the local and global interrelationships of complex socio-environmental problems and multiple dimensions that encompass power and culture as key categories. In Brazil, we assume that EE is concerned with sustainability issues and propose to maintain EE as an inclusive expression. However, we are aware that in the international community, the approach in EE might refer to either education for sustainable development, environmental education, or sustainability education. These have some historical and epistemological differences, but with EE we are reinforcing the concern with political and critical views of socio-­ environmental crises and resultant practices of education. In EE, we address a possibility to overcome the crisis and suggest elaborating this in a dialogue with a Global South approach. Therefore, in this dialogue, the process of teacher education for sustainability must consider local contexts and vulnerabilities and thus contribute to the construction of local citizenship. Despite global orientations, we consider that the SDGs are neither universal nor plural voices of the Global South. In this chapter, we present the case of pre-­ service science teacher education programme at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) framed within an innovative national teacher education initiative developed by the CAPES Foundation within the Ministry of Education in Brazil: the Program for Teaching Scholarships (PIBID/UFRJ). This programme aims at promoting university and school partnerships to improve the quality of teacher education through the development of school experiences. In 2019, the programme focused on the teaching and learning of the SDGs in the area of biology education. The case aims at providing a description and in-depth examination of the construction process of non-­ hegemonic views on sustainability in pre-service science teacher education. To do so, we first develop the framework that has supported the design and implementation of the university-­ school collaboration. Second, we provide a con-

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textual background on teacher education in Brazil, the status of education for sustainability in the teacher education curriculum, and the aims and strategies of the PIBID/UFRJ programme. Third, we identify the diversity of actors involved within the collaboration and describe extensively the pre-service science teacher education activities, the outcomes, and the difficulties experienced when engaging in the construction of non-hegemonic views on sustainability. Finally, three competencies for teaching SDGs that are necessary to enforce non-hegemonic views of sustainability in schools are presented based on the experience accumulated in the 2-year project implementation.

6.2 Theoretical Framework 6.2.1 Views on Sustainability Herremans and Reid (2002) explained that sustainability could be understood as a triad having as components economic values, sociocultural values, and environmental values, so wherever a project, activity, or educational process based on the sustainability concept exists, it aims to maintain, support, or search for harmony among the three main dimensions. In 2015, the UN (re)launched a campaign for global sustainability through the SDGs that reflect a sustainability pact featuring a global environmental agenda and goals that signatory countries must meet by 2030. These actions imply creating awareness, acquiring knowledge, and mobilizing actions to ensure more social justice and preservation of the environment. However, to get social and environmental justice, it is necessary to assume a critical perspective, and the 2030 agenda does not question the current model of growth and development based on the capitalist model. It is characterized by practices that create and reproduce inequalities and socio-environmental injustices. Additionally, the 2030 agenda is committed to value more scientific and technological development to “solve” environmental issues. We characterize this as the

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hegemonic discourse, which tries to connect all sectors but has weak viability since the root of the system of exploitation and commodification of life does not change and the most vulnerable communities continue to be excluded from this so-called development. The global agendas have had local developments and penetration in the educational spheres also, influencing teaching curricula and educational programmes. However, we consider that such an approach conveys a hegemonic view of sustainability in the educational programmes. Hegemony involves ethical-cultural issues, expressions of knowledge, practices, modes of representation, and models of authority aimed at legitimizing and universalizing to destroy or overcome beliefs and feelings that have a cultural and institutional character (Gramsci, 1984, 2000). According to Sund and Öhman (2014), ESD brings a hegemonic perspective because it reflects a cosmopolitan universalist approach and normativity in sustainable development, leading to the “domestication” of citizens through an educational process that reproduces the neoliberal system. It ignores local realities when citizens are “thinking globally”, considering that ESD is worldwide. Sund and Öhman (2014) also discuss that “when developing Environmental and Sustainability Education, governments and institutions must account for how universal sustainable ideals are culturally translated in specific environments and how dissonant political and ethical voices need to be reflected in the educational encounter” (p. 17). This means that sustainability education needs to report, interpret, and explain the ways in which hegemonic discourses are constructed and the practices that are dim, hidden, or passive. Also, the need to be considered is the discourses and practices that are in a constant struggle to be recognized and socially transformed, such as gender disparities, racism, local knowledges, indigenous knowledges, and environmental justice. When ESD focuses on developing a critical understanding of sustainable development in students, it helps to generate dissonance in social practices (Walshe, 2016). Introducing the issues

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of sustainable development as matters of public concern helps to encourage a participatory and pluralistic approach to societal debate, contributing to democratic education. In this context, Mbah (2019) explains how local communities can be involved in fostering the positioning and engagement of universities in sustainable development agendas regionally. This research emphasizes the importance of recognizing and incorporating voices from disparate backgrounds in the community, and universities can engage with community and research that tackles both global and local concerns. Practices that involve students in collaboration between school-university and local people are a win-win situation because this kind of experience can instigate local sustainable development and recognize the role of the connection with the territory, giving students an experiential learning opportunity. Another example is Olsson and Gericke’s (2017) study, which aimed to extend previous EE research on gender differences by investigating whether there was a difference between boys’ and girls’ consciousness of sustainable development, including economic and social issues. They have a theoretical assumption that curricular programmes based on ESD promote equality and reduce possible gender gaps, based on a UN Global Actions Program on ESD and the literature review. Achieving these aims requires changing the conception of education as a process of knowledge and value transmission – based only on scientific knowledge. As a non-hegemonic view of ESD, Walshe (2016) argues that “even when they [English schools] can develop a broader and more nuanced understanding of the dimensions of sustainability, they are still often unable (or unwilling) to recognize its relevance to their own lives” (p. 1131). For Walshe, it is necessary to establish a pedagogy to develop a more holistic understanding of sustainability. In addition, she uses a theoretical assumption of Agyeman’s (2013) definition of sustainability, where the concept fully integrates with the notion of social justice and acknowledges its cultural and place-bound nature. Walshe (2016) suggests an interdisciplinary approach using poetry within the context of a

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geography lesson finding that has significant potential to provide students with the opportunity to engage critically and effectively with issues of sustainability. Van Poeck et al. (2014) examined how three educational practices were struggling with the democratic paradox and its ambiguities and how to deal with it. As a finding, they argue that ESD implies “creating time and space to thoroughly study sustainability issues and to articulate, explore and confront the multiplicity of attachments at stake. What is required, then, is to make room for the enactment and investigation of attachments of participants, educators as well as people affected by sustainability issues” (p. 18). We understand how different conceptions of ESD can guide the practice of sustainability from a non-hegemonic perspective, which implies engagement with social justice, dialogue with local/community knowledge, and critical thinking as pedagogical strategies. These characteristics demand the development of a notion of local citizenship bonded to the territory, assuming the dimension of conflicts of interest in the society.

6.2.2 Environmental Citizenship Concepts or notions of citizenship are also inhabited by hegemonic or insurgent views and are also part of the educational debate. In the Brazilian democratic context, education is understood as a locus (space/path) for the exercise of citizenship. It is one of the objectives of education, established in the Law of Directives and Bases of Education (Brasil, 1996) and the policies in the National Policy of Environmental Education (Brasil, 1999). Specifically, in the National Policy of Environmental Education, the term “citizenship” is part of two objectives associated with the defence of environmental quality and the strengthening or maintenance of humanity. There is an appreciation for individual and collective participation of citizens in society, and it was established that EE must be present in all educational processes, generating demand for schools and teacher education processes oriented towards citizenship.

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The idea of citizenship ​​ has been built historically, and it is related to belonging to a state/ nation and the possibility of social participation and having rights. In modernity, from changes in the conception of the state, the individual became responsible for their own existence and emancipation: they ceased to be only a subject of obligations and became a subject of rights (Alvarenga, 2010), which is a way of mediating the individual-­ state relationship and other individuals. These rights can be individual, civil, political, social, and economic, which are related to the quality of life among human beings and the common good, such as rights to environmental quality, peace, fraternity, and self-determination of people (Garcia, 2008). However, the concept of citizenship has exclusion and inequality in its constitution (Alvarenga, 2010), since despite having an equal value/intention, its exercise has not been guaranteed for everyone; for example, women, enslaved people, and children had no rights. Historically, the existence of rights has been linked not only to the current political model but also to social movements, since several groups have won rights through struggles (Afro-descendants won the right to freedom and to not be enslaved and women won the right to vote). This means that social movements are necessary to get social rights, because history shows that the state has not given rights to the community in a spontaneous way. In fact, it is a dialectical relationship between the sociopolitical structure (the state) and actions of social movements. In the contemporary context, after the institutionalization of these rights, there are still many individuals who do not have their constitutional and fundamental rights guaranteed; therefore, they are prevented from exercising citizenship or exercising equality with other citizens (Alvarenga, 2010). Data from the Human Rights Watch Report (2020) and Global Justice data related to human rights in the period from 2018 to 2020 (Comitê Brasileiro de Defensoras e Defensores de Direitos Humanos, 2020) recorded human rights violations in Brazil, other countries in the Global South, and the world. These violations have been enhanced by the rise of authoritarian

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governments and have included the murders of environmentalists, human rights defenders, indigenous, and “quilombola” (people of African descent); violence against women and children; poverty and homelessness; attacks on the press (the media); and environmental degradation. Thus, the existence of rights is a great advance, but alone they do not guarantee the exercise of citizenship. Citizenship involves power, disputes, and impermanence, and it is a polysemic concept; it relates to a democratic model; it is influenced by local and global discourses (Pinhão & Martins, 2016); and it is built (Arroyo, 2010) and maintained in social daily life. In this “arena of meanings”, Alvarenga (2010) calls attention to the naturalization of unequal citizenships due to the increase in globalization and neoliberal political practices. In this context, citizenship is influenced by the ideology of consumption and competition, since those who have more capital have more possibilities for their exercise. As Gudynas (2019) points out, this reduces the exercise of citizenship to the individual sphere and privileges individual rights to collectives since people are considered individual agents and consumers who use natural rights and resources. Thus, environmental degradation is also related to the reduction of citizenship and social participation for the construction of a common good, due to the privilege of individual and commercial interests and unequal conditions of participation, whether through knowledge, power, or access to spaces. The capitalistic system and injustice scenario has motivated the existence of the term “environmental citizenship”, which is centred on the relationship between the environment and citizenship and individual responsibility for environmental preservation. The perspective of environmental citizenship is close to that of human rights and focuses on defending the right to environmental quality and environmental justice for the health of the human population in dialogue with the concept of citizenship and classic political subjects. In Latin America, this concept is present in government institutions related to environmental management and EE and in environmental movements with different discourses (Gudynas, 2009).

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Despite collaborating in the fight against environmental degradation, there has been criticism about the maintenance of an anthropocentric, utilitarian, and dual view of nature. For Gudynas (2019), the concept of citizenship is important to ensuring the rights of vulnerable social groups, but its classic, Western, and positivist origins do not include the cultural diversity present in Latin American countries. Non-hegemonic worldviews can have different understandings of rights and justice so that the construct of citizenship based on civil and economic rights is rendered meaningless. In addition, Gudynas highlights the centrality of human beings, with nature protected in the service of human development, the maintenance of human-­ nature separation, and the homogenizing vision present in this concept. Therefore, Gudynas (2009, 2019) proposes the construction of ecological meta-citizenships, as a broad perspective of citizenships. These citizenships are based on plurality, multiculturalism, territories, and a biocentric vision, with the notion of belonging to a community, a territory, and nature being important elements. In this perspective, there is a rupture of the limits of state and nation and an appreciation of communities: Each social group and each ecosystem is considered singular. People build different relationships with the territories in which they live, and their ecological characteristics influence social dynamics. In this way, the possibility of other individual and social values ​​from different places in the urban context is recognized. From where the classic concept of citizenship originates and from the construction of different political subjects, nature is considered a subject of rights, not attendant to human well-being. Thus, considering the neoliberal context and the polysemy of the term citizenship, we ask ourselves: What citizenship do we exercise in the pedagogical processes? This reflection is important since these different meanings are also materialized in didactic materials (Vilanova, 2013), in the discourse of teachers, and in educational policies. In science education, there has been a debate about the importance of training individuals who are capable of active and informed participation in the decision-making

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processes in the face of the democratic model; however, there are different discourses (Vilanova, 2013). In this sense, as for the debate about the role of education for the exercise of citizenship, Arroyo (2010) considers the elitist understanding of education as a requirement for citizenship. It is based on the modern classic liberal discourse and positivism and associates the image of a citizen with that of a subject who has learned to be a citizen, rational and socialized. For them, this discourse promotes “harmonious social coexistence” and the acceptance of the moral right that reinforces inequalities. Pinhão and Martins (2016) also criticized this, as these discourses reinforce technocratic hegemonies of decision-making, adaptation to the situation of oppression, and obscure the existing conflicts in society. Based on the incompleteness of the classic concept of citizenship and its unequal exercise in the current sociopolitical context (Alvarenga, 2010; Gudynas, 2019), it is important that pedagogical processes get closer to social struggles and that conflicts and inequalities are part of the curriculum. Furthermore, Vilanova (2013) highlights the need to be attentive to citizenship discourses to strengthen democracy and social participation, with political participation in training and research processes being a path indicated by Pinhão and Martins (2016) for social emancipation. Given this, with social justice and sustainability of all forms of life as a horizon, teacher education and school systems are powerful social spaces for the formation of historical subjects that are aware of the oppression (Freire, 1981) and rights. This is an essential nutrient for the elaboration of citizenships based on local particularities, as the Global South has very diverse socio-environmental and political contexts. Although the field of education is influenced by the development model as well as global speeches and initiatives, it is necessary to build critical visions of hegemonic and global discourses and local-global dialogues aimed at strengthening local territories. In this sense, the curriculum as a space of power, discourses, and practices (Silva, 2019) can cover different epistemologies and cul-

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tures from a multidimensional and multicultural view (Gudynas, 2009). In doing so, it can become a space for debate and dialogue on the demands of the territories to build knowledge and subjectivities that collaborate to strengthen existing rights and to build possibilities for the emergence of ecological meta-citizenships.

6.3 Context 6.3.1 Science Teacher Education in Brazil The Federal Constitution of 1988, with Constitutional Amendment No. 14, and the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB), established by Law No. 9394, both in 1996, are the main laws that regulate the current Brazilian educational system. The current structure of the formal education system (Fig.  6.1) comprises basic education  – formed by preschool, elementary and secondary education  – and higher education. According to current legislation, it is incumbent upon municipalities to

Fig. 6.1  Structure of Brazilian education system

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act primarily in primary and early childhood education and the states and the federal district in primary and secondary education. The federal government (national government) exercises a redistributive and supplementary function, being responsible for providing technical and financial assistance to the states, the federal district, and the municipalities. In addition, the federal government is responsible for organizing the higher education system. Based on the guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Brazil, universities must provide the initial teacher education to teachers in elementary, middle, and high schools, while in-service teacher education should be provided by the state and/or by municipal departments of education jointly with schools and universities. These statements are due to the history of teacher education in Brazil. During the 1930s, teachers were trained in undergraduate courses. At that time, colleges of philosophy, science, and letters were founded at universities with the duty/responsibility of offering academic disciplines of education (Andrade et  al., 2004; Saviani, 2009; Villani et al., 2007). In that period,

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full bachelor of education degrees were born that had, in general, curricular structures that privileged and valued “scientific” subjects to the detriment of the “pedagogical” ones. The undergraduate courses were founded on “technical rationality” (Schön, 1983). In the 1960s, with the University Reforms in Brazil that, among other structural changes, extinguished the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters, a new rationality appeared that permeated teacher education courses known as practical rationality (Schön, 1983). In this perspective, the teacher is no longer just the “applicator” of techniques and becomes a reflective subject, who dialogues with their own practice and, in this process, produces the knowledge necessary for the exercise of the professional practice. In Brazil, experiences in and for practice began to get space in the teacher education curricula when public training policies began to value preparation for the profession within the practice (Nóvoa, 2009). From their experience, teachers consider various aspects such as the public/subject/audience, their life history, and their relationships with other professionals. Practical experience in teaching changes the identity of the teacher as a professional (Aristizabal & García-Martínez, 2017; Tardif & Raymond, 2000). However, the paradigm of technical rationality gave way to the understanding of the educational phenomenon as produced socially and culturally, which led to significant changes in the ways of producing pedagogical knowledge. Critical rationality’s intent was to broaden the debate on educational action, bringing political and critical elements to the discussion (Diniz-­ Pereira, 2014). In this approach, a teacher is thought of as a professional who, when questioning the concepts of society, citizenship, and education, for example, produces theoretical and practical knowledge. With this, it is expected that teachers build their own ways of understanding the formative processes and, thus, theorize and act in the transformation of reality. Marcondes (1999) discussed two kinds of problems in Brazilian teacher education programmes: (i) students frequently fail to establish

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relations between the theory that has been learned in courses taken in training institutions and the practice in schools, and (ii) they often ignore the kind of practical knowledge and expertise that some of the successful teachers have developed through their experience as teachers. These problems exist to this day, which necessitates different strategies and policies to overcome them in progressive and neoliberal governments. Villani et  al. (2007) point out that universities have a responsibility to adapt their guidelines to the effective reality of teachers’ initial education and to implement such guidelines at schools, inventing the actual possibilities of collaboration with schools and their teachers. With respect to science teacher education, Nascimento et  al. (2010) consider that “during this period [the 90s], the proposals for the pre-­ service education of science teachers also began to incorporate, at least in their pedagogical projects, the existing relations between science, technology, and society. It was hoped to overcome the transmission of scientific facts and concepts and the offer of didactic techniques and to enable future teachers to critically understand the aspects that guided their educational practices and the ideologies that governed society and education” (p. 237). Some educational reforms that had originated in the USA and the UK (Mejía-Cáceres & Freire, 2021) were implemented in Brazil and other Latin American countries at the end of the 1990s. In Brazil, liberal ideals found a place in the curriculum reform, and the educational proposal was subordinated to the Ministry of Education and some universities to be sure that the education process answered industrial and economic interests. However, teachers recognized the oppression by the state and started to consider the classroom as their place of autonomy, and for that it was necessary to develop critical thinking through the formation of teachers. A principal strategy to achieve this inside the schools was the development of proposals for the education of science teachers reflecting on educational practice and the existing links between education and the sociopolitical and socio-economic context (Nascimento et al., 2010). From that time to the

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present, pre-service science teacher education has been considered a strategic activity within the scope of educational policies, resistance to the hegemonic process, and a place for social transformation. In an inquiry approach to understanding the context of science teacher education in Brazil, we attempt to consider some questions. What epistemological approach of science teacher education requires the teacher to value practical knowledge? How can we promote the development of teaching identities and their relationship with theory and practice? What models of teacher education are the most pertinent in light of the SDGs?

6.3.2 Education for Sustainability in Pre-service Science Teacher Education Curriculum Education for sustainability in the curriculum of pre-service science teacher education is identified in undergraduate courses associated with EE.  In Brazil, the National Environmental Education Policy (Brasil, 1999) establishes that the insertion of EE is part of all pedagogical processes, which is a demand for both schools and universities. In pre-service science teacher education, EE is inserted in different ways in the curriculum depending on the educational institution. These different forms include participation in extension projects (Juliani & Freire, 2016), inclusion of an EE-specific discipline (Figueiredo et  al., 2020), EE being present in an interdisciplinary way in all subjects of a course, and presentation of specific programmes in inter-institutional collaboration, as is the case presented here. Sustainability within the field of EE has emerged as an indispensable theme for education. Therefore, it is important to work on it in all its complexity, understanding school as a noosphere of a critical appropriation of cultural content by the subjects as a way of promoting a transformative social practice (Teixeira et  al., 2017). An effective EE approach needs to be built from a matrix that sees education as a political subject of social transformation that provides

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dialogue and the exercise of citizenship (Loureiro et al., 2004). Tozzoni-Reis (2001) characterizes gaps in the training of Brazilian teachers who are engaged with EE in schools. Despite recognizing that these teachers receive a theoretical-­ methodological training that adds a critical and transforming perspective of EE, their professional practices do not always correspond to a transformative one. In the same direction, De Araújo and Pedrosa (2014) investigated pre-­ service biology teachers’ perceptions about the difficulties of including education for sustainability in science teaching. These authors identified the interdisciplinarity of environmental issues, the need for a cultural change, and pollution as the most difficult topics. Within the scope of the school curriculum, one of the justifications for the absence of EE and discussions on sustainability has been identified as teachers’ lack of contact with the themes in their formal training (Ferreira et al., 2019; Silva & Pontes, 2020).

6.3.3 The Program for Teaching Scholarships (PIBID/UFRJ) The Institutional Program for Teaching Scholarships (PIBID) was created in 2007, led by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), an agency of the Ministry of Education. The PIBID is a governmental action that promotes partnerships of universities with the state and municipal education secretaries in order to promote teacher education through the development of school experiences. The programme, which is a strategy of the National Education Plan, has important recognition by the researchers in teachers’ colleges of public and national universities and stands out as an innovation in teacher education in Brazil (BRASIL.  PNE, 2014). The teacher education process takes place through the design and implementation of educational activities carried out at a school supervised by a schoolteacher and coordinated by a university researcher. The programme is offered across the country of Brazil, and each university presents an institutional pro-

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posal in a public call for projects by CAPES with several action centres linked to different undergraduate careers (http://portal.mec.gov.br/pibid).

6.4 The Case The institutions, as the key actors, involved in this case of university-school collaboration were the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the Biology Institute, the Municipal Secretary of Education of Rio de Janeiro, and the Escola Municipal Chile. The PIBID programme at the UFRJ reported in this case started in August 2018 and ended in January 2020.

6.4.1 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro UFRJ, within the scope of the PIBID/UFRJ, proposes the development of specific actions in public schools of basic education based on the definition of work plans that contemplate local needs and realities. The execution of the projects favours collective work by teams in each school. The undergraduate courses are elements for the illumination of actions that expand and improve the teacher education process. The programme aims to promote a noosphere organized as a teacher education complex that involves schools, state and municipal secretaries of education in Rio de Janeiro, professors from the university, and several institutes in the university committed to teacher education processes. The importance of this programme at the UFRJ expanded when the university institutionalized the participation of the Institutional Coordinator of PIBID/UFRJ as a member of the Permanent Committee of the “Complexo de Formação de Professores” (teacher education complex) of the university. In the UFRJ, the programme was implemented in several colleges of education in undergraduate courses such as Arts, Physics, Geography, Language (Portuguese, English, and Spanish), Math, Pedagogy, and Biology. Each area was formed by a nucleus with a minimum of 3 area

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coordinators (professors from u­ niversity/ researchers from the university), 3 supervisors (secondary school teachers) and 30 undergraduate students (pre-service teachers). The case presented in this chapter includes the Escola Municipal Chile, the only school participating in the biology nucleus that had sustainability as a central theme. The authors of the chapter were participants in the case: a professor at the university and collaborators in the research group from Biology Institute and the science teacher at the school.

6.4.2 Pre-service Biology Teachers The Bachelor’s Degree Program in Teaching Biology/Biology Education at the UFRJ is offered in two modalities: presential and distance learning. The presence of EE in the curriculum of each modality is different. While EE is an obligatory requirement in the distance learning modality, it is a transversal theme in the presential modality being taught in ecology and elective courses. Both modalities share the possibility for students to engage in EE projects related to extension university experiences. The approach of EE in the PIBID/UFRJ programme as part of the curriculum of the Bachelor’s Degree in Teaching Biology/Biology Education is an innovative and singular experience in UFRJ. As actors, we selected ten pre-service science teachers, seven from the presential and three from the distance learning modalities from the Bachelor’s Degree Program in Teaching Biology/Biology Education (three male and seven female). Three participants dropped out during the study, leaving seven at the end of the cycle.

6.4.3 Municipal Secretary of Education of Rio de Janeiro The Municipal Secretary of Education of Rio de Janeiro is the administrative structure of the municipality that elaborates the educational policies of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. The

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Secretary is also responsible for all school management processes from early childhood education to youth and adult education. This management relies on the collaboration/partnership of several other public and private institutions. UFRJ has a history of relations with the Secretary, through different projects and especially through the newly formed teacher education complex of the university. Specifically, from the Management of Elementary School II (sixth to ninth grade), a professor from UFRJ received a request to develop a teacher education process for teachers working in schools administrated by the Secretary (about 500 schools). For this case study, we chose to work with one school that has already had a history of concrete actions and established partnerships within the PIBID programme.

6.4.4 Escola Municipal Chile Escola Municipal Chile is a school located in a low socio-economic region on the north side of the city serving low- and middle-income communities. At the time of the study, the school had approximately 300 elementary school students. The religious diversity and the community where the students live influence their habits, attitudes, and worldview, and several diverse family structures are observed. The school has a single shift with music as a theme, which allows students to have training that is different from the norm in other municipal schools since they have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and access to culture. The potential of this school for helping to reach the SDGs is that it could provide students with resources and assistance and interested teachers with an opportunity to transform everyday life in the school and the surrounding area. This population is also clearly diverse in terms of culture, social background, and religion, and the school has an interest in engaging in the projects about sustainability that involve culture and arts, which favoured the accomplishment of

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the non-hegemonic view of sustainability. One member of the secondary science teacher staff was the supervisor of the project in the school. The students that directly participated in the ­project were from seventh to ninth grade (12– 15  years of age), forming a group of about 50 students at the school.

6.5 Activities 6.5.1 Pre-service Science Teachers’ Training Activities The objectives of the project included the following: • Develop didactic-pedagogical innovations for teaching science in nature and biology from the singularities and demands of schools in collaborative work in different educational spaces. • Strengthen the licensees’ professional identities, providing contact with different realities of teaching, allowing exchanges that enrich their training, based on the principle of horizontality. • Bringing undergraduates and schools closer to current discussions in education including the national curriculum guidelines. • Familiarize bachelor’s students with new methodologies and with the development of teaching materials applied to multidisciplinary knowledge. • Articulate initial and continuing education as a strategy for building teacher education policies. The participant pre-service science teachers regularly planned educational materials based on local socio-environmental conflicts and implemented them following an adaptation of the Eco-­ pedagogy framework (Payne et  al., 2018) that included the stages of diagnosis, formative action, and generative dialogue.

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6.5.2 Diagnosis in the Escola Municipal Chile The diagnosis was performed through the SWOT (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) matrix (Gürel, 2017) by the pre-service science teachers during their first months at school. They observed the school functioning/courses and wrote personal narratives in their diaries. Accordingly, EE as a curricular component and the centre of EE that existed before the implementation of the project were considered as the strengths. A school vegetable garden was noted as a thing that could be potentialized. The elective courses as free spaces to plan an EE approach in the curriculum and the annual science fair were counted as both a strength and an opportunity. Finally, the teacher-student relationship, which the pre-service science teachers considered important in the teaching-learning process, was marked as important in their notes. In the second analysis, the pre-service science teachers presented common points that were considered threats or weaknesses as the themes considered “delicate” in the school space: teacher-student and student-student relationships by showing that values and attitudes are present in everyday science education and that teaching science is more than teaching conceptual contents. In the notes, they characterized the weaknesses and threats as the erasures, silences, and exclusions that the ethos of the school reinforces, either by not addressing a topic or by addressing it in a shallow way. Themes such as homophobia, sexuality, and religions of African origin were some examples of the issues.

6.5.3 Formative Actions with Pre-­ service Science Teachers Regular meetings were held with the pre-service science teachers twice a month, which provided opportunities to gain knowledge and have discussions about the 2030 Agenda (ONU, 2015) as well as the objectives and the principles of EE. The meetings also allowed reflections on the general competencies of science teachers. After

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the diagnosis, we performed a 3-day workshop at the university to elaborate educational actions. Additionally, a video-making workshop was developed in a partnership with the Educational Video Laboratory (NUTES/UFRJ). The educational actions were designed and developed by the pre-service science teachers (see Table 6.1). A plan was made for 15 weekly meetings (45 minutes each) for each educational action. The students were divided into 2 groups of 4 pre-service science teachers, and 15–17 students were assigned to each group, science clubs and school neighbourhoods. The meetings took place in the first and second semesters but with different students. They were held in the disciplinary space planned for the educational actions. School Neighbourhoods Escola Municipal Chile is located in the sub-­ basin of the Irajá River in Rio de Janeiro and has the Nunes River as a tributary that flows close to the school. The river is 3600 metres long, with a source in an area that belongs to the state of Rio de Janeiro in the Olaria neighbourhood and ends at Guanabara Bay. In this educational context, we discussed school neighbourhoods through water-­ related issues, project-based learning, and placed-­ based education. The central actions started from the collection and analysis of water samples from the Nunes River. Together with the school’s students, a pre-service teacher collected water samples at two points, one closer to the school and the other closer to the river source. The process was recorded using photos and videos. The undergraduate students analysed the samples (dissolved oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus) in the limnology laboratory of the university’s Biology Institute. The students related the differences between the points and discussed questions about socio-environmental vulnerability, access to housing, and quality of life for the population living in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro and gentrification processes and precarious services depending on the city sector. Discussing sustainability at school is significant to recognize and characterize social injustices that lead to unsustainable conditions. The activity prompted students to get out of the ordi-

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Table 6.1  School neighbourhoods and science clubs as educational contexts Educational contexts School neighbourhoods

Science clubs

Objectives Characterize the pollution of the Nunes River, which is located close to the school and the challenges to achieve sustainability goals at the local level

Develop teaching-learning practices on sustainability

Central ideas of sustainability Clean water and sanitation Climate action on floods Urban inequalities Overcome violence in suburban area to ensure well-being Quality education Mobilization for sustainable cities and communities Reflection regarding responsible consumption and production, absence of consumption Life on land (rainforests and urban space)

nary and have the opportunity to investigate, analyse, and compare socio-environmental problems in the field (see Appendix). During the process, the students were able to perform a role-playing activity, think about a situation involving an environmental crime, and expose their arguments about the roles of social actors in facing environmental issues. Thus, they were able to perform inquiry, address a problem, and create solutions using different areas of knowledge such as biology, chemistry, physics, geography, history, and the local culture itself. In doing so, they developed integrated and complex processes to treat environmental issues and prepared proposals for sustainability and mobilization actions in the school environment involving the residents and each social actor in the management of river basins in the urban areas. Science Clubs In this educational context, we developed teaching-­learning practices on sustainability considering a broader view of the theme. We aimed to overcome the historical gap between practice and theory and proposed some activities to address the SDGs that articulated both scientific knowledge and EE to discuss local contexts of

SGD competencies Recognition of a local environmental problems; recognition of injustice and socio-environmental vulnerability; positioning exercise and taking actions for environmental management

Articulation and systematization of the socio-environmental phenomena based on scientific knowledge and EE associated with local contexts Education for action Development of sense of belonging and empathy

socio-environmental phenomena. The students were guided towards a sense of belonging and empathy through the activities and experiences in the school (see Appendix). In addition, responsible consumption or absence of consumption (which is supported by many students) generated debates and reflections about the gaps that need to be overcome to change the society. As a central activity in the second educational context, we created a board game to introduce the SDGs to the students (see Appendix). This game was made almost entirely of reused canvas material, where the pieces that move within it are the students themselves. The objective of the game was to present the principles and targets of the SDGs. In addition, they worked on other activities, including the production of seedlings for the school garden. In this activity, we discussed the use and access to land as a way of eradicating hunger and poverty and reducing inequalities. We also worked on the reuse of materials found around the school, such as tires, rubber hoses, and canvas from banners. These materials were used by the students to make furniture for the school and ecological bags. We used theatre for the students (Coelho, 2014) to develop their kinaesthetic intelligence, using the body as a form of

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expression. The theme of the staging was about the local effects of the pollution of the Nunes River and aimed to contextualize a fictitious environmental problem generated by a fertilizer company. The case sparked a debate about liability for environmental damages. In the debate, we had a judge, prosecutors, lawyers, and witnesses discussing the issue. Other issues such as belonging, quality of life, and community mobilization were also in the framework of discussions.

