Today becomes tomorrow: re-thinking business practice, education and learning in the context of sustainability

Purpose – The present preoccupations of businesses and business educators include the increasing global debt, rising unemployment and expanding carbon footprints, and the societal and governmental pressures to minimise the impact of these challenges. Meanwhile, the urge towards technical fixes and problem solving is shaping the way that business is done today and constraining business practices for tomorrow. The repercussions for business education are serious and systemic, as these responses neglect the need to critically question, innovate and rethink business futures, through our educational processes. The purpose of this paper is to provide context and orientation to this special issue collection which showcases current thinking and practice in higher education aimed at addressing this predicament and finding new responses. Design/methodology/approach – This paper offers a critical review of developments geared towards more sustainable and responsible forms of business education and practice. It takes an inclusive view of “sustainability” that embraces issues such as poverty and inequality, environmental degradation, human rights and access to resources. The concept reaches beyond the practice of “corporate social responsibility” to take into account the complex challenge of reorienting business practice to improve development processes and life chances worldwide, in the context of the inevitable limits to planetary resources. Findings – The paper considers the influences of international movements in ushering in a vision of learning for sustainability in business education. It discusses challenges that have come to light through recent initiatives and in literature on curriculuminnovation in this area.The paper calls for a re-envisioning of business practice, education and learning which goes beyond remedies for current symptoms of unsustainable development and unmasks the need to reconnect business with people and planet. Originality/value – This paper foregrounds lessons learned from several areas of thought and practice that have bearing on the communities of practice for business education. It frames and situates the contributions presented in this collection, exploring upcoming agendas in this critically important field

Uncharted waters: voyages for Education for Sustainable Development in the higher education curriculum

The need to embed Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the higher education curriculum is well recognised in international sustainable development dialogues. However, early pioneers in this area have met with substantial obstacles and now face the prospect of attempting systemic education change in a new and difficult sector climate. This article explores the potential for engagement with the higher education curriculum by bringing ESD into its quality assurance and quality enhancement system. It builds on insights gained from a national project funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, which worked in collaboration with the UK Quality Assurance Agency and a consortium of five universities. It considers the ways that ESD has entered the UK higher education sector and the potential connectivity that exists between ESD and quality. Key findings are shared from the development projects carried out in these universities, including their identification of specific quality-led pathways for embedding ESD, the differences of perspective uncovered amongst stakeholders and challenges for institutional strategy and implementation. It concludes in reflection on the need to access deeper currents of teaching and learning to make ESD a viable education proposition, as well as the potential transfer to other parts of the education and skills sector

Sustainability in Higher Education in the Asia Pacific: developments, challenges and prospects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the contributions of the Asia-Pacific region to leading practice in sustainability in higher education (HE), as prelude and orientation to this special issue collection from different countries and regions. Design/methodology/approach – This is a critical review that includes international and regional policy contexts in sustainability and “education for sustainable development” (ESD), whilst exploring the trajectories of key initiatives across the region and considering the broader context of sustainability innovation within the HE sector. Findings – The Asia-Pacific region offers many creative initiatives and shows considerable progress in ESD and in understanding the learning dimensions of sustainability. At the same time, it mirrors global trends in that further work is needed to promote systemic change in educational arenas, particularly in terms of strategic integration within HE institutions. The Asia-Pacific contributions to this collection demonstrate the need to harness national policy, to develop local and regional initiatives and to work effectively towards more profound change in HE curricula and through collaboration with external communities and stakeholders. Originality/value – This is a distinctive collection of new initiatives from the Asia-Pacific, which compensates for the comparative lack of dissemination in this area. There is considerable sustainability innovation emerging in this region which shows leading-edge responses from within the HE sector on a number of key challenges and issues

Educación para el desarrollo sostenible, ¿nada nuevo bajo el sol?: consideraciones sobre cultura y sostenibilidad

Desde su surgimiento, la educación para el desarrollo sostenible (EDS) ha suscitado críticas por parte de algunos sectores vinculados con el campo de la educación ambiental (EA) en América Latina, quienes argumentan que no hay aportes novedosos de este enfoque para la ea. A través de la exploración de la relación entre educación, cambio cultural y sostenibilidad, en este artículo se argumenta que la eds sí tiene aspectos novedosos que podrían impactar de manera positiva en el desarrollo conceptual y en la práctica de la ea en Lati­noamérica. Específicamente se considera que, aunque la EA en Lati­noamérica ha abordado aspectos del ámbito sociocultural ignorados por la ea de otras regiones, la manera en la que la EDS considera la cultura es novedosa, y podría generar nuevas formas de plantear los problemas ambientales y de trabajar hacia un futuro más sostenible

