Sustainability: new insights for education

Citation

Kevany, K., Huisingh, D. and Lozano Garcia, F.J. (2007), "Sustainability: new insights for education", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijshe.2007.24908baa.001

Sustainability: new insights for education

Sustainability: new insights for education

The 12 articles in this Special Issue of the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education present an array of ideas, concepts, courses, tools and results of experiments that the authors have done and are doing at campuses and communities in India, Italy, France, Spain, Latvia, Iran, South Africa, Canada, USA, Mexico, China, Turkey and Brazil. This editorial highlights the “golden threads” of the 12 articles of this special issue.

It is clear from other literature and from these 12 articles that it is urgent that educational leaders in all nations must make fundamental changes in the ways they engage their students, fellow-faculty and community stakeholders in helping to chart the course for and in developing people with the capacity to make the transition to sustainable societies.

Strengthening human capacity for sustainability is important at all levels of education, including life long learning, but is most crucial in higher education as this is where we can help to educate, motivate and empower future policy makers, leaders, and the most powerful consumers in our societies. The complexity of the issues we must address necessitates our being able to harness individual and collective strengths resident in various modes of learning and problem solving.

Fortunately, the number of academic groups is increasing, which are experimenting with diverse approaches to foster sustainability, as well as to illustrate what sustainability means, in reality, through successful examples of success within higher educational institutions. This is a clear sign that the importance of EfSD is being seen by more and more administrators and faculty throughout the world. This is timely because it compliments UN efforts to foster the development, sharing and utilisation of such materials and approaches during and after the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).

The sequence of articles in this Special Issue is built upon the framework provided by Kolb (1984).

His framework which focuses upon methods of learning through experiential learning is especially appropriate for EfSD. Kolb suggested that educators should be aware that learners learn in different ways, therefore, they should use multiple approaches to stimulate and empower all to make progress in helping to effect societal changes toward Sustainability.

His framework is comprised of four stages of the learning cycle that focuses upon: feeling; observing; thinking; and doing.

The abilities of people to be effective problem solvers are developed through following ways of learning: concrete experiences; reflective observations; abstract conceptualisations; and active experimentation.

The following 12 papers in this special issue are arranged according to this flow of learning phases and approaches to problem solving.

Cervantes' paper, A Methodology for Teaching Industrial Ecology, summarises the methods she uses to help students learn and appreciate the great potential afforded by Industrial Ecology (IE). Cervantes indicates that teaching IE is an efficient way of spreading sustainable practices and including environmental aspects in Industrial Engineering Curricula, including assessing how students can apply their insights in real industrial ecosystems. She has had several years of experience in teaching this course and has documented the learning effectiveness of the methods used.

Slahova and Savvina provide insights from “creativity stimulating” education in Latvia that underscores that humans can be educated to become creative forces with tremendous impact, destructively or constructively, on the progress of society. In their paper, Creative Activity in Conception of Sustainable Development Education, the authors offer the reader theoretical and empirical results that highlight the chronological stages from youth to adults, illustrating the development of creative potential. They emphasise that educating to foster creativity is important for helping society to be creative in solving the challenges of SD.

Nkomo's paper, How can rural-based (South African) universities reconstitute themselves so they can become effective agents for sustainable rural development, is the next paper. He also poses another question: are institutes of higher learning “albatrosses or potential nodes” for sustainable development? He answers the questions in the context of the needed changes in higher education in apartheid South Africa that was characterized by well-equipped urban-based historically white university campuses and by those that are poorly resourced rural-based historically black universities. In the Post-1994 apartheid era, policies have to address the blatant form of under-resourcing and the consequent impoverishment of the intellectual environment and the deficit this created in the broader community. He focuses on how two selected rural-based universities can contribute towards sustainable development especially in their surrounding habitats if they are properly partnered with urban-based universities. The author provides vivid insights into the challenges and opportunities in post-apartheid South Africa. The approaches and concepts are probably relevant for many other countries as well.

The next paper, authored by Vezzoli and Sciama, is titled, Experimental Educational Networking on Open Research Issues: Studying Product-Service System (PSS) Applicability and Development in Emerging Contexts, illustrates the rich cross-cultural learning that can occur when students and faculty from Italy and India co-work in learning about each other's cultures through a focus upon clothing and changing approaches to the design of PSS's pertaining to clothing. The example provided the students and faculty many new insights into differences and similarities of students from an emerging country and a developed country.

The paper by Ollervides and Farrell, The Center for Coastal Studies: Sustainable Development Education In México, provides insights from actual experiences in studying and monitoring the ecological, commercial and human elements in the Magdalena bay ecosystem in Mexico.

The region's rich biodiversity is being threatened by excessive harvesting of the biological resources as well as by pollution of the ecosystem by human-generated pollutants. The Center for Coastal Studies has developed and supports on-going monitoring, teaching and demonstrating better ways of working and living within the carrying capacity of the rich ecosystem of this region. Their progress is based upon engagement of multiple stakeholders of the entire region. However, much more is needed to ensure a sustainable ecosystem and society in the region.