6.6 Insights 6.6.1 Generative Dialogue: Outcomes and Difficulties The notion of generative dialogue or generative issues (Freire & Rodrigues, 2020) is inspired by the Freirean concept of generating themes, understood as themes with great potential for expanding into many other themes, discussions, and actions, regardless of the nature of their understanding or conceptualization (Freire, 1981). As generative issues, we emphasize the potential for the transfer (non-generalization) of the proposed response to the SDGs in the teacher education process to point out different questions and challenges in different contexts of EE. They contribute to show the intentionality of the educational process and the resignification of the science teacher education curriculum towards practical experiences at school. We hope that science teachers trained in this perspective can act differently when working with their classes. We identified that teaching science as a school subject using an ESD and EE approach enabled the insertion of the local socio-environmental issues into schools and university classrooms. The activities included macro- and micro-aspects of the current socio-environmental situation, starting from the school and the Nunes River to the environmental impacts on Brazilian biomes and social inequality. This point indicates a view of the environment beyond the ecological dimension and brings contextual and territorial demands to the teaching practices and training of undergraduate students when building social and envi-

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ronmental belonging and commitment. Such approaches are not often part of the curriculum in undergraduate bachelor of teaching biology ­programmes. In addition, it helps to break the idea that ​​science is strictly linked to technique and concepts and strengthens science education committed to social transformation (Arroyo, 2010; Pinhão & Martins, 2016). Description of the activities allowed showing that traditional school practices associated with the SDGs such as food gardens, waste management, or migration were being mobilized. This was possible thanks to establishing connections with the processes of deterritorialization, political domination, exploitation, and the extermination of human and non-human beings. As such, the actions proposed by the pre-service science teachers facilitated the expansion of the traditional school practices: (a) the school vegetable garden included a reflection related to food sovereignty; (b) migration processes focused on discussions about identity and belonging to the neighbourhood; and (c) waste reuse and recycling were the starting point to understand and discuss the society of consumption and exploitation. These experiences in the school reveal that educational processes oriented towards a pedagogical action committed to socio-environmental changes are required. As De Oliveira et al. (2020) suggest, such a school programme could positively influence the sophistication of the students’ notions of sustainability. The actions also allowed the pre-service students to experience the day-to-day life of a school, providing a full teaching experience involving classroom planning and executing activities inside and outside the school in two protected areas in Rio de Janeiro city. We also observed an increase in scientific production with presentation and publication of the experience in workshops by the pre-service teachers. As for the difficulties encountered, the pre-­ service science teachers pointed out the lack of resources to carry out the activities inside and outside the school, the lack of internet access at the school, and the change and reduction in the number of pre-service science teachers by the end of the project due to personal reasons.

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6.6.2 Competencies for Teaching SDGs

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Student Diary 1 As a result of the project regarding students, we realized that, at the end of it, the students were The collaboration between universities and much more interested in social and environmenschools aiming to construct non-hegemonic tal issues and began to realize how important the views on sustainability activated the development discussion on sustainability in urban areas is. We of the key competencies for teaching SDGs for obtained testimony from students who, after the pre-service science teachers. These teaching beginning of the project, started talking about competencies include the following: (a) teaching sustainability and adhering to sustainable pracscience through socio-environmental conflict sit- tices in their family environment. We also noticed uations and social injustice to connect science that compared to the beginning of the activities, and environmental content, (b) adhesion to pro- at the end, the students were much closer to the cesses of identification of social transformation pre-service science teacher [us] and this made it in terms of individual or collective implications, easier for some activities to have a better develand (c) valuing of aesthetic and affective dimen- opment in the classroom. […] Having the opporsions in the process of teacher education. tunity to deal with students from an The vignettes from three students’ diaries in underprivileged area [from low-income social each section provide an illustration of the pro- classes] within Rio de Janeiro allowed us to have gramme’s contribution to the construction of a a broad vision of what education is and how it fits science teacher identity as a political subject that into the daily lives of students, its importance to is actively involved in both the debate about society, and its applications for transformation of nature and the common good and the reinterpre- a population. (Lorena, pre-service science tation of the educational experiences. teacher). In addition, in a critical view, we promoted the 6.6.2.1 Teaching Science Through competencies for teaching SDGs as we know the Socio-environmental Conflict violence surrounding the school, socio-­ Situations and Social Injustice environmental issues of the country, socio-­ to Connect Science environmental vulnerabilities, the context in and Environmental Content which the students of the teacher education proThe hegemonic discourse of sustainability grammes along with the tensions and conflicts in strengthens the model of capitalist development, their daily lives, and the plurality of the territories and its insertion in the school context requires a of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The recognition of the critical look at this. In this way, we carried out the plurality of the territory is an important aspect to curriculum in line with the guidance of the be highlighted because of its importance for the Municipal Secretary of Education of Rio de sustainability of the different ways of life as one Janeiro, but we understand the use of SDGs as a of the principles of EE. starting point for formative processes and the diaPollution of the river, absence of trees, deforlogue between them and the school context estation of the Amazon biome, and the impacts of favour the construction of potentization of non-­ soil loss on food sovereignty expand the view of hegemonic discourses, which question the logic the reality experienced and expose political of capitalist consumption and developmental dimensions of environmental problems and the ideals. unequal exercise of the right to an ecologically Using a diary as an example of the reflections balanced environment present in the Brazilian about the experience, we highlight the attention constitution. In the face of unequal citizenship to local communities and their vulnerabilities as (Alvarenga, 2010; Gudynas, 2019), it is impora process of connecting science and environmen- tant to have awareness of oneself and situations tal content. of oppression (Freire, 1981) that affect the school,

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the university, and the students’ lives in the struggle to exercise meta-ecological citizenship committed to the plurality of territories and life.

6.6.2.2 Adhesion to Processes of Identification of Social Transformation in Terms of Individual or Collective Implications The focus of the competencies for action was practised in a pedagogical way in terms of individual or collective implications aiming at social transformations. The competencies for action refer to developing a critical, reflective, and participatory approach to confront environmental problems in a democratic manner. That means going beyond the “change of behaviour” common to several EE proposals and being concerned more with characterizing what the educational plan provides for the development of the aspirations and abilities of the participants to become involved in environmental issues by forming their own criteria for making decisions (Mogensen & Mayer, 2009). In the diary of a pre-service science teacher, we observed the following reflections. Student Diary 2 The teacher, in the execution of his job, brings the realities and knowledge of the world to the classroom. Otherwise, the student, armed with his imagination, thinks about the world based on his subjectivity and his life. If what is taught by the teacher is far from the reality of the student, possibly the student will judge the teaching to be without purpose and will have difficulties in associating what is taught with their daily activities. This implies a distancing from education by the student. In contrast, taking students on outdoor environmental activities enables learning beyond the school boundary and, with this, the school provides new experiences to its students so that they can think about the world in new ways. The pedagogical action leads to thinking about a future perspective in which political acts are central to educational processes. Therefore,

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we want to promote community awareness and action through practical experiences that address the aesthetic, ethical, and political aspects of students’ interactions with others in terms of individual or collective implications. To imagine collective paths, such as food sovereignty, with greater political participation of science teachers, it is important to go beyond the school walls and strengthen ties and networks between schools, universities, and the community, valuing subject-­ subject relationships (Figueiredo et  al., 2020). However, we recognize that a limitation of this approach is the need to involve other members of the school and community and the continuity of the activities with the sense of praxis (Freire, 1981) as a horizon for action-reflection-action. Likewise, there is a need to deepen the debate about the plurality of ecological meta-citizenship notions in an unequal and urban space in science teacher preparation processes.

6.6.2.3 Valuing of Aesthetic and Affective Dimensions in the Process of Teacher Education Aesthetics and exercising empathy for the ones being affected by environmental problems experienced behind the school walls were proposed in the activities. The activities generated debates and collective elaborations both among school and university students and between students and teachers. This ensured the contacts between different educational and life contexts and inspired the need to understand the behaviours and kinds of actions as well as the demands of the subjects involved in the planetary context. We understand that the meetings with different people and entities (students, teachers, residents, and the Nunes River) and the collective work were helpful for aesthetic experiences, which could evoke several individual and collective experiences when educating the educators (Andrade et al., 2004). It was not possible to measure the extent to which these experiences were part of the educational processes; and thus, more research would be necessary. However, in the diary of a pre-service science teacher, we observed some reflections

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about the potential of the aesthetic and affective dimensions to promote a broader view of the role of the science teacher. Student Diary 3 A science teacher, especially in public education, who works with students in an age group that understands adolescence does not have a role that is as simple as one could think. [...] The observation of the student as a unique human being and with his uniqueness is important, in addition to seeking to understand the environment in which he lives to understand his demands [of the students] and thus the work in teaching is education that serves the formation of the individuals in ways that address the affective dimensions of the human being. (Pedro, pre-service science teacher). We still emphasize the importance of time for building interpersonal bonds, dialogues (Freire, 1981), and aesthetic experiences (Payne et  al., 2018). In the disciplinary curriculum structure both in university and school, time for these experiences is rare and requires work, will, and organization to exist.

6.7 Final Considerations and Implications University-School Collaboration The collaboration between university and school in science teacher education generates training scenarios where undergraduate students engage in dialogue and experience with the social actors of schools (teachers and students) before their mandatory internship. In doing so, the undergraduate students gain understanding of the reality of this environment, the internal teaching processes at school, the influence of the culture, and the characteristics of the community and its surroundings. The construction of a curricular space both at school and at the university and the institutionalization of the university-school partnership constitute important elements for the elaboration and continuity of the training activities for teachers and students belonging to the two public education institutions. This strength-

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ens the training of the undergraduates, enables an expanded theory-practice experience, and motivates elementary school students to continue studying. Case Study Inquiry in Collaboration University-school collaboration for sustainability education needs methodologies that promote reflection for change among the relevant actors. The inquiry process cannot be solely under the control of the university researchers but needs to be open enough to involve all practitioners so that they can benefit from the collaboration. Stable collaborations oriented towards environmental and social changes need well-structured and inclusive research methodologies that are easy to learn and use by diverse actors. Case study inquiry has proven to be a successful methodology within international networks such as CoDeS (School and Community Collaboration for Sustainable Development; Espinet, 2014). Although case study inquiry in collaboration has not been used in the case presented in this chapter, we foresee it as being a powerful methodology to advance in the Global South. Enactment of Public Policy The university-school collaboration built from the PIBID reinforces the importance of public policies that value this approach. In addition to contributing to the training of students and teachers involved, it strengthens the social commitment of public universities towards science teaching that is attentive to social demands. The contribution of the PIBID to this school and the Secretary is precisely the possibility of generating new educational policies based on the results obtained from the project and unfolding the training actions generating changes in the process of teaching and learning. Having a partnership with in-service teachers from schools also ensures that we have the appreciation/value of the praxis of the teachers who learn “in the service” by updating the science curriculum. The interactions identified in the project’s actions and the relationships built among students, teachers, the school community, and its surroundings are essential to promote non-hegemonic views on sustainability.

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Non-hegemonic Views on Sustainability The experience described in this chapter shows that both non-hegemonic views on sustainability and the plurality of ecological meta-citizenship notions could be linked to teacher education. Science teacher education could introduce the SDGs in the classrooms and aim to construct a science teacher identity as a political subject that is actively involved in both the debate about nature and the common good and the reinterpretation of the educational experiences. The work of the science teacher educator committed to sustainability is a balancing act between following the legislation and trying to change the curriculum while elaborating the ways to empower teachers with ESD competencies. Currently, in Brazil we are going through a time in which science has been devalued, and there is low investment in education, so the resource management focuses on keeping what we have or on recovering what we have lost. The fight for our rights is tough, and it affects our work. Our students should also receive education in politics, especially at this time. Sustainability and education in Brazil are in constant confrontation in the face of a sociopolitical scenario conducive to the devaluation of education and the environment. However, the case presented in this chapter outlines the benefits of university-school collaboration in creating small territories for the emergence of critical and resistance practices, giving rise/rising to non-­ hegemonic approaches to sustainability in a local context. The perception and awareness of the socio-environmental problems existing in the territories are essential for the formation of historical subjects who are aware of themselves, their oppression, and the absence of fundamental rights. This is vital for social participation, for the possibility of claiming the exercise of already established rights, and for building citizenship that contemplates the demands and ways of life in the peripheral territories. To raise global citizens, we argue for empowering teachers with ESD competencies in  local issues that consider what is emergent in local contexts.

Acknowledgements This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001 (scholarship), research projects: process number 88882.215740/2018-01 (PIBID/UFRJ) and 88887.312003/2018-00 (PRINT/CAPES), in part by individual grants from FAPERJ (Programa Jovem ­ Cientista do Nosso Estado processo  - SEI260003/006898/2021) and FACEP. We are very grateful for the English revision by Leah Miller (MA in TESOL).

Appendix: Pictures from the Activities School neighbourhoods as an education context to characterize the pollution of the Nunes River: Walking to river source

Collecting water from the Nunes River in the school neighbourhoods as an education context

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Activities and experiences in the school: Reconstructing the planet and organization of the science club space

Students playing the SDGs game during the science fair at public school

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102 on school community collaboration for sustainable development (pp.  9–25). Austrian Federal Ministry of Education and Women’s Affairs. https://ensi.org/ global/downloads/Publications/370/CoDeS-­Case%20 book.pdf Figueiredo, T.  F., Andrade, D., & Freire, L.  M. (2020). Espaços de resistência no currículo: uma análise da inserção da educação ambiental nos cursos de graduação de uma universidade federal. Revista Sergipana de Educação Ambiental, 9(1), 1–16. Freire, P. (1981). Pedagogia do oprimido (10th ed.). Editora Paz e Terra. Freire, L.  M., & Rodrigues, C. (2020). Formação de professores e educadores ambientais: diálogos generativos para a práxis. Revista Pesquisa em Educação Ambiental, 15(1), 106–125. Garcia, M.  L. (2008). O debate inicial sobre os direitos fundamentais: Aspectos destacados da visão integral do conceito. RIPE – Revista do Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos, Bauru, 43(50), 129–152. Avaliable in: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/79073205.pdf Gramsci, A. (1984). Cuardenos de la cárcel Tomo 3. Ediciones Era, S.A. Gramsci, A. (2000). Cuadernos de la Cárcel. Ediciones Era, S.A; Benemêrita. Gudynas, E. (2009). Ciudadania ambiental y meta-­ ciudadanias ecológicas: revisión y alternativas en America Latina. Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente, 19, 53–72. Gudynas, E. (2019). Direitos da natureza: ética biocêntrica e políticas ambientais. Tradução Igos Ojeda. Elefante, 340p. Gürel, E. (2017). Swot analysis: A theoretical review. Journal of International Social Research, 10, 994– 1006. https://doi.org/10.17719/jisr.2017.1832 Herremans, I., & Reid, R. (2002). Developing awareness of the sustainability concept. The Journal of Environmental Education, 34(1), 16–20. Human Rights Watch. (2020). Relatório Mundial 2020: Nossa Revisão Anual dos direitos humanos ao redor do mundo. Avaliable in: https://www.hrw.org/pt/ world-­report/2020/country-­chapters/336671#36371b Juliani, S. F., & Freire, L. M. (2016). Representações discursivas de educação ambiental: uma análise no âmbito da extensão universitária. Alexandria (UFSC), 9, 35–60. https://doi.org/10.5007/1982-­5153.2016v9n2p35 Loureiro, C. F. B., Albuquerque, E. C., Barreto, P. T., & Betânia, M. V. B. (2004). Sustentabilidade, exclusão e transformação social: Contribuições à reflexão crítica da Educação Ambiental e da Comunicação no Brasil. Revista Ambiente e Educação., 9(1), 123–138. Marcondes, M.  I. (1999). Teacher education in Brazil. Journal of Education for Teaching, 25(3), 203–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607479919493 Mbah. (2019). Can local knowledge make the difference? Rethinking universities’ community engagement and prospect for sustainable community development. The Journal of Environmental Education, 50(1), 11–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2018.1462136

L. M. Freire et al. Mejía-Cáceres, M.  A. (2019). De las estructuras sociales a los eventos comunicativos: Formacion inicial de profesores en ciencias y educacion ambiental en el contexto sociopolitico colombiano’ (from social structures to communicative events: Pre-service education of teachers in environmental education and sciences education in the Colombian socio-political context). [Doctoral thesis, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro], Minerva- UFRJ. Mejía-Cáceres, M. A., & Freire, L. (2021). Influences of educational policy on the pre-service education of teachers in science and environmental education: “A Latin American Context”. Studia Paedagogica. Mogensen, F., & Mayer, M. (2009). Perspectivas sobre la educación ambiental. Un marco de trabajo crítico. In F.  Mogensen, M.  Mayer, S.  Breiting, & A.  Varga (Eds.), Educación para el desarrollo sostenible (pp. 21–42). Graó. Nascimento, F., Fernandes, H., & Mendonça, V. (2010). O Ensino de Ciências no Braisl: História, Formação de Professores e Desarios atuais. Revista HISTEDBR, 39, 225–249. Noguera, A.  P. (2004). el reencantamiento del mundo. El reencatamiento del mundo (1st ed., pp.  70–111). Graficas JES Ltda. Nóvoa, A. (2009). Professores: imagens do futuro presente. Educa. Olsson, D., & Gericke, N. (2017). The effect of gender on students’ sustainability consciousness: A nationwide Swedish study. The Journal of Environmental Education, 48(5), 357–370. https://doi.org/10.1080/0 0958964.2017.1310083 Organização das Nações Unidades (ONU). (2015). Conheça os novos 17 Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável da ONU: Os ODS devem ser implementados por todos os países do mundo durante os próximos 15 anos, até 2030. https://nacoesunidas.org/ conheca-­­os-­novos-­17-­objetivos-­de-­desenvolvimento-­ sustentavel-­da-­onu/ Payne, P., Rodrigues, C., Carvalho, I., Freire, L.  M., Aguayo, C., & Iared, V.  G. (2018). Affectivity in environmental education research. Pesquisa em Educação Ambiental, 13(Especial), 93–114. https:// doi.org/10.18675/2177-­580X.vol13.Especial, 92-114. Pinhão, F.  L., & Martins, I. (2016). Cidadania e Ensino de Ciências: questões para o debate. Revista Ensaio, 18(3), 9–29. https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-­ 21172016180301 Saviani, D. (2009). Formação de professores: aspectos históricos e teóricos do problema no contexto brasileiro. Revista Brasileira de Educação, 14(40), 144–155. Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books. Silva, T.  T. (2019). Documentos de Identidade: uma introdução às teorias do currículo (3rd ed., 11 reimp). Autêntica Editora. Silva, V.  P., & Pontes, J.  C. (2020). Educação para a sustentabilidade em currículos da educação básica: implementação e desafios. Brazilian Journal of

6  Non-hegemonic Views of Sustainability in Science Teacher Education: The Case of a University-School… 103 Development, 6(5), 30320–30330. https://doi. org/10.34117/bjdv6n5-­475 Sund, L., & Öhman, J. (2014). On the need to repoliticise Environmental and Sustainability Education: Rethinking the postpolitical consensus. Environmental Education Research, 20(5), 639–659. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/13504622.2013.833585 Tardif, M., & Raymond, D. (2000). Saberes, tempo e aprendizagem do trabalho no magistério. Educação e Sociedade, 23(73), 209–244. Teixeira, L., Agudo, M.  M., & Tozzoni-Reis, M.  F. C. (2017). Sustentabilidade ou “terra de ninguém”: formação de professores e educação ambiental. Revista Trabalho, Política e Sociedade., 2(2), 43–64. https:// doi.org/10.29404/rtps-­v2i2.3259 Van Poeck, K., Goeminne, G., & Vandenabeele, J. (2014). Revisiting the democratic paradox of environmental and sustainability education: Sustainability issues as matters of concern. Environmental Education

Research, 22(6), 806–826. https://doi.org/10.1080/13 504622.2014.966659 Vilanova, R. (2013). Discursos Da Cidadania E Educação Em Ciências Nos Livros Didáticos. Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências (Belo Horizonte), 15(2), 141–154. Avaliable in: https://doi. org/10.1590/1983-­21172013150209 Villani, A., de Almeida Pacca, J.  L., & de Freitas, D. (2007). Science teacher education in Brazil: 1950– 2000. Science & Education, 18(1), 125–148. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s11191-­007-­9116-­4 Walshe, N. (2016). An interdisciplinary approach to environmental and sustainability education: Developing geography students’ understandings of sustainable development using poetry. Environmental Education Research, 23(8), 1130–1149. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 13504622.2016.1221887

7

Student Outreach and Engagement for Sustainable Development: North-West University’s Green Team Experience Luiza Olim de Sousa

Abstract

The purpose of the chapter is to share how the Faculty of Education at a South African university, the North-West University (NWU), supports students in engaging with Environmental Education for Sustainable Development (EESD) through initiatives on environmental awareness. The chapter presents the initiatives of the NWU Green Team committee through the lens of EESD.  This chapter records how a student interest group is transforming students’ social responsibility from the bottom up through initiatives, activities, and interventions that are adopted to promote and integrate EESD. A 9-year journey of student activities on campus that reaches students from a range of faculties is documented. The committee arranges events to educate campus students through campaigns and activities, for example, value your environment week, endangered species day, tree day and arbour week, clean-up week and recycle day, reducing the use of paper, the eco-brick project, plastic-free July, bee awareness, and eco DIYs for students. The chapter may be useful to other institutions of higher education L. O. de Sousa (*) Community-based Educational Research (COMBER), North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa e-mail: [email protected]

who also want to become change agents. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the faculty initiative fostering EESD where a student environmental committee is enabling their university to be an agent for social transformation, undertaking to educate students and staff about their environmental and social responsibilities, and creating a culture of care.

7.1 Introduction Social responsibility in higher education institutions (HEIs) develops a sense of civil citizenship by encouraging students and academic staff to promote an ecological and environmental commitment to local and global sustainable development (Vasilescu et al., 2010). The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN with a global call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030 are being achieved by students (UNESCO, 2014a). UNESCO (2020) is leading the Decade of Action for progress towards all the SDGs. The role of students in enabling their university to be an agent of social transformation (McEwan-Short & Jupp Kina, 2018) and a sustainable future is the central message of this chapter. HEIs create platforms for students to socialise (Zerai, 2002) that can lead to grassroots activism. Students can transform learning when they begin

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_7

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grassroots action groups that have the potential to generate bottom-up solutions for sustainable development in the local community of practice (Seyfang & Smith, 2007). When students who feel strongly about an issue join an activity that unites them to undertake actions to promote change, grassroots activists can mobilise student groups to take actions to promote sustainability (Skaidrė, 2019). UNESCO identifies leaders of learning institutions as the main actors in transforming learning environments (UNESCO, 2020). It has been suggested that, to develop socially responsible students, a shift is needed in the teaching and research activities of HEIs combined with a shift towards community-based experiential learning (Estrada-Martinez et  al., 2021; Peterson, 2009). Faculties have accelerated the need to reinforce the relevance of their programmes to societal needs by revisiting their role in strengthening student learning (Hénard & Roseveare, 2012). Higher education learning cannot only occur by adding more knowledge to the existing body of knowledge. Academic staff should also consider how to transform student knowledge (Leal Filho et  al., 2018). UNESCO has issued a call for learning institutions to transform themselves by aligning their principles with sustainable development. By integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into the 2030 Educational Agenda and its second priority area of action, that is transforming learning environments in teaching, students will be encouraged to become change agents who take transformative actions directed towards sustainable development. Mezirow’s transformative learning theory offers an explanation of the learning process: a higher-order learning, underlying the journey to sustainable living (Mezirow, 1997). Participatory pedagogies that promote critical self-reflection (high-order thinking) lead to transformed habits of the mind and are key to transformative learning (Mezirow, 2000). HEIs worldwide have increased their focus on sustainability (Aleixo et  al., 2016). ESD has begun to address sustainability challenges through education (UNESCO, 2020), and the Global Action Programme recognised teachers as

the most influential change agents for establishing an ESD mindset among learners (UNESCO, 2014b). Teachers play a key role in bringing about the changes required to achieve sustainable development (UNESCO, 2010), and this is also true for student teachers in the Faculty of Education who have a compulsory environmental education module in their undergraduate programme. This chapter presents the initiatives of the Green Team activities through the lens of Environmental Education for Sustainable Development (EESD). The chapter’s contribution to the SDGs and the field of societal transformation through education in HEIs is highlighted in how North-West University (NWU) students promote mitigating action towards the climate crisis through transdisciplinary initiatives and environmental awareness in an adaptive community of practice. The purpose of the chapter is to share how the Faculty of Education at a South African university, the NWU, supports students in engaging with EESD through initiatives on environmental awareness. Student engagement and the promotion of best practices by a student environmental committee that meets four of the 17 SDGs, including SDG4 (Quality Education), SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG13 (Climate Action), is shared in this chapter. This chapter shares how a student interest group is transforming students’ social responsibility from the bottom up.

7.2 Context NWU is one of the largest higher education institutions in Southern Africa with over 58,000 registered students in 2020 (North-West University [NWU], 2020a). Consisting of three campuses across two provinces, the university has a layout that reduces student transport and accommodation costs and offers accessible and affordable quality education. NWU is part of the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future and a signatory member of the Talloires Network

7  Student Outreach and Engagement for Sustainable Development: North-West University’s Green…

of Engaged Universities with 417 member universities in 79 countries around the world (Hollister et  al., 2012; Tufts University [Tufts], 2020) that supports enquiry and action in which research, practice, and education converge and reinforce one another (Hollister et al., 2012). The NWU has also endorsed the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) Programme for Climate Change Capacity Development across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Higher Education Sector (Southern African Regional Universities Association, 2016). The Faculty of Education at the NWU is committed to bridging the gap between theory and practice by sharing its expertise for a better South Africa and has become the guardian of a student committee that promotes the environmental focus of ESD. As the guardian, the faculty is responsible for the permissions that are required for all activities and provides a budget for the committee to function. A 9-year account of how the committee, which is called the NWU Green Team, originated as a grassroots action group and initiated environmental awareness activities among students on campus, both face-to-face and virtually, is presented. The NWU Green Team activities that help achieve the SDGs are unique in fostering ESD and environmental awareness at the institution.

7.3 The Case In this section, the initiatives, activities, and interventions that are adopted and followed in order to promote and integrate EESD are presented, as well as how student outreach and engagement contributed to this process.

7.3.1 Initiatives to Promote EESD The two significant years for the promotion of environmental awareness and action at the NWU Faculty of Education were 2011 and 2012. The institution commissioned the Centre for Environmental Management to conduct an

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Environmental Legal Compliance Audit (Centre for Environmental Management [CEM], 2011). The outcome of the audit recommended that all faculties increase the environmental awareness among the staff and students. Both the Institutional Office and Potchefstroom Campus planned to set a goal to establish an initiative for a “greener university” (NWU, 2012). The initiative was called a Green Campus Strategic Plan that was part of the activities of the Department of Marketing and Communication to measure the carbon footprint of the campus with regard to the electricity consumption of various residencies. The Green Campus Strategic Plan established that the greatest challenges to achieving environmental compliance at the level of the campus included human resources, role allocation, and commitment of staff and students (CEM, 2011). Even though the faculties at the NWU take on initiatives that are related to transformative learning (NWU, 2020b) and are linked to ESD, the committee discussed in this chapter (the NWU Green Team) is an example of an interdisciplinary initiative. The students’ committee consists of the representatives from all of the faculties within the institution. Each committee member contributes a different perspective and skill set that enables the committee to reach its objectives through an interdisciplinary approach. For example, the students who are studying to become teachers, engineers, biologists, economists, lawyers, journalists, and environmental entrepreneurs rarely have the opportunity to collaborate with the students from other fields. However, both the interdisciplinary approach followed by the committee and the committee’s student engagement with contemporary environmental challenges create opportunities through which the students can actively convey their specialist (field of study) knowledge into simple terms that are scientifically sound. The NWU Green Team applies the information deficit model approach to their education campaigns and activities. The information deficit model is an approach to science and climate change communication which the students are using. The deficit model assumes that those gaps between scientists and the public are a result of a

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lack of information or knowledge (Suldovsky, 2017). The information deficit model is a one-­ way communication model where information flows from the NWU Green Team committee members to the students in an effort to change students’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviours (Suldovsky, 2017). However, the information deficit theory is questioned since there is no evidence that a better understanding of the science of climate change may lead to changes in individual behaviour and action (González-Gaudiano & Meira-Cartea, 2019; Sauer et  al., 2021). The committee’s campaigns and activities aimed at educating for sustainable development represent the teaching and learning innovative aspect of the committee through fun and interactive activities. The committee’s promotion of new knowledge enables students to address environmental challenges with a deeper understanding that favours the transformative learning processes. Learning does not only mean the addition of more knowledge. Teaching and learning should also be considering how to bring about transformation to the pre-existing knowledge of those learning (Mezirow, 1991). When students integrate values and perceptions of sustainability into their personal and professional life, they encourage new meaning making and new values (Leal Filho et al., 2018). An address by the newly appointed dean of the Faculty of Education at the official opening of the faculty in 2011, Professor RJ Balfour, mentioned the importance of recycling within a community of practice. Recycling is an example of a transformative version of ESD that not only allows for the development of new competencies, but it implies social learning through participation that brings about a change in people’s behaviour (Wals & Kieft, 2010). The dean’s 2011–2013 strategic priorities for the faculty included a faculty objective that carried the theme, Education Goes Green Initiative. Two action plans were listed within the theme. Firstly, all education modules were to be paperless by 2013 (NWU, 2011) in reply to the strategic goal of the campus to become paperless. Currently all study guides for students are paperless for the entire university; therefore, the target has been met. The action

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steps implemented have ensured that the university contributes to the conservation of forests because academics prepare and upload all coursework onto the institution’s online learning management system which is called eFundi. The latter is a step in the right direction, despite acknowledging that emissions from the generation of purchased electricity carry a large carbon footprint (Mazhar et al., 2017). The second action plan was paper saving by the faculty. The action steps listed that each school must participate in paper recycling and develop recycling facilities that distinguish between paper and other wastes. The plan also called for the faculty to identify a conservation area in the region where students and staff could be involved in environmental learning and eco-awareness. The responsible persons were listed as being the dean, directors, academics, and student associations. The dean’s action plan led the school director, in 2012, to engage students to be part of a committee to promote awareness about environmental issues on campus. The idea to begin a student committee to promote awareness about environmental issues was proposed by Dr. SP Raath. The Geography and Environmental Education subject group became the guardians of a student committee (Richter & de Sousa, 2019). Students who were enrolled in geography modules, together with all the third year undergraduate Bachelor of Education (BEd) programme’s compulsory environmental education module students, were encouraged to begin an interest group that became the Student Green Committee under the guardianship of Dr SP Raath. The Green Committee’s aim was to educate students about the environmental issues and challenges they are facing and so create awareness amongst students aimed at living sustainably. The Green Committee, an example of a grassroots action group, consisting of third year Education students drew up a constitution to establish themselves formally at the end of 2012. A list of projects was presented to the committee members as a springboard from which they could choose and take ownership. The faculty pledged a budget to support environmental awareness among students through the

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Green Committee. The faculty continued to offer quality training to teachers for primary and secondary school education, as well as innovative research in education praxis, service learning, and community engagement (North-West University Faculty of Education [NWU-FoE], 2020c). The then director of the School of Curriculum-­ Based Studies, Professor BW Richter, led an environmental learning and awareness campaign within his own subject group. The Geography and Environmental Education subject group also took on the responsibility of developing and presenting a compulsory environmental education module for all third year students in the undergraduate BEd degree. In 2011 a compulsory environmental education module, Introduction to Environmental Education, was first presented as an eight-credit module within the undergraduate BEd programme during the UN Decade of ESD (2005–2014). Figure  7.1 schematically presents the place of the committee within the faculty and the university. Students are taught how ESD influences a transformative paradigm (UNESCO, 2020) around the need to reduce carbon footprints and transform systems and lifestyles, lead-

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ing to new opportunities for social innovation (Haxeltine et al., 2013). In light of the 2011 and 2012 developments on campus and within the faculty, green awareness on campus grew organically as the number of campaigns and activities initiated by the Green Committee grew each year. Within the Potchefstroom Campus and the faculty, the sustainable use of all-natural resources was highlighted as being important in reinforcing the role of a community’s united action. As a spin-off of the campus initiative for residences, the Green Committee guardian initiated a competition between the buildings in the faculty. The guardian’s role is to monitor the committee’s campaigns and activities by offering guidance and advice. The guardian also acts as the link between the faculty and the students by attending committee meetings and monitoring the budget. Colleagues within the faculty were asked to think of ways to use electricity wisely. The energy saving initiative competition was funded by the institution’s Marketing and Communication department after they became aware of the faculty’s efforts to educate for a more sustainable lifestyle and for deciding to start an energy sav-

North-West University Faculty of Education NWU Green Team

• February to November • 8 Faculties • Contact & Distance Learning

• Undergraduate B.Ed. programme has a compulsory Environmental Management for Sustainability Module • Undergraduate Diploma in Grade R • Postgraduate ACT, ADE, PGCE, PGDip in Education, BEdHons, MEd & PhD Programme • Students from all 8 faculties can join committee • Each campus has a committee • Campus-specific campaigns & activites • Campus-aligned campaigns & activities • Aim- to educate students about environmental issues & challenges through campaigns & activities • Mission- to cultivate appreciation, respect & a sense of responsibility towards the Earth among NWU students

Fig. 7.1  A schematic presentation of the place of the NWU Green Team within the faculty and the university

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ing initiative. The Green Committee led the marketing awareness campaign for the energy saving initiative in 2013 by visiting all the staff in their offices to inform them about the campaign. A Go Green sticker was placed above the light switch in every office and lecture room to remind everyone to switch off the lights on a sunny day and when leaving at the end of the workday. After 5 months of receiving readings from an independent record keeper on the electrical consumption of each building, one building representative received a R5000 winning prize for showing the best percentage improvement over 5 months. Everybody who took part tried to save electricity, and collectively the faculty made a choice to live sustainably in their work environment. Thereafter the building representatives were challenged to continue with energy saving strategies. New ways to reduce the amount of paper being discarded and photocopied were managed by the student committee in 2016 through their reducing the use of paper campaign. The monitoring of water wastage by reporting leaking taps and cisterns without delay is managed by a safety committee who attend to water usage and electrical issues on their agenda.