Transformative Learning: a research briefing

The term ‘Transformational Learning’ has been used in varied ways and with varied meanings. At its simplest, Transformational Learning is learning that takes learners’ knowledge and skills into a different or new domain, with a step jump in cognitive and affective processes. Theories of transformational learning (TL) have been described as ‘the process of making meaning of one’s experience’. Transformational learning is ‘unsettling’ in that it leads to questioning of accepted assumptions and views and to new ways of knowing and understanding. The focus of research into TL has been primarily on adult learners, with the concept of TL representing a major theme of research and theory building in adult education. This context setting summary provides a very quick entry to some of the background thinking and research in this area before the exploration of some key questions at our conference on ‘Researching TL’. • What does the academic and applied research to date tell us about the nature of TL? • How might we go about researching TL? • How might this research inform our approaches to pedagogy and practice in higher education? This introduction draws on several useful resources available on the web that provide research summaries and are listed on page 4

Transformative Learning: a research briefing

The term ‘Transformational Learning’ has been used in varied ways and with varied meanings. At its simplest, Transformational Learning is learning that takes learners’ knowledge and skills into a different or new domain, with a step jump in cognitive and affective processes. Theories of transformational learning (TL) have been described as ‘the process of making meaning of one’s experience’. Transformational learning is ‘unsettling’ in that it leads to questioning of accepted assumptions and views and to new ways of knowing and understanding. The focus of research into TL has been primarily on adult learners, with the concept of TL representing a major theme of research and theory building in adult education. This context setting summary provides a very quick entry to some of the background thinking and research in this area before the exploration of some key questions at our conference on ‘Researching TL’. • What does the academic and applied research to date tell us about the nature of TL? • How might we go about researching TL? • How might this research inform our approaches to pedagogy and practice in higher education? This introduction draws on several useful resources available on the web that provide research summaries and are listed on page 4

Education for sustainable development: Guidance for UK higher education providers

This guidance has been prepared by representatives of the higher education community with expertise in education and sustainable development. It has been produced via collaboration between the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA). The guidance is intended to be of practical help to higher education providers working with students to foster their knowledge, understanding and skills in the area of sustainable development. The guidance recognises that there are many ways in which this may be achieved and is not prescriptive about delivery. Instead it offers an outcomes-based framework for use in curriculum design, and general guidance on approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. The guidance is intended to be relevant to educators in all disciplines wishing to embed or include learning about sustainable development within their curricula. This guidance is intended to complement Chapter B3 of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education (Quality Code) dedicated to learning and teaching, but it does not form an explicit part of it. The Quality Code sets out the expectations that all providers of UK higher education are required to meet and is used in QAA review processes. The guidance is intended to apply to all parts of the UK

Beyond outputs: pathways to symmetrical evaluations of university sustainable development partnerships

As the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) draws to a close, it is timely to review ways in which the sustainable development initiatives of higher education institutions have been, and can be, evaluated. In their efforts to document and assess collaborative sustainable development program outcomes and impacts, universities in the North and South are challenged by similar conundrums that confront development agencies. This article explores pathways to symmetrical evaluations of transnationally partnered research, curricula, and public-outreach initiatives specifically devoted to sustainable development. Drawing on extensive literature and informed by international development experience, the authors present a novel framework for evaluating transnational higher education partnerships devoted to sustainable development that addresses design, management, capacity building, and institutional outreach. The framework is applied by assessing several full-term African higher education evaluation case studies with a view toward identifying key limitations and suggesting useful future symmetrical evaluation pathways. University participants in transnational sustainable development initiatives, and their supporting donors, would be well-served by utilizing an inclusive evaluation framework that is infused with principles of symmetry

UN Decade in Education for Sustainable Development: Implications for geography educators

Moving towards sustainability will require changing the way we think, live and work. This was highlighted at the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg. The Summit recognised that our current actions are leading to environmental degradation, poor quality of life and associated human suffering. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is vital to our future and to improving quality of life. Geography education has a critical contribution to make to help us shift towards sustainability and the UN Decade provides an important platform for helping us reflect and define what this contribution might be.3 page(s