Bringing an entrepreneurial focus to sustainability education: A teaching framework based on content analysis

Abstract

Research on sustainability education has neglected to integrate entrepreneurial skills into other relevant competences such as foresight, complex problem-solving, and interdisciplinarity. Previous research highlights possible convergences between sustainability education and entrepreneurship education; however, it does not address how to achieve this integration in practice. To address the gap between the literature and practice, this paper tackles the question: How can entrepreneurial competences be taught in sustainability education programs in higher education? We introduce a teaching framework based on a bibliometric method that combines topic-modeling with a content-analysis of selected articles. The focus of the analysis is the commonalities of both educational fields. Our results introduce a program for entrepreneurial-oriented sustainability education, providing a description of the educational focus, teaching-learning approaches, main themes, and external collaboration. The framework proposes educational for sustainable development across educational programs while implicitly addressing complex community problems through the development of solutions that can change the ways business and consumers relate with sustainability issues. These results contribute to the sustainability education literature by integrating the development of entrepreneurship competences into interdisciplinary programs. The framework could also be used as a practical guide for designing courses, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, that integrate both sustainability and entrepreneurship. • Bibliometric and content analysis of entrepreneurship and sustainability education. • Entrepreneurship as a competence within sustainability education. • Teaching framework for entrepreneurial-oriented sustainability education. • Holistic discussion of sustainability education within entrepreneurship. • Heuristic device for planning in sustainability and entrepreneurship education.