Kermath's paper titled, Why Go Native? Landscaping for Biodiversity and Sustainability Education. It is based upon work done at Stetson University in central Florida designed to lead regional transition from using exotic plants to using native species by first making those changes in the campus landscape plantings and then to work increasingly throughout the community by demonstrating and educating them about the benefits of using native species. This integration of education and demonstration is proving to be useful in Florida and could be useful on other campuses as well.

The paper by Lourdel et al., titled, Sustainable Development Cognitive Map: A new method of evaluating student understanding, uses a new method for evaluating student understanding of sustainable development that employs developing and interpreting cognitive mapping. This methodology enables researchers to first identify what is already known, as acquired via learning and living processes. Through this endeavour, the gaps in knowledge then become evident. The sustainable development cognitive map (SDCM) method further assists by revealing the interconnectivity of the acquired knowledge and its application to sustainable practices. These authors used this tool in work with educators and with students to assess their understanding of the inherent complexity, transdisciplinarity, and heightened sense of urgency that underlies EfSD. Cognitive mapping was found to be a useful tool for helping educators and students and other members of society to better understand their attitudes and knowledge about SD. It is also useful for assessing the impact of learning experiences in effecting changes in attitudes and motivation to implement SD.

Silvana Kühtz's paper, Schemes and Behaviour for Sustainable Development Adoption in Italy, also uses the cognitive mapping technique to help Italian citizens better understand what SD is and to assess their willingness to become involved in “continuing learning” to gain a better understanding of the challenges of what can/should be done. Both of these papers highlight the utility of cognitive mapping as a tool for EfSD.

Moghadam and Maknoun provide insight to The Role of Environmental Engineering Education in Sustainable Development in Iran, at the ”Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT) experience”. In 2003, AUT approved the adaptation of the strategy “pioneer of sustainable development in Iran” for the next decade, enabling AUT to become the “Green University”. Engineering education systems of AUT is to be modified, on a curricular level and then on the faculty level for graduate and undergraduate students, who are studying in different engineering fields. In the “Green Design” course, for example, the traditional design approach is combined with sustainable development criteria such as life cycle analysis, eco-efficiency, and energy saving. Students learn how to consider the environmental concepts in their daily and future professional activities. The new educational strategies established at AUT promote research and development in fields related to environmental issues as well as multidisciplinary research on sustainable development in Iran.

Kevany, in her paper, Building the Requisite Capacity for Stewardship and Sustainable Development, argues that accelerating the pace towards sustainable development requires educating and engaging individuals, corporations and government to work towards cleaner production, conscious consumption and responsible action. The impacts of media, particularly messages that drive escalating consumption, are examined. The author proposes that efforts need to be multiplied, to the power of two, through concerted effort in education for sustainable development EfSD². Student learning increases when they contribute to, wrestle with, and collaborate in solving real sustainability problems.

The paper by Soliva et al. titled, Education and Research related to Organic Waste Management at Agricultural Engineering Schools, offers practical solutions for organic waste (OW) treatment and management. Through effective “Education and Research related to Organic Waste Management at Agricultural Engineering Schools” students and practitioners can learn to generate enormous economic and environmental benefits that contribute to sustainable development. These authors argue that solutions that address OW must consider the interrelations among diverse subjects such as: soil science, fertilizer management, plant production, animal husbandry, farm machinery, climate, and culture. Therefore, the education of future specialists in OW management requires an innovative multidisciplinary education, using field research experiments, and reflective practices. The more the experiments offer positive results, the more these practices will become embedded in agricultural production systems.

John Motloch and his co-authors of the article, Sustainablilty for the Americas:

Building the American Network of Sustainability Consortia, highlights the potential benefits of developing multi-campus networks to effectively move forward with education and SD project implementation efforts. They highlight that the process is very time-consuming and requires extensive and on-going consensus building efforts to ensure that the different stakeholders are in agreement and engaged at all levels. They emphasize that their networks have documented many positive benefits that should help others in their academic networking efforts.

In conclusion, the team that assembled this special issue hopes that the readers will find the articles useful for their academic and community work on EfSD. It is clear that truly meaningful education requires an organic relationship between educators, young people, their communities, and their desired personal and professional lives. Learning for sustainable development must not be segmented but integrative. To be effective, it must challenge students to be alert to their increasing capabilities to appreciate the scope of the challenges humans face, to observe and conceptualise possible solutions, and to be motivated and empowered to take appropriate action and achieve positive results. Sustainable development will become reality when sufficient people in many locations around the world are inspired by practices of others around them to achieve goals for human well-being and sustenance without compromising the ability of others to do so as well. Higher education, in its many forms, holds the promise of extending innovative processes to educate citizens to become responsible stewards of planet Earth.

Kathleen Kevany, Donald Huisingh and Francisco J. Lozano GarcíaGuest Editors

ReferenceKolb, D.A. (1984), Experiential Learning – Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.