Education for advancing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals: A systematic approach

Abstract

The research presented systematically reviewed the literature on education for advancing implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to identify important bibliometric patterns and evidence in this relatively new, but evolving, field. To conceptualize the phenomenon, accumulated ideas from a total of 193 articles were extracted through a secondary data source, the Web of Science™. The analysis proceeds in two sequential steps. First, the bibliometric analysis identified the networks of co-authorship, periodicals, higher education institutions (HEI), and more influential countries. The second stage involved the analysis of the thematic content, generated by the Iramuteq software, which identified four dominant and comprehensive lenses that represent the source for the body of the literature, namely: i) indicators; ii) educational environment; iii) policies for the implementation of the SDGs or for sustainable education; and iv) Principles for Responsible Management Education. These lenses are supported by a set of perspectives and cover education; the notion that this should be the strategy for promoting sustainable development through the implementation of the SDGs; and that HEIs should develop responsible managers via the integration of sustainability, ethics, and responsible management education.