7.3.2 Activities and Interventions to Integrate ESD into Qualifications The Global Action Programme on ESD’s (2015– 2019) priority action area 3 (building capacities of educators and trainers) called on nations to increase the capacities of educators and trainers to more effectively deliver ESD (UNESCO, 2014b). In reply, three environmental education researchers in the Faculty of Education revised the environmental education module and maintained its inclusion in the new BEd programme that now follows an integrated model (content and subject methodologies) (NWU-FoE, 2020). The integrated model for teacher training integrates and aligns the subject content knowledge and the subject methodology to teach the content in the same module. The module is specially designed for student teachers only and focuses on

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the specific competencies necessary for teachers (Kangro, 2004; South Africa. Department of Education, 2000; Steyn & Mentz, 2008). Since 2018 the compulsory environmental management for sustainability module is presented in the undergraduate BEd programme for all pre-­ service education third year students in the first semester. The module aims to “create a commitment towards social justice and responsibility towards the environment” and “an awareness of sustainable development in order to educate students to become responsible, sensitive agents of change in the schools and communities where they live and work” (NWU, 2021a). A compulsory environmental education module has been included in the BEd Geography Honours programme since 2012. A BEd Honours in Environmental Education programme was developed and began to admit students in 2018. Furthermore, the faculty’s call to develop a structured Master of Education in Environmental Education programme was answered, and an international agreement was entered into with a neighbouring African university. Currently, approval has been granted to present the Master’s programme. Master’s and doctoral curriculum studies have been completed in Environmental Education within the subject group, and the supervisors believe that ESD is an integral element of quality education (Richter & de Sousa, 2019). Research focusing on environmental education resides in the Focus Area of Community-­ based Educational Research (COMBER). The chapter author leads a sub-group within COMBER called EESD in Communities. The reasoning behind the name of the sub-group is based on the author’s own view. This type of relationship that exists between environmental education and ESD is not new (UNESCO, 2009a). The core of both environmental education and ESD is positioned in the research milieu within the faculty. Drawing on the objectives of environmental education, the chapter’s author agrees with UNESCO that the learning process which increases citizen’s knowledge and awareness about the biophysical environment nurtures attitudes and develops skills to address challenges,

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so that informed decisions can be made about responsible action (UNESCO-UNEP, 1978; Stapp et al., 1969). UNESCO’s definition of ESD states that it “empowers learners to make informed decisions” and to take “responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society for present and future generations, while respecting cultural diversity” (UNESCO, 2009b). Despite the complex relationship between environmental education and ESD, the author of this chapter believes that both are concerned with behavioural change through education and the promotion of values (especially respect), attitudes, and understanding (Pavlova, 2011). The NWU is answering the call of UNESCO (2020) with regard to its five priority action areas. With reference to priority action area 1 on policy, the NWU has included ESD in its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. For priority action area 2 on education and training settings, the academic programmes and research ensures that students learn what they live and live what they learn. In priority action area 3 on building capacities of educators, the focus is on enabling students to acquire the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes needed for their transition to sustainability. The NWU Green Team is the focus of priority action area 4 since the students in the committee are key agents in addressing sustainability challenges through their awareness and education campaigns and activities. The NWU Green Team also helps to achieve priority action area 5 through their local-­ level action that focuses on the importance of actions within the NWU student community through the committee’s meaningful transformative campaigns and activities. The next section reviews the NWU Green Team committee structure and activities over 9 years.

7.3.3 Student Outreach and Engagement: The NWU Green Team Committee The foundation of the NWU Green Team, established first as the Green Committee, embodies lifelong learning within a student community in

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higher education. It provides students with opportunities that can be related to the “realities that concern them” and allows students to “be influenced to take the necessary actions” (UNESCO, 2019). The NWU Green Team has followed the theory of change as an approach towards helping the committee describe the environmental awareness and education they are trying to address, the changes they want to make through the objectives they have set, and what they plan to do through their campaigns and activities (Reinholz & Andrews, 2020). The strategy that the NWU Green Team follows is to elect a committee on a yearly basis to work together to understand the committee’s aim and to achieve the committee’s objectives set for the year. The NWU Green Team’s budget outlines planned campaigns and activities for the year and is the strategy used to communicate the Green Team’s objectives for the year to the guardian, who then reports these to management for funding approval. The structure budget plan provides confidence for support. The NWU Green Team also works in partnership with the Student Campus Council and its student organisations who also work towards change. The work of the NWU Green Team committee can be regarded as one of the new ways that are needed to achieve balanced social, economic, and environmental goals (O’Brien et al., 2012) because it can influence the world views of students who are the action takers in their own local environments. The NWU Green Team is made up of approximately 20 student members from all faculties on campus. The committee communicates with students through their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages and also recently launched a TikTok account to remain current. The communication approach is a reflection of the information deficit model because of its use of social media (Suldovsky, 2017). The budget for the committee is R1000 a year and resides within the Faculty of Education. The committee has liaised with their respective guardians since 2019, because the committee has also established itself on the two sister campuses of the NWU. Each campus committee enjoys campus-specific and institution-­ aligned campaigns and activities. The budget is

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seldom exceeded. The materials used by the resourceful committee to conduct campaign activities are typically upcycled, repurposed, or reused to keep the committee’s footprint as low as possible.

7.3.3.1 Vision and Mission The committee’s vision is to create awareness amongst students of the environmental challenges they face locally and globally. The students lead by example in inspiring positive change and are part of the solution. The committee’s slogan for 2021 is Appreciate, Advocate, Act. The committee’s chairperson, Leandri Wessels, explains that the committee’s mission is to cultivate appreciation, respect, and a sense of responsibility towards the earth amongst NWU students. “People only protect what they care about. Therefore, the committee makes it their mission to remind others why the environment and the biodiversity within are truly precious and how humans benefit from a healthy environment” (Wessels, 2021). Secondly, the committee advocates for the environment by sharing information regarding global and local environmental challenges that is truthful and scientifically sound. “The purpose of bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and the general public is to keep students informed so that they address the challenges with a deeper understanding” (ibid. 2021). The committee members break down complex concepts and share new knowledge in a language to which students can relate. Thirdly, the committee aspires to take action by testing and implementing proposed solutions, identifying hurdles that prevent others from participating in solutions, and making attempts to find ways around those hurdles (ibid. 2021). 7.3.3.2 Attendance For the duration of the year, an attendance register is kept for all meetings and campaigns. Quarterly reports of attendance are sent out to the committee members by the Vice-Chairperson so that the records can be checked. The chairperson closely monitors the committee to ensure records are regularly checked and accurate. A participa-

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tion of 90% is required to receive a letter of reference from the guardian that attests to the student’s membership in the NWU Green Team, as well as his/her portfolio position and teamwork ethic.

7.3.3.3 Roles and Responsibilities The committee uses an integrated approach where members are often required to assist outside of their prescribed criteria. Flexibility within the committee is required to best handle the variations that exist between campaigns. A member is selected to champion every campaign. Responsibility is attributed to specific persons within the committee, and leadership skills are developed. Interviews take place when recruiting for new members to the committee. Prospective candidates who show enthusiasm and passion about fulfilling the vision and mission of the committee are favoured. The committee’s recent success is attributed to its cultural diversity and areas of study. Diversity brings a broad array of skills to the committee and also helps the committee to reach a broader spectrum of students. Special attention is given to recruiting members whom the committee believes have the necessary skills to fulfil the portfolios. In recent years the committee has placed more emphasis on collaborations to utilise the already existing platforms on campus to spread important messages. The committee has discovered that the existing campaigns should rather be realigned or improved and realised that some campaigns were not communicating the most recent and accurate information. Therefore, the committee decided to ensure that committee members themselves should be well informed before taking on the responsibility of informing others. The committee now purposively recruits postgraduate students who can share their research knowledge with students through the committee. The level of understanding of postgraduate students is proving to be an efficient halfway point between specialist’s knowledge in environmental education, communication psychology, environmental law, environmental science, and presenting important concepts in a layperson’s language while still remaining true to the core message (Wessels, 2021).

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The committee consists of a chairperson, deputy chairperson, secretary, treasurer, social media and marketing manager, website manager, graphic designer, archive keeper, and photographer as well as a research and fact check portfolio, creativity portfolio, and the events portfolio. The chairperson plays an important role in creating an environment for the committee to grow and an environment where members’ unique skills can flourish. The chairperson presents the committee members with a common goal and asks the committee to contribute towards reaching it. The members of the committee are encouraged to start within their local sphere of influence and to use their connections to advance the agenda of the committee. The committee aspires to continue collaborating with the campus student societies and members of the faculty.

7.3.3.4 Campaigns and Activities When the author of the chapter took over as the committee guardian, the students were guided to develop their activities based on the environmental calendar that had been developed for project schools. The calendar contains national and international environmental days that are celebrated, for example, recycling day in South Africa and Earth Day. Therefore, the campaigns are usually centred around a specific theme on the environmental calendar decided by the committee. The committee arranges events for the campus students during the first and second semester. The committee selects specific days from the environmental calendar on which events are arranged that align with the theme of that specific day. The campaigns and activities that are reported in this chapter are unique to the campus and the Faculty of Education to foster EESD. The campaigns and activities shared are a review of the recurring or unique activities over 9 years. The activities involve all the students on campus, with the activities taking place on the grounds of the Faculty of Education. Value Your Environment Week The committee has made significant contributions to environmental awareness on campus over the years. The annual Value Your Environment

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Week event on campus is hosted by the Student Campus Council’s Current Affairs committee. The committee aids the Current Affairs team with Value Your Environment Week by directing the focus of this week to important topics and aiding with presenting students with information that is both relevant and accurate during Value Your Environment Week. The committee is not an Academic Student Association that is recognised by the Student Campus Council. It is a faculty-­ initiated committee that functions interdisciplinary, and it has significantly influenced the environmental activities of the Student Campus Council. The committee meets with the Current Affairs team and proposes the topics for Value Your Environment Week. Bottled Water for the Drought-Stricken Cape The city of Cape Town in the drought-stricken Western Cape was faced with a day zero scare in 2017/2018 (Welz, 2018). The committee linked its campaign, with the Student Campus Council’s water collection project, to collect water from students and staff. Donations of 5l, 10l, or 25l bottles of water or even a cash contribution were accepted. The students used the faculty’s Facebook page to advertise their campaign. Members used their mobile chalk board to ­advertise the cause as they gathered outside the faculty’s main building during the campaign. Endangered Species Day International Endangered Species Day is an important day chosen by the committee because it highlights the importance of our own South African endangered species. The committee’s objective is to teach students about those South African species that are endangered and what causes them to be endangered. The committee created different games to test students’ knowledge and to raise their awareness about five of South Africa’s endangered species, namely, the rhinoceros, elephant, cheetah, bat, and honeybee. Through this campaign, the committee continues to strive towards creating a more sustainable environment because of the importance of bees to the planet and to food security (Millar, 2021).

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World Turtle Day The World Turtle Day campaign makes students aware of the large number of sea turtles that die due to plastic waste in the sea (World Wildlife Foundation, 2021). Students rescued (through fishing imitation) turtles (made from old bottles and paper) from among the plastic waste in an inflated pool. A tortoise cut-out photo booth was used for taking photos that were posted on social media. The pool caught the attention of many students who wanted to know what the day was about. Students’ donations resulted in a donation to the World Wildlife Foundation South Africa. The campaign was a huge success because a Minute-To-Win-It game was played. Two participants, at a time, tried to answer as many questions correctly in 60 s. The questions were based on, among others, the negative impacts that single-­use plastics (shopping bags and straws) have on our natural environment and specifically on sea turtles. Africa Day The campaign is based on making students aware of and proud of their multicultural and biodiverse continent (South Africa [SA], 2021). The idea is that students should become aware that all cultures should work towards multicultural relationships on campus. The students were invited to take part in a Mr and Miss Africa competition. The participants had to show off their clothing item made from recycled material. The campaign was successful because it brought students together to appreciate their unique culture and creativity. Tree Day Celebration During Arbour Week The tree day campaign makes students aware of reducing their carbon footprint if they want to have a comfortable future. The message of the day encourages students to plant their own trees. Students participated by pledging to plant trees by hi-fiving a tree. Students painted their hands and left an imprint of these on a huge cloth that was tied around a tree trunk. Each colourful handprint was a promise not only to the committee but also to themselves to plant trees. The com-

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mittee were also able to plant an indigenous tree, Portulacaria afra, outside the education library. The campaign was successful because students learned that the Portulacaria afra is effective in carbon sequestration and it acts as a soil binder for preventing soil erosion. The leaves can also be eaten and chewed to treat sore throat and mouth infections (South African National Biodiversity Institute, 2021). Clean-Up Week The purpose of the yearly campaign since 2013 has been to create awareness among students to keep their immediate living environment clean. Students were asked to consider the biosphere when they scatter rubbish and not to do it again. Committee members and students who wished to take part helped with cleaning the campus and an off-campus site (the Bult) known for its vibrant nightlife. Every year the committee struggled to get student participation. Interest in the campaign and committee grew one year when the campus rector, Professor Fika Janse Van Rensburg, joined the committee and members of the Student Campus Council to clean up on the Bult. The campaign was successful because it ensured that the students are aware of littering and that they should do their part to recycle waste. Recycle Day The recycle day campaign makes students aware that it is easy to recycle if an effort is made to sort waste into the correct bins. Students who participated in games learnt about why it is important to reuse items and prevent filling landfills. The city municipality does not recycle waste, but students were informed why it is important to sort their waste on campus into the coloured bins. Students have also been invited to learn from experts when a representative from Plastics South Africa explained the plastic recycling grades to students. Recently the committee hosted a Minute-To-­Win-It Games day where students in a men’s residence were educated about the 7 R’s. They were also informed on the types of plastics and what plastics can and cannot be recycled.

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Reducing the Use of Paper The campaign to reduce the use of paper was reinforced by the committee in the faculty. The laminated A4 instructions from 2016 are still visible in most printing rooms in the faculty. Printing instructions, specific for different printers, were placed above photocopying machines. Staff were asked to consider printing on both sides of a paper. Instructions were given on how to print double-sided and how to reduce A4 to A5 printing on double sides of a sheet. The printing instructions were also placed in the education library in the student printing area. This campaign is significant because students and staff are constantly reminded to use paper sparingly. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) The SPCA campaign asked students to donate blankets and food for animals in the city’s animal shelter. The aim of the campaign was nurturing the value of care for animals and the possibility of adopting a pet, instead of buying one. The message that was shared was that humanity needs to care for its animals by starting locally with animal adoption. Car-Free Day The car-free campaign targeted students and staff at the entrance to campus. Students who walked or cycled to campus were given an information sheet explaining the significance of the day. The information sheet asked students to take a selfie, upload it to Facebook, or share it under #carfreegreencommittee2016. Students stood a chance to win a selfie stick and USB because they shared their contribution to reducing their carbon footprint. The drivers of cars were also handed an information sheet informing them about how their decision to drive contributes to a greater carbon footprint. They were challenged to make a difference by parking their car and using their feet to move around campus. The campaign was significant because it made students and staff aware about carpooling and about choosing to walk on a congested campus.

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Eco-brick Project The committee hosted an eco-brick building competition between all the campus residences and campus student societies. The eco-brick event formed part of the Value Your Environment Week in February. The committee hosted an eco-­ brick session where they taught students to make their own to be part of the solution. The idea was to create awareness amongst students regarding the global problem of plastic waste. Students were made aware of the issue of single-use plastic, micro-plastics, and the recyclability of plastic. Plastic-Free July The plastic-free July campaign was an Instagram campaign because students were all at home due to the pandemic. The aim for July was to run a successful giveaway and build up the committee following, as well as provide information on making sustainable, plastic-free swaps. Students engaged with the Instagram account through stories and comments on posts. The Instagram account gained a substantial number of followers making the campaign a success. Eco tips or eco swaps were posted almost daily during #PlasticFreeJuly and were visible on the Highlight icon named “Plastic-Free July” on the Instagram page. Eco tips for composting waste food and the benefits of choosing beeswax over clingwrap and choosing an edible ice cream cone instead of a plastic cup were shared. Bohemian Bear, a small environmentally friendly company owned by committee member Jaydene Stevens, donated eco-friendly products as a giveaway to attract attention to the campaign. Bee Awareness Campaign A second Instagram campaign shared information compiled about bees. It also designed infographics for the campaign and posted these on the NWU Green Team Instagram. The objective of the campaign was to educate the followers on the Instagram page about the importance of bees, as well as to gain more followers. Both objectives were accomplished, as many followers answered

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the questions posted on the Instagram story correctly and the following grew. The campaign can be viewed on the official Instagram page @ NWUGreen.

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probability of the campaign and activity being a success. For example, the activities that are shared on social media require amateur photographers and videographers, as well as art, law, science, and education students, so that the most Eco DIYs Reviews recent and relevant knowledge and skills are A third Instagram campaign dealt with eco-­ shared. The diverse skill sets help the committee friendly “life hacks”. The committee and inter- in three areas. The first is knowing what environested members were paired into ten groups to mental awareness message to share and, secensure that the hacks reviewed were diverse. The ondly, knowing how to share the message campaign was significant because the hacks that effectively. The latter refers to having members were chosen were beneficial for a student life- in the committee who know what they care about style. Examples of the hacks include shower and who have the skills to communicate the messteaming, cable storage, propagation of plants sage effectively over to the target audience (felusing toilet paper rolls, T-shirt tote bag, keeping low students). The student teachers are a valuable produce fresh, and homemade almond milk. The asset in the committee, since their skills set next section shares the lessons learned as guard- includes the ability to condense information, ian of the committee. focus on the important core of the theme, and develop creative ways of sharing the new knowledge and skills with fellow students. Lastly, prac7.4 Discussion and Conclusion tical skills are necessary to make the campaign and activity a success. The skills include being There are lessons to be learned from the NWU able to organise events, do marketing, obtain Green Team committee. Diversity of committee funding through the correct channels, build a netmembership from all faculties is important work for the committee, set up a website, and because it contributes to informed advocacy. For manage a networked structure within the comexample, the committee chairpersons completed mittee so that it functions. The NWU Green their studies as teachers (2014, 2016–2019), jour- Team’s chairperson is convinced that her team’s nalist (2015), and climatologists (2020, 2021). success can be attributed to the diversity within Recruitment of members with different skill sets the committee (Wessels, 2020). and from a variety of disciplines (both underAn avenue that needs to be explored is to meagraduate and postgraduate levels) contributes to sure the NWU Green Teams success to see the intellectual skills that enrich the work of the through the theory of change. A survey before committee, for example, town planners, geogra- and after could be used to determine whether the phers, biologists, social workers, and teachers, objective of activity was reached. Committee among others. members also have to be spread across different The diverse set of skills that exists in the NWU year groups to ensure that a majority of the comGreen Team contributes to the committee’s abil- mittee members do not complete their studies in ity to handle the challenges that come their way. the same year, risking continuity issues. The The diverse skill sets can be described as the leadership decision of the chairperson, Leandri interventions that are in place for the activity to Wessels, to emphasise collaborations with existbe achieved, so that the theory of change approach ing campus societies and the Student Campus is followed through (Reinholz & Andrews, 2020) Council has ensured greater student coverage due and it can be regarded as a type of internal to the collaborations with student residences. The enabler. The committee’s success is linked to committee must be visible on campus through their competence and ability to address those their activities and must communicate their camchallenges that are measurable. The more diverse paigns widely through campus visibility and the skill sets in the committee, the greater the social media. The activities can be followed on

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Instagram (@nwugreen), Facebook (@ NWUGreenTeam), Twitter (@NWUgreen), and TikTok (@nwugreen). Student camaraderie and high visibility when custom t-shirts with the committee logo were worn by the committee members is an indicator that the t-shirts build unity and spirit among committee members. The bureaucratic procedures involved in accessing the budget allocated to the committee has slowed down the work of the committee and remains a challenge. The latter challenge has restricted the growth of the committee, because it has been unable to expand on existing campaigns and to work on new campaigns. The committee campaigns have promoted Environmental Education through comprehensive education. The committee campaigns prepare students for life through its activities that provide an understanding of the major problems of our contemporary world. Students gain skills that enable them to improve their student community life and protect the environment applying ethical values (UNESCO-UNEP, 1978). By paying attention to the interrelated nature of human activity and the environment, the committee contributes to the achievement of the SDGs. The environmental awareness that the committee focuses on includes three targets to help achieve the SDGs. Goal 4 – Quality Education – is fulfilled through the sharing of new knowledge and promotion of lifelong learning through the committee campaign activities that the students take part in. The committee activities promote sustainable development, sustainable lifestyles, “global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development” (UNESCO, 2019). The committee campaigns teach students to understand how they can become better skilled professionals who can contribute to society. Goal 12  – Responsible consumption and production  – is achieved through the committee’s campaigns targeting environmental awareness about sustainable consumption for lifestyles, in harmony with nature (UNESCO, 2019). The committee campaigns make students aware of their responsible choices as consumers, thus influencing behaviour. Goal 13  – Climate Action  – is achieved

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through the campaign activities that promote environmental awareness, climate change awareness, and sustainable development. The Minute-­ To-­ Win-It games have educated and raised awareness on climate change mitigation and adaptation (UNESCO, 2019). Students have been sensitised about the sustainable use of resources. ESD’s primary concern is to improve the quality of life for humanity without damaging the environment (Pavlova, 2011). ESD carries a social and human rights dimension that is fundamental to the work of the committee. ESD can provide the knowledge, awareness, and action that will enable the committee to transform themselves and transform the student community. The committee campaigns and activities are based within a community of practice for community development. Ban Ki-Moon, former UN Secretary-General, shared that education is a “fundamental right and the basis for progress in every country”. He also elaborated on how, in the coming decades, we must achieve sustainable development by working in community when he said that “Partnership, leadership and wise investments in education” can transform lives, local economies, and the world (UNESCO, 2014a). The committee contributes to EESD through the transformative education provided to students by the committee campaigns and activities. For example, during the 1-min challenges, students learned about recycling and circular economy opportunities. The Deswalner recycling course and the plastic-free July campaign inspired environmentally conscious student consumer ­ behaviour. In partnership with Deswalner Recycling, the city of Potchefstroom, and the Student Campus Council, a competition to clean up Potchefstroom was also launched (NWU, 2021b). Academics in higher education’s strive for transformative learning because it involves shifts in perspectives that are said to “potentially underpin significant changes in worldviews” (Odii et al., 2021). The grassroots initiative that became the NWU Green Team has proved to deliver sustainability education where top-down measures struggle (Seyfang & Smith, 2007). The motivation for the statement is that the NWU Green Team has been able to use the knowledge

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and skills of its committee to create awareness of environmental challenges in a meaningful way among students. Education students who form part of the committee are aware of what they are taught in their BEd programme. Education students who are committee members promote transformative education because it is a key principle of the South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement of the National Curriculum Statement for all learners. It is the task of the in-service teacher to promote a holistic and systems approach to the biophysical, economic, and social situation of the environment, to develop complex thinking, and to create responsible and active citizens (South Africa. Department of Basic Education, 2011). Looking at how universities could become critical spaces and change agents for a societal transformation towards a sustainable future, this chapter shared how a student committee, the Green Team committee at the NWU, promoted the SDGs. Transformative environmental education was achieved through the campaigns and activities of the NWU Green Team committee. The committee activities promote action for change, and the faculty’s adoption of EESD is a positive approach to environmental awareness and education. The faculty initiative to foster ESD in an African university has sensitised students and staff to their environmental and collective social responsibilities and has created a culture of care. The Dean of the Faculty of Education encouraged sustainable practices and environmental stewardship. His belief in the importance thereof, and inclusion of it as an objective of his strategic priority for the faculty, began a chain reaction. Leadership initiatives from the side of the school director and subject group lecturer, as change agents, who supported and established the student committee because of their own environmental concerns and care are also key to the achievements of the committee. The student leadership of the committee show environmental concern and are ecologically conscious. The young student leaders have been influential in the leadership decisions to collaborate for change. The leaders have been sensitive to the needs of

s­tudents during a pandemic and adapted campaigns to maintain momentum. Change happens when strong leadership pulls people together for a common purpose.

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7  Student Outreach and Engagement for Sustainable Development: North-West University’s Green… organizations: lessons from the UK higher education sector. Carbon Management, 8(5–6), 379–392. https:// doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2017.1386533 McEwan-Short, J., & Jupp Kina, V. (2018). Teaching for Transformation: Higher Education Institutions, Critical Pedagogy and Social Impact. In A. Melling & R. Pilkington (Eds.), Paulo Freire and transformative education: Changing lives and transforming communities (pp. 231–243). Palgrave Macmillan. Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. JosseyBass. Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative learning theory to practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 74, 5–12. Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. Jossey Bass. Millar, H. (2021) The importance of bees to humans, the planet, and food supplies. Medica News Today. https:// www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/why-­are-­bees-­ important-­to-­humans. Accessed 22 May 2021. North-West University. (2011). Faculty of Education Sciences. Strategy plan. School of Curriculum-based Studies 2011–2013. Meeting date: 30–31 May 2011. North-West University. (2012). Marketing and Communication Management committee meeting. Green Campus Initiative. North-West University. (2015). Strategy 2015–2025. http://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu.ac.za/files/files/ i-­governance-­management/documents/2018.strategy-­ structure-­statute-­18July.pdf. Accessed 7 May 2021. North-West University. (2020a). NWU quick stats 2020/2021. http://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu. ac.za/files/files/i-­i nstitutional-­i nformation/pocket-­ statistics/NWU-­QuickStats-­2020-­2021.pdf. Accessed 5 Mar 2021. North-West University. (2020b). Teaching and learning strategy (2021-2025). Approved by NWU Council, 19 November 2020. 17 p. North-West University  – Faculty of Education. (2020) Quality Manual. FACULTY of EDUCATION Teaching and Learning, Community Engagement and Stakeholder Relations. http://education.nwu.ac.za/ education/quality-­assurance. Accessed 29 May 2021. North-West University. (2021a). EDTM 312 e-guide. https://efundi.nwu.ac.za/portal/site/f5ae0719-­cf36-­ 4f09-­a 8f8-­0 969f1ae6107/tool/d75a7c8f-­4 8e6-­ 4583-­9 7fe-­3 3669a0693f6/ShowPage?returnView =&studentItemId=0&backPath=&bltiAppStores =false&errorMessage=&clearAttr=&messageId= &source=&title=&sendingPage=781232&newTo pLevel=false&postedComment=false&addBefore=& itemId=4965797&path=push&topicId=&addTool=-­ 1&recheck=&id=&forumId=. Accessed 29 May 2021. North-West University. (2021b). Unit for environmental science and management newsletter. Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science Spring Edition. 39 p. O’Brien, K., Pelling, M., Patwardhan, A., Hallegatte, S., Maskrey, A., Oki, T., OswaldSpring, U., Wilbanks, T., & Yanda, P.  Z. (2012). Toward a sustainable and resilient future. In C. B. Field et al. (Eds.), Managing

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120 Stapp, W. B., et al. (1969). The Concept of Environmental Education. Journal of Environmental Education, 1(1), 30–31. Steyn, H. J., & Mentz, E. (2008). Teacher training in South Africa: The integrated model as viable option. South African Journal of Higher Education, 22(3), 679–691. Suldovsky, B. (2017). The information deficit model and climate change communication. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. https://doi. org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.301 Tufts University. (2020). The Talloires network. https:// talloiresnetwork.tufts.edu/who-­w e-­a re/talloires-­ network-­members/. Accessed 5 Mar 2021. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (2009a). Review of contexts and structures for ESD. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ ark:/48223/pf0000184944. Accessed 27 Mar 2021. UNESCO. (2009b). Learning for a sustainable world: Review of contexts and structures for education for sustainable development. http://www.unevoc. unesco.org/up/DESD_key_findings_and_way_ forward_23March09.pdf. Accessed 13 Mar 2021. UNESCO. (2010). Education transforms lives. Teaching and learning for a sustainable future. http://www.unesco.org/ education/tlsf/extras/desd.html. Accessed 21 Dec 2021. UNESCO. (2014a). Sustainable development begins with education: How education can contribute to the proposed post-2015 goals. UNESCO/Karel Prinsloo/ ARETE ED-2014/WS/32REV. UNESCO. UNESCO. (2014b). Roadmap for implementing the global action programme on education for sustainable development. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index. php?page=view&type=400&nr=1674&menu=1515. Accessed 13 Mar 2021.

L. O. de Sousa UNESCO. (2019). SDG 4  – Education 2030: part II, education for sustainable development beyond 2019. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf000036679 7?posInSet=1&queryId=69785d2a-­06a4-­4b5b-­812f-­ aaf4ccfa43ad. Accessed 13 Mar 2021. UNESCO. (2020). Education for Sustainable Development: A Roadmap ESD for 2030. UNESCO. UNESCO  – UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme). (1978). Final report, Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education, Tbilisi (USSR), 14 – 26 October 1977 (ED/MD/49.) (101 p.) UNESCO-UNEP Vasilescu, R., Barna, C., Epure, M., & Baicu, C. (2010). Developing university social responsibility: A model for the challenges of the new civil society. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2, 4177–4182. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.660 Wals, A.  E. J., & Kieft, G. (2010). Education for sustainable development: Research review. Sida Review, Edita, 54. Welz, A. (2018). Awaiting day zero: Cape town faces an uncertain water future. Yale Environment 360. https:// e360.yale.edu/features/awaiting-­day-­zero-­cape-­town-­ faces-­an-­uncertain-­water-­future. Accessed 22 May 2021. Wessels, L. (2021). Personal communication, May 22, 2021. World Wildlife Foundation. (2021). Sea turtle. https:// www.worldwildlife.org/species/sea-­turtle. Accessed 22 May 2021. Zerai, A. (2002). Models for unity between scholarship and grassroots activism. Critical Sociology (Brill Academic Publishers), 28(1/2), 201. https://doi-­org. nwulib.nwu.ac.za/10.1163/15691630232027766

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Higher Education for Sustainable Development in China: Policies, Curriculum, Research, and Outreach Activities, and Campus Practices Minghui Yang , Jiawen Wang, and Gaoyi Li

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEIs) play increasingly crucial roles in helping societies to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and inform the generations to become sustainability leaders of the future. The Chinese government strategically recognized “low carbon” as a catalyst for facilitating sustainable development and upgrading national economy for the 14th Five-Year Plan for 2015–2021. Given that the country has the second-largest number of HEIs and the highest rate of enrolment, this chapter aims to describe how the SDGs are integrated into HEIs in China through (a) policies, (b) curriculum, research, and outreach activities, and (c) campus practices. Based on the types of HEIs, including top-tier, excellent, and ordinary universities, the chapter presents and discusses six cases and their movement towards the SDGs. The findings imply that Chinese HEIs have exercised sustainability education and research by participating increasingly in campus-wide sustainability initiatives and practices and that different types of HEIs have different focuses and tendencies in practicing M. Yang (*) · J. Wang · G. Li Guangzhou City University of Technology, Guangzhou, China e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

sustainable development. The chapter concludes with a set of future perspectives that would lead Chinese HEIs to become more sustainable global institutions.

