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Higher education institutions are embedding education for sustainability in curricula, but there are many challenges slowing the process down.

This paper uses reflections from stakeholders across eight disciplines to identify themes supporting EfS integration across disciplines, using collaborative autoethnography.

The paper highlights unique challenges and opportunities in embedding sustainability education and potential institutional pathways to enable interdisciplinary approaches to embedding EfS.

The paper highlights unique challenges and opportunities in embedding sustainability education and the role of institutional support in overcoming differing worldviews.

This study aims to explore how engineering curricula can address sustainability considerations. Through a cross-case analysis, a hybrid theoretical-empirical model is developed to identify and analyse a broad range of possible and actual responses to sustainability within engineering education.

The study employs a multiple-case study design to compare the experiences of educators and students engaging with sustainability topics in two contrasting tertiary civil engineering programs. It draws on an original conceptual framework informed by the literature for analysing educational responses to sustainability around the world, which can be applied to a diverse range of educational settings. Conceptual review, fieldwork, case-specific and cross-case analysis have been used to refine the framework, enabling the emergence of a hybrid model.

The hybrid model suggests three levels of response to sustainability in engineering education, which can be characterised as: 1) incorporation, 2) integration and 3) transformation. Each level is analysed in relation to five dimensions: functions, content, relationships, spaces and time, which influence the nature of the response and its capacity to foster learning. Cross-case analysis findings suggest that the shape and focus of a particular response to sustainability are significantly influenced by both the types of engineering problems, and the diversity and extent of relationships that engineering educators and students engage during teaching and learning.

Cross-case analysis reveals that developing and supporting (inter)subjective relationships can play a pivotal role in fostering a transformation level of response. Engagement with Indigenous, more-than-human and interdisciplinary perspectives in engineering education for sustainability can also be critical to deepening students’ reflexivity.

The study helps ground theory-driven frameworks for analysing the nature and purpose of responses to sustainability in engineering education, and higher education more broadly. The study also offers a novel hybrid model for identifying and classifying responses to sustainability in engineering education and other disciplines.

This study aims to analyse how Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are incorporated into a first-year Social Education methodology course at a Spanish public university. It assesses the impact on students’ understanding of sustainability and its relevance to socio-educational research and future careers, considering different admission pathways.

A case study on integrating the SDGs into a methodology course, which involved 110 students. Students’ knowledge and perceptions were measured before and after the teaching experience using an online questionnaire. Differences based on admission pathways [Advances Vocational Training Programs (CFGS) and University Entrance Exam (PAU)] were explored.

Initially, students had a low understanding of sustainability and SDGs, with those entering through PAU having an even lower understanding. However, both groups showed significant improvement after the teaching experience. Interestingly, the pattern of differentiation was inverse, with PAU students showing a higher level of SDG knowledge compared to CFGS students by the end of the course. While students recognised the importance of SDGs in their careers, their personal involvement with them in daily life appeared moderate.

The assessment tool, based on validated surveys, aims for better accuracy in measuring university students’ knowledge and perceptions of sustainability. Future research may broaden its scope to assess effectiveness in different courses and among diverse student groups.

The variations in student knowledge and perception about sustainability and the SDGs, before and after the teaching experience, and across different admission pathways, highlight the important role of higher education institutions in achieving equity and shaping future change agents’ perspectives.

These findings reveal how innovative educational experiences promote sustainability and social responsibility among university students, emphasising the crucial role of ongoing assessment in ensuring effective sustainability and equity education.

In this chapter, the authors aimed to analyze the existing sustainability curriculum being followed by higher education institutions (HEIs) in the emerging world, and call out the underlying inadequacies within it and provide solutions for the same, by drawing insights through interviews with key stakeholders in this area. The authors planned to talk to higher education policymakers, Educational Institutional heads, researchers and faculty members and corporates (who deal in sustainable products and who will benefit from this subject). The respondents’ sample consisted of both Indian and international interviewees to help us better understand and analyze the perspective and scenario globally in terms of north-south as well as understand multiple point of views. The interview analyses were carried out using the N Vivo software tool. The expected outcome includes a curriculum contour on sustainability for the HEIs.

This chapter discusses the findings of a study at a public university in Malaysia, which reflect the country’s evolving situation regarding sustainability education. The study aimed to explore the knowledge of and attitudes to sustainability of the academic staff at the university, and the pedagogical approaches they used in curricula. Through a mixed method approach, primary data were collected through an online quantitative survey containing 90 statements related to Education for Sustainable Development Goals, knowledge, attitudes, pedagogical techniques, and learning objectives. Following the survey, a focus group discussion was conducted involving several academic staff from the university to explore their perspectives on current sustainability teaching practices and to identify emerging issues. Findings revealed that there were generally positive levels of understandings and attitudes among the academic staff toward education on sustainability development (ESD). Furthermore, the staff agreed highly with ESD learning objectives, and various pedagogical approaches were in use. These are important findings as the levels of awareness and attitudes among academics play a key role in shaping successful implementation of a range of pedagogical techniques for ESD goals. As well as the challenges identified in the study, the chapter puts forward useful insights and key aspects to enhance ESD practices at all levels in the country. Options for policy and practice to move beyond sustainable development as a goal or aspiration for teaching and learning to a practical and pedagogical reality of ESD practices in Malaysian higher education institutions are also discussed.

