Curriculum

Introduction

One of the primary functions of colleges and universities is to educate students. By training and educating future leaders, scholars, workers, and professionals; higher education institutions are uniquely positioned to understand and address sustainability challenges. Institutions that offer courses covering sustainability issues help equip their students to lead society to a sustainable future.

7980 resources

Experiential Learning for Sustainability in Supply Chain Management Education

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)
  • Tecnológico de Monterrey (Nuevo Leon)
  • Aston University

This work is about sustainability-related learning experiences for the discipline of supply chain management (SCM) in Higher Education. It arises from the need to motivate students with relevant and interesting ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Training students in inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability education: nurturing cross-faculty staff commitment and continuous community collaboration

  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

To properly address complex sustainability issues, higher education institutes (HEIs), such as universities, need to implement innovative educational programmes that adhere to transdisciplinary principles. This study aims to contribute to ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Applied engineering education for soft skills in the context of sustainability and mobility

  • Halmstad University

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the need to rethink the traditional approach to education in the university engineering curriculum. The paper examines two engineering projects led ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Perceptions and concerns about sustainable healthcare of nursing students trained in sustainability and health: A cohort study

  • University of Jaén

Aim: To describe nursing students' perceptions of sustainable health education in the nursing curriculum and their concerns about sustainable healthcare and the impact of climate change on nursing. Background: Sustainable ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Integrating a sustainability education model into STEM courses at a tribal college

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

Indigenous scholars have been historically excluded from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and are currently underrepresented in STEM degree programs and jobs. Having a population with STEM skills is ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Reaching the Rest: Embedding Sustainability in Undergraduate Student Learning

  • University of Toronto (ON)

There exists a substantial literature on sustainability pedagogy. Much of it addresses individual courses, sustainability programs, or the learning competencies that are encouraged. The implicit focus is on students who ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Teaching sustainability within the context of everyday life: Steps toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through the EUSTEPs Module

  • Global Footprint Network (CA)
  • Universidade Aberta
  • University of Coimbra
  • University of Aveiro
  • University of Siena
  • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Kentriki Makedonia)

In a world characterized by Ecological Overshoot, where humanity demands more from natural ecosystems than they can sustainably renew, education can nurture sustainability-minded citizens and future leaders to help accelerate ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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When students write comedy scripts: humor as an experiential learning method in environmental education

  • Vienna University of Economics and Business

Humor has received increasing attention in environmental educational research in recent years as it can have a variety of positive effects on learning atmosphere, outcomes, and student-educator relationships. In most ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Threshold concepts and ESG performance: teaching accounting students reconceptualized fundamentals to drive future ESG advocacy

  • University of Saskatchewan (SK)

Whether corporations voluntarily reduce their negative impacts on the environment and society depends upon management advocacy. As future corporate leaders, accounting students will have a critical advocacy role, but they ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Teaching management in the context of Grand Challenges: A pragmatist approach

  • HEC Montréal (QC)

This article builds on the pragmatist approach of Grand Challenges to derive pedagogical strategies for management education, especially for courses that aim to prepare students to face the unprecedented context ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Sustainability training at Spanish public faculties of education: a virtual ethnography

  • Universidad de Oviedo (Asturias)
  • University of Malaga (Malaga)

Various institutional statements and official documents refer to the Sustainable Development Goals and sustainability training. This should imply a university education in these values, considering that those who are going ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Incorporating collaborative learning in teacher education to foster self-efficacy to implement environmental citizenship: an action research

  • Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts (Tel Aviv District)

Purpose: Engaging students in environmental citizenship to promote education for sustainability (EfS) as an explicit goal of academic courses is not common, notwithstanding wide consensus on its importance. Collaborative learning ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Understanding urban sustainability from Mode 2 Science and transdisciplinary education: how Master Thesis Ateliers of the Ghent Stadsacademie tackle wicked issues

  • Ghent University

The wicked sustainability problems that we are increasingly facing not only require new ways of knowledge production, but also challenge our traditional educational system. More and more importance is attached ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Examining undergraduate students’ systems thinking competency through a problem scenario in the context of climate change education

  • National Sun Yat-sen University

Higher education plays an important role in preparing future citizens and leaders with the capacity to address systemic issues behind complex problems such as climate change. There have however been ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Learning regenerative cultures: Indigenous nations in higher education renewal in Australia

  • Edith Cowan University
  • Deakin University
  • The University of Notre Dame Australia (WA)

What is regenerative learning in Australian higher education? This paper addresses the intersecting crises of climate, species loss and injustice; often called a conceptual emergency. We tackle the problem of ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Backcasting for sustainability – An approach to education for sustainable development in management

  • HEC Montréal (QC)

“Utopia dynamizes action,” said Mathieu Régnier, curator of the MTL + exhibition at the Biosphere, Environment Museum in Montreal, to students of a sustainable development and management graduate course. The exhibition ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Understanding sustainability as a cyclical process: insights from social innovation and the adaptive cycle