8.1 Introduction Overtime, sustainability issues in higher education have received tremendous concerns from both the public and policymakers (Fiksel et  al., 2012; Mickwitz & Melanen, 2009) because higher education institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in helping societies realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). HEIs are not only the main energy consumers but also the leaders of transformative changes, as they educate future academics, managers, professionals, and leaders on sustainability knowledge (Franco et  al., 2019). An increasing number of HEIs throughout the world are committed to integrate sustainability into policy, curriculum, teaching, research, campus practices, and community services. In 2012, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) emerged at the World Conference on Rio’s Environment and Development summit. The policy stressed the importance of education in promoting natural resource conservation. ESD was emphasized further at the Decade of ESD in 2005, when its goals and strategies were elaborated (UNESO, 2005).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_8

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In 2012, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development underlined the leading role of higher education in facilitating the SDGs (UN, 2012). An increasing number of declarations related to ESD have been initiated in response to greater public concerns on sustainability issues and instructing HEIs about the ways of achieving the SDGs (Lozano et al., 2013). The 1972 Stockholm Declaration was the first ESD declaration, followed by Talloires Declaration of 1990—a 10-point action plan focusing on sustainability issues in HEIs, including teaching, research, campus operation, and outreach activities (Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future, 2012). In 1991, the Halifax Declaration was launched to specifically emphasize the importance of the environmental aspects related to sustainable development. The Swansea Declaration was then promulgated in 1993, underlining the necessity of promoting sustainable development at the local, national, and global levels and stressing ethical concerns of countries in achieving the SDGs. The 1997 Declaration of Thessaloniki confirmed the moral obligation of HEIs in addressing sustainability issues and the significance of public outreach practices (Wright, 2004). At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the 2001 Luneburg Declaration focused on global collaboration, highlighting the need for the international higher education community to jointly promote sustainable development (Haigh, 2009). Another declaration was the Sapporo Declaration of 2008, which emphasized on the active role of HEIs in participating in a sustainable society (G8 University Summit, 2008). Extant studies addressing ESD were largely from Western contexts (Emanuel & Adams, 2011; Franco et al., 2019; Kagawa, 2007). Even so, research in developing countries such as China, Malaysia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia began to emerge in the last decade (Abd-Razak et  al., 2011; Abubakar et al., 2016; Tuncer, 2008; Yuan & Zuo, 2013). However, there is no identical paradigm of ESD under different sociopolitical contexts, and the education system in the West might

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significantly differ from that in the East such as in China (Wang et  al. 2020a). Specifically, China has the second-largest number of HEIs and the highest enrolment worldwide, with 2740 HEIs and approximately 40.02 million students by June 30, 2020 (Ministry of Education of China, 2020). HEIs reveal significant impacts on the Chinese society through substantial-energy consumption, and they shape students’ attitudes and knowledge regarding sustainability issues. The education sector, particularly Chinese HEIs, is evident in considerable energy and water use. According to statistics, the education sector was the largest public sector energy consumer, with about 40% of the energy consumption of the public sector (National Government Offices Administration, 2014). Moreover, about 0.84% of the country’s total energy, 4.21% of building energy, and 8.51% of urban water use came mainly from the consumption by HEIs (Lu & Chen, 2017). As stated in the Medium- and Long-­ term Education Reform and Development Plan, the central government was obligated to promote quality education and help HEIs to effectively achieve the SDGs (National Government Offices Administration, 2014). In the context of the national Green Economy policy promulgated at the 13th Five-Year Plan in 2015, Chinese HEIs met increasingly political and public pressures that lead to sustainable development. Given the aforementioned background, the purpose of this chapter is to present the engagement of Chinese HEIs with the SDGs. Based on the commonly adopted assessment of sustainability at a university (Lozano, 2006; Wang et  al. 2020b; Wright, 2010), three main aspects of HEIs are assessed: (a) policies, (b) curriculum, research, and outreach activities, and (c) campus practices. Based on the types of HEIs including top-tier, excellent, and ordinary universities, the chapter presents and discusses six cases and their movement towards the SDGs. Finally, the chapter concludes with a set of future perspectives that would lead Chinese HEIs to become more sustainable institutions in the world. These perspectives aim at ESD in Chinese HEIs and other similar settings around the world.

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8.2 Policies China has actively striven for sustainable development since 1987, and some positive results have been observed (Lu & Chen, 2017). The Ministry of Science and Technology facilitated the establishment of China National Sustainable Communities, representing a vital move towards the SDGs (Wang et  al. 2020a). In 2015, China adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which contains 17 SDGs aiming to solve sustainability thoroughly in three dimensions, including society, economy, and the environment by 2030 (UN, 2021). To date, China has made great efforts in poverty alleviation, health care, and education, adhering to the agenda of the central government in terms of the country’s sustainable development (Lu et al., 2019; Xu et al., 2020). China’s Agenda 21 is the first influential policy for achieving sustainable development. The policy includes strategies and guidelines of sustainable social development, economic development, rational use of resources, and environmental protection. It reflects China’s positive response and concrete contribution to the environment and global citizenship and has been adopted by provincial and regional governments. Particularly, different departments of the State Council were assigned to form their sectoral agendas and action plans. For instance, the Ministry of Education (MoE) was responsible for determining plans specifically dealing with ESD (State Planning Commission, 1994). Moreover, the central government also integrated China’s Agenda 21 into day-to-day management (Centre for International Earth Science Information Network, 1996). In 2011, the 12th Five-Year Plan proposed to establish a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society and regarded ecological sustainability as one of the national development objectives. In 2015, green economy was designated as a major theme in the 13th Five-Year Plan to combat environmental pollution in the next five years (The State Council of the People’s Republic of China, 2016).

Referring to the education sector, China’s Agenda 21 officially identified education and capacity building as fundamental strategies toward sustainable development (State Planning Commission, 1994). As stated in the agenda, the following key activities provide opportunities for sustainable development researchers: “the development of educational curricula and materials in ten universities and colleges, ranging from science, engineering, agricultural, medical, liberal arts, teachers’ colleges to universities; the introduction of post-graduate courses on sustainable development in some qualified universities; the establishment of training centres for post-­graduates and doctoral students in the same universities; and the compilation and publication of advanced teaching materials for the field of sustainable development” (Niu et al., 2010, p. 154). To better integrate sustainability issues into educational acts, the central government modified the Higher Education Law in 1998, which mainly emphasizes the important role of HEIs in the education of next generations with sufficient sustainability knowledge and skills. As noted in the 1998 revised Higher Education Law, “The task of higher education is to train people to become senior specialists equipped with creativeness and practical skills that can develop science, technology and culture, and promote the socialist modernization” (National People’s Congress, 1998, article 5). Besides governmental policies, HEIs also actively formulate a variety of standards that promote the innovation of sustainable development. Initiated by Tongji University, the China Green University Network (CGUN) was established in 2011 with 10 HEIs, including Tianjin University, Zhejiang University, South China University of Technology, Chongqing University, Jiangnan University, Shandong Jianzhu University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Shenzhen Institute of Building Research, and China Institute of Architecture Design and Research (CGUN, 2011). In 2012, the CGUN launched technical guidance and assessments, instructing HEI about

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ways of exercising sustainable development. The main objectives of CGUN (2011) include:

8.3.1 Top-Tier University: Seeking Integrated Development

• reinforcing interuniversity cooperation and exchange in developing green campuses • providing support on national policy decisions for campus energy conservation • promoting innovation, development, and cooperation of green building technology • training personnel in green campus and energy efficiency of green buildings • providing practical support for cultivating green campus culture • leading the development of green universities.

Top-tier universities in China are under the “985 Project” higher education program. One of the featured examples is Tsinghua University, which was established in 1911 and has one of the best reputations among HEIs in China. As stated by Zhao and Zou (2015), Tsinghua University first proposed the concept of green universities in 1998 and formulated a strategy called “one principle and three dimensions” that practically developed the concept of green campus. To be specific, “one principle” guides the ways to construct a green campus, whereas “three dimensions” refers to green education, green research, and green campus. In terms of green education, the University proactively integrated the concept of sustainable development into the curriculum by offering various courses related to sustainability issues, launching workshops, and developing after-class activities. The first compulsory course of green education is the “Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development,” which improves students’ perceived legitimacy and practical skills in environmental protection and sustainable development. In 2011, the System of Green Curriculum was established to offer more options in elective environmental courses. In addition, sustainability-­ related courses from the US, France, the Netherlands, Norway, and other countries were added to enrich the System of Green Curriculum (Zhao & Zou, 2015). The objective of green education in the University is to cultivate people with sufficient knowledge of environmental and ecological sustainability and the capability to exercise the knowledge in real life (Xue & Guo, 2011). Research related to sustainability issues also received great concerns in the University. It encouraged faculty and staff not only to conduct scientific research in natural science and social science but also to focus specifically on environmental management, social responsibility, and community welfare (Department of Environment Science and Engineering, 2009). In recent decades, the University has successfully applied

As a pioneer of the CGUN, Tongji University also established 11 professional committees to achieve the SDGs on campus, including the committee of green campus policy, the committee of green campus planning and architectural design, the committee of intelligent buildings, and so on (CGUN, 2011). Recently, the central government has promulgated a set of green campus evaluations to provide a detailed road map and indicators for HEIs to achieve the SDGs. Such policies consist of three assessment levels: primary and secondary schools, vocational schools, and HEIs. Key indicators comprise planning and ecology, energy and resources, environment and health, operation and management, and education and promotion. The policy also provides specific guidance for the construction of a green campus and encourages more HEIs to participate in sustainable development (Tan et al., 2014).

8.3 Curriculum, Research, and Outreach Activities Different HEIs might have various pedagogical methods in practicing sustainable development. We specifically elaborate how they incorporate sustainability into curriculum, research, and outreach activities based on the types of HEIs, including top-tier, excellent, and ordinary universities.

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280 sustainability-related scientific research projects fully funded by the state, province, or regions. Moreover, the University obtained substantial subsidies in supporting sustainability research (Xue, 2011). The University also frequently collaborated with international institutions to jointly promote green research. For instance, the Research Centre of Green Economy and sustainable development was established jointly by the Volvo Group in 2015. The Research Centre is substantially concerned with global climate change, carbon-dioxide reduction, sustainable economic development, sustainable social governance, and the balance between economy, society, resources, and the environment (Zhao & Zou, 2015). The University also cooperated with University of California-Berkeley to establish the Berkeley-Tsinghua Joint Research Centre (BTJRC), which focused on energy and climate change. The BTJRC mainly developed research projects in relation to energy savings, emissions reductions, and air-quality improvements (BTJRC 2021). Beyond green curriculum and sustainability research, the University also actively encouraged students to exercise sustainable development in outreach activities. For instance, the University periodically organized practical projects such as Student Research Training (SRT) related to sustainability. More than 500 sustainability-related SRTs have been carried out with more than 1000 participants (Xue, 2011). In addition, the University frequently organized front-edge seminars and workshops with respect to environmental protection, where students have opportunities to share thoughts and insights with professors and practitioners. In 2017, Tsinghua collaborated with Harvard University and Imperial College London to hold the International Summer School of Environment, with the theme of “Culture, Environment and Innovation.” It attracted 110 students from more than 20 countries. The summer program arranged particular lectures and workshops that required participants to propose solutions for environmental and social problems (Tsinghua University, 2017).

Given the leading role of sustainable development by Tsinghua University, a growing number of HEIs follow Tsinghua’s green education and research. In 2011, more than 60 Chinese HEIs have begun to define green education plans and launch green University initiatives. Most of these actions are voluntary because of Tsinghua’s substantial impact on the society (Zhao & Zou, 2015).

8.3.2 Excellent University: Fostering Sustainability Research With respect to excellent universities, we introduce Beijing Forestry University, an HEI that belongs to the “211 Project” higher education program. Founded in 1956, Beijing Forestry University has 17 colleges and more than 25,000 students. Because of the leading position in forestry science and ecological sustainability, the University has a dominant position in facilitating green education and research (Wang, 2011). In 2008, the University began to focus more on ecological sustainability research based on continuous scientific support by the Ecological Civilization Research Centre, the second-largest research centre in sustainability nationwide. Relying on administrative, financial, and talented human resources from the University, the centre can establish talented research teams with first-­ rate researchers and fellows and can carry out high-ranked research. The research mainly concerns forestry history, ecological culture, green economy, and green education (Ecological Civilization Research Centre, 2008). To publicize research output to the public, the centre released the annual report on China’s provincial ecocivilization index, which assesses ecological sustainability for different provinces and regions from five aspects: ecological vitality, environmental quality, social development, coordination degree, and transfer contribution (Yan et al., 2014). The University also actively involved sustainability-­related courses in the forestry curriculum, consisting of three main aspects, university-­wide general green courses, forestry-­ oriented green courses, and agriculture-oriented

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compulsory green courses. There were 14 elective green courses at a university-wide level that included topics such as introduction to global environmental issues, environmental protection and sustainable development, global ecology, and urban ecology. Those courses are intended to cultivate students’ understanding and ability to solve ecological and environmental problems practically. Two compulsory courses (ecology and introduction to forest resources and environment) are provided for undergraduates majoring in the environment and ecology. In addition, the University developed a Ph.D. program in ecological civilization management and construction that fostered future scholars and technicians with sufficient sustainability mindsets and advanced sustainability skills (Wang, 2011). To effectively communicate sustainability around the campus, the University used a variety of communication tools, including the University newspaper and website (Beijing Forest University, 2013a). In terms of outreach activities, the University has eight student clubs concerned with environmental protection and sustainability promotion. In 2010, the student union established the A4210 environmental protection initiative. To be specific, the “4” represents the four aspects of sustainable development, namely food, clothing, housing, and transportation. The “21” refers to the 21-day effect after the action is implemented. The “0” means no pollution and emissions. The “A4210” initiative was activated successfully in the community, helping local citizens to better understand the importance of sustainable development and the ways to achieve the SDGs. In 2014, the A4210 initiative was implemented in seven communities in Beijing (Beijing Forest University, 2013b).

8.3.3 Ordinary University: Solving Practical Green Issues The majority of Chinese HEIs are ordinary universities that are in neither the “985 program” nor the “211 program.” Nanjing Tech University is a featured example of ordinary universities in China. The University holds the view that implementation of green education is a combination of

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efforts among University, family, and society. A communication channel among family, faculty, and staff is established in a timely manner in response to sustainability issues. With a mission of social contribution, the SDGs of Nanjing Tech University are to better serve the community and to provide technical support for society. For example, in 2013, the University cooperated with the local community to establish the National University Science Park under four main principles, namely government guidance, market involvement, resource exchanging, and service offering. The park is specialized in providing knowledge transfer that meets the needs of the industry (Nanjing Tech University National Science Park, 2021). Focusing on practical skills, the University emphasized the ways of training students’ skills that solve environmental and social problems practically. The administration perceived that green education is more than the content of the textbook and the knowledge instructed by professors. As such, the University offered a variety of green activities to increase students’ perceived legitimacy of sustainability with experience in real-world scenarios (Li & Xie, 2003, p. 26). For instance, the World Water Day activity was designed to raise students’ awareness of water conservation. Through exhibiting real cases of water shortage and pollution, students can understand the significance of water conservation and how it affects future generations. The University also encouraged students to engage actively in the local community. For example, students frequently visited Laoshan Forest Park to distribute brochures on environmental protection brochures and educated local citizens about sustainable society transformation (Huang, 2006). Another featured ordinary university is Guangzhou University, which was established in 1927. It is one of the biggest comprehensive universities in Guangdong province and Guangzhou city. The University has set out clear policies and action plans in green education and research, of which green courses are provided to all students. For instance, students are required to take two credits of environmental education courses and are encouraged to participate in a variety of environ-

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mental activities, such as the World Environment Day activity, which can increase their sustainability perception (Wu, 2018). In recent years, green courses in Guangzhou University were extended from environment majors to all non-environment majors. For example, the course titled “Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development” was a university-­wide mandatory course for students from all schools, instructing them in fundamental knowledge and skills in environmental science, environmental laws, and regulations. The University also converted traditional teaching methods such as textbooks and lectures to a more participatory approach such as group discussion and project presentation (Chen, 2001). Unlike public ordinary universities, Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology (GCU) is a private ordinary university, located in Guangzhou city, Guangdong province. It is one of the top ten private HEIs in China. The University has launched solid connections between sustainable development and curricula by integrating green education into various academic programs. All GCU’s bachelor programs are required to include at least one sustainability course in the curricula, regardless of whether the major is in art, business, science, or engineering (Wang et  al. 2020a). Taking the School of Economics as an example, it is the first academic school in Guangdong province that provides a carbon finance program. In addition, the school invited experts and practitioners who have sufficient experience in circular economy and green finance and organized a series of green lectures for students to increase their perceived legitimacy of green practices. Faculty and staff were also required to periodically attend workshops associated with sustainability-related pedagogical skills and to participate in a variety of scientific projects relating to environmental economics and carbon finance (Xie, 2019).

8.4 Campus Practices In recent decades, the consumption of energy and water in China was substantial. Particularly, the education sector consumed 0.84% of the county’s

total energy consumption, 4.21% of the building energy consumption, and 8.51% of urban water use (Lu & Chen, 2017). In 2004, the State Council publicized a notice on facilitating resource conservation, along with action plans to achieve a conservation-oriented society within three years (China’s National Climate Change Program 2008). As a crucial actor in society, HEIs are obligated to follow resource-saving policies. In 2008, the MoE and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued general guidelines, instructing in developing conservation-­ oriented campuses for HEIs and technically defining assessment indicators related to energy conservation and emission reduction (MoE and Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, 2008). In this section, we also discuss campus practices by the types of HIEs, namely top-tier, excellent, and ordinary universities.

8.4.1 Top-Tier University: Leader of Green Coverage Concerning top-tier universities, Tsinghua University plays a leading role in green campus practices (Zhao & Zou, 2015, p.  494). The University made great efforts to improve the ecological landscape since 2005. The University has one of the top campuses with the highest green coverage in Beijing through intensive tree and flower planting. The green area has risen dramatically, exceeding 1.4 million square meters, and the green coverage ratio reached 57.4% in 2010. According to Forbes, Tsinghua University was one of the 14 most beautiful university campuses in the world (Zhao & Zou, 2015). The SDGs of the green campus in Tsinghua mainly are concerned with ecological sustainability and environmental protection. The University has realized that sustainability involves not only campus greening but also the construction of a resource-efficient campus. The University further proposed an action plan for achieving an ecological campus through energy and water conservation (Qian, 2009). In 2010, Tsinghua University replaced 100,000 fluores-

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cent tubes with energy-saving lamps which covered all classrooms and student dorms, resulting in 3 million kWh of electricity reduction each year. In the street lighting system, a new intelligent streetlamp controller has been installed to convert normal lighting into interval and unilateral lighting mode at midnight. Meanwhile, solar energy and wind-energy-saving equipment such as wind-power generation tools have been used. In 2015, the University installed solar heating systems for outdoor swimming pools and seven other recreational areas, saving about 187,000 square meters of gas and reducing carbon-­dioxide emissions by 1586 tons every year. The University built geothermal wells by using renewable resources such as natural gas instead of coal. Electric shuttles were also used for public transit because the University has a relatively large campus area (Wang, 2016). The University also renovated water-supply facilities when the rainwater collection infrastructure, recycling equipment, and reclaimed water-treatment station were established in 2009. Since then, total water consumption has declined steadily. With advanced water-treatment technologies, the amount of water used in irrigation has been reduced by 30% (Liang & Liu, 2015, p. 87). In 2015, Tsinghua University used PVC membrane for two water-treatment stations to enhance capacity of filtration and antipollution ability. Pipeline network transformation has been conducted through the refinement of underground rainwater collection tank, and the recirculation of the pipeline network. Consequently, annual water consumption in the University was less than 5 million tons for five consecutive years (Liang & Liu, 2015, p. 87).

8.4.2 Excellent University: Champion of Energy Conservation One of the featured excellent universities is Shandong University, which was established in 1901 and is recognized within the “985 project” and “211 project” higher education programs. The University actively engaged in green campus

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practices. In 2012, it implemented the campaign called Green Campus, Walking and Exercising to reduce carbon emissions by limiting the number of vehicles that entered the campus. The University administration launched a specialized section to take charge of sustainability-related work. This section incorporated certain sustainability objectives into the University’s 11th Five-­ Year Plan and 12th Five-Year Plan, including the development of environmental awareness throughout the University and the construction of green campus infrastructure (Shandong University, 2006). The University has promoted an office automation system since 2014 to reduce the usage of paper documents. The University also actively facilitated energy and water conservation through technical innovation. As a result, electricity consumption for the whole campus decreased by 15% in 2015 (Shandong University, 2014). A real-time monitoring system for energy consumption which reported a deduction of 118,000 Chinese yuan within one year was installed (Shandong University, 2011). In addition, infrared human-body induction controllers on the traditional lamp were constructed for all classrooms in 2005, which saves more than 30% in electricity every year. Water heaters in the Teaching and Learning Building were converted from 24-h operation to five-hour operation between 6  am and 10 pm. The University invested 3.3 million Chinese yuan in solar water-heating systems, which can save 1500 tons of coal per year and effectively reduce the carbon footprint. Water conservation equipment, such as water-saving devices, were also introduced to students’ dorms, which can save about 60% of water (Shandong University, 2011).

8.4.3 Ordinary University: Active Participant of Campus Sustainability Among ordinary universities, Nanjing Tech University is an active participant in facilitating campus sustainability practices. The principle lies in effectively incorporating the natural envi-

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ronment into the campus and establishing an ecological garden campus. The University is on a mountainside with a wide range of flowering plants and trees, and thus the campus has become increasingly biodiverse. In addition, the University focused on the artificial landscape. For instance, ShiJun Park, which combines historical culture with the natural environment, was surrounded by beautiful plants and flowing water (Zhang, 2012). Nanjing Tech University also realized the importance of water conservation and started to implement rainwater harvesting. The geographic location of the campus is higher in the north and lower in the south, and thus several dams were built by technically using the height difference to harvest rainwater. The University also built two sewage-treatment stations in Xiangshan campus and Nanyuan campus for wastewater recycling and landscape irrigation (Li & Xie, 2003, p. 27). Other sustainable measures have also been taken by the University to reduce water wasting, such as metering systems, and water-pipe network reconstruction. The University also actively adopted advanced technologies to solve environmental problems practically and move towards the SDGs. For example, faecal water was treated biologically with more than 99% purity, and biogas residual was used as nourishment for school plants and trees (Zhang, 2012).

mented in recent decades. Nevertheless, some problems still exist in the Chinese context, generating challenges for authorities and HEIs to effectively exercise the SDGs. As stated in the study by Wang et al. (2020b), the top-down hierarchy in Chinese HEIs leads to a lack of incentive and fails to achieve students’ self-participation. Compared with Chinese HEIs, British HEIs might enjoy greater enthusiasm of individuals toward sustainable development, along with a more supportive atmosphere from the top of the University (Lu & Zhang, 2013). Another challenge is that HEIs commonly pay more attention to environmental issues but are less concerned with other aspects of sustainable development such as social responsibility, community involvement, and outreach activities. Therefore, a clearer definition of “Green HEIs” should be identified further to materialize the vision and workable actions (Yuan et al., 2013). Referring to the governmental level, Liu and Gao (2020) questioned the absence of a national policy framework toward ESD and an imbalance of financial support across different universities in various levels and geographic contexts. In this book chapter, the policies related to ESD in HEIs are first elaborated through reviewing the 1994 China Agenda 21, the 1998 revised Higher Education Law, the 2011 CGUN network, and the 2019 Green Campus Evaluation. Moving forward on future policies, two key perspectives can facilitate higher ESD. First, most 8.5 Conclusion regulatory policies are at the central government level, mandated by the State Council and the As the biggest emerging economy of the world, MoE. There is a lack of provincial and regional China has experienced rapid economic develop- rules in serving local socioeconomic environment while witnessing an increasing number of ments. To transform ordinary HEIs into green incidents that conflict with sustainable develop- universities and promote the SDGs as a whole, a ment. The central government has clear strategic decentralized policy framework could be estabplans to achieve the SDGs, which are represented lished, and autonomy could be further delegated by the “green economy” agenda in the 13th Five-­ to local authorities. Second, given that current Year Plan of 2015–2020 and the “low carbon regulations and rules are mandated at a broad development” agenda in the 14th Plan of 2021– level, future reform might lie in more specific 2025, respectively. The education sector and and action-oriented levels. A precise technique HEIs are also recognized as crucial participants regarding sustainability action guidelines and a in promoting sustainable development, where set of best practices and evaluation indicators policies and action plans such as the CGUN net- could be formed to offer detailed instructions work and Green Campus Evaluation were imple- for HEIs to follow.

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The curriculum, research, and outreach activities are discussed second in this chapter. Some featured universities are selected as examples: a top-tier HEI such as Tsinghua University, an excellent HEI such as Beijing Forestry University, and ordinary HEIs such as Nanjing Tech University, Guangzhou University, and Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology. Despite the fact that Chinese HEIs have increasingly emphasized the significance of sustainability education, three key issues need to be further addressed. First, Chinese HEIs commonly adopt traditional teaching methods such as textbooks, assignments, and quizzes, offering insufficiency to educate future leaders with sustainability knowledge and skills (Huang & Wang, 2013). Instead, a participatory teaching approach including discussion, case studies, and projects could be used to foster students’ practical sustainability skills including communication, innovation, and collaboration. Second, HEIs should focus more on outreach activities and services and should partner with local communities and regions that jointly promote the SDGs. Third, sustainability education is not only simply a combination of sustainability, curriculum, and teaching but also a new cultural change (Huang & Lee, 2014). The last aspect is campus practices moving towards the SDGs. Similarly, a top-tier HEI (Tsinghua University), an excellent HEI (Shandong University), and an ordinary HEI (Nanjing Tech University) are chosen as ­examples to elaborate their ways of achieving a green campus. To help Chinese HEIs become more sustainable, some key recommendations are proposed. First, green campus practices need continuous institutional support in which the university administration should formulate clear sustainability-related plans and policies and adopt inclusive campus management. In other words, sustainable development should be considered an integral part of campus culture rather than an inessential supplement. Second, the traditional top-down approach is no longer practical when determining sustainable development strategies. Instead, a bottom-up approach can be better used because it decen-

tralizes decision making to various stakeholders and empowers students, staff, and faculty to make environmentally friendly changes in a timely manner. To increase students’ perceived legitimacy of sustainability, HEIs need to keep communication channels open and foster students’ self-participation. Third, new technologies such as renewable energy and intelligent campuses soon might soon be introduced in daily practices that reduce negative environmental impacts and facilitate a circular economy. Acknowledgements  This research is granted by the Research Centre for Accounting and Economic Development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area [grant numbers YGA013, 2021]. Authors acknowledge scientific support by Postdoc Research Mobility in the University of Hradec Kralove and Research Centre of Accounting and Economic Development for Guangdong-Hong KongMacau Bay Area at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

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9

Study Abroad Programs at the Vanguard for Education for Sustainable Development: A Teacher Education Case Study Aerin W. Benavides, Allison Freed, and Lacey D. Huffling

Abstract

While short-term study abroad programs can provide long-term student gains in intercultural awareness and geography, the study abroad field lacks research studies on sustainability-­ focused programs and their long-term effects on the participants. We conducted a follow-up study of a 12-day program organized to the Peruvian Manu rainforest for pre-service teachers, honors undergraduate students, and faculty/staff (N  =  29) from a medium-sized state university along the mid-­ Atlantic coast (the USA). Our case study of this innovative course-embedded study abroad program was based upon meaning-making by some of the participants (n = 8) in one-on-one interviews 5–7 years after their experience in Peru. We engaged Transformational Learning theory and Critical Pedagogy of Place (CPP) in our analysis of the participants’ reflective interviews. We looked for transformational learning from moments of disequilibrium, reflection, critical frames of reference, and action-taking. We found that many features of our program led to enduring cultural and enviA. W. Benavides (*) · A. Freed · L. D. Huffling University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

ronmental awareness and action towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Findings from this study could help advance future program design and research for a better understanding of the significant role that cultural and environmental immersion experiences play in promoting urgently needed pedagogy for transformational learning in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and in teacher education, to elicit action towards the SDGs in educational settings.

9.1 Introduction “I think giving that experience to teachers is important; and it’s crazy that they have study abroad programs for so many other concepts, but not as many for teachers,” reflected Sarah, a Manu student participant and a sixth grade science teacher.

The underutilized role of study abroad (a generalized term used in the USA for international study programs) to promote deeper understandings for future educators of the current climate crisis as addressed in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the actions towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UNESCO, 2020) prompts us to recognize the urgent need for new and improved, accessible, and thoughtfully planned sustainability-focused study abroad programs. Study abroad programs

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_9

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as part of teacher education would increase the use and availability of transformational learning experiences (Bell et al., 2016), generally recognized as a key to the success of ESD. Such programs could also serve as a way to experience local discourse firsthand in the Global South, with reference to the surmounting environmental challenges the region faces while trapped in a cultural and economic colonization during a time of global warming and ecological crisis (Dados, 2020; Gonzalez, 2015). This could be significantly meaningful for pre-service teachers and future scientists/science educators alike as they engage in experiential learning that requires critical analysis, reflection, and transformative learning, which could in turn impact educators’ developing pedagogical practices and identities as environmental stewards, creating a long-­ lasting impact on their entire career (Zhang & Gibson, 2021). ESD is not a required component of initial teacher preparation within our institutions or the governing agencies of teacher certification in the USA; yet, we recognize the importance of including ESD within teacher education and contend that including ESD in immersion experiences can aid in the development of global competencies for students (Evans et al., 2017; Zhang & Gibson, 2021). However, as Ritchie (2013) attests, it is challenging to teach about the complexities of new ecological and cultural environments, especially when pre-service teachers have little experience outside their own ecological and cultural environment. Teaching about sustainability is also difficult in a society in which climate change denial is a part of the popular political rhetoric and requires teacher educators to include sociopolitical content beyond the natural sci­ ences (Islam & Kieu, 2021). We are in agreement with Nolet’s (2009) definition of sustainability that “social justice and equity are as equal in importance with preservation of wilderness areas and biodiversity” (p. 3), and we strive to utilize ESD to engage our pre-­ service teachers’ global citizenship, which Nolet defines as “civic engagement and a commitment to equity on the world stage” (p. 4). Thus, to provide opportunities for our pre-service teachers to

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broaden their ecological and cultural experiences, we developed an environmental sustainability-­focused study abroad program for pre-service teachers as an entry point into ESD as part of course work and free of cost to participants, except for a small fee. In our follow-up case study 5–7  years after our short-term study abroad program to the Manu jungle of Peru for undergraduate students from a mid-sized southeastern university in the USA, we explored the cultural and environmental understandings a diverse group of participants developed over time and how they embraced the challenge of education using a broader global sustainability discourse. The purpose of this chapter is to reveal the meanings the educators attributed to the environmental sustainability-focused trips as transformative learning experiences, and how those experiences could lead to awareness and actions towards the SDGs. In this regard, we ask: What are the meanings science educators make of a 12-day environmental sustainability-focused study abroad experience in Manu 5–7 years later, as evidenced in cultural and environmental awareness, and cultural and environmental action towards the UN SDGs?

9.2 Theoretical Framework In order to examine this sustainability-focused trip for pre-service teachers and Biology/ Environmental Studies honor students, we used a Sociocultural Theory perspective (Vygotskiĭ et  al., 1978) and a Transformational Learning framework (Mezirow, 2000) which assumes that transformation begins through experiencing the complexities of the area of study, and thus creates triggering experiences that lead to dissonance. Transformation occurs, then, through guided, purposeful reflection. We define transformational learning as a deep change that stems from the experiences of disorientation that could lead to new perspectives and understandings. The three major tenets of transformational learning include: (1) Disequilibrium triggering experiences/Dissonance; (2) Critical to frame of reference; (3) Changes in viewpoint and future

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plans (Addleman et al., 2014). Dissonance occurs during study abroad experiences when the participant is the cultural outsider immersed into a new cultural environment (Marx & Moss, 2011). When participants are asked to reflect on their experiences, perceptions, and feelings abroad, a critical frame of reference is developed. Over time, a change in viewpoints occurs leading to a changed understanding of the world. This also aligns with the key pedagogical strategies Leicht et  al. (2018) identified—transformational learning is listed as one of the three preferred pedagogies to engage ESD. One goal of teacher education is to assist pre-­ service teachers in examining their “own concrete, situated experiences with the world. Hence uncovering assumptions and biases that could get in the way of their role as cultural workers and change makers for all students” (Gruenewald, 2003, p. 5). Transformative study abroad teacher education experiences have long-term effects on teachers’ understanding of themselves (Smolcic & Katunich, 2017) and the way “reading a place as a text” (p. 5) impact curriculum development and delivery of information to their students (Gruenewald, 2003). These influence instruction and dispositions that lead to a lasting, positive impact on teachers’ cultural awareness and connection to place (Kalina & Powell, 2009). These long-term effects assist teachers in taking pedagogical and sustainable actions to serve all students within their context or ecological place (Gruenewald, 2003). Study abroad experiences can promote an imbalance between the familiar and what is encountered while abroad. The unfamiliar can help shift the students’ frames of reference through guided critical reflection (Leicht et al., 2018), leading to a more critical and curious perception of the world. As Ritchie (2013) notes, “Education for sustainability needs to be locally and culturally relevant” (p. 4). This means that taking teacher candidates out of a familiar setting and helping them experience a new cultural and ecological context have a powerful impact on their understanding of new perspectives, making connections to prior experiences, and realizing the impact of culture and knowledge on sustainable development. Traveling

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abroad, through a transformational learning lens while studying the ecological and cultural aspects of a particular place, can encourage participants to critically examine places in their local environment. The skills developed abroad can be used in their local environment upon reentry. These skills elicit sustainability action-oriented behaviors both in their daily life and in their teaching (Zhang & Gibson, 2021). Gruenewald (2003) posits that in our world, there exist oppressing race, gender, and class as well as ecologically damaging cultural patterns that need to be transformed to contribute to the well-being of all people and all places, despite the people and the structures that would conserve them. Thus, he constructed the theory of Critical Pedagogy of Place (CPP) “to contribute to the production of educational discourses and practices that explicitly examine the place-specific nexus between environment, culture, and education” (p. 10). Participants can engage in CPP as a way to multidimensionally examine both their local place and a foreign place. In addition, we maintain that CPP can be used to form a critical frame of reference for participants (Gruenewald, 2003). Facilitating students’ process of deciding what needs to be transformed and what does not require an understanding of CPP, which emphasizes the spatial aspects of social experience, promotes a deeper understanding of place-based pedagogy, and calls on us to critically decolonize (deconstruct), analyze, and then reinhabit (reimagine) the places and spaces we inhabit, where we live or call home. CPP connects the physical place with self, culture, and community. Applying CPP to study abroad programs with a sustainability focus means students deconstruct what they see and reimagine it through an equity lens. Through guided critical reflections, students can take actions towards reconstruction in environmentally sustainable ways. Deconstructing involves deeply understanding the cultural significance in the host country and of observed or underlying problems, and solutions embedded in the ecological and cultural context of the host country. Deconstructing involves the voices of the people in that community, and ecological place (Ritchie, 2013); it requires we ask what

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they see as the problem/solution, and requires we look at the equity/inequity in the cultural-­ historical aspects of the situation. Deconstructing, for study abroad, also requires knowledgeable and local cultural guides (Freed et  al., 2019; Marx & Moss, 2011). Transformational Learning theory and CPP are mutually supportive frameworks and overlap in a critical analysis component. Together, they offer a synchronous path for participants from triggering transformative experiences, with reflection and analysis, towards becoming culturally competent (Freed et  al., 2021), focused on sustainability, able to reimagine a better future, and towards taking pedagogical actions for sustainable development (see Fig. 9.1). Essentially, it’s a “call for teachers to be cultural workers capable of identifying and redressing the injustices, inequities, and myths of an oppressive world” (Gruenewald, 2003, p.  5), and to take actions towards the SDGs.