There is a growing need to train and support educators to introduce or enhance aspects of sustainability into post-secondary curriculum. The authors provide an overview of integration of curricular sustainability development and education as well as related institutional leadership at the post-secondary level. Turning to educational development for sustainability education, the authors share tools and resources to support educators from any discipline, to introduce, integrate, and/or enhance sustainability in their course, program, or initiative. The authors found very few examples of workshops to post-secondary teachers. For one such example, the Sustainability Education Intensive, a three-day workshop that the authors designed and led at the University of British Columbia. The authors summarize the workshop aspects that two years of participants found helpful, and how workshop involvement affected them as sustainability educators. The authors encourage post-secondary institutions to provide support in the form of workshops, resources, and funding to help educators introduce or enhance aspects of sustainability into their courses and programs. Students are asking for this, and, as they are future leaders, it is important that educators address the numerous environmental, social and economic issues that demand attention.

Universities strategically organize themselves around sustainability, including transformative goals in teaching and learning. Simultaneously, the role of online education has become more prominent. This study aims to better understand the purpose and process of creating online sustainability education (OSE) and to identify challenges and opportunities for implementing these courses and programs to achieve universities’ broader transformative sustainability goals.

This study uses a multiple case study design to research three universities in diverse geographical and institutional contexts (Finland, the USA and Colombia). Qualitative data was collected by interviewing program-related experts (n = 31) and reviews of universities’ strategic documents.

The findings suggest that despite important advances, further attention is merited regarding aligning the purpose of OSE with student learning outcomes, clarifying the values underlying the process of online program/course creation and developing transformative and process-oriented approaches and pedagogies to implement OSE. The authors also highlight emerging challenges and opportunities in online environments for sustainability education in different institutional contexts, including reaping the benefits of multilocality and diverse student experiences regarding sustainability issues.

There is a paucity of studies on university-level sustainability education in relation to online environments. This research expands on the existing literature by exploring three different geographical and institutional contexts and shedding light on the relationship between the practical implementation of OSE and universities’ broader sustainability goals.

This paper aims to clarify how business education has and should incorporate more resources, policies and stakeholder engagement towards the incorporation of sustainability, by conducting a literature review on sustainability in business and international business education and proposing future opportunities for researchers and practitioners.

The authors take a systematic, qualitative analysis approach to evaluate multidisciplinary literatures on sustainability in business education. The authors identify 192 qualifying papers published in 68 journals between 2015 and 2023.

The authors propose five categories of education solutions. Four of them are integrated, in two macro–micro levels: university (stakeholders and shared-mindset change) and student (pedagogical methods and curriculum); and one at meso level: international business (holistic integration) serving to unify the university and student levels.

The review highlights the value of applying a holistic approach and interdisciplinary pedagogical methods in future research on sustainability education in business school to effectively prepare future business leaders to contribute to a more sustainable future.

Insights from this review can usefully guide scholars and programme directors in their future research and administrative efforts towards business curriculum design, stakeholder management and policy-making.

The findings highlight how by embracing holistic perspectives, proper policies and self-awareness, business education shapes the mindsets and skill sets of the next generation of socially conscious practitioners.

The review stands out as one of the few that offers a forward-looking trajectory for the adaptation of international business education in response to sustainability challenges, through a holistic perspective.

Given that the current sustainability assessment in higher education institutions primarily relies on qualitative methods with relatively limited quantitative tools, the purpose of this study is to design a tool that could be used to comprehensively assess the overall state of higher education institutions’ sustainability.

The authors based the “Model to Assess the Sustainability of Higher Education Institutions” on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework of economic, environmental and social factors, and established its primary dimensions as educational level, research capacity, community outreach, campus operations, campus experience and assessment reports. They designed the College Organisational Sustainability Scale (CO-SS) based on this research model, drawing their inspiration from the qualitative research tool, the Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire, and taking the following validation steps: expert review (n = 10), pilot testing (n = 150) and formal experiments (n = 1108). These steps were taken to optimise the scale items, test the model’s validity and assess its reliability.

After undergoing rigorous scientific validation, CO-SS was unequivocally confirmed as an effective and reliable tool, demonstrating its accurate reflection of the level of sustainability in higher education institutions.

The authors took an industry-specific approach by relying on the TBL and the Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire to construct and validate the CO-SS. Furthermore, the CO-SS has the potential to evolve into a self-assessment tool for higher education institutions, and a reliable foundation for data-driven decision-making in the realm of organisational sustainability at universities.

To date, higher education frameworks for teaching and learning are not designed to focus on interdisciplinary subject matters like sustainability. Consequently, based on an in-depth literature review, this chapter presents a theoretical framework for teaching and learning about sustainability. Within this framework, it is posited that opportunity to learn (OTL) about sustainability can directly influence promising practices of teaching and learning about sustainability (including both cognitively responsive teaching and teaching for sustainability) along with transformative sustainability learning outcomes. Additionally, it is posited that OTL can indirectly affect transformative sustainability learning outcomes by directly influencing promising practices of teaching and learning about sustainability. This in turn directly influences transformative sustainability learning outcomes. Implications from this framework offer a distinctive way to frame sustainability-specific subject matter and teaching practices. With respect to practice, this framework can provide critical information to instructors about how to teach sustainability. With regards to conceptual contributions, this framework can guide further research through this precise framing of discussions, as well as guiding data collection and analyses. Also, scholars can continue to examine the framework for facets that are most important, and continue to fine-tune it as it further develops and demonstrates its viability.