Can sustainability audits provide effective, hands-on business sustainability learning, teaching and assessment for business management undergraduates?

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to present a novel pedagogical approach to education for sustainability within the business curriculum that adopts a sustainability audit of a fictional company presented as a case study as the focus of learning, teaching and assessment. It evaluates the user’s ability to provide the active learning called for in education for sustainability literature and hands-on learning that business management students prefer.Design/methodology/approachThis study explores students’ qualitative and quantitative responses to pre- and post-module surveys and module evaluations to establish the effectiveness of focussing learning, teaching and assessment on a sustainability audit. The study, undertaken over a two-year period, adopts four indicators of learning and teaching effectiveness to synthesise, evaluate and present the findings as follows: development of sustainability knowledge and skill, employment skills, career and life skills and engagement.FindingsThe study finds that a sustainability audit can develop students’ knowledge and skills in all four indicators of learning and teaching effectiveness. In addition, the findings suggest it can raise students’ learning awareness and recognition of their role in the learning process.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper reports the findings of a small scale, two-year study. As such, it presents indicative findings rather than generalised conclusions.Practical implicationsDesigning a pedagogical approach to education for sustainability within the business curriculum around the completion of a sustainability audit can offer hands-on learning experiences that meet students’ preferences for interactive, experiential and collaborative learning within real-world environments, employers’ demands for employment-ready graduates and educators’ hopes for sustainability advocates.Originality/valueThis study builds on the existing pedagogic discourse of pedagogic means and methods for education for sustainability within the business curriculum. It provides insight into effective hands-on education for sustainability within the business curriculum and offers experience-based guidance to educators seeking to develop immersive, active and experiential, real-world pedagogical approaches.