9.3 Methodology 9.3.1 Research Position We are teacher educators and science education researchers, native to and employed in the Global North. We all have past experiences in living and studying abroad, and in leading study abroad programs. Our common bond is our informed concern

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for growing ecological and social crises worldwide, especially damaging in the equatorial region due to global warming. We find that education can be the call to action for the survival of life on the Earth, and that sustainability-focused teacher education study abroad programs have the dynamic possibility to assure that we reach far and wide quickly as we place education at the vanguard for environmental sustainability solutions.

9.3.2 Context and Procedures This descriptive case study (Yin, 2014) of a 12-day study abroad program implemented in 2014 for 21 students and 8 faculty/staff (a total of 29 participants) to Manu, Peru presents the data obtained from the prior knowledge of the participants, and through semi-structured interviews conducted 5–7 years after the trip. The curriculum, content, and activities of the program were aligned with the specific SDGs (see Table  9.1), and the context of the study encompassed all facets of a study abroad trip: • Pre-trip courses and assignments (SDG# 4, 15); • Daily whole group discussions and self-­ guided reflective journaling; • Days 1–4 (SDG# 4, 12, 13, 14, 15) Conference with local scientists in Lima, visit to the Pachacamac archeological site, cultural

Fig. 9.1  Transformational Learning and Critical Pedagogy of Place leading actions towards SDGs. (This diagram is based upon a diagram in Freed et al. (2021). https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

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Table 9.1  Curricular alignment with SDGs Study abroad activity Pre-trip courses The USA

Description of activity/curriculum Studying the Spanish language, Peruvian culture, design EE lessons for school in Peru; and discuss readings about the forests and their role in the development of the USA

Curricular alignment w/SDGs #4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education #15 Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests

Science Conference Lima, Peru

Attending presentations by local sociologist re: informal mining in the jungle, introduction to marine biology and related issues by local marine biologists, and presentation of marine biology school lessons

# 12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns #14 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources

Chorrillos School Visit Lima, Peru

Teaching sustainability lessons in English as part of an “English fair” at a K-11 school for low-income families; lessons were also educational to Biology majors and to teachers in Peru; using pedagogy as climate action (e.g., Planting seeds, learning about the outdoors in the gardens)

#4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. #13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. #15 (same as above)

Cloud Forest Madre de Dios, Peru

Traveling by plane, then busses from Cusco to the rainforest through the upper altitudes of the jungle, stopping along the way

#15 (same as above)

Biological Study Stations Madre de Dios, Peru

Stopping at two remote biological study stations for conservation presentations and to observe specimens of local wildlife

#15 (same as above)

Manu Rainforest Madre de Dios, Peru

Traveling by boat along the river basin to stay at a birdwatchers’ lodge near the Manu National Park

#15 (same as above)

Rainforest Hikes Manu Rainforest, Peru

Going on multiple hikes daily with the guides at the birdwatchers’ lodge to see, hear, and learn about local wildlife

#15 (same as above)

events, and teaching environmental sustainability lessons (specifically EE) at K-11 school in Chorrillos; • Day 5–11 (SDG# 15) travel to the upper cloud forest biological study stations, presentations by biologists with local wildlife specimens, travel by canoe on the rivers beyond the roads’ end, and guided tours and wildlife viewing hikes of the lower rainforest near the national park of Manu; • Day 12 self-guided cultural exploration of Lima.

The Manu trip was organized by the teacher educators/team leaders of a science-focused pre-­service teacher cohort and made possible through a grant from a nonprofit organization. The participants only had to pay a small fee. The trip was open to pre-service teachers on the science and social studies teams as part of their regular course of study and to the students in an honor’s environmental studies course. The trip was therefore not a separate course requiring additional tuition.

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9.3.3 Participants

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instill rigor in our coding, we first coded interviews (1 each) blind to our coauthors’ coding, The case study of the Manu program included 8 then we collaborated and discussed our coding student participants; all of the student partici- decisions to confirm common meanings for the pants who agreed to be interviewed (see codes before coding the remaining interviews. Table 9.2). They coincidentally constitute a rep- After the initial analysis, the interviews were resentative cross-section of the student popula- again reflectively analyzed using the SDGs as a tion on the trip, as well as of the population in the new lens for examining the design and impact of field of K-16 science educators in the USA. Most the study abroad program on the participants’ were White females, one participant was a Latina teaching practices, behaviors, and actions. The and person of Color, one a Black female, and one interview transcripts were coded for the specific a White male. At the time of the trip, the K-6 pre-­ SDGs. service teachers were seniors in a science-focused 2-year cohort. Prior to the trip, they participated in multiple workshops to gain credit towards 9.4 Findings state certification of Environmental Education (EE) and had interned/student taught at a K-5 sci- The meanings that the interview participants ence magnet school. The trip took place during (n  =  8), who all became science educators of the spring semester of 2014, as part of a seminar K-16 and in nonformal education, made of the course for the pre-service teachers and part of an Manu study abroad experience were evidenced environmental-themed honors course for Biology in the interview data. Reflecting upon what majors. they gained from their trip to the rainforest, the most frequent Dedoose data codes were: increased knowledge and skills (139), increased 9.3.4 Data Collection and Analysis cultural and environmental awareness (116), and identity transformations/shifts (43) We contacted all the student participants from (Table  9.3). We found it noteworthy that in the 2014 Manu trip by email as per university these follow-up interviews 5–7 years after the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval from study abroad trip to Peru, the interviewees our three institutions, to ask if they would par- reported that they had gained knowledge and ticipate in an interview. Semi-structured post skills and engaged in some form of interviews, conducted from 2019 to 2021, inves- Environmental and Sustainability Education, tigated the participants’ long-term meanings of or Environmental Education (EE) in the USA, the trip, as it had been 5–7 years since the Peru after the study abroad program (Table 9.2). In study abroad program. During the one-on-one addition, many described how the trip to Manu interviews, which were digital audio or video contributed to the quality of education they recorded, we prompted reflection by asking the offer(ed) to their students (SDG4). One of the key issues affecting the quality of participants to reflect upon their experience, specifically asking about the knowledge and sustainability education is the establishment of a skills gained, as well as the experiences that led deeper understanding of the environment and the to increased cultural and environmental aware- culture of the people who live there (Ritchie, ness, and sought descriptions of cultural and 2013), and we found evidence of increased envienvironmental actions taken since the program ronmental and cultural awareness for all particiended. The data analysis of the interviews’ con- pants. We also found significant evidence of tent was conducted by all three authors using identity shifts and identity transformations priori codes in line with our theoretical frame- related to Manu. Further, following identity work on Dedoose software (see Table  9.3). To transformations/shifts, we found evidence of

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Table 9.2  Participants of Manu program Pseudonym Emily

Self-identified gender/ race or ethnicity Female/White

Undergraduate major/minor Biology

Jessica

Female/White

Kayla

Female/White

Elem Ed K-6/ Business Biology

Lucia

Female/Latina

Elem Ed K-6

Megan Sarah

Female/White Female/White

Taniya Thomas

Female/Black Male/White

Biology Elem Ed K-6/ Environmental Science Elem Ed K-6 Biology

pedagogical action directly related to SDG13, Climate Action, which was especially noteworthy because it is not required as a part of the science curriculum where the interview participants teach/taught in the USA.

9.4.1 Knowledge and Skills The participants, despite varied prior experiences, all evidenced increased knowledge and skills, especially in regard to SDG14: Life Below Water and SDG15: Life on Land. Knowledge and skills were evidenced by details mentioned about animals, ecosystems, science, and Peruvian culture. The participants often spoke of using trip knowledge and skills in teaching. All of the interviewees engaged in sustainability education to some degree as science educators after the trip. Sustainability scholars have found that increased knowledge and skills are needed to engage teachers in sustainability education (Joseph & Said, 2019; Sandri, 2020). Megan, a Biology major at the time of the trip and a Biologist at a nuclear power plant actively engaged in community outreach education at the time of the interview, expressed that an increase in her knowledge and skills happened in Manu “because we were in a place, we aren’t familiar with.”

Occupation(s) since study abroad High School Science Teacher/ Forestry Graduate Student/TA Elementary Teacher/State Certified Environmental Educator Museum & Aquarium Intern/Study Abroad Educator/Photographer Middle School Science Teacher/ Education Graduate Student/Asst. Vice Principal Biologist/Community Educator Elementary Teacher/Middle School Science Teacher Elementary Teacher Ecologist, PhD Candidate/University Instructor

Years since study abroad 5 6 6 5

5 7

5 5

Taniya, a pre-service teacher on the trip and an elementary school teacher at the time of the interview, recalled “I realized there were so many insects, ones I had not heard of, like the hair cutting bees.” The interview participants did not simply gain science/environmental and cultural knowledge and skills through this study abroad program. Both pre-service teachers and Biology majors reported developing pedagogical (SDG4) knowledge and skills (51) (Table 9.3). Emily, a Biology major on the trip, a former high school science teacher and a forestry graduate student at the time of the interview, said, “Anecdotes are always useful in teaching, … if you can say, like, “When I was….” Lucia, a pre-service teacher and sixth grade science teacher at the time of the interview, said having gone on the trip and later using pedagogy related to the trip, such as sharing and explaining a biofuel chip, one she was given at a biological study station in Madre de Dios, helped her feel accomplished as a teacher. Kayla, a Biology major who volunteered with EE organizations and was a photographer at the time of her interview, felt that the Peru trip gave her the confidence to take on an educator’s role. “Actually,” she said, “one thing that I did do after that trip…I actually led a group of high schoolers

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140 Table 9.3  Dedoose data analysis priori codes Parent codea Culture of Origin (17)

Sub-codesa 1. Dominant Culture (7) 2. Nondominant Culture (7)

Description of code Participant’s culture of origin in the USA

Connection to Place (29)

1. Connection to Place (26) 2. Disconnection from Place (3)

What “place” the participant felt or did not feel a connection with

Challenging own Culture (7)

None

Identity Transition/Shifts (43) Recognized by Others (54)

None

Through experiences in a new place and critical reflection, participants realized or developed a critical view of their own culture Evidence of an identity transition or shift affected by the study abroad trip

Increased Awareness (116)

Knowledge and Skills (139) Natural World (23) Reflection (6) Taking Action (55)

1. Culturally (10) 2. Environmentally (13) 3. Seeking out new cultural experiences (31) 1. Cultural Awareness (79) 2. Environmental Awareness (37)

Recognized by others for cultural or environmental awareness or for seeking out new cultural experiences (related to identity, how one is identified by others)

1. Cultural (48) 2. Environmental (39) 3. Pedagogical (51) None

Increase in cultural, environmental, or pedagogical knowledge and/or skills related to the study abroad trip

None 1. Cultural Action (26) 2. Environmental Action (29)

Evidence of increased cultural or environmental awareness due to or since the study abroad trip

References to the natural world and the meanings participants give to their experiences in the natural world Reflections on the study abroad experience Taking cultural or environmental action, such as: pedagogical action; exploring new cultures and cultural experiences or new environments; donating time or money to climate action

Numbers in parentheses indicate frequency count of code

a

to Spain. I was the only guide … I’m sure [it] came from my experience in Peru. I probably wouldn’t have had the confidence to do that if I hadn’t had that experience.”

9.4.2 Increased Cultural and Environmental Awareness Increased cultural and environmental awareness were described in many ways by the interviewees. Cultural awareness was understanding how people and systems from the Global North and Peru were alike, or how Peruvian society contained various subcultures, such as tribes living near Manu that we learned about from a documentary film about the tribes defending their ecological place against development that

a Manu guide shared with us. Critical awareness of cultural inequities, injustices, and/or reports of developing cultural competencies after the trip indicated deeper cultural awareness. Emily described cultural awareness as shedding preconceptions about the Global South. She noted “I think it made me feel like the world is a much safer, friendlier place than it sounds when you’re in America, and it’s like, ‘You’re going out in the wild.’ It’s like, ‘No, you’re taking a bus.’ It’s not that big a deal.” Lucia found Peruvian culture different from her heritage culture in Colombia and her adopted nation’s culture in the USA. She saw herself as “being appreciative of something else other than what I grew up in,” and spoke of her equitable openness to other cultures.

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Taniya spoke of a connectedness to Peruvian culture and an increased awareness of intercultural relationships as she critically reflected upon international relations. “I definitely feel a little more connected,” she said, “And I can see a little more of how different countries and people, and how one’s action plan [can affect] somebody on the other side—and how we’re all interconnected in some way.” Increased environmental awareness was new understandings of global connections in the biosphere, or gaining awareness of the anthropogenic damage done elsewhere while in a forest so unaffected by humans, or seeing the night stars because they were unhampered by human-built lights. Critical environmental awareness was hinting at the “why” behind the need to teach about and/or take action to protect the environment. Thomas, a Biology major on the trip and pursuing his PhD at the time of the interview, recounted “My fondest memory was going in there and just seeing just how natural it was… Never saw it in my life, never saw the rainforest, never experienced rain in a rainforest. So that was really, as a biologist and as an ecologist, now, it’s something I look back to.” He encourages his mentees to go “international” for similar experiences. Lucia found that the trip to Peru helped her to become aware of the importance of education to elicit behavior change in order to preserve natural areas such as Parque Nacional del Manu. “[My experience in Manu] had a lot to do with also my understanding of how precious these areas are, and how we do need to make these changes. Our planet is changing, our climates are changing. Our behaviors as a species had really affected our planet. And that’s one of the things that I also talk to my kids about, because they are our future.” Megan found the environmental sustainability-­ focused study abroad experience organized by teacher educators made her aware of the importance of ESD/EE. She said, “You were truly successful in trying to get us to see why it is so important that we not only experience the world around us, but that we successfully teach what we have learned to others in a way that makes them

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interested and excited about science and the environment, something that I had never really considered the importance of.” Kayla became aware of Manu’s biodiversity, “I definitely explain all the night nature hikes where we were basically tripping over these huge spiders and snakes and frogs and things that were just so cool to me.” Taniya described how she shared her gained awareness of the Kapok ecosystem to her students, and her awareness that we need to care for the biosphere. “We read the Kapok tree story, and I get out my pictures on my laptop from our trip and show them the picture of the Kapok tree. I remember when Jessica went into the tree at the base and a bunch of bats flew out. I told the kids that base was as big as our classroom. I realized how we have to take care of the world.”

9.4.3 Identity Transformations/ Shifts The participants mentioned transformations and/or shifts in their viewpoints related to the Manu trip. Thomas, for whom the study abroad experience in Peru was his first international trip, went from, as he said about himself, “You haven’t done it in your life, you’ve never even flown with someone else”… to …“I’ve been international for a long time now.” He self-identified as “international” after the trip to Manu, and his doctoral studies of locusts were based in the Outback of Australia and in rural areas of Africa. Sarah, a pre-service teacher on the trip and sixth grade science teacher at the time of her interview, experienced transformational learning, exemplified by her description of agentic (Holland et al., 2001) identity formation in the rainforest. “It was kind of a group of teachers going on this trip and we were all very comfortable at that school. We all loved the kids, this and that, but then when we got to that Ecolodge, we had some teachers really outside their comfort zone. There were cockroaches and no power. So, I think just being outside of our comfort zone there really showed us: one, a different

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side of the world; and the other, a different side of ourselves, being able to exist within a rainforest.” Lucia, who in addition to teaching science was pursuing her Master’s degree in Educational Administration at the time of her interview and obtained an assistant principal post after the interview, grew to self-identify as a “leader.” She felt the trip to Peru was a step towards her new career path. As she stated, “I’ve never sought out to be like “Oh, I’m going to be this leader.” And now, 5 years later, I’m going to be! … Yeah, the leader. It’s [the trip to Manu] one of the things that I think was that stepping stone into the next direction of my life… Yeah, I think it [being an interpreter for non-Spanish speakers in Peru] did help. I think it did help a lot, and I think it definitely put me in a leadership position in the group.”

9.4.4 Cultural and Environmental Actions Towards SDGs The interviewees described how in years following the trip, as individuals and as part of their teaching, they took cultural and environmental actions (55) and sought out new cultural experiences (31) (Table 9.3), which further illuminated their identity shifts. These acts furthered their understandings of cultures in the classroom, helping them make ESD/EE content more universally accessible (SDG4). The interviewees spoke of actions they took within the 5–7 years following study abroad program that were influenced in some way by the Manu trip, actions that we found aligned with the specific SDGs (https:// sdgs.un.org/goals).

9.4.4.1 SDG2: Zero Hunger Thomas remembered a disequilibrium triggering experience—when he realized the challenges to sustaining life for Peruvians. “Especially Peru,” he explained, “I remember we went up in through [the mountains] seeing how people live … it made me think about people’s livelihoods. And if you don’t know what I’m doing now, I study

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locusts, which are like plagues and how that affects food security in countries.” He considered the new awareness he gained in Peru of the harsh environment and social sustainability issues as one of the reasons for his career choice. Thomas reflected, “But since I was able to have these experiences in Peru, for example, it opened my eyes to understanding how people live. And I attribute partial, some of the reasons why I do what I do now, which is study food security issues around the world, [as] due to these experiences abroad, seeing how people live. And trying to promote food security is very important, especially in countries that are very hard environments to live in.”

9.4.4.2 SDG4: Quality Education For pre-service teachers, providing quality accessible, culturally competent education was part of their curriculum, and they exposed the Biology majors to their teaching skills as they co-taught EE lessons. Incredibly, at some point in time, all of the Biology majors we interviewed became science educators at the high school or college level, or in the nonformal sector. The two interviewees of Color, Taniya and Lucia, spoke more than White interviewees of cultural and environmental actions, such as those suggested by the UN Office in Geneva document, 170 Daily Actions to Transform our World (https://sites. ungeneva.org/170actions/climate/). This could be attributed to, as Maddamsetti (2021) found, pre-service teachers of Color are adept at cultivating their asset- equity- and justice-oriented pedagogies; they can pull on their own racial and cultural backgrounds as members of a subculture in the USA to better understand how they position their students. And, Doerr (2020) found that minoritized immigrant students who go on study abroad programs already have global competence that they can utilize to enrich their experience. This effectively gave Taniya and Lucia an advantage over some White/nonimmigrant students to critically evaluate cultural experiences and use that in teaching. Lucia found that study abroad, even though she spoke Spanish, helped her to better under-

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stand and connect with her students of varied Latin American heritages. “I have an added advantage because I can speak another language,” she said, “but even within that, my dialect is different. Our cultural forms are very different. So, I think being able to connect with those students in a more meaningful way had a lot to do with my trip to Peru.” Lucia said that taking action to immerse herself in yet another culture enabled her to further connect with students. “I went to this Ethiopian fair, because I wanted to try this food,” she described, “And now I have this kid that’s walking through my door … I can [say], ‘Oh, you know what? I’ve tried this one dish. Do you know this dish?’ and that gives him the confidence to open up to me. It gives him a connection to me to be able to start to form that relationship in the first place. So, I always seek out these different cultural experiences, just because I want to be able to know more, to be able to connect on a different level.” Sarah said, “You don’t know what you don’t know a lot of times, especially with cultures. It’s easy just to kind of stay in your bubble and no one really blames you … like it’s not a bad thing, but it’s just, I feel bad about it.” As a White teacher she felt keeping up the practice of exposing herself to new cultural experiences was necessary in order to maintain her cultural competency. “I think I’m pretty culturally competent with certain populations,” she said, “but coming to [middle school] we have a very high Indian population, and I didn’t know about a lot of these holidays or things like that, where I was, ‘Whoa! I missed this whole opportunity!’ Whereas in Hispanic cultures, I’ve spent a lot of time there. I’ve kind of opened my eyes and horizons to that. But I think it’s kind of, ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it.’ Almost, if you don’t keep exposing [yourself] and learning about stuff, you just kind of [say]… ‘I don’t know what happened’.” Jessica, a pre-service teacher on the trip, also a White teacher, teaching at elementary school at the time of the interview, did not feel that she sought out new cultural experiences. She recalled how far the experience of the trip to the rainforest

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was outside of her comfort zone. Before she left to study abroad, her family was uncomfortable that she was leaving her cell phone behind. “[W] hen I first told my parents about it and I told them I didn’t really know about cell phone reception or internet, and actually just decided to leave my phone at home, it was interesting because they weren’t necessarily happy about it” she recounted. For Sarah, it was what she learned in a different ecological place that stood out to her and endured over time as instrumental to her providing quality science education. “[L]earning a lot more about the environment there, kind of more of the science side of our trip, is what stuck with me the most.” She noted how she used this in her teaching. “[Study abroad in Peru] took us on a bus ride up a cliff, and then we were on a boat for four or five hours to this location where these really novel… knowledgeable people,” she reflected, “…our guides with the bird calls and the howler monkey calls, and seeing that Macaw [lick], and all those experiences, and sharing some of the animals that we saw there—that always comes up—especially with teaching. It comes up just because we teach about biomes and ecosystems and the fact that I can say and share actual pictures from when I was in the rainforest is a pretty cool experience. Most teachers don’t really have that kind of piece.” Lucia attributed hands-on learning in Peru and being on the science-themed cohort as a pre-­service teacher as fundamental to her being able to provide quality education to her culturally and racially diverse low-income and academically challenged students. She found using her firsthand experiences in teaching as a beneficial to students. As she described it, “[T]his experience that I’ve had that I can use real world connections to [in my pedagogy]. But, also just the level of education that I got in the program I was in, being on the science team, all of those things really opened up doors for me to be able to teach on a level that the kids really grasp. And it’s helped me, because every single year I’ve ever taught I’ve exceeded expected growth. I’ve been in the blue every single year. There have been years where I have tripled the state average of expected growth. And one, I

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attribute that to building relationships with the kids, but two, I also attribute that to hands-on learning in science.”

9.4.4.3 SDG13: Climate Action Emily found the trip helped her to solidify her graduate science degree/career choice of forestry, and a determination to take climate action through conservation. “I have always wanted to work in conservation, with an interest in rainforests, because of their sheer biodiversity, but having this experience ingrained that dream into me, and gave me a motivating energy that I will use to get me through all the tough times still ahead of me in my education” she reflected, “… Especially Manu, [it] was so isolated … every area of the planet has been impacted by people at this point, but it just felt like it was like, this is what it’s supposed to be like. It was really special. I came home and knew that I was going to make some real sacrifices to make sure that that [conservation] happened.” Jessica noted that, repeating the interviewer’s question as she answered it, as an elementary school teacher she took climate action by educating about the importance of it. She said, “Have you done anything that you would say was action to protect the environment since the trip? I’m sure I have. I think part of it for me has been educating my students about the importance of it. And at school we’ve talked about recycling, we’ve done things like that.  “She added,”  And (we) looked at, “Where are these projects?” “While Jessica did not speak of the Project Wild EE lessons (https://www.fishwildlife.org/projectwild/project-­wild) she taught as if she were taking a radical act of pedagogy, she was, as described by Coles (2021), actively engaged in a democratic pedagogical initiative as a state-certified Environmental Educator and public elementary school teacher and as part of an emerging transformative process towards environmental awareness and action. She taught ESD/EE even though it was not required. Jessica considered her teaching as a form of taking climate action. We refer to this finding as Pedagogy as Action.

9.4.4.4 SDG15: Life on Land Lucia felt that the experience in the rainforest changed her perspective on “life and the world,” and gave her reasons to take pedagogical action for life on land by sharing her experiences in Manu. She said, “Just the overall experience of seeing, being actually in…oh gosh, There’s so many. I don’t know. One would be in the jungle, in the actual rainforest, and experiencing that firsthand. It changes your perspective on life and on the world… we talk about the different species. I have an ecosystem [unit] that I go over. So, we talk about plant adaptations, things like that, and diversity among species and stuff. And just in general, just cool stories. I like to talk to them about [Manu] to kind of give them more experience outside of just Instagram and Snapchat.” Taniya took pedagogical action to encourage her students to then take action for life on land. “We study about the rainforest,” she said, “and some kids send off to save the rainforest.” She gave her elementary school students from a low-­ income African-American community the opportunity to donate to conserve the rainforest. She engaged in, as noted by Hodson (2003), science curricula oriented towards social action, encouraging students to take action in the best interest of the biosphere. Taniya engaged in what Carter et al. (2014) referred to as Pedagogy for Action.

9.4.5 Summary Overall, we found that the participants gained knowledge and skills and experienced increased awareness through transformative immersion in culture and environment in Manu; and realized the importance of education as an action to achieve a sustainable future. Post-Manu, K-6 pre-­ service teachers we interviewed went on to teach in their licensure area, and Biology majors went on to become educators—either in high school, university, or in nonformal education. The data analysis revealed actions towards the SDG# 2,

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4, 13, and 15 (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). The transformational learning experiences on the Manu trip supported new and continued cultural and environmental awareness, individual actions, Pedagogy as Action, and Pedagogy for Action.

9.5 Discussion The ESD roadmap for 2030 (UNESCO, 2020), in agreement with our theoretical framework, puts emphasis on the need for transformational learning in order to achieve the SDGs. We found that the participants experienced transformational learning and engaged in individual cultural and environmental behaviors, actions, and teaching practices, (Pedagogy as Action), as well as transformative teaching (Pedagogy for Action), towards the SDGs in the 5–7  years following study abroad—actions that the interviewees connected to their experiences on the Manu trip. These actions represent a significant finding for our study, and could be significant for ESD. Pedagogy for Action, in continuation of and in line with our theoretical framework (see Fig. 9.2) can happen when the participants, as post-study abroad educators, offer transformational learning opportunities to their students. Carter et al. (2014) described transformative learning in science education as involving instructors first exposing students to sociopolitical issues as part of subject content; next, helping students to critically

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unpack assumptions related to these issues; and then exposing them to information that would likely lead students to taking action. A final step could be to offer students, as Taniya did, an opportunity to take action towards the SDGs as part of the curricula. In accordance with Transformational Learning theory (Addleman et al., 2014), the participants who described disequilibrium triggering experiences and took on a critical frame of reference noted an identity transformation or shift in their viewpoints related to the trip experience, which affected their plans and actions after study abroad experience. Identity transformations or shifts are often a tipping point to enable one to express one’s agency (Holland et al., 2001). Disorienting experiences described by the interviewees were having to leave a cell phone behind or being deep in the rainforest with cockroaches. For Jessica, her family was uncomfortable that she would be traveling to a place without cell service, something she remembered as discomforting. She did not, however, analyze this critically or describe a shift in view after the experience. Sarah, however, evidenced critical reflection upon disorienting experiences. She mentioned teachers being where there were cockroaches and no electric power; however, she did not see it as merely “deficient” to what they were used to at home in the USA, rather she searched critically deeper to see it as a heroic agentic (Holland et  al., 2001) opportunity. She viewed the teachers as increasing not only their knowledge of the “wild place”

Fig. 9.2  Pedagogy for Action towards SDG# 2, 4, 13, 14, and 15. (This diagram is based upon a diagram in Freed et al. (2021). https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

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but also the knowledge of themselves, and what they were capable of doing. In alignment with the SDG4, we encouraged global citizenship (Davies & Pike, 2009; Nolet, 2009). As educators from the Global North, we sought to facilitate participants’ gaining knowledge, skills, and awareness, while in this equatorial region that could transform how they saw the world. We engaged the whole group in reflective and critical analysis discussions each day, (but did not record the discussions at the time). Students engaged in self-guided reflection in journals. As we were trying something no one from our university had done before for pre-­ service teachers, we did not seek to impose our own ideas or ask our students to all think alike. Perhaps due in part to the fact that we were trying something new, we also attempted to honor the fact that we were visitors in another country and that we were all learning along the way; thus, we depended upon Peruvian scientists, educators, and guides to help us navigate the terrain, both environmentally and culturally. We found that cultural and environmental guides, our hosts, were critically important (Freed et  al., 2019; Marx & Moss, 2011) to the students on the trip, helping them understand local discourse, which increased their cultural awareness. We realized upon reflection how important our guides and their shared knowledge were to the resulting curriculum. They contributed greatly to the program. The wildlife guide in Manu, who shared a documentary film, is an example of how important it was to have cultural guides to be able to help us critically deconstruct what we saw and experienced. In parallel, the CPP (Gruenewald, 2003) framework can be used as a lens for this sustainability-­focused program, which requires us to investigate how students deconstructed what they saw and reimagined it through an equity lens. Deconstructing involves understanding deeply the cultural significance in the host country of observed or underlying problems. Deconstructing involves the voice of people in that ecological place; it requires we ask them what they see as the problem/solution and requires we look at the equity/inequity in the cultural-­historical aspects of the situation. Taniya

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deconstructed what she learned/noticed as she considered how we are connected globally. She spent time talking with the guides; they shared some of the precarious problems Manu faces, the inequities. Her reflection on interconnectedness was the product of experiences in Peru that prompted a deeper and lived understanding of how what we do in the Global North can adversely affect the Global South. She later engaged in Pedagogy for Action, encouraging her students to donate to save the rainforest, reimagining a world where the rainforest will be preserved. Deconstructing was also exemplified by Thomas when he pondered the livelihoods of Peruvians. The cultural aspects of the Peru experience stood out for him. He deconstructed what he saw along the way in the Andes to ponder how people survived economically. “It’s why my research now, here at [university] has such a big international component. So, it opened my eyes. It made me want to experience more.” The curiosity into livelihoods Peru gave him went on to guide his ecological research towards a reimagined world of food security. When we planned the study abroad trip, as teacher educators, we focused on exploring remote less-affected-by-humans ecological learning spaces, and designed the educational aspects of the trip for pre-service teachers on the science cohort. Using ESD and the SDGs (UNESCO, 2020)-tinted retrospective lenses, we find that in addition to the environmental learning impacts we designed the trip to elicit, the cultural aspects of learning were also impactful for the participants. Researchers Zhang et al. (2019) also found cultural aspects of learning as important in study abroad programs for pre-service teachers. This perspective highlights how fundamental environmental and cultural aspects of learning in tandem were to the participants’ later sustainable education endeavors, especially with regard to the SDG4, and SDG15. They engaged in pedagogical actions as change agents—Taniya allowed for her students to become change agents. Albareda-Tiana et  al. (2019) acknowledged, it is not enough to know about sustainability related problems—in order to create a more sustainable world and address issues related to the SDGs, teachers must be agents of change.

9  Study Abroad Programs at the Vanguard for Education for Sustainable Development: A Teacher…

9.5.1 Limitations The findings in this study are limited to the study population and cannot be generalized. Study participants on the trip were well prepared through their participation in science courses and/or participation in the science-focused cohort for K-6 pre-service teachers working towards state EE Certification. While the challenges to organizing a trip like this (developing: funding; safety protocols; professional contacts; and travel plan/curriculum design) to a remote destination in the wild, and participants’ prior experiences, may be unique to this case study, and not easily replicated, we hope that more trips such as this will be carried out in the future.

