Practice-based learning and sustainable education for management students

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aimed to understand the learning processes and the constitution of knowledge about Sustainability of undergraduate students in Business Administration. From the perspective of learning based on practices and the concept of knowing-in-practice, students’ social, contextual and material relations were explored during a year. Design/methodology/approach: In methodological terms, an ethnographic study was conducted with the detailed description of action scenes. Findings: The findings reveal a dynamic and heterogeneous interweaving of elements such as people, technology, ideas, speech and actions and point to the need to recover sensitive knowledge and the collective construction of reality through reflective and collaborative processes with tangible results. Academic contributions: There is a contribution to the discussion of Sustainable Education. The focus is not on what Sustainable Education ‘is’, but ‘how’ is ‘done’ and what ‘does’. The implicit meanings are sustained in practice, become embodied and