  • University of Portland (OR)

Purpose: This paper aims to understand why higher education institutions (HEIs) struggle to become sustainable institutions themselves despite providing relevant teaching and research on sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: Using 17 ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Life purposes: Comparing higher education students in four institutions in the Netherlands and Finland

  • Tampere University of Applied Sciences
  • Hanze University of Applied Sciences
  • Universiteit voor Humanistiek

Universities worldwide are beginning to counter the prevailing neo-liberal ideology by paying renewed attention to the moral development of students and fostering their life purposes. This mixed methods study investigates ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Using normative case studies to examine ethical dilemmas for educators in an ecological crisis

  • The University of Newcastle (NSW)

Environmental and sustainability initiatives seek to respond to the challenges of ecological crises and ongoing environmental degradation by supporting students to develop knowledge and dispositions to respond to the challenges ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Gamification to Improve Participation in an Environmental Science Course: An Educator’s Reflection

  • University of Arizona (AZ)

Reticence prevalent among East Asian students has prompted educators to attempt different methods to engage them. Gamification of courses has gained popularity as an avenue to encourage students’ participation, and ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Education for Sustainability: Understanding Processes of Change across Individual, Collective, and System Levels

  • Lund University
  • Karolinska Institutet

Researchers and practitioners increasingly emphasise the need to complement dominant external, technological approaches with an internal focus to support transformation toward sustainability. However, knowledge on how this internal human dimension ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Where is Nature? Where is Nature in Nature and Outdoor Learning in Higher Education? An Analysis of Nature-Based Learning in Higher Education Using Multispecies Ethnography

  • Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

The multiple crises of the 21st century once again highlight the significant role of sustain-able education in all educational institutions. Particularly in higher education, the inclu-sion of nature and animals ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Which “sustainable university” are we actually talking about? A topic modelling-assisted discourse analysis of academic literature

  • Uppsala University

The remarkably growing body of academic literature on the university in relation to sustainability pivots around the idea that the university has an important role to play regarding this issue ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Teaching, learning and assessment methods for sustainability education on the land–sea interface

  • Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

The Land–Sea Interface (LSI) is where land and sea meet, not only in physical terms, but also with regards to a large variety of ecological and societal aspects. The ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Teaching action-oriented knowledge on sustainability issues

  • Uppsala University
  • Ghent University

Knowledge about sustainability problems as it is typically taught does not per se lead to action for tackling these problems. Environmental and sustainability education researchers have argued for teaching more ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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The evolving engineer; professional accreditation sustainability criteria and societal imperatives and norms

  • University College Cork - National University of Ireland, Cork (Co. Cork)

Professional accreditation criteria around sustainability are an important consideration in the delivery of accredited (chemical) engineering programmes. This paper looks at the sustainability related criteria required by a number of ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Unmasking the Action-Oriented ESD Approach to Acting Environmentally Friendly

  • Monash University (VIC)
  • Huaibei Normal University

Since the United Nations’ declaration on education for sustainable development (ESD), countries and universities across the globe aim to enhance sustainability consciousness, knowingness, attitude, and behavior among learners. However, there ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Justice in climate change education: a systematic review

  • Colorado State University (CO)
  • University of Cincinnati (OH)

Growing recognition of the multi-faceted injustices of climate change has resulted in shifting public and policy discourse around how to understand and address climate change, yet justice considerations are rarely ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Climate justice in higher education: a proposed paradigm shift towards a transformative role for colleges and universities

  • Northeastern University (MA)

Moving beyond technocratic approaches to climate action, climate justice articulates a paradigm shift in how organizations think about their response to the climate crisis. This paper makes a conceptual contribution ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Intrapersonal capacities for sustainability: a change agent perspective on the ‘inner dimension’ of sustainability work

  • Blekinge Institute of Technology

An ongoing discussion in education for sustainable development (ESD) research has focused on defining a list of agreed upon sustainability competencies required for the work of sustainability change agents. This ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Freire’s hope in radically changing times: a dialogue for curriculum integration from science education to face the climate crisis

  • Universidad de Chile (Region Metropolitana)
  • Escuela Básica Playas Negras in Coronel

This article advances a dialogue for understanding curriculum integration as a form of radical pedagogy, starting from science education in times of climate crisis. The paper weaves Paulo Freire’s ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Student Development in Higher Education in the Era of the Agenda 2030 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: Towards SDGs 2.0

  • Université du Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
  • Universities South Africa

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Higher Education Conference in Barcelona was an occasion for the authors of this article to reflect on the UN Sustainable Development ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Active methodologies and curricular sustainability in teacher training

  • University of Jaén
  • Universidad de Granada

Purpose: Changes in society, the economy and health require a response from higher education regarding the training of professionals, specifically, future teachers. In this sense, active methodologies constitute, in line ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Decolonising the design curriculum: making “sustainability” accessible, understandable and practicable to second-year undergraduate architecture students

  • University of Queensland (QLD)