9.6 Implications, Future Directions, and Conclusion This case study provides us insight into some long-term effects for educators of a short-term sustainability-focused study abroad program. It also gives us a critical opportunity to consider program design improvements, as well as further research possibilities. One implication of the study is that we as study abroad faculty should put an emphasis on taking action as a part of and as a long-term goal of the program. Recognizing that all participants could become sustainability educators, the importance of transformational learning, written guided critical reflections while on the trip, and Pedagogy as/for Action in ESD/ EE towards the SDGs should be practiced, recorded, and emphasized. We found pedagogical strategies, such as strategies for guided reflection and introspection, that have been shown to have powerful impacts on students’ transformational learning and should be used in conjunction with a CPP (Gruenewald, 2003) framework for pre-departure work, assignments while abroad, and post-travel assignments. There is strong evidence that how participants connected to place at home had the potential to impact how deeply they understood the culture and ecological environment in the host country. The reverse can also be true. The deep exploration of a place while abroad can impact how the participants show up in their local communities (Ritchie, 2013).

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This deep analysis of place is essential as educators navigate the ecological and cultural aspects of the community in which they live and teach. We consider that school visits and opportunities to teach, preferably at the beginning of the study abroad program in Lima, should be an integral part of the program. Teaching children was a way for pre-service teachers to develop and exercise agency and self-confidence while immersed in a new culture—agency and ­confidence that helped them face further challenges as we traveled to more unfamiliar cultural and ecologically remote areas. Another implication of our findings is that going forward we should set learning objectives for future environmental sustainability-focused study abroad programs that are in line with our theoretical underpinnings and findings: 1. to maintain high levels of gains in cultural, environmental, and pedagogical knowledge and skills; 2. to widen participants’ lenses to further their cultural and environmental understandings by encouraging multiple perspectives through guided critical reflection in order to help students see that their perspectives are not the only ones; 3. to instill increased understanding, empathy, and compassion with the help of cultural and environmental guides; 4. to develop our curriculum beyond individual efforts on the SDGs and towards understanding systems, to help prepare students for action towards systemic change, (in the USA there is a focus on the individual and actions an individual can take towards a sustainable future); 5. to broaden the curriculum thusly, we should make it evident that we are all cultural beings living in cultural and national systems, and that we can develop critical awareness of how and where we fit into the world; 6. to seek out further cultural and environmental experiences as part of life-long learning, encouraged by the study abroad, seek decolonization, and a reimagining of the local host community/home community, as part of a precursor, during, and/or a follow-up experience to the study abroad trip.

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The Manu trip experiences helped build certain educator behaviors and attitudes which lead towards fulfilling the SDGs, and allow for more intentional action-taking towards the SDGs, in accordance with the ESD roadmap for 2030 (UNESCO, 2020). Study abroad programs have much to offer transformational learning in ESD and we look forward to a more comprehensive inclusiveness of ESD and the SDGs in teacher education in the USA, as well as more inclusive ESD/EE-focused study abroad programs designed for transformational learning experiences—preferably funded by the university or other nonprofits, and embedded in teacher education courses. Study abroad programs need to be accessible and affordable to be effective; especially affordable for the students often marginalized in teacher education. Participants of Color reported substantial evidence of cultural and environmental awareness and action long-term. The better we prepare future educators now, the more students we can reach in years to come, and the higher the chance they will teach for needed change to successfully achieve the SDGs. What the Manu study abroad experience offered to the participants while they were immersed in culture and in the rainforest ecosystem that is unique to study abroad experience and hard for them as educators to later simulate in their own classrooms afterwards is cultural and environmental immersion in a new ecological place. This can cause triggering moments of dissonance that could be critically reflected upon, thus prompting impactful transformative learning. We suggest that disequilibrium to prompt transformational learning while immersed in a new or unfamiliar environment could also be achieved locally. Educators can immerse their students unfamiliar with the natural world in natural areas of the schoolyard or nearby parks. Or, students can go on study experiences somewhere different from their cultural and ecological place. Our theoretical framework and consequential design of study abroad programs can be applied to Study Away programs in the future, trips in-­ country to areas that are culturally and ecologically different from what students are used to. We suggest further research on the role of study

abroad programs and Study Away in the field of ESD and educator preparation could be significant towards achieving the SDGs. We hope to improve upon our first effort, and further examine our first effort in order to continue to improve the field of sustainability education for educators and those they go on to educate. We suggest the next iteration of teacher education include embedded, accessible, affordable sustainability-focused study away/abroad experiences that trigger personal transformational learning while immersed, and elicit exploration of a broader cultural and environmental dialectic and discourse through the CPP framework, prompting enduring transformation, which can lead to Pedagogy for Action towards the UN SDGs for years to follow. Study away/abroad would not simply change students’ behavioral actions in line with ESD (UNESCO, 2020), something we found evidence of in our study. When study abroad students became educators, we found that these changes could go beyond action as individuals. Thus, study away/abroad can shine a light on the underlying historical, social, and cultural reasons for disparities, lead to a critical understanding of the larger society and environment in which we live, and, for educators, becomes a catalyst at the vanguard for urgent needed change in this time of climate crisis.

References Addleman, R. A., Nava, R. C., Cevallos, T., Brazo, C. J., & Dixon, K. (2014). Preparing teacher candidates to serve students from diverse backgrounds: Triggering transformative learning through short term cultural immersion. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 43, 189–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijintrel.2014.08.005 Albareda-Tiana, S., García-González, E., Jiménez-­ Fontana, R., & Solís-Espallargas, C. (2019). Implementing pedagogical approaches for ESD in initial teacher training at Spanish universities. Sustainability, 11(4927), 4927. https://doi. org/10.3390/su11184927 Bell, H.  L., Gibson, H.  J., Tarrant, M.  A., Perry, L.  G. I.  I. I., & Stoner, L. (2016). Transformational learning through study abroad: US students’ reflections on learning about sustainability in the South Pacific. Leisure Studies, 35(4), 389–405. https://doi.org/10.10 80/02614367.2014.962585

9  Study Abroad Programs at the Vanguard for Education for Sustainable Development: A Teacher… Carter, L., Castano Rodriguez, C., & Jones, M. (2014). Transformative learning in science education: Investigating pedagogy for action. In L.  Benecze & S.  Alsop (Eds.), Activist science and technology education (pp.  531–545). Springer. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-­94-­007-­4360-­1 Coles, R. (2021). Reflections towards a transformative movement for radical democratic and ecological pedagogy. In K.  Schick & C.  Timperley (Eds.), Subversive pedagogies: Radical possibility in the academy. Routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781003217183-­3 Dados, N. (2020). Knowledge, power and the global south: Epistemes and economies after colonialism. In B. Dunn (Ed.), A research agenda for critical political economy (pp.  61–76). Monograph. https://doi. org/10.4337/9781789903072.00009 Davies, I., & Pike, G. (2009). Global citizenship education: Challenges and possibilities. In R. Lewin (Ed.), Handbook of practice and research in study abroad: Higher education and the quest for global citizenship (pp. 61–78). Routledge. Doerr, N. M. (2020). ‘Global competence’ of minority immigrant students: Hierarchy of experience and ideology of global competence in study abroad. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 41(1), 83–97. https:// doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1462147 Evans, N. S., Stevenson, R. B., Lasen, M., Ferreira, J. A., & Davis, J. (2017). Approaches to embedding sustainability in teacher education: A synthesis of the literature. Teaching and Teacher Education, 63, 405–417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.01.013 Freed, A., Benavides, A., & Huffling, L.  D. (2019). Teaching, reflecting, and learning: Exploring teacher education study abroad programs as transformational learning opportunities. In K. Tirri & A. Toom (Eds.), Pedagogy and pedagogical challenges. Intech Open. Freed, A., Benavides, A., & Huffling, L.  D. (2021). Transformative study abroad and the development of preservice teachers’ culturally competent pedagogy as action towards a re-imagined future. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 21(11). https://doi. org/10.33423/jhetp.v21i11.4676 Gonzalez, C.  G. (2015). Environmental justice, human rights, and the global south. Santa Clara Journal of International Law, 13(1), 151–196. Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3–12. Hodson, D. (2003). Time for action: Science education for an alternative future. International Journal of Science Education, 25(6), 645–670. Holland, D., Lachicotte, W., Jr., Skinner, D., & Cain, C. (2001). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Harvard University Press. Islam, M. S., & Kieu, E. (2021). Sociological perspectives on climate change and society: A review. Climate, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9010007

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Engaging Students of Business Management to Face Collective Social Dilemmas: Contribution of Sociology of Emotions

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Diogo Reatto and Janette Brusntein

Abstract

This study articulates the Sociology of Emotions with the Critical Social Transformative Learning (CSTL) theory to understand how the emotional experiences of business management professors contribute to the engagement of their students in transformative learning processes towards facing collective dilemmas through Community Outreach Projects (COPs) based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The interviews conducted with 16 business management professors from 9 different Brazilian universities and the reports received by 60 students showed that the basic elements of the professors’ emotional experiences included “distress-disagreement-shame-guilt, prosocial behaviour, and empathy.” These elements developing in primary socialization triggered the professors to develop pedagogical practices to address the resolution of collective social problems advocated in the SDGs. The results obtained in this study indicated the dynamics of this process and brought implications to the Sociology of Emotions and CSTL theory as well as practical implications for professors, students, and Higher Education D. Reatto (*) · J. Brusntein Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil e-mail: [email protected]

Institutions (HEIs) worldwide, in particular, but not limited to, Business Management Education.

10.1 Introduction Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) was conceived initially by Mezirow (1997) stating that adult individuals become aware of the limited or distorted view they might have on reality when they experience a traumatic or unexpected situation. New alternatives to face this experience are open if individuals are able to analyse their world view critically and transform it into a new meaning perspective (Cranton, 2002; Howie & Bagnall, 2013; Taylor, 1998) that allows them to be more open, inclusive, and emotionally able to change (Brunstein & King, 2018). Even though Mezirow later claimed that “the transformation process is often difficult and highly emotional” (Mezirow, 2009, p. 115), few academics and professionals in adult education assume emotion as an integral part of the process of meaning construction (Dirks, 2006). This lack of attention is due in large part to the fact that TLT includes mostly individualistic, rational, and cognitive approaches, which do not even allow an individual’s engagement towards the problems of the world, as it overestimates self-development from the personal dilemmas and undermines the actions for social change (Finnegan, 2014;

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_10

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Papastamatis & Panitsides, 2014; Servage, 2008; Taylor & Cranton, 2013). As an addition to the aforementioned positioning, the studies on human emotions are still supported by the dominant biosocial paradigm (Taylor & Cranton, 2013) with a psychological approach, which contributes to the fact that human emotions are still considered irrational reactions of the body as an instinctive reflex of purely biological origin (Barbalet, 2001). Thus, we believe that TLT should incorporate new approaches that also consider emotions as an inseparable component and learning agent (Gambrell, 2016; Papastamatis & Panitsides, 2014; Tisdell, 2012) and what can happen through improving studies of emotions from a sociological approach. Scholars of the sociology of emotions such as John Dewey (1986) and Norman Denzin (2009), from a constructionist or sociocultural approach, propose that emotions are socially constructed and situational, that is, they depend on the way individuals experience the world (Denzin, 2009; Dewey, 1986; Elkjaer & Huysman, 2008; Thoits, 1989). For constructionists, the experience of creating new knowledge is both cognitive and emotional. Furthermore, there is no way to separate individuals’ story from their social context (Simpson & Marshall, 2010). Therefore, we claim in this chapter that human emotions, when studied in TLT from a sociocultural approach, could contribute to the Critical Social Transformative Learning (CSTL) theory (Gambrell, 2016), and to the formation of a more critical business management professional, who is potentially concerned with issues that go beyond personal development and meet the interests of the current social and economic systems. Although universities are places of transformation and responsible for the development of professionals with collective concerns, educational practices, so far, emphasize changes at the individual level of students (Brunstein & King, 2018). Specifically, in the case of business management, discussions about social and sustainability issues are important because they sound incompatible with the universe of management (Springett, 2010). There is an urgent need for

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transformative managerial education, in which there is a change from a competitive-oriented view to one that involves viable, sustainable, and creative practices. The reality is not different with respect to business management undergraduate courses in Brazil. There is insufficient space for discussion and development of a professional concerned with collective problems, which leads us to ask whether teaching in such higher education courses is able to contribute to the formation of a critical and skilled professional who understands and proposes alternatives for social difficulties. Brazil stands out as a fertile scenario for the concern with the formation of a business management professional with global leadership skills due to its condition as a growing economy, which necessitates the professional to face socioenvironmental issues on a regional scale and also worldwide. In Brazilian universities, Community Outreach Projects (COPs) are a possibility for the development of pedagogical practices capable of guaranteeing the formation of new generations of business managers, especially when these actions consider the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs (UN, 2020). COPs in Brazilian undergraduate courses of business management are similar to the concepts of service-learning and civic engagement. It can prepare future business managers to act in a more inclusive scenario with a new policy to keep the use of natural resources within sustainable limits, and introduce a greater need to reduce social injustices. We believe that the COPs of business management have the potential to foster engagement and transformation of professors, students, and their surroundings as long as the projects are permeated with emotional experiences. The emotional experiences are constructed from the professors’ life narratives, which favour the connection of the individuals with the collective dilemmas of the community. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to understand how the emotional experiences of business management professors contribute to engaging their students in the transformative learning processes towards facing collective dilemmas through COPs based on the SDGs. The results presented here might both

10  Engaging Students of Business Management to Face Collective Social Dilemmas: Contribution…

advance the theoretical discussions on the sociology of emotions and transformative learning directed at sustainable development in higher education as well as present practical implications for professors, students, and educational institutions in similar settings.

10.2 Theoretical Framework: Sociocultural Approach of Emotions The theoretical framework of the study articulates the sociocultural approach of emotions and the CSTL theory for the professional development of business managers. The approaches that assume sociocultural or constructionist determination of emotions focus on examining social and cultural influences on emotions (Denzin, 2009; Thoits, 1989). Constructionists generally deny that emotions are universal and innate to human beings. Instead, they argue that emotions are a product of the social environment (Von Scheve & Von Luede, 2005) and dependent on how each individual evaluates a situation and responds to it through a specific vocabulary with variations in time and space (Thoits, 1989). Dewey (1986), the forerunner of symbolic interactionist and sociocultural approaches, defended the importance of “context” in the constitution of “emotion”, and thus, actions, thoughts, and emotions are not a mechanical response to external and unconnected stimuli, but an organic coordination, that is, subjects are always part of social and natural worlds in which they learn through the way they experience these worlds (Elkjaer & Huysman, 2008). Emotions would also demand such an experience. Therefore, the best term to study emotions could be “emotional experience”, as emotion is a lived experience (Denzin, 2009). When looking at emotions as emotional experiences, they are usually considered as relational phenomena and that they are learned by individuals in their social relationships, which begin in the family and run through school, university, and organizations. Individuals constitute their emotional experiences from the way they live

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their lives and create relationships with other subjects and worlds (Dewey, 1986; Denzin, 2009). Each emotional experience is unique and depends on a specific moment and interactions (Denzin, 2009). Like emotions, learning is a process that consists of “transforming the way we give meanings to things and how we use those meanings to act in the world” (Mezirow, 2009, p. 112). Throughout life, adults acquire a set of experiences. To understand these experiences, they use reference models, as in cultural and linguistic structures through which they interpret meanings and give coherence and significance to these experiences (Mezirow, 2009). Occurring as preconceptions that define human actions and reject any other ideas that do not fit them (Mezirow, 1997, 2009), these structures are uncritical and formed mainly in childhood through the process of socialization and acculturation. Individuals are emotionally socialized (Shott, 1979), which means that emotions are also learned and are part of their frames of reference. In the TLT (Mezirow, 1997), individuals become aware of the limited or distorted view that they can have about reality when they experience a traumatic or unexpected situation. New alternatives to face experiences are opened if individuals are able to critically analyse their world view and transform it into a new meaning perspective that allows them to see the world, others, and themselves in an unprecedented and superior way, allowing them to adapt to a different reality or context (Cranton, 2002; Howie & Bagnall, 2013; Taylor, 1998). Their frames of reference can change when individuals face a disorienting dilemma, which is a situation of tension caused by major rapid and sudden reorientations in mental habit, usually associated with significant life crises (Calleja, 2014; Imel, 1998; Mezirow, 2009) that provide the individual with a new world view (Howie & Bagnall, 2013). Some emotions have the potential to act as a basis for engagement and social transformation. For instance, empathy is a prosocial and supportive emotion, and it explains phenomena such as altruism, engagement, and social transformation (Shott, 1979; Thoits, 1989). Therefore, it deserves

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the attention of pedagogical practices and TLT studies. Also, both, in the studies of emotions and TLT, there is a predominance of rationality and individual transformation. The reason is the determining factor of the achievement of human emancipation because emotions are still seen as an untimely, irrational, and not modern tenant, which must be controlled or, preferably, eliminated (Antonacopoulou & Gabriel, 2001; Barbalet, 2001; Shilling, 2002). Considering the few studies that adopt a more critical and collectivist perspective of TLT (Brunstein & King, 2018), Gambrell (2016) suggests a CSTL theory, and places hope on students as agents of change in the learning processes towards to a fairer society. Thus, the educators’ task would be to help them understand and challenge the production and reproduction of power structures that perpetuate inequalities (Brunstein & King, 2018). The next subsection presents how educators could consider emotions in their pedagogical practices to train future business managers professionals through an approach based on the CSTL theory.

10.2.1 Emotions and Critical Social Transformative Learning Theory The theory by Mezirow (1997 2009), who emphasizes the individualistic character of transformative learning, has been criticized for being selfish and not allowing engagement of the individual towards problems in the social world, as it overestimates self-development from personal dilemmas of the individual and decreases the action for social change (Finnegan, 2014; Servage, 2008; Taylor & Cranton, 2013). However, studying emotions through the concept of emotional experience (Denzin, 2009; Dewey, 1986) is relevant to learning because adults are continually looking for ways to understand everyday experiences. Experience is not isolated, but connected to learning opportunities and associated with emotions (Schuck et  al., 2007) because adults use emotions as a reference to

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understand the systems of sociocultural meanings that surround them (Schuck et al., 2007). Transformative learning is expected to build the educational bases for a professional who considers planetary issues like the widening gap between the poor and the rich caused by the production and consumption of material goods and wealth (O’Sullivan, 2012). Current and future business managers must understand the essence of these realities and become more aware and critical to assess these situations by recognizing the collective frame of reference and imagining alternatives for them (Mezirow, 1997). Both in TLT and CSTL theory, the professor is responsible for transforming the student’s prior knowledge (Gambrell, 2016; McGonigal, 2005; Merriam, 2004; Mezirow, 1997) and should act as a facilitator or provocateur helping the students to become more aware and critical about their assumptions (Mezirow, 1997; Taylor, 1998) by arousing them with social/collective tensions and conflicts (Ettling, 2012) that move them towards solving problems in the community in which they act. The task of thinking about the current paradigms when teaching is expected from the educators of the business management field because professors could create learning environments that challenge apathy, passivity, and lack of attention that guide many classrooms today, as an environment that is not capable of producing a sense of emotional engagement and developing students’ full potential (Schuck et al., 2007). This is not about doing more, but rethinking pedagogical practices based on the ability to evaluate alternative beliefs (Taylor & Cranton, 2012). For example, pedagogical techniques need to go beyond the simple lecture and transfer of managerial literature from one context to another; should actively involve students in the learning processes (Taylor & Statler, 2014); and help students understand that power structures and capitalist cultures prevent them from thinking collectively (Gambrell, 2016; O’Sullivan, 2012) about social dilemmas. These dilemmas acquire a social character considering collective concerns, which are perceived by more critical profession-

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als concerned with issues that go beyond their personal development (Brunstein & King, 2018; Gambrell, 2016). For Simpson and Willer (2015), social dilemmas are situations in which individual behaviour is oriented towards collective results, whether they are usual or oriented towards global changes. The literature on the subject does not provide a list regarding which dilemmas are considered social and collective. The document entitled “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (UN, 2020), adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, can be a guiding proposal for business management professors to work in the classroom with collective social dilemmas. The 2030 Agenda, through its 17 SDGs, is set as a plan for governments, societies, companies, and researchers take bold and transformative actions to promote sustainable planetary development. At this point, a professor’s challenge is to guarantee a learning environment that allows the transformation of his/her students, which means to change their lives and encourage them to discover a new and more elaborative reality (Bunduki & Higgs, 2017). In such an environment: 1. Facilitators should promote an event that exposes the limitations of the student’s current knowledge or paradigm. 2. The students should have opportunities to identify and articulate the underlying assumptions of their current knowledge or paradigm. 3. Facilitators should help students to reflect critically on where these assumptions come from and how they influence or limit their understandings. 4. Facilitators should insert students in a group discourse to explore alternative ideas and approaches. 5. Facilitators should give students opportunities to test a new perspective or paradigm when they find new knowledge (McGonigal, 2005; Mezirow, 1997). As in many areas of knowledge, it is understandable that professors are not aware of the

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centrality of the emotions in their professional performance (Barbalet, 2004); hence, it is critical to discuss the contributions of the professors’ emotional experiences in the formation of a professional who is concerned with collective social problems of the community.

10.3 Methodology This study was guided by qualitative methodology based on an interpretive paradigm and supported by a phenomenological social and hermeneutic approach (Denzin, 2009; Riessman, 2008; Schwandt, 2000) because the approaches that assume the sociocultural or constructionist determination of emotions are mostly qualitative and descriptive (Robinson et al., 2008). Also, the phenomenological social and hermeneutic approach allows us to understand emotional experiences internally and subjectively. In this regard, the moment of the interview should be a deep dive into the interviewee’s world view about their way of seeing life and their work based on the research problem proposed by the interviewer (Denzin, 2009). Within the aforementioned theoretical and methodological framework, we sought to understand how the emotional experiences of business management professors contribute to the engagement of their students in the transformative learning processes towards facing collective dilemmas through COPs based on the SDGs. This study chose COPs as a window through which professors can envision possibilities to engage their students towards social changes. COPs include the construction of dialogue, as its working principle, with the recognition that the members of the ­academic community are able to build relationships with each other and with the world around them to develop a community (Cruz & Giles, 2000). Thus, the research questions posed in the study were as follows: 1. What emotional experiences in the personal and professional life of business management professors led them to look into solving collective dilemmas?

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2. What collective dilemmas and pedagogical strategies were revealed to professors through their own emotional experiences? 3. How did professors’ emotional experiences pave the way for students to engage in collective social dilemmas? 4. What knowledge did the students acquire in the COPs, and how did they use it to transform themselves and the community? To build the data, first of all, we interviewed 16 professors from undergraduate business management courses at 9 different public and private HEIs located in the 5 Brazilian geographic regions (as shown in Fig.  10.1). We considered professors who had projects with actions aimed at changes and with the dilemmas of a collective nature such as social and environmental ones. Second, we described COPs to identify triggers for action and disorienting dilemmas. Third, we collected written reports from 60 students who participated in those projects and whose professors were interviewed for this study. Fourth, we analysed the data through the thematic analysis (Riessman, 2005, 2008). All professors and stu-

Fig. 10.1  Geographical regions of interviewees

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dents gave their written informed consent for participation in this study. In the analysis of the professors’ narratives, we also used Denzin’s (2009) guidance on how to analyse emotions. Therefore, the emotional experiences revealed by the participants were analysed as follows: 1. The participants revealed their motives, feelings, and intentions about the object of the study. 2. The participants described these experiences by: (a) revealing their practices in the teaching work and the experiences incorporated into them; (b) making relationships between the past (when explaining the reasons for these experiences) and the present/future (how emotional experiences designed the current scenario and could impact the future of all parties involved  – the self, the students, the educational institution, and the community/ society). The interpretation of emotional experiences consisted of understanding the interior and sub-

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jective perspective reported by the professors and reproduced in excerpts or fragments of the narratives. Guided by the hermeneutic circle of Denzin (2009), we ensured the moment of the interview a deep dive into the professors’ worldview, that is, in their way of seeing the life and their work from an essential and primary point (problem) of reflection. In the particular case, the problem was how the professors’ experiences lead them to look into solving collective dilemmas as well as engaging their students in this task. The average age of the participant professors was predominantly 40 with a minimum of 27 and a maximum of 50  years. They were predominantly women. Their teaching experience ranged from 3 to 23  years. As for the participant students, their average age was 23.6. They were also predominantly women.

10.4 Findings 10.4.1 Emotional Experiences of Professors: Role of Empathy During the interviews, the participants of the study revealed their motives, feelings, and intentions about COPs oriented to social issues. We comprehended the emotionality of these experiences through the identification of terms and expressions (Denzin, 2009), which were underlined by the authors, and that involved the interviewee’s emotional and subjective world, such as: “I was raised like this; I have this concern for the others; I feel better doing that; I share this more citizen’s worldview; collaborating for something better”. The professors’ stories included “a very close view of what education, citizenship, the person and the citizen are” (Professor of Human Resources and Organizational Behaviour) due to their primary socialization, especially in the family. Emotional experiences, that is, the life stories told by the professors, revealed an educator concerned with contributing to the formation of professionals who look, personally and professionally, at the community in which they are inserted to change their reality:

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I also note that I had, in my childhood, a lot of examples of helping people, protecting animals […]. So, you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t harm others, whatever, or the environment, or animals, always thinking about understanding the other side. If someone screwed up, I try to think why did he act that way. Can’t you forgive or help? I was raised in this environment. When I go to the classroom, I think of the students not only as professionals but also as citizens, and sometimes they might have problems. And sometimes, besides being a business management professor that teaches how to make the payroll, how to use the systems, how to do a business plan, we must also contribute to their education to citizenship and helping them in a difficult time, because students pay attention to our behaviour and they could reproduce it in the future in their jobs […]. The goal is that he/she has an awareness, an education for tomorrow. He/she can contribute with other people. (Professor of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability)

The findings show that the emotional experiences gained in the family and school contributed to a teaching perspective focused on social concerns. During this primary socialization, the professors’ parents and teachers were the actors responsible for showing, instigating, developing, and supporting prosocial behaviours. The concept of prosocial behaviours is defined as actions performed voluntarily by the individual to improve the well-being of others (Telle & Pfister, 2016). This behaviour is built through educational actions during childhood (family gatherings, community actions, volunteering, participation in youth movements, and religious groups), or when encouraging the students’ skills and supporting their vocation by the teacher in the school environment. The prosocial behaviours of these professors were reflected in teaching and the COPs through empathy, an empathic role-taking emotion (Shott, 1979), which was evoked in the narratives when the professors reported having placed themselves mentally in another person’s position and felt what the others feel or what they would feel in such a position. Based on these experiences, the professors were able to address pedagogical strategies that acted on a problematic reality. Empathy was revealed through the professors’ attitude in the face of the needs of others and also

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from the vocabulary used to describe the experiences. The use of verbs (such as help, protect, do not harm, understand, forgive, think about, contribute, divide, aggregate, care for something or another, engage, worry about something or someone) and expressions (such as being aware, living in a community, making it better, creating engagement, trying to improve) were common in the narrative of the professors to explain their emotions. We emphasize that the professors could learn to develop prosocial behaviour and empathy through seeking possibilities as spaces for discussion within the university or participation in projects and actions as a means to their emotional experiences are rescued and developed. As an entrepreneurship professor stated, “a professor can have social concerns even when raised in families that are totally disconnected from this social area; so, when the professor has this meeting, there is a greater shock and, sometimes, this shock impels the actions to really happen”. Shocks are the triggers for such action. Reflecting on their reflexive and empathic emotions (Davis, 2006; Dovidio & Banfield, 2015), the professors highlighted distress, a desire or need to change something in their surroundings. The feelings of distress, disagreement, shame, and guilt identified in the emotional experiences

of the professors acted as triggers and helped them to identify situations of tension, the so-­ called disorienting dilemmas (Mezirow, 1997). A professor of International Trade and Finance reported that he has a constant concern about the obligation of the public university to return benefits to the society that finances it. This feeling of obligation  – a trigger  – led him to identify the need to develop the community around the college in which he works – a disorienting dilemma – and to think about pedagogical practices for action. Table 10.1 shows the main triggers which were identified in the professors’ narratives and that are responsible for addressing COPs by the professors. The triggers reported by professors are situational, determined by social interactions within their environment (opportunity to work with people involved in CO), either for convenience (in academic and professional performance) or incentives (institutional support such as scholarships and career progression).

10.4.2 Professors’ Community Outreach Projects This section explains how the professors’ emotional experiences allowed them to perceive collective social dilemmas and address COPs to

Table 10.1  Triggers for addressing community outreach projects General triggers Ideological issues (represent a personal struggle of the professor)

Personal opportunities (represent a favourable occasion, something seasonal)

Community needs Professors’ career

Specific triggers Responsibility for developing a business manager who is aware of social issues. Resistance to a limiting educational model concerning environmental and social issues. The need of acting to change something. The opportunity to work with people involved in community outreach projects. The opportunity to help isolated communities. Early contact in life with problematic or deficient social realities. A newspaper article that drew attention to a collective and social issue. Institutional support for CO actions. Urban violence. The collective need to produce organic and sustainable food. Personal and institutional demands for career advancement and academic visibility. The requirements of the research projects carried out in the academic career.

Elaborated by the authors based on interview data (2020)

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cope with them. The professors’ emotional experiences allowed them to be more critical and sensitive to issues of human development and attention to the collective, thus perceiving disorienting dilemmas. These dilemmas were proposed and worked on in their COPs. The analysis of these projects revealed that they are aligned with the SDGs and that they have four main themes, as shown in Table 10.2. Only two themes recommended in the SDGs were not included in the themes of COPs proposed by the professors, perhaps due to their national or global reach: (a) Ensuring reliable, sustainable, modern, and affordable access to energy for all (SDG7) and (b) Strengthening the means of implementation and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development (SDG17). The actions were usually developed as COPs, but some of the professors conceived these projects within their own subjects based on their ­syllabus. However, both approaches were collective and capable of engaging the students through strategies that presented or created a disorienting dilemma. These strategies, as displayed in Table  10.3, aimed, in the first contact with the students, to get them interested in the existing projects. Integration events were held for the

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incoming students to introduce them to the rich possibilities and activities that the subjects, courses, the college or COPs provide with the aim of community engagement. Based on the narrative of the professors and students, these strategies provided an opportunity for student engagement, mostly at the level of exposure (Brunstein & King, 2018), that is, the student became more aware and participated in the projects. To engage students in achieving the SDGs, the professors needed to make the connections between the themes of their COPs and what they represent in the professional development of a business manager who must act in a complex scenario with continuous limitations of natural resources and the need to reduce social injustices and improve inclusion. Thus, the exposure of the undergraduate student in business management with all the themes proposed by the professors and presented in this study is important to build the profile of a business manager with those skills. However, the exposure on its own does not help lead to transformation. In order to reach an engagement at the level of integration and transformation (Brunstein & King, 2018), the professors could advance their pedagogical practices towards strategies that encourage critical reflec-

Table 10.2  Community outreach project themes and dilemmas Project themes Environmental sustainability

Social entrepreneurship

Business management Public policies

Dilemmas observed and addressed by professors Guarantee the conscious use of technological products. Promote the production and consumption of agroecological foods. Implement and develop environmental education in a community. Maintain the vision of education for action and social transformation. Generate discussion around the theme of environmental sustainability and achieve goals proposed in the 2030 agenda. Ensure minimum conditions of food and economic security for vulnerable communities. Promote opportunities for economic growth. Promote gender equality by empowering women to guarantee minimum family support. Implement empowerment activities in communities aimed at developing the economic, social, and environmental pillars. Ensure economically sustainable management of non-­governmental organization. Contribute to the construction of fairer and more inclusive societies by guaranteeing access to the labour market for marginalized groups. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

Elaborated by the authors based on interview data (2020)

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160 Table 10.3  Strategies for engaging students in extension actions General strategies Strategies that have the potential to present a disorienting dilemma to the students or make them interested in some

Strategies that have the potential to help the professor identify students’ current assumptions

Strategies that encourage students to engage in critical reflection

Strategies that have the potential to encourage students’ critical discourse

Strategies that have the potential to test students’ new meaning perspectives

Specific strategies Work on scientific or professional papers (from magazines and newspapers) to contextualize the problem globally and locally. Approach the students personally and explain the project to them. Hold events for the integration of incoming students and, in these meetings, present them with the rich possibilities that the university has for community outreach and students’ organizations. Publicize projects in all classrooms. Foster university volunteer centres. Promoting community events to bring this reality into the university and present it to students. Conduct technical visits to present and expose the student to a new reality. Create opportunities for catharsis moments in the classroom. Offer scholarships, as it creates an opportunity of interest for the student. Present the problem situation and ask questions, challenging students to compare what they already know (current assumptions) with other ways of thinking or facing the problem. Make small group discussions about the dilemmas presented. Use subjects of the curriculum of the Business Management courses as an opportunity to develop small projects that become more extensive actions. Take students on the spot to learn about the reality to be worked on. Make the students go to the community alone and identify its demands and map the situation. Bring professors and professionals from different areas into the classroom to oppose ideas on the same theme. Offer students new curricular components and active teaching methodologies that provide a collective look. Present the results of in loco visits to colleagues. Create and offer spaces, at the university, free and democratic for discussion on different social themes, be it research groups or a simple conversation circle, that encourage critical discourse. Offer students new curricular components and active teaching methodologies that provide a collective look. Offer students new curricular components and active teaching methodologies that provide a collective look. Create a network of partners (companies, organizations, centres, communities) that receive students and offer them a place for their actions.

