In a time of unprecedented transformation as society seeks to build a more sustainable future, education plays an increasingly central role in training key agents of change. This book asks how we can equip students and scholars with the capabilities to promote sustainability and how the higher education curriculum can be changed to facilitate the paradigm shift needed. Across the globe, a rising number of higher education institutions and academics are responding to these questions by transforming their own teaching and learning and their institutions’ curricula. This book contributes to that development by examining in-depth case studies of innovative approaches and curriculum changes at multiple levels of the education sector. Elaborating key principles of higher education for sustainable development and identifying drivers and barriers to implementing sustainability in the curriculum, the book provides a comprehensive overview of what makes higher education for sustainable development a unique field of research and practice, as well as offering a coherent narrative of how change can be effected in it. This much-needed book is a valuable resource to inform, guide and inspire students, academics, administrators and community partners, whether experienced or new to the field, whether already committed or not to higher education for sustainable development in an age of transformation.

Support in higher education is an emerging area of great interest to professors, researchers and students in academic institutions. Sustainability in Higher Education provides discussions on the exchange of information between different aspects of sustainability in higher education. This book includes chapter contributions from authors who have provided case studies on various areas of education for sustainability. - Focus on sustainability - Present studies in aspects related with higher education - Explores a variety of educational aspects from an sustainable perspective

This book presents sustainable development themes across universities and introduces methodological approaches and projects to the teaching staff. It has been prepared against this background, to identify ways to better teach about sustainability issues in a university context. It contains a set of papers presented at a Symposium with the same title, held at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) in March 2017. The event was attended by a number of institutions of higher education active in this field. It involved researchers in the field of sustainable development in the widest sense, from business and economics, to arts and fashion, administration, environment, languages and media studies. Sustainability is seldom systematically embedded in the curriculum at higher education institutions. Yet, proper provisions for curricular integration of sustainability issues as part of teaching programmes across universities are an important element towards curriculum greening. The aims of this book are: (i) to provide teaching staff at universities active and/or interested in teaching sustainable development themes with an opportunity to document and disseminate their works (i.e. curriculum innovation, empirical work, activities, case studies practical projects); (ii) to promote information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of teaching courses, especially successful initiatives and good practice; (iii) to introduce methodological approaches and projects which aim to offer a better understanding of how matters related to sustainable development can be tackled in university teaching. Last but not least, a further aim of this book, prepared by the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and the World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre (WSD-RTC), is to catalyse a debate on the need to promote sustainable development teaching today.

This book fills an important gap in the literature, and presents contributions from scientists and researchers working in the field of sustainable development who have engaged in dynamic approaches to implementing sustainability in higher education. It is widely known that universities are key players in terms of the implementation and further development of sustainability, with some having the potential of acting as “living labs” in this rapidly growing field. Yet there are virtually no publications that explore the living labs concept as it relates to sustainability, and in an integrated manner. The aims of this book, which is an outcome of the “4th World Symposium on Sustainable Development at Universities” (WSSD-U-2018), held in Malaysia in 2018, are as follows: i. to document the experiences of universities from all around the world in curriculum innovation, research, activities and practical projects as they relate to sustainable development at the university level; ii. to disseminate information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of projects, including successful initiatives and good practice; iii. to introduce and discuss methodological approaches and projects that seek to integrate the topic of sustainable development in the curricula of universities; and iv. to promote the scalability of existing and future models from universities as living labs for sustainable development. The papers are innovative, cross-cutting and many reflect practice-based experiences, some of which may be replicable elsewhere. Also, this book, prepared by the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and the World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre (WSD-RTC), reinforces the role played by universities as living labs for sustainable development.

This edited collection provides a glimpse at the ways colleges and universities have integrated sustainability across the curriculum.

This book introduces readers to the latest research and findings from projects focusing on teaching education for sustainable development at universities. In particular, it describes practical experiences, outline courses, training schemes and other initiatives aimed at promoting better teaching on matters related to sustainable development at institutions of higher education. In order to meet the pressing need for publications to support sustainable development education, the book places special emphasis on state-of-the art descriptions of approaches, methods, initiatives and projects from around the world, illustrating how teaching education for sustainable development can be implemented at the international scale. The book represents a timely contribution to the dissemination of approaches and methods that may improve the way we perceive the importance of teaching education for sustainable development, as well as how we implement it.