Purpose: This paper describes the curriculum design of an architectural studio course aimed at making concepts of sustainability accessible, understandable and practicable to second-year undergraduate students. Architectural education and design ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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The sustainable development goals in a Bachelor of Design course; current integration and benefits, constraints and opportunities for deeper integration

  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)

Purpose: Universities’ unique position within society means they have an important role to contribute to sustainability and to help achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are one of the ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Addressing the Challenges of Preparing Teachers to Teach about the Climate Crisis

  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)

Teachers often lack adequate teacher preparation in knowledge and practices for engaging their students to address the climate crisis, suggesting the need for an increased focus on climate change in ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Changing the world one engineer at a time – unmaking the traditional engineering education when introducing sustainability subjects

  • Linkoping University

Purpose: The information technology (IT) sector has been seen as central to society's transformation to a more just and sustainable society, which underlines teachers’ responsibility to foster engineers who ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Preliminary Investigation of Sustainability Awareness and Activities among Academic Libraries in the United States

  • University of Southern California (CA)

This paper explores sustainability, sustainability awareness, and how it is measured in academic libraries in the United States, and considers how assessment tools or key performance indicators (KPIs) could enhance ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Systems thinking for systems leadership: promoting competency development for graduate students in sustainability studies

  • Virginia Tech (VA)

Purpose: This paper aims to offer a case study for teaching specific systems thinking competencies that promote leadership for systems change. It uses leadership as a novel way to identify ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Undisciplining Environmental Communication Pedagogy: Toward Environmental and Epistemic Justice in the Interdisciplinary Sustainability Classroom

  • Allegheny College (PA)

This article moves beyond an understanding of environmental communication as merely the “translation” of scientific knowledge for the general public and advocates for environmental science and sustainability (ESS) educators to ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Six critical questions for teaching justice-based environmental sustainability (JBES) in higher education

  • Beijing Normal University
  • Universidade Federal de Sergipe

In this short article, we pose six key questions that we argue as essential to critically problem-pose in achieving teaching for justice-based environmental sustainability (JBES) in higher education (HE). We ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Eco-critical language awareness for English language teaching (ELT): Promoting justice, wellbeing, and sustainability in the classroom

  • University of Alabama (AL)

Critical Language Awareness (CLA) seeks to promote social justice by explicitly calling attention to power issues in the context of literacy development and language instruction. In this article, we assert ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Higher education in turbulent times: navigating the transition from un-sustainability in a world dominated by technology

  • Atlantic Technological University (Co. Galway)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the implications for higher education of a rapidly changing global context, where technologies play a role in the propagation of ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Integrating sustainability themes for enhancing interdisciplinarity: a case study of a comprehensive research university in Japan

  • Tohoku University

Interdisciplinary education and education for sustainable development provide a complementary approach to enhancing learners’ interdisciplinary and sustainability competencies. An interdisciplinary approach is considered a crucial method for enhancing university students ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Light Green – A Case Study of Sustainability Decoupling in Hospitality Education

  • Kennesaw State University (GA)

Despite an increased commitment to sustainability, some argue that the hospitality industry and its supporting academic field remain “light green” as actual sustainability initiatives are shallow and decoupled from stated ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Research on sustainability leadership in higher education: a scoping review

  • Mahidol University (Bangkok)

Purpose: Despite the centrality of leadership to the successful transformation of universities toward sustainability, the literature on the role and practices of sustainability leadership in higher education remains poorly developed ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Connecting curricula and competence through student learning journeys

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

This research examines the connection between higher education curricula for sustainable development and student development of key competencies for sustainability. The authors conducted a comparative case study that followed ten ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Sustainability as a purpose in life among Dutch higher education students

  • Tampere University of Applied Sciences
  • Hanze University of Applied Sciences

Given the prominence of sustainability in current global crises and the commitment of societies to the Sustainable Development Goals, this mixed methods study ascertains how Dutch higher education students (N ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Sustainable Academia: The Responsibilities of Academic Historians in a Climate-Impacted World

  • University of Western Australia
  • La Trobe University (Victoria)
  • University College London (London)
  • University of Tasmania (TAS)
  • King's College London

Environmental degradation is the most serious challenge of the twenty-first century. To date, academic historians, among many others, have failed to fully confront the climate and biodiversity crises, often engaging ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Science|Environment|Health, One Health, Planetary Health, Sustainability, and Education for Sustainable Development: How Do They Connect in Health Teaching?

  • Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
  • Pädagogische Hochschule Luzern

In this paper, we explore Science|Environment|Health, One Health, Planetary Health, and Sustainability/Education for Sustainable Development in the context of the 2030 Agenda as four major frameworks that ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community.

All responses reference content from reports under the latest version of STARS, version 2.2. AASHE membership and log-in is required.

AC 1: Academic Courses

AC 2: Learning Outcomes

AC 3: Undergraduate Program

AC 4: Graduate Program

AC 5: Immersive Experience

AC 6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

AC 7: Incentives for Developing Courses

AC 8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.

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