Elaborated by the authors based on interviews’ data (2020) and McGonagal (2005)

tion, critical discourse, and actions and that test the new meaning perspectives of students (Brunstein & King, 2018). Some of the pedagogical practices that test new meaning perspectives of students are: (a) new curricular components and active teaching methodologies that allow a collective look; (b) development of a network of partners (companies, organizations, centres, communities) that receive students and offer them a place for their actions; (c) organizing student’s visitations to target audiences in  loco to learn about the reality to be worked on.

In addition to requiring students to take actions foreseen in the projects with the effective results of transformation, these practices supplant the discourse of the need and urgency for change and make them understand how much business management and business managers could turn to issues of planetary interest, of the integral development of the human being and quality of life (O’Sullivan, 2012). Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that the students’ transformation takes time, as it is a long-term process (Mezirow, 1997; Taylor & Cranton, 2012). Therefore, it is impor-

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tant to promote pedagogical practices even when they have incremental characteristics, which lead to a more profound change and promote significant results. Social inclusion of vulnerable and fragile populations through social businesses and administrative and financial management of nongovernmental organization are some examples of incremental pedagogical practices. In turn, the vast majority of the students reported having engaged in disorienting dilemmas and having been concerned with human development issues and a new reality presented to them by COPs. At first, it was believed that the report of “being more aware of something” was an expression used with a factual function only to answer the question asked by the researchers. It might not seem to be a limited position for the students to answer that they have reached a renewed knowledge about a given reality, in what they called “consciousness” (Mccarthy, 1989), and that these dilemmas would be part of their activity as business managers.

10.4.3 Knowledge Acquisition In/ Through COPs to Face Collective Dilemmas The next subsection discusses how the knowledge acquired in the COPs allowed the action of professors and students to face collective social dilemmas. To develop a business manager involved in the collective social dilemmas, both the professors and the students stated that the students should have the technical-scientific ­knowledge offered by the course and be able to learn what has not been offered in it. This forgotten knowledge includes notions of citizenship, socioenvironmental concerns, interpersonal relationships, communication, oratory, leadership, motivation for change, conflict resolution, social responsibility, new possibilities, respect, sensitivity, and listening skills. These abilities revealed by the professors and students participating in this study were assumed to help achieve an effective transformation of the individual’s frames of reference.

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Bunduki and Higgs (2017) believe that education focusing on transformation is capable of developing leadership skills for social responsibility. However, these skills are being developed in COPs, and not during the classes of the traditional curricula, which suggest that pure teaching, considered traditional and directed to a mass, has not been able to develop a critical professional for the future. This teaching should train business managers who are able to understand and propose alternatives for the difficulties that involve, according to O’Sullivan (2012), understandings about ourselves and our location in the world; power relations uniting class, race, and gender structures; our bodily awareness; our views of alternative ways of living; and our notion of social justice, peace, and personal pleasure. This limitation is understandable because the mastery of technical knowledge required by the complex industrial and capitalist society has influenced adult education by emphasizing only the development of skills for professional application, which leaves no space for adult students to reflect on their roles in the society (Johnston, 2011). And this is not different in business education in most of the Brazilian HEIs. From the students’ perspectives, the COPs in which they participated were able to provide them with transformative learning observed at three different levels of engagement: exposure, integration, and transformation (Brunstein & King, 2018). Exposure: The students were exposed to the disorienting dilemmas proposed by their professors. The students were able to mobilize the knowledge of the business management undergraduate course to achieve the objectives of the COPs. Integration: The students acted towards the problem not only by describing the technical content seen in the classroom but also by showing their concern for how to apply it in the col-

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lective: “I had the opportunity to put some knowledge [...] into practice. But above all [...] look for opportunities”. The integration to the community was vital for the students to get involved with it and to understand their role as a business manager acting as an agent of change. Transformation: For the students, the COPs brought them “personal and professional maturity, since they [the COPs] bring me closer to a reality that is somewhat distant from mine, […] they force me to challenge myself constantly”. This statement could reveal the potential for a concrete transformation, even if incremental, because the conscientious person has a different understanding of history and its role, and refuses to settle, mobilize itself, to change the world (Freire, 2001). Some students were able to present in their speeches the three elements (Mezirow, 2009) required for a transformation: cognitive: expressed in verbs such as think, learn, and know (“nowadays I think differently; I learned ways to use it”); affective: expressed employing feeling and believing (“I feel that we can change something”); conative: expressed in action verbs like do and get (“we managed to make companies change; our actions can change one person at a time”). Such narrative records point to a change in their frames of reference according to Taylor (1998). Therefore, representing a more profound transformation than the observed in the reports of the students and suggesting that COPs have the potential to make the students realize social action as a possibility for self-growth and, mainly, as an inseparable part of their professional development and performance as a business manager. It is important to note that many COPs at Brazilian universities have a minimal number of

places, which do not allow all enrolled students to participate in these projects and develop the skills that both professors and students are considering essential for the education of the business manager. It is also important to highlight that the professors and students interviewed belong to an elite in the sense that they had the opportunity to work in COPs. Although it is recognized that there may be many other COPs initiatives such as those presented in this study in business management undergraduate courses in Brazil, there is still a long way to go for these educational opportunities to be available to the more than 200,000 new business managers entering the labour market annually. When asked about the community involvement in COPs, the professors’ answers were evasive and shallow. They stated that it is “a huge challenge to reach the external community” (Professor of Administrative Processes) and “bring the community to our side” (Professor of International Trade and Finance). The main difficulties were the lack of encouragement and support from the city halls and the educational institution itself for the execution of COPs, as well as deficient involvement and lack of community commitment to maintaining projects over time.

10.5 Discussion From the evidences, it was possible to describe the dynamics that allow the emotional experiences of business management professors to mobilize collective social dilemmas and develop pedagogical strategies that engage their students in facing these dilemmas, leading to the implications discussed in the following sections.

10.5.1 Theoretical Implications Recalling the points that stood out in the professors’ emotional experiences, we could include the following elements: (a) reflexive role-taking emotions such as distress, disagreement, shame, and guilt; (b) empathic role-taking emotions; and (c) prosocial behaviours, all of which guided the

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Fig. 10.2  Representation of dynamics addressing professors’ response to collective social dilemmas

professors’ situational triggers. In turn, the triggers stimulated the professors’ action towards the collective social dilemmas already existing in their socio-cultural context, and the majority of these dilemmas could be guided by the SDGs. The dynamics shaping this process, as represented in Fig.  10.2, triggered the professors to engage their students with the COPs that respond to collective social dilemmas. These dynamics describe how the sociology of emotions (Denzin, 2009; Shott, 1979; Thoits, 1989) helps understand the phenomenon of emotional experiences in the educational context of the professors and the students in the business management field, by revealing the way that empathy and prosocial behaviours lead to a comprehension of the reality of these social actors in the context of facing collective social dilemmas (Davis, 2006; Dovidio & Banfield, 2015; Telle & Pfister, 2016). Understanding how the social nature of the emotions guides “being” and makes the professors more concerned with the social problems reveals that the pedagogical practices developed for this

purpose are usually based on social construction, as in the socialization of these individuals, and not on pure cognitive elements (Brunstein & King, 2018; Gambrell, 2016; Thoits, 1989; Von Scheve & Von Luede, 2005) which are commonly attributed to the professors’ performance. This study contributes to the CSTL theory (Gambrell, 2016; Taylor, 1998) because it allows the understanding of how emotional experiences, especially empathy, favour the ability to develop skills in adults to deal with the problems of a collective nature, beyond a self-development of the individual. Emotions also support the openness to making changes in the students’ frames of reference; making them more inclusive, open, and permeable to new ideas (Mezirow, 1997), achieving a business management style that is less self-­ centred and more based on maximizing profits for all shareholders as well as more oriented to the common good. Therefore, this study brings a theoretical contribution to the sociology of emotions and TLT by articulating and explaining how socially constructed emotions could be a unit of

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analysis, not yet explored in international studies, to understand the transformative learning processes of business management students. Although empathy has been the emotion that stood out the most in in the professors’ discourse regarding their emotional experiences and the one that guides their prosocial behaviours, the professors should endeavour to understand the collective dilemmas from the others’ points of view, and not from their own, assuming what the others might need (Denzin, 2009; Taylor & Cranton, 2012; Thoits, 1989). Equally, the other actors included in this socio-cultural context, such as the students and HEIs, should endeavour to guarantee the education of an individual concerned with collective and social issues.

10.5.2 Practical Implications 10.5.2.1 Teaching Activities An effort would be the dissemination of the proposals for COPs and other pedagogical strategies by subjects that are often not thought to be central to the discussion about the development of a human being and to business managers who are concerned with collective problems and act towards finding answers to them. Other efforts would include: • Creating spaces so that the emotional experiences of the professors and the students arise and could be studied in higher education. In this way, the professors could engage their students in transformative conversations on topics that arouse disorienting dilemmas. • Working on the SDGs in the classroom based on the themes of COPs and the dilemmas presented in Table 10.2. • Rethinking traditional individualistic and highly specialized teaching of any nature of knowledge within each subject. The professors could reflect on their prosocial behaviours from the issues that arouse feelings like distress, disagreement, shame, and guilt (mainly those professors who never had a social preoccupation, opportunities to participate in COPs, or to elaborate pedagogical practices to face collective social dilemmas).

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• Fostering interdisciplinary teaching and research to solve problems. The professors could mobilize a network of academics and professionals from the other fields of knowledge that are able to show different perspectives to cope with and solving the problems posed in the COPs. • The professors could also develop their subjects in the curricular structure constantly by: –– addressing efforts to change interpersonal relationships among students, families, professionals, and communities so that students could reflect on their prosocial behaviours; –– supporting and helping students to deal with social actions to act in solving community problems and consequently improving the project-based learning and teaching processes; –– conducting these actions on a local and national scale keeping in mind that some of them could be on a global scale through engagement with other international partners.

10.5.2.2 Student Development As the professors are the educational professionals who are responsible for transforming their students’ prior knowledge (McGonigal, 2005; Merriam, 2004; Mezirow, 1997), their practical actions will directly reflect on their students’ development in higher education (Kasworm & Bowles, 2012). Therefore, the emotional experiences portrayed in the COPs could encourage the agency (capacity of action) of the professors to define the strategies that overcome the alienation, inertia, and the taken-for-granted of their students towards facing contemporary collective problems. The challenge proposed within the COPs implemented is related to the critical reflection ability of the professors and the students to question taken-for-granted models adopted mainly by educational institutions. CSTL in higher education is essential and urgent because knowledge is produced at this level of education (Kasworm & Bowles, 2012). As a consequence, the fostering strategies applied in and outside the classroom by the surveyed pro-

10  Engaging Students of Business Management to Face Collective Social Dilemmas: Contribution…

fessors allowed and reinforced the cognitive, socio-cultural, and emotional challenges of the students. Indeed, these pedagogical practices invited them to leave their comfort zones and engage in social environments with unprecedented values, ideas, and power dynamics. We argue that the professors, by creating an environment with these possibilities, emotionally provoked Brazilians students to respond to these challenges. In this way, the students could play an active role in social transformation by: • being open to content apart from the conventional one which is usually imposed by the pre-defined curricula of undergraduate courses; • being co-responsible for creating and maintaining environments in which critical social transformative learning can take place; • taking advantage of the university’s community outreach opportunities promoted by the professors and the institutionalized ones; • self-reflecting on their ideas and beliefs through a socially engaged participation and practice in COPs.

10.5.2.3 Higher Education Institutions HEIs could transform communities by fostering COPs, as they give them social visibility and guarantee the fulfilment of their roles in building “knowledge” which is based on the reality of the community. Thus, HEIs are expected to: • support professors’ development that is attentive to the context and that allows collective actions. • encourage and support the creation and strengthening of student entities as a form of collective actions to reformulate teaching and learning processes; • rethink higher education so that COPs could guide it and curricular and instructional spaces could have COP features because COPs should no longer be a university dimension isolated from traditional classroom teaching and research;

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• institutionalize COPs so that HEIs have the potential to be designed from the real needs of the society and not only to meet the logic of the market. We draw attention to the fact that there was no effective and complete participation of the community in redefining the professors’ disorienting dilemmas. This means that the professors usually act to solve the community’s problems by applying the university’s knowledge as a palliative for collective needs. On one side, the university might impose its knowledge production on the community. On the other side, the target audience might have difficulties in getting closer to the university because it is unaware of its social role. Therefore, we believe that social transformation could become more concrete, comprehensive, and swift if HEIs give more considerable attention to the principles of dialogical interaction within the community.

10.6 Conclusion We believe that this study appears an advancement in understanding how emotional experiences favour the ability to develop skills to deal with the problems of a group, in addition to looking at the individual’s, self-development in any area of knowledge. We also propose that emotions support and help students in changing their frames of reference and being more inclusive, open, and permeable to new ideas. Specifically, with respect to the business management courses, student engagement and participation in the themes proposed in the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs are important to build the profile of a business manager capable of envisioning new business possibilities, developing to improve the reality in which they live, thinking beyond profitability, and using opportunities for all people to transform their own reality and that of others. The results obtained in this study show opportunities for comparative studies of how professors’ emotional experiences could be translated into pedagogical practices used in and out of the

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classroom to educate people who are more critical and sensitive to the issues of human development and collective social problems. Despite the fact that the research was carried out at Brazilian universities and in business management undergraduate courses, we believe that the results might be of interest to an international audience since they allow reflection on the development and performance of the professors capable of engaging their students into facing and solving social problems in any society, under any cultural, political, and economic reality. Considering the fact that social and collective problems transcend geographic and cultural boundaries, the context for social and critical transformative learning is also global, not just local. Acknowledgement  This research was funded by Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie.

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Engaging Students in Global Endeavours Through Partnerships Promoting Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of a Small Liberal Art College

11

Comfort M. Ateh

Abstract

11.1 Introduction

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a blueprint to solve global problems and the most appropriate approach to engage the world through collaborative partnerships. Inspired by this intent, this chapter describes a partnership between a small liberal arts college in the USA, a non-governmental organization (NGO), and local institutions in Ghana; this partnership focuses on global problems and feasible sustainable solutions. A systems-thinking framework has revealed the intersections among the SDGs. For example, targeting and solving one problem like education through enhanced literacy involves targeting and solving other problems like health, which will result in a transformative world. This chapter describes a collaborative partnership focused on literacy and how a collaborative partnership can enhance literacy in schools in Ghana. Challenges and recommendations for a more effective collaborative partnership as defined by the SDG17 are shared.

Global challenges are captured succinctly in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all (Assembly 2015). Developed by the UN General Assembly in 2015, the SDGs attempt to tackle major global problems including poverty and hunger; access to water and good sanitation; quality education; good health and well-being; inequalities within and among countries; peaceful, just, and inclusive societies; human rights and gender equality; empowerment of women and girls; and the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources through collaborative partnerships. Though ambitious, the SDGs consider different levels of national development and capacities and are probably the most appropriate approach to engage the world (countries, stakeholders, and individuals) acting in collaborative partnership. The SDGs can ensure global implementation of the values for a transformative world. Inspired by this intention, a collaborative partnership was formed among a small liberal arts college in the USA, a non-­ governmental organization (NGO), and local organizations in Ghana to enhance the SDGs. The SDGs can be conceptualized as components interacting with each other within a given system towards an overarching outcome seen in improved quality-of-life and a better future for all. Here, a sophisticated approach guided by a

C. M. Ateh (*) Providence College, Providence, RI, USA e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_11

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systems-thinking framework is appropriate to examine the SDGs and the corresponding behaviours in a specific context like Ghana, especially when discussing the extent to which individuals and organizations contribute in partnerships to enhance the SDGs. In this chapter, I discuss the essence of an effective collaborative partnership that involved undergraduate students contributing to the SDGs in Ghana. I begin by presenting the underlying principles of the systems thinking that guide the initiatives on which the collaborative partnerships were based.

11.1.1 Systems Thinking Systems thinking presents a robust framework for identifying and exploring sustainable solutions for global challenges. Its ground work was in the field of systems dynamics founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Jay Forrester who was interested in exploring more effective ways of testing new ideas about social systems in the same way that engineering ideas are tested (Forrester, 1961). A system is defined as “an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something” (Meadows, 2008, p.11). It is characterized by three things: its elements, the interconnections among the elements, and its function or purpose. The number of elements affects the system’s complexity by increasing the interactions possible within it, which can in turn result in an overall condition of uncertainty. Systems are not unique as they represent a reality that may be identified in more than one way. A system evolves and the problems within the system change, thus making solutions that were once effective obsolete. Problems in a system can persist even after we think that we have solved them. New problems can also emerge as we attempt to solve other problems. There is need for a comprehensive and systematic approach with due consideration of the multiple interactions and the perplexing questions of the total strengths and weaknesses of the effects of possible solutions. This approach to solving problems involves analysing how different parts of a system are interrelated and how systems work within

C. M. Ateh

the context of bigger systems. Problem solvers can benefit from this framework that leads to a better understanding of sustainable solutions for global problems. This systems approach to solving problems is crucial because global problems like health, housing, poverty, pollution, transportation, energy resources, and population continue to increase despite resource allocations. For example, a system’s approach to solving health problems will focus on effective allocation of resources and target access to food, quality housing, air pollution, and other factors that contribute to ill health. The problem-solving process within a systems approach involves defining the problem, generating alternative solutions, and evaluating the alternatives followed by an iterative procedure. This framework can lead to a discussion on collaborative partnerships that include the Global Sustainable Aid Project (GSAP), Providence College, and local collaborators in Ghana in exploring and implementing feasible and sustainable solutions for global problems that enhance the SDGs. This collaborative partnership includes local, national, and international stakeholders, and the shared goals align with the SDGs in terms of effective partnerships including multiple stakeholders that leverage the interconnectedness of the SDGs towards a sustainable and better world for all.

11.2 Context of the Partnership This section portrays the context of the partnership established between Global Sustainable Aid Project  - a non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in the USA, Providence College a small liberal arts and Dominican college in the north-eastern USA, and local organizations in Ghana as country collaborators.

11.2.1 Global Sustainable Aid Project (GSAP) The GSAP is an NGO founded in 2006 by Hannah Davis as the Ghana Literacy Project. It was later named the Ghana Sustainable Aid

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Project with headquarters in Rhode Island, USA. It became international in 2013 and reached across sub-Saharan Africa and later Central and South America, the Middle East, and beyond. The GSAP provides training, technology, and systems that support individual and community empowerment versus charity. This strategy is in line with propositions on aid to developing countries focusing on building local capacity and ownership (Easterly, 2006; Hoffman, 2012). The GSAP strives for aid that is innovative, collaborative, and can self-sustain after initial implementation with minimal infusion of resources (Mecca et  al., 2017). It fosters empowerment and self-­ sufficiency with emphasis on water, sanitation, health, and education, which are important sub-­ systems considered in creating interventions that will enhance literacy. Considered together, the interventions provided within each of these subsystems contribute to community development that in turn will enhance the SDGs. The GSAP partners with collaborators around the world, mostly in developing countries including Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Liberia, Nicaragua, and Nigeria in implementing sustainable projects. One of GSAP’s most successful projects is the GSAP or micro-flush toilet that uses little water to flush out waste (Mecca et al., 2013). The locally sourced and fabricated toilet includes a macro-organism enhanced aerobic filter-­digester and innovative valve that flushes just 150  cc of water. The flushed waste is col-

lected in a sealed chamber for decomposition to be used later as fertilizer for crop production. The toilet is odourless, pathogen-free, and can be installed indoors and outdoors. It is affordable at under $200 with the family contributing labour and other superstructures. When coupled with other low-cost and energy as well as literacy interventions, the resulting system provides a better quality of life for the rural household, which is at the core of the SDGs. The GSAP has recently partnered with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) on a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project that began in August 2019 with a goal of training Ethiopians to build the micro-­ flush toilets, start small businesses, and provide microfinancing for households to purchase the toilets. This project embodies sanitation, hunger reduction, and health that are likely to reduce poverty, enhance literacy, increase quality of life and wellness in the system. The GSAP supports other projects (see Table  11.1) designed and developed under the leadership of late Steven Mecca—an Engineering and Physics Systems Professor of Providence College in Rhode Island. These projects were perceived through a systems lens that recognizes the interrelatedness of multiple problems and engaged undergraduate students at Providence College in collaboration with local partners in Ghana in exploring and developing feasible solutions, thus contributing to the SDGs.

Table 11.1  Sample projects in S-Lab aligned to SDGs Issue Open defecation

Project Micro-flush toilet

SDGs Sanitation

Portable water

Slow sand filtration

Clean water

Access to technology and educational resources Access to health information

Lab in the box

Quality education

Health portal

Health

Transmission of diseases through hands Access to plant nutrients

Handwashing activity Hydroponic system using urine

Health Hunger

Laboratory activity Examine different components of the micro-flush toilet for sturdiness and effectiveness Examine different components of the filtration system for quality water; analyse filtered water to determine quality Design components of computer; research online resources for portal Research information on common tropical diseases. Create vocal scripts on education about the diseases and prevention for the health portal Assemble video on handwashing instruction and engaging game to motivate handwashing. Examine the effect of urine on growth of common vegetables

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The GSAP’s partnerships specifically in the case of Ghana are in line with the SDG17, which focuses on strengthening the means of implementation and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development. The GSAP involves multiple partners with diverse expertise contributing to the SDGs. Although GSAP’s primary goal was to enhance literacy in Ghana, its ultimate goal is to contribute to the SDGs. The GSAP collaborating with its partners targets leverage points related to health, clean water, sanitation, energy, and technology that affect literacy and the attainment of the SDGs. Literacy cannot be enhanced simply by donating books. The GSAP considers other factors that affect literacy like access to quality texts, policies that enhance student engagement in reading and writing, as well as health. Students’ poor health resulting from illnesses can result in absenteeism, which will affect their ability to learn. The GSAP micro-flush toilets are replacing pit toilets and contribute to quality health by reducing diseases that are transmitted especially by flies. Common diseases like cholera and diarrhoea that are transmitted mostly through dirty hands are prevented by teaching students how to wash their hands effectively. GSAP in collaboration with Providence College developed a fun activity that engages students in effective handwashing to reduce transmission of diseases. The GSAP collaborates at different levels with multiple partners on specific and interrelated problems related to literacy, which is in line with the SDG17 that emphasizes inclusive partnerships at global, regional, and local levels: These should all be based on shared principles and values and should consider the well-being of the people that are being served.

11.2.2 Providence College and the S-LAB Providence College is a small liberal arts and Dominican college in the north-eastern USA. It houses the S-Lab in the Department of Engineering-Physics-Systems. The research activities in the S-Lab were directed by the late

Professor Mecca, founding President of the GSAP, who eased the collaboration between Providence College and GSAP.  Undergraduate students from multiple programs in the college engaged in various research projects in the S-Lab that focused on feasible and sustainable solutions to global problems in education, sanitation, health, and poverty. The activities in the S-Lab were multidisciplinary with funding from multiple sources including the Providence College undergraduate funds. Providence College students have also participated in the implementation phase of the projects within the Maymester course, “Sustainability and Social Value”, that begins at the end of the spring semester in May and is usually 2–3  weeks. The course attracts mostly students who have conducted research in the S-Lab and a few others interested in global issues particularly in Ghana. The author participated as a faculty collaborator on some of the projects and as one of the instructors for the Maymester course that includes a trip to Ghana.

11.2.3 Country Collaborators The GSAP has an office in the central region of Ghana, Pokuase, with a director who is knowledgeable in the GSAP’s projects and activities. The director recruits country collaborators that include private and government schools, women’s cooperative groups, health care centres, and local leaders. Other collaborators in Ghana that enhanced the adoption of innovations designed in the S-Lab include the University of Ghana, Radford University College, and Ashesi University whose students assisted in the refurbishing of used computers contributed to schools. The GSAP Director organizes and conducts training sessions on innovations deployed to the local communities and serves as a technical adviser. Providence College students have also participated in some of the training sessions during the Maymester trip in Ghana. They also collaborated with Ghanaian university students in discussing local problems towards shared understanding for feasible and effective solutions. Through these collaborative partnerships, the

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GSAP Director facilitates and enhances the Maymester experience for Providence College students as they immerse in a foreign culture and develop their cultural competences.

11.3 Lessons Learned from the Partnership The challenges facing international rural education are revealed in the discourses on migration, gender inequity, poverty, and declining enrolment (Stelmach, 2011). Ghana is engaged in improving literacy through international partnerships with organizations like USAID, which launched a $71 million program in 2015 to support literacy (US Embassy in Ghana, 2015). The USAID-Ghanaian partnership aimed at training teachers and improving reading skills of Ghanaian pupils. USAID provided more than 450,000 books to upper primary students and trained more than 18,000 teachers to use the new books to boost literacy. The GSAP has also forged the initiative to enhance literacy in Ghana by collaborating with the Providence College S-Lab in designing and developing technology (Lab in a Box) introduced in classrooms in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Liberia, and the Solomon Islands. The SDG17 emphasizes the essence of strong global partnerships in sharing knowledge and expertise on technology and resources that are pertinent to support any initiatives to enhance the SDGs. International partners must collaborate with local partners in identifying and creating feasible solutions to local problems. Effective partnership at every level is crucial in meeting the targets for the SDGs. It is important to anticipate challenges that might interfere with initiatives towards the partnership goals. The next section focuses on facilities provided to and interventions carried out for Ghana in partnership aimed at enhancing the SDGs.

11.3.1 Literacy Literacy is an important tool against poverty and is traditionally understood as the ability to read,

write, and use arithmetic. It is key to social mobility (Gee, 1991) and individuals who are literate are more likely to increase their income above poverty level. UNESCO (2017) defines literacy as the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literate people can achieve personal goals and serve their community in ways that enhance the quality of live for all. One of the greatest challenges in attaining the SDGs is poverty. Poverty is responsible for hunger - a major physiological need that every human being must fulfil to live. The UN’s resolve to end poverty and hunger by 2030 seems hard to be attained in the absence of quality education that embodies literacy. There are multiple languages spoken in Ghana. Although English is the colonial and official language in which materials are written and taught in school, the predominant language spoken at home and in the communities is not English. Thus, Ghana is an English as Second Language (ESL) country (Ahulu, 1995; Kachru, 1985), but English is not always used in practice below tertiary education (Opoku-Amankwa, 2009). English reading proficiency of primary and secondary school students is low (Akyeampong et al., 1999) with only 26% pupils who reach the sixth and final year of primary school as literate in English, as given in 2007 statistics (Ministry of Education Ghana, 2010). Studies also report low English reading proficiency of future teachers in Ghana (Stoffelsma & Spooren, 2013; Stoffelsma & De Jong, 2015). Indeed, Ghana was identified as “facing a national literacy and numeracy crisis” (Leherr, 2009, p. i). Many Ghanaians cannot read or write the mother tongue language although they are fluent in speaking. Proficiency in the primary language enhances learning in a second language (García-­ Vázquez et al. 1997). This presents a challenge in teaching and learning in Ghanaian schools that employ English. Ghana is currently promoting reading and writing in the mother tongue in kindergartens through primary grade three while introducing spoken English and then written English in grade two (Bronteng et al. 2019). The low literacy in Ghana is quite discouraging con-

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sidering the impact that reading proficiency has on the overall academic achievement of students (Lyengar, 2007; Mol & Bus, 2011; Pretorius, 2000, 2002) and national development. The implication of lower academic achievement in Ghana is that “pupils are confined to the lowest level of the educational system, which will fit them for menial jobs and occupations” (Etsey, 2007, p. 120). The Ghanaian government has implemented a policy to enhance reading and writing the mother tongue from kindergarten through grade three, which will enhance literacy. However, the main language in schools is the colonial language, English, which is well-developed to engage globally compared to the Ghanaian languages that are local and lacking in global vocabulary. Literacy is still a right denied to many in the world. Projections by UNESCO prior to the COVID-19 crisis showed that more than 200 million children would be out of school, and only 60% of young people would be completing upper secondary education in 2030 (UNESCO, 2006). Although literacy is a global problem, half of the global illiterate population lives in South Asia, and 25% lives in sub-Saharan Africa (UNESCO, 2017). Increasing literacy is key to social mobility and is certainly one way to attain the better future for all defined in the SDGs.

11.3.2 Technology in Education Technology is pervasive in all walks of life and has become a critical element in education systems. When used effectively, technology enhances the development of higher order skills like critical thinking, analysis, and scientific inquiry (Miri et al., 2007). Although technology has been an increasingly crucial component in education resources in the last two decades, the Covid-19 pandemic led to an abrupt closure of schools across the world in 2020 and led to unanticipated online teaching thus affirming the role of technology in education. The pandemic revealed inequities in accessing technology especially in developing countries and the global challenge in establishing virtual learning in

schools (Reimers & Schleicher, 2020). Effective technology enables teachers to engage students in synchronous and asynchronous communication with access to learning materials (Starkey et al., 2021). It is important to design and develop infrastructure that will support teacher and student competence in effective uses of technology in self-directed and collaborative learning environments. Students who are engaged in technology while learning are more likely to collaborate with peers as resources for their learning while also making connections between theory and practice (Valdez et al., 2000). For example, social annotation platforms like Perusall engage students in collaborative reading that involves annotating texts, audios, or videos and sharing knowledge, which is more effective than traditional methods of reading in enhancing learning (Miller et  al., 2018). Technology gives students better control of their learning process because it presents opportunities for exploring and discovering knowledge. Students are empowered as learners and motivated in the pursuit of knowledge. Educators and students who engage with technology easily develop a routine to explore more databases that can result in a heightened awareness of the benefits of these tools in enhancing literacy. Despite its benefit in increasing literacy, technology and technology integration into academic instruction is rare in developing countries like Ghana. This has been attributed to the high cost of acquiring technology (Bello, 2014). The collaborative partnership of GSAP, Providence College resulted in refurbished computers in some schools in Ghana to enhance literacy.

11.3.3 Quality Education Access to quality early childhood development opens doors to affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education that results in employment, decent jobs, and quality life. Quality education also ensures the increased literacy necessary to understand the essence of decent lifestyles, appreciation of cultural diversity and intercultural competence, and engage-

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ment in advocacy for social justice and peace. Formulating feasible paths to quality education in a given context is likely to engage individuals and their communities locally, nationally, and internationally in partnerships with feasible and sustainable activities that enhance the SDGs. In essays based on the struggle of Africa, which include its conquests, apartheid, and the Pan-Africanist movement, Clarke noted the role of education in deciding who Africans are and in providing the understanding of the African’s place in the world (Clarke, 1991). In the twenty-­ first century, Africans must use education to define themselves. It is crucial for Africans to redefine education to align more with their own culture than that of the Western countries. There is hope to be seen in successful initiatives to improve literacy in Africa (Omolewa, 2008). In the World Conference on Education for All, developing countries stressed that discourses on education should include primary education, non-formal education, and adult education (Brock-Utne, 2000). Critics of Western aid to Africa recommend that resources be directed towards supporting the development of local expertise and should focus on the real challenges of literacy education. William Easterly (2006) critiqued the efforts by the West to address problems in Africa through solutions that are not feasible or sustainable. He suggests empowerment of the locals who understand the community, its problems, and willingness to engage in initiatives that will meet the needs of the people (Burnham, 2007). The goal of education is the survival of the society and passing along of ideas, skills, and practices that embody cultural values from one generation to the next (Botchway 2007). Busia (1962) noted that all attempts to reform Education in Africa must be firmly rooted in the African culture, which is in line with Plato’s philosophy that the noblest of all studies is the study of what men should be and how they should live. Educators in Ghana have criticized an educational system that mitigates adequate local capacity by modelling Western-style formal systems adopted from Europeans (Amenumey, 2007). Ghana and other developing countries must focus on innovations

that are culturally centred in order to transform its people both socially and economically.

11.4 Facilities and Interventions in Ghana Despite challenges in the collaborative partnership in enhancing literacy in Ghana, there are successful interventions worth noting. In this section, I present interventions to enhance the SGDs through technology, books, and the specific case of Birim North District.