This book documents strategies for universities engaging sustainability challenges through the education of global citizens on topics such as climate change, habitat alteration, species loss, resource depletion and contamination, food access and sovereignty, economic equity, and energy use. Different disciplines and operational units often have disparate ideas in mind when they work toward advancing sustainability. For example, some disciplines focus on environmental challenges (identifying impacts to ecosystems, mitigation and remediation strategies), some on greening of industrial and commercial practices while others address social equity—often there is little effort to connect these pieces especially while considering economic impacts. This book examines how Florida Gulf Coast University has attempted to infuse sustainability across curricula and operations as an integrated concept and our successes and shortcomings are instructional for sustainability practitioners on college campuses and other industries in a wide audience.

This book, prepared in the context of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio+20, contains the papers submitted to the World Symposium on Sustainable Development at Universities (WSSD-U-2012), which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 5 and 6 June 2012. It pursues the following main aims: to document and disseminate experiences from universities all round the world regarding education for sustainable development; to foster the exchange of information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of projects; and to introduce methodological approaches and projects which aim to integrate the topic of sustainable development in the curriculum of universities. Last but not least, a further aim is to document and disseminate the wealth of experiences available today, providing a truly global coverage. Sustainable Development at Universities: New Horizons is a highly comprehensive publication on sustainability in higher education. It is meant to go beyond a description of the current state of knowledge, and shall open the way for new thinking and new horizons in what is a rapidly expanding field, of central interest to both industrialised and developing countries.

The links between education and sustainable development are deepening, although subject to much controversy and debate. The success of the sustainability discourse depends both on the pedagogic and research functions of higher education. Similarly, for higher education itself to remain relevant and engaged it faces pressure not only to integrate the insights and lessons drawn from the perspective of sustainable development, but also to be responsive to scrutiny of its own practices in relation to sustainability. Among professionals in higher education, sustainable development has its supporters and detractors. It is embraced by some individuals and departments while being perceived by others as a threat to the coherence of particular disciplines. Although it is not currently an academic discipline in its own right, increasing public and professional familiarity with the term, and the increasing urgency of global calls for the implementation of sustainable development mean that this is rapidly changing. This volume analyses the impact of the concepts and practices of sustainability and sustainable development on various academic disciplines, institutional practices, fields of study and methods of enquiry. The contributors, drawn from a wide-range of disciplines, perspectives, educational levels and institutional contexts, examine the purpose of the modern university and the nature of sustainable education, which includes exploring links to social movements for sustainability projects, curriculum change, culture and biodiversity, values relating to gender equality and global responsibility, and case studies on the transformation, or otherwise, of some specific disciplines.

This open access volume draws on a multidimensional model of educational change, the book reviews the field of climate change education and identifies some of the areas in which past efforts have fallen short in supporting effective pedagogical change at scale. It then formulates an approach to engage university students and faculty in partnering with schools and adult education institutions and directly contribute innovative curricula on climate change. The approach is illustrated with several case studies which present curricula developed to support school-based innovation in the Middle East and in Guatemala, and adult education in Haiti and Pakistan, and educators preparation at the university level. The approach followed to develop innovative curriculum follows five steps: 1) What are the specific impacts of climate change in this jurisdiction? How do they impact various human populations? 2) What knowledge, dispositions and behaviors could mitigate the impact of climate change and are there ways in which changes in the behaviors of populations in this jurisdiction could slow down climate change? 3) What are the means of delivery to reach each of the specific populations in this jurisdiction who needs to be educated on climate change? 4) What curriculum can help educate each population? 5) What role can the institution we are collaborating with play in advancing climate change education in that jurisdiction? The various chapters of the book present the conceptual foundation of these programs and illustrate how these programs respond to specific characteristics of local contexts. These programs focus in schools, non-formal settings and educator preparation institutions. The chapters offer examples of general value beyond the specific contexts for which they were designed, as they illustrate how in order to be optimally useful climate change education needs to be firmly grounded in the specifics of a context and responsive to that context.