11.4.1 Lab in a Box Portal The Lab in a Box is a rich set of offline digital materials and resources that students and educators can access without the need for internet. It functions in both on- or off-grid conditions with various computer hardware designs (e.g., PC, notebook, or tablet) to create a small learning laboratory (Mecca et al., 2015). The most significant component of the Lab in a Box is the GSAP Portal, which is a rich set of offline educational resources for internet- and electricity-limited schools. The portal is available on a USB drive and preconfigured on a micro SD card for use in a Raspberry Pi or dedicated local file server. It contains the entire Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning (RACHEL) initiative to enhance literacy: Wikipedia for Schools; Khan Academy; Health and Medicine; Medline Plus Medical Encyclopaedia; Hesperian Health Guides; Healthcare and Medicine Videos; K-12 Textbooks; World Literature Books; OLPC Educational Materials; UNESCO’s International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa; Math Expression; Power Typing; Music Theory; School WASH Resources; and MIT Scratch. The RACHEL initiative is a portable plug-and-play server that stores educational websites and makes the content available over any local (offline) wireless connection (Mecca et  al., 2015). The elements of the portal run on a browser and— while virtually all of the components can run on any client including PCs running Windows or

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Linux, MACs, tablets, and smartphones—a few files will not function on certain devices. The portal also includes resources for primary and junior high school levels that have been mapped to the curriculum of Ghana. The Lab in the Box is intended to complement school curricula while offering materials that improve literacy. Students have access to extensive resources online through this portal without actually needing an internet connection. This makes the technology more affordable especially in developing countries. The GSAP and S-Lab interventions have reached over 22 countries including communities in the West African nation of Ghana, but the challenges in these communities are obvious in the laments of a headmistress speaking in one of the local languages, Twi: “Me sukuu wɔ daabi buukuu, daabi bobɔ, daabi anyinam, daabi kita tiefi ho, daabi samina na ketewa nsu” translated as follows: “My school has no books, no computers, no electricity, no clean toilets, no soap and little water”. Imagine trying to prepare the next generation of citizens for your country without such basic resources that are important to enhance literacy.

11.4.2 Books and Computers In addition to books and computers donated to enhance literacy in schools in Ghana, GSAP in collaboration with Providence College students engaged schools on how to use the computers. Some schools received buckets and soaps and participated in training sessions on an effective handwashing strategy developed in the S-Lab. The GSAP’s earliest literacy intervention efforts date back to 2009 when the neediest schools in the Ghana West District of the Greater Accra Region were provided books and small computer labs. Three container shipments from the USA resulted in 66,317 books and 491 computers delivered in Ghana. A total of 44,085 volumes went to pre-college institutions with an average of 538 books per school. The remaining 22,232 books went to colleges and universities—many of which are engaged in the training of teachers. For the computers, 451 were prepped with an

C. M. Ateh

Operating System and the GSAP portal. The remaining 40 were used for parts or by a school instructional technology instructor to demonstrate the parts of a computer. On average, six computers were given to each school to assure a computer lab with a minimum of six work stations. The version of the GSAP portal designed in the S-Lab and installed in computers had 8000 books and thousands of educational videos and children’s reading books organized by grade level. The literacy intervention assured on average two books per student, which was significantly greater than the average of a fraction of a book per student prior to the intervention. These efforts were followed by similar interventions between 2013 and 2015 that included 82 other schools in the Great Accra Region-Accra, Eastern Region-Koforidua, and Ashanti Region-Kumasi. The latest interventions in 2017–2019 involved Providence College Maymester students transporting books donated to more schools to enhance literacy especially in the primary grade. The interventions to enhance literacy in Ghana included training workshops for school representatives at the GSAP centre and school sites on how to use the GSAP portal, effective book-­ lending programs, and techniques for effective handwashing. The essence of effective handwashing is to encourage students to wash their hands so as to decrease infections resulting in health issues impacting school attendance and ultimately performance in school. Training on using the GSAP portal was therefore framed within a system’s approach considering the intersection of health, performance in school, and quality of life. Trainees were engaged in understanding the access procedures for the system and navigating the various programs in the portal that included resources from the Rachel Initiative, a portable plug-and-play server, and about 2000 electronic age-appropriate books by subject. Training sessions that could not occur due to a power outage during the training were completed at the participating school sites. Evaluation of the workshops were informal and consisted of observations by the GSAP staff and self-reporting by the trainees who retired home in great anticipation of the donations of books, computers, and

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education portal. Follow-up reports by the GSAP staff indicated trainees’ satisfaction in implementing the innovations in their respective schools in supporting literacy. While the numbers and breadth of schools, teachers, and students served by the interventions are impressive, the sustainability of the interventions in alignment with the SDGs is of particular interest. It is important to examine the extent to which the interventions impact teaching and learning at recipient schools. We thus focus on the specific case of Birim North District in Ghana to reflect on the successes and challenges of deploying and implementing innovations for interventions, which have informed the way forward for effective collaborative partnerships in enhancing the SDGs.

11.4.3 Birim North District Birim North District is one of the municipal district assemblies in the Eastern region of Ghana. In the 2010 census, the district had a population of 144,869. The total enrolment of pupils was 4014 with a pupil-to-trained teacher ratio of 1:38. The district has four senior secondary schools and no teacher training college. The main challenges in the education system are related to classroom logistics, infrastructure, literacy levels, qualified personnel, and lack of libraries. District leadership is important in addressing the problems in a school system, which are usually complex. Birim North was the lowest performing district in the region and 117th in the country as a whole prior to the GSAP and S-Lab interventions. Schools in this district had no space for a library or computers and were sharing small local libraries that had a few holdings of about 50 books each. The GSAP donated over 2000 books to five community libraries that were each shared by five to six schools. The intervention in the Birim North schools for the most part was minimal consisting of a single PC computer on average for each school without a computer lab. The monitor was set up in a designated classroom with the teacher guiding the instruction for students experiencing the same lesson content at the

same time. A new Minister of Education was appointed in the region during the same period in which the GSAP interventions were implemented. He implemented two policies in the school system that impacted students’ engagement in reading these donated books: (1) longer school days (schools starting 30 min earlier and ending 30 min later) and (2) mandatory reading and/or writing during the first and last 30 min of the school day. Additionally, the Minister made regular visits to schools and terminated teachers who were not in compliance. The impact of the GSAP interventions through book donations was apparent in the 2014 national assessment performance in which the district schools moved from the last to the first position in the Eastern Region and from the 117th to the 17th in the nation. Paradoxically, the schools in this district received only 17% of the resources given to schools in the Ghana West Region whose performance in the national exams was lower. The high performance by the Birim North schools can thus not be attributed solely to the GSAP interventions considering the schools received fewer resources than others in which performance in the national exam was low. These results suggest the need for effective practices in addition to the GSAP interventions to impact student performance. Although computers and books are important, the commitment to change and modifications in the school system like longer school days and mandatory reading and writing were crucial for the interventions to be effective. The results from effective interventions such as Birim North schools are uplifting. Another example is the Mayflower school in Ghana West that reported high teacher and staff turnover. The Mayflower school had an effective library lending policy where students were borrowing on average 30 books per term. It was easy to monitor and keep records of the books borrowed and to observe the lending pattern. Teachers followed a schedule to engage their students in learning through the GSAP portal that was functioning on all the computers donated by GSAP.  Indeed, innovations that enhance literacy are complex and involve the entire system for significant changes; these changes must be feasible and sustainable.

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The administration, teachers, and larger community attributed the high performance in the national exams in the Birim North schools to the GSAP interventions. The high performance while receiving minimal resources is reassuring especially considering the limiting factor of cost in the integration of technology in academic instruction. In analysing the number of students and the overall size of the donation, the cost per student is about one dollar. Considering a lifetime of 10  years for the books and the GSAP Portal as well as 5  years for the computer hardware, the cost is a little more than 10 cents per student. The donations of books, computers, and the GSAP Portal, while seemingly cost-effective, suggest that consideration be given to lesser interventions especially given the incredible outcomes. Therefore, we suggest a way forward for the GSAP intervention that considers effective use of minimal resources buttressed by local institutional changes like the case of Birim North schools where reading and writing were mandated resulting in students’ high performance in national exams; the outcomes confirmed that less can be more.

11.5 Recommendations and Conclusion Effective collaborative partnerships take time to create especially when involving partners in different nations with cultural differences. The SDGs will be attained when solutions to global problems are created with specific context in mind—no single solution can fit in every situation. It is in this light that the GSAP in collaboration with the S-Lab in Providence College continued to design and create innovations that aligned with the needs of developing countries and the SDG17. For example, some of the resources in the GSAP portal were aligned with the Ghana school curriculum to increase usefulness to teachers and students. We recommend that international collaborators should involve all stakeholders to ensure that the resulting innovations are accessible to local consumers. For example, the S-Lab can collaborate with local

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institutes of higher education in Ghana in identifying and reflecting on appropriate and useful resources for the GSAP portal as well as effective alignment of resources in the portal to school curricula. Faculty members and their engineering students in Ghana can be collaborators in advancing the ideas employed in creating the GSAP portal towards more sophisticated, accessible, and affordable technology to enhance literacy. The primary intended function for the donated computers was to engage students in their learning to enhance literacy. However, in assessing a sample of recipient schools, we found that some of the computers were not working and many were being used for other purposes. In one case, a school received six tablets: One was broken, one had its case smashed, and another was not connected to the charging system. Some teachers had taken computers to their houses for personal use. Some of the computers were used for IT instruction, which was a secondary intended function. We thus recommend that stake holders in the school including the parent teacher association commit to using donated computers mostly for the primary intended purpose, which is to engage students in learning. Portals in approximately half of the schools have been destroyed as a result of installing an illegal license to Windows thus depriving students from benefiting from the program. We recommend installing a portal over the operating system in addition to training on citizenship in using technology, which will prevent damage to the system. There is also frequent turnover in staff with many of those trained on using the portal reassigned to other schools. This resulted in some schools dropping the program due to a lack of a successor. Frequent teacher transfer is common practice that should be considered when identifying schools for the interventions and GSAP training. We recommend that trained staff become trainers for new staff and that the school application includes stronger language for the commitment of schools and staff to be trained. Schools storing books in cartons due to lack of shelving are challenged in providing effective borrowing services to students. The result is restrictive lending policies and protection of

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books that mitigates enhanced literacy in these schools. We recommend that as a condition of book donation, schools should have some shelving, which could be installed by stakeholders like the Parent Teacher Association. When possible, partial funding by GSAP and its collaborators should be awarded for erecting simple shelves prior to donating books to schools. Schools recommend a small LED projector with the donated technology to enhance teacher and student engagement. Students in the S-Lab compared inexpensive small 12-V projector models to wall-mounted flat screen monitors and found that the latter was better for the conditions found in most rural schools. We thus recommend redirecting some funds for flat screen monitors and speaker sets. Health is a crucial issue for student performance in school. Interventions towards literacy must thus consider health issues that impact attendance and performance. We recommend offering a GSAP handwashing program to schools lacking adequate materials for effective handwashing. This will cost about 35 Ghanaian Cedis, equivalent of about nine US dollars, per school for the required materials and supplies. Effective partnerships with committed collaborators at various levels is crucial in implementing interventions that enhance literacy: This is vital in attaining the SDGs. The death of Professor Stephen Mecca, the head of the S-Lab and President of the GSAP program, will impact the research activities in the S-Lab, but there is hope for continuation of the work with support from Providence College, GSAP, and other collaborators. Currently, many of the resources in the GSAP portal support the universal needs in Mathematics, English, Science, and Education. Furthermore, resources are not intended to replace the teacher or the current school curriculum but rather to complement teaching and learning, which is consistent with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)‘s vision for technology in education: A focus on pedagogy rather than tools. Teachers and students can benefit from limited digital tools that engage students and fire their imaginations beyond results from other tradi-

tional tools of instruction. Given the increasing role of technology in our lives and the uncertainty of the future, educators are called to engage in the work of preparing students to be technologically savvy future citizens. This includes enhanced literacy and quality education that enables upward socioeconomic mobility, which is key to escaping poverty—especially in developing countries. To quote Pretorius: “If developing countries aim to produce independent learners, then serious attention will need to be given to improving the reading skills of students and to creating a culture of reading. Reading is not simply an additional tool that students need at tertiary level—it constitutes the very process whereby learning occurs” (Pretorius, 2002, p.169). Empowering students to be owners of their learning is at the core of learning outcomes. Such empowerment can be attained with technology that enhances literacy in resource-deprived schools. Despite its benefit in increasing literacy, technology and technology integration into academic instruction is rare in developing countries. This has been attributed to the high cost of acquiring technology (Bello, 2014). It is also possible that the persistence of colonial education in some African nations is stifling local ingenuity in creating indigenous technology that is more affordable and accessible for enhanced literacy. It is crucial to empower developing nations through effective collaborative partnerships. The GSAP is cognizant of the global education problem especially in developing countries. Thus, it continues to explore affordable technology and systems that will enhance literacy in resource-constrained countries. The ultimate goal is to make technology accessible for students and educators for the quality education that is at the core of the SDGs. College students participating in this partnership are likely to become global agents in advocating for affordable and accessible innovations that will enhance the SDGs. It is critical for Ghana and other developing countries to focus on innovations that are culturally centred in order to socially and economically transform its citizens. It thus behoves Ghanaian stakeholders to engage in effective collaborations that help them participate in the design and

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implementation of innovations that ensure their adaptability in the local context, which is crucial for sustainability. The SDG17 emphasizes the essence of strong global partnerships towards attaining the SDGs. International partners must collaborate with local partners in identifying and creating feasible solutions to local problems. According to Hoffman (2012), aid to developing countries should focus on developing local capacity that will lead to true independence and ownership of educational improvements. This model will ensure effective aid and building of local capacity including research and evaluation as tools for learning.

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Teacher Competencies and Readiness for Education for Sustainable Development: A Case from Teacher Education in Turkey Nese Soysal

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and Ahmet Ok

Abstract

Sustainable development is an effective way to end environmental, social, and economic problems we all face nowadays, and teachers are the key leaders to guide the society on this action. To do this, teachers are expected to possess specific competencies. This chapter provides an insight into Turkish pre-service primary school teachers’ readiness level for teaching Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by investigating their perceptions on competencies for ESD. Presenting the perspectives of 1008 pre-­ service primary school teachers from 12 universities across Turkey, the chapter is based on the data collected through a survey developed by the researchers. The results demonstrate that Turkish pre-service primary school teachers felt more competent in emotions as compared to the values, systems-thinking, and knowledge competencies respectively. Additionally, the development level of the city where the participants lived influenced their perceptions. In this regard, the chapter disN. Soysal (*) Independent Researcher, London, UK e-mail: [email protected] A. Ok Department of Educational Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey e-mail: [email protected]

cusses the need for integrating ESD into teacher education programs with more focus on knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes. It also suggests taking the development level into consideration whilst planning the programs at universities in different cities.

12.1 Introduction Nowadays, our world and humanity are at a vital point of their existence. With the increasing number of natural disasters happening every year, climate change, pollution, greed, and so on, the planet is becoming more vulnerable to the existential risks. For that reason, there is a need for everyone to take an urgent action. With the growing need for a better world, sustainable development has gained prior importance in guiding people to take an action for the planet. Described as “meeting the needs of humans now and in the future, requiring the economic, social and environmental processes to be in the right balance within the planetary boundaries and ensuring social foundations” (Nolet, 2016, p.  43), sustainable development underlines the significance of “essential needs”, “planetary limits”, “interconnected economic, social and environmental systems” and “intergenerational equity” for all. These concepts are seen as the major keys that will unlock the door for a better future.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 M. Öztürk (ed.), Engagement with Sustainable Development in Higher Education, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07191-1_12

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It is vital that we act now to educate generations and transform our world into a sustainable one. This transformation can only be achieved through education because education is the keyring keeping the keys for sustainable development. As Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) empowers learners with the skills, values, and attitudes of sustainable development focusing on the global issues such as poverty, equality, and climate change (UNESCO, 2019a), it should be integrated into the curriculum of all educational institutions across the world, in particular, in emerging economies. As a developing country, Turkey also needs to put more effort to enhance ESD for environmental, economic, social, and cultural sustainability. To this end, teachers undertake a substantial role to foster human development and create a learning society in this respect, because they are the ones who will guide people in taking the responsibility of their present and future actions. Considering the fact that faculties of education are Turkey’s fundamental teacher education institutions where ESD should be promoted, this chapter draws the picture of pre-service teachers’ perceptions on the competencies for ESD in Turkey. It is based on a research study focusing on teacher competencies and competency areas for ESD in Turkey through a scale. The results of the study shed light on the specification of teacher competencies for ESD both locally and globally by indicating the factors that affect the perceived ESD competencies. It could also be a guidance for integrating these competencies into teacher education programmes.

12.1.1 Background In Turkey, the Council of Higher Education (CoHE) manages teacher education programmes, and higher education institutions are responsible for teacher education. As a part of a centralized education system, the general framework, descriptions, and content of teacher education programs including the courses provided in each field are determined by CoHE, and Turkish universities plan their teacher education programs

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according to this framework. Teacher education programs at universities are designed as an undergraduate program of 4 years. Also, there has been a one-year Teaching Certificate Program that is given to the graduates of other faculties. The program has been frozen recently and a program of post-graduate teaching master’s degree is being planned instead. Regarding teacher competencies for in-­service teachers, Ministry of National Education (MoNE) determines the competencies under two categories: generic teacher competencies and field-­ specific competencies (MoNE, 2008). The generic teacher competencies in the 2008 version include six main domains: “Personal and Professional Values-Professional Development”, “Knowing the Student”, “Learning and Teaching Process”, “Monitoring and Evaluation of Learning and Development”, “School-Family and Society Relationships”, and “Knowledge of Curriculum and Content”. The competency of “School-­Family and Society Relationships” has ESD-­related competencies such as being aware of natural, socio-cultural, and economic characteristics of the school environment, being sensitive to important problems of the environment and reflecting these facts on the teaching process. The field-specific competencies for the primary school teachers include eight competency areas (MoNE, 2008). Out of the eight areas, the seventh one, individual responsibilities and socialization, has ESD-related competencies. In 2017, MoNE updated generic teacher competencies as “General Competencies of Teaching Profession” (MoNE, 2017; Tugluk and Kurtmen, 2018). Instead of describing the competencies for each subject area, “Subject Knowledge” and “Pedagogical Subject Knowledge” competencies have been added to general teaching competencies. In that way, three competency areas are included: “Professional Knowledge”, “Professional Skills”, and “Attitudes and Values”. These areas also included 11 subareas and 65 indicators. It is also thought that these competencies would guide the preparation of the content and materials of the courses in teacher education programs. The competency area of “Attitudes and Values” includes some

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indicators related to ESD. However, there is no study conducted yet for specifying teacher competencies regarding ESD in teacher education.

12.2 Literature Review 12.2.1 Perspectives on ESD

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that involves changes in programmes, practices and policy, as well as awareness, knowledge, skills and values and acceptance of the sustainability paradigm” (McKeown, 2014, p.  129). UNESCO also indicates the need for a change in the approaches to teacher education based on “active learning processes, rather than a one-way transfer of knowledge” (2005, p.  22). However, Evans et al. (2017) indicated that although there are some government or university level policies for promoting sustainability, the examples of it being fully embedded are rarely seen. For ESD to be embedded into the curriculum, UNESCO Chair on Reorienting Teacher Education (UNESCO, 2005) suggests that ESD should focus on local needs and perceptions and be relevant and appropriate to the local and cultural values, besides “fulfilling local needs with global effects and consequences” and being “formal, non-formal, and informal” (p. 16). It is also expected to address content, context, pedagogy, global issues, and local priorities and deal with the well-being of all three realms of sustainability as environment, society, and economy. Promoting a whole-institution approach and using action-oriented learning approach is also recommended to make all the stakeholders get involved in the process of sustainable development and encourage learners to be active in their learning and reflect on their own experiences to construct their own knowledge (Leicht et  al., 2018; UNESCO 2019b).

ESD was defined as a process for social change by fostering the values, behaviour, and lifestyles for a sustainable future through education, training, and public awareness. It includes learning how to make decisions to balance the economy, environment, and well-being of all communities (UNESCO, 2005). According to UNESCO (2007), ESD is based on the concepts, skills, and values of sustainable development and focuses economic, environmental, and societal aspects. It promotes lifelong learning through formal, non-formal, and informal education. Also, it is locally relevant as it focuses on local needs, and culturally appropriate as it has intercultural effects. ESD is interdisciplinary, no one discipline can explain it, but all disciplines can contribute to it with their content and pedagogical techniques (UNESCO, 2007). Furthermore, it needs “active, creative and critical citizens” as it has a learner-centred approach, and the values, ideas, and perspectives of the learners are developed as the “active agents in the construction of their knowledge” (Breiting et al., 2005, p.15). Therefore, it “requires transformation of mental models” of the learners (Wals and Jickling 2002, p. 227 as cited in Corcoran et al., 12.2.2 Teacher Competencies for ESD 2017, p. 109). The study of Bourn et al. (2017) indicates how Focusing on capability of doing an activity, ESD is seen in teacher education curriculum. Mochizuki and Fadeeva (2010, p.392) describes There are some specialist modules and courses as competence as “what the students will be more an option for ESD in some universities according capable of doing after completing the learning to their study. Also, some general courses are activity”. The four pillars of education for the provided for undergraduate and master level pro- twenty-first century are emphasized as learning grammes. Some universities offer content-­ to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learnspecific training for subject-based teachers. ing to live together in a UNESCO report by However, UNESCO recommends reorientation Delors et al. (1996). These pillars are also used to of teacher education programmes according to define the competencies of ESD for educators. ESD (UNESCO, 2005). “Re-orientating educaDe Haan (2010) explains the key competention to address sustainability is a deep process cies through the concept of “Gestaltunskompetenz”

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(shaping competence). According to him, Gestaltunskompetenz means “having the skills, competencies and knowledge to change economic, ecological and social behaviour without these changes merely being a reaction to existing problems” (De Haan, 2010 as cited in Adomßent & Hoffmann, 2013, p. 318). There are also various ESD-related competency approaches for teacher education. The UNECE Steering Committee on ESD expressed competencies based on the UNESCO’s pillars of ESD (UNECE, 2012). This approach provides a framework for what educators should know, what they should be able to do, how they should live and work with others, and how they should be if they are to contribute to ESD. The competencies are also grouped according to three essential characteristics of ESD as a holistic approach: focusing on integrative thinking and practice; envisioning change emphasizing past, present, and future; and achieving transformation focusing on people, pedagogy, and education systems. CSCT (Curriculum, Sustainable development, Competences, Teacher training) Project presents another approach to teacher competencies for ESD (UNECE, 2008). Emphasizing the importance of integration of ESD into the teacher education curriculum, the CSCT project’s framework defines competencies as “key qualifications, social competences, soft skills, … or dynamic skills” (Lassnig et  al. 2001, as cited in Sleurs, 2008). In line with the “Dynamic model for ESD competences in teacher education” (Sleurs, 2008), the project describes the domains of ­competencies as knowledge, systems thinking, emotions, ethics and values, and action: Knowledge  Having specific features of knowledge for ESD. E.g.;

• Being able to master key concepts and knowledge of sustainable development such as interdependence of society, needs and rights of future generations, and equity and justice. • Being able to select educational goals for SD, considering the developmental stage and prior

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knowledge of students, and the diversity within the group of learners.

Systematic Thinking  Awareness of being part of the living system, the Earth, and thinking in different kinds of systems such as geographical, ecological, political, economic, and social. E.g.;

• Being able to be aware that schools are a part of local, national, and global systems. • Being able to perceive the school as a living system and trying to act with the school team and in class according to the insights of systems thinking in the context of ESD.

Emotions  Feeling interconnectedness with the world and having empathy and compassion. E.g.;

• Being aware that emotions are crucial to our lives and can often be related to former experiences and also depend on the surrounding culture. • Being able to develop the competences of compassion and empathy and develop the awareness of interconnectedness with the world in space and time.

Ethics and Values  Norms, attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions that are guiding our perception of ESD. E.g.;

• Being able to clarify his/her own beliefs, assumptions, and values related to sustainable development, education, and learning. • Being able to model values of respect and dignity which underpin sustainable development.

Action  The process of experiencing and participating in of all the other domains to enhance ESD. E.g.;

12  Teacher Competencies and Readiness for Education for Sustainable Development: A Case…

• Being able to act as an “agent for changing”. • Being able to imagine alternative futures and new, creative solutions. In this study, teacher competencies were investigated within this particular framework with reference to four competencies and as each domain requires its own action, the competency of action is considered in each domain in an integrated way.

12.2.3 Research on Teacher Education and ESD The research on teacher education for ESD has become increasingly influential lately. It mostly focuses on perspectives of student teachers on ESD, and the results generally indicate that student teachers have positive attitudes towards ESD (Burmeister & Eilks, 2013; Jaspar, 2008, Kagawa, 2007; Kaya, 2013; Soysal & Ok, 2021, Sahin, 2008; Sahin et  al., 2009; Tuncer et  al., 2006). There are also some studies that recommend professional development models for sustainable development regarding initial teacher education and emphasizing competencies for various subjects in both graduate and undergraduate teacher education programs (Albareda-Tiana et  al., 2019; Besong & Holland, 2015; Corney, 2006; Firth & Winter, 2007; Holmberg et  al., 2008; Hunt & McGough, 2012; Kaya & Tomal, 2011; Lamp et al., 2013; Mischo, 2015; Sagdic & Sahin, 2015; Sims & Falkenberg, 2013; Summers et al., 2005). The study of Varga et al. (2007) presented two examples for developing teacher competencies for ESD as one-year action research-based training course for pre-service teacher education and workshops for in-service teacher education. Also, self-reflection at an individual and school level is recommended. Ferreira, Ryan, and Tilbury (2007) revealed Mainstreaming Sustainability Model to be more systematic for professional development of the teachers. It emphasized the importance of Action Research Model and the Whole of System Model focusing on developing a practitioner’s sense of autonomy and owner-

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ship. To promote the competencies of ESD in student teachers, Beltran et al. (2014) recommended the use of mentoring system. Moreover, Barth et al. (2007) focused on developing key competencies for sustainable development in higher education revealing the importance of the culture of teaching for sustainability with combination of both formal and informal settings. McNaughton’s study (2012) also emphasized the importance of systematic study of ESD for developing competency of student teachers on ESD. On the other hand, some studies also highlighted the needs for continuous development of teachers on ESD. They suggested focusing on skills and knowledge to achieve sustainable development (Cebrian & Junyent, 2015; De Haan, 2006; Lambrechts et al., 2010; Lasen et al., 2015; Obike, 2007; Sleurs, 2008; Soysal & Ok, 2016). In addition, as focusing only on knowledge acquisition would leave out the other perspectives of sustainable development, these studies emphasize the need for a holistic approach in teacher education (Scherak & Rieckmann, 2020). There are also some studies conducted about teacher competencies in Turkey. MoNE (Ministry of National Education) presented “generic teacher competencies” and “field specific competencies” for subject-specific training of teachers (MoNE, 2008). The competency of “School-­ Family and Society Relationships” has some competencies related to ESD such as being aware of natural, socio-cultural, and economic characteristics of the school environment, being sensitive to important problems of the environment and reflecting these facts on the teaching process. In 2017, by analysing the policy documents of international organizations such as the European Council, UNESCO, and UNICEF and the competency documents of countries such as the US, Australia, Finland, France, Hong-Kong, the UK, Canada, and Singapore, the General Competencies of Teaching Profession has been updated by MoNE.  This time, subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge have been determined in the general competencies for teachers rather than listing subject-­ specific competencies for each subject area and

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the competency domain of “attitudes and values” has been added (MoNE, 2017). On the other hand, some studies highlighted the importance of socio-economic factors in shaping the attitudes of individuals. Kılıç and Yücel (2013) emphasized the importance of socio-economic problems such as poverty over environmental problems. Also, Iuzuka (2000) presented the differences between the views of the citizens of highly developed countries and developing countries towards environmental issues. In addition, in Turkey, the Ministry of Development has also conducted a study named as “The Research of the Socio-economic Order of the Provinces and the Districts” (SEGE-2011) and sorted the provinces according to some indicators (The Ministry of Development, 2013). These indicators are considered to be important for the analyses of the perceived competencies of pre-service primary school teachers. The study contributes to the explanation of the effects of socio-economic factors on the competencies for ESD. Focusing on determining the readiness level of pre-service primary school teachers in Turkey for ESD, this study analyses their perceived competencies regarding ESD. Therefore, it is expected that this study will contribute to the further development and enrichment of primary school teaching curricula for training teachers with stronger competencies for ESD.

the data, because surveys gather data with the intention of describing the nature of existing conditions especially on attitudes and preferences, beliefs and predictions or behaviours and experiences (Cohen et  al., 2007). The data collection instrument was designed by the researchers and the collected data were analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics.

12.3.1 Participants

The senior student teachers in the departments of primary teaching in state universities of Turkey constituted the population of the study. As for the sample, six regions of Turkey according to the inter-provincial differences in terms of socio-­ economic development were examined. The departments of primary teaching in each region were listed. The universities with the specified department from each region were selected through purposive sampling on a basis of their experiences, accessibility, and the number of students they have. Then, universities were contacted, questionnaires were sent to teacher educators through mail and their volunteer student teachers were asked to participate in the study. Finally, 12 universities with 1008 participants were reached for the sample. The number of the participants from the selected universities by the development level is presented in Table 12.1. To give more information about the regions, six regions are sorted based on eight indicators 12.3 Method according to the Ministry of Development’s study SEGE-2011 – The Research of the Socio-­ Aiming to analyse perceived competencies of economic Order of the Provinces and the pre-service primary school teachers on ESD, the Districts (Ministry of Development 2013). study poses these research questions: (1) How These indicators are considered to be crucial competent do pre-service primary school teach- for the analyses as they include significant ers perceive themselves about ESD with regards socio-economic characteristics. These eight to the competence areas of (a) knowledge, (b) indicators are namely demographic indicators, systems-thinking, (c) emotions and (d) values-­ employment-related indicators, educationethics? (2) Are there significant differences in related indicators, health care-related indicatheir perspectives with respect to the develop- tors, competitive and innovative capacity-related ment level of the city they live in? Having a quan- indicators, financial i­ndicators, accessibilitytitative design, the study used a survey to collect related indicators, and quality of life indicators.

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Table 12.1  Number of participants by institution 1st level of development Uludağ University N = 112 Gazi University N = 20

2nd level of development Çanakkale on Sekiz Mart University N = 80 Trakya University N = 96

3rd level of development Karadeniz Teknik University N = 105

Pamukkale University N = 72

Table 12.2  Characteristics of participants

4th level of development Afyon Kocatepe University N = 74

5th level of development Gaziosmanpaşa University N = 101

Sivas Cumhuriyet University N = 45 Hatay Mustafa Kemal University N = 111

Atatürk University N = 71

6th level of development Kars Kafkas University N = 95

For the items regarding competencies, the “Dynamic model for ESD competences in teacher education” developed by the CSCT project (UNECE, 2008) was analysed. As this frameAge work is considered to be more comprehensive and practical to evaluate teacher competencies for ESD, it was analysed in detail and the tool was prepared based on that. In the model, five domains of competencies as knowledge, systems Accordingly, the provinces are given a value of thinking, emotions, ethics and values, and action index and they are sorted from Level 1 (Highly are presented, and the competencies teachers developed provinces) to Level 6 (Lower-level should have for ESD were listed under each developed provinces). In another study (Soysal domain. For this study, competencies regarding & Ok, 2021), the effects of these indicators on action were integrated to other four domains, as attitudes of pre-­service primary school teachers each domain has its own action-related compewere studied and it was found that they affected tencies. The scale was also sent to seven experts student teachers’ attitudes towards sustainable from different fields for review and 16 of the development. In the current study, whether items were chosen for the scale. After piloting, these indicators affected pre-­service teachers’ the instrument was submitted to Middle East competencies or not is answered. The charac- Technical University (METU) Human Subject teristics of the participants can be seen in Ethics Committee for the approval. The commitTable 12.2. tee indicated that the instrument did not include any ethical violation and it was approved to be used for data collection purposes. Afterwards, the 12.3.2 Data Collection Tool instrument was submitted to the universities and their permission was taken to administer the The data collection tool has been developed by instrument to the senior primary teaching stuthe researchers. The first part of the tool included dents in 18 universities in Turkey. questions regarding demographic information. For the content validity, opinions of the The second part was composed of the questions experts were taken about the content, clarity, and about the perceived competencies of teachers appropriateness of the items of the data collecregarding ESD. It was designed based on a five-­ tion instrument. As for the construct validity that point scale ranging from Strongly Agree (5) to is related to the nature of the psychological conStrongly Disagree (1). struct or characteristics being measured by the Variables Gender

Groups Female Male 18–20 21–23 24–26 27–29

n 699 309 9 851 141 7

% 69 31 9 85 14 7

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instrument (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2008), factor analysis was conducted, and assumptions were checked to strengthen the validity of the instrument. Sampling size was found appropriate as KMO = 0.92 and Bartlett test of Sphericity was found significant 0.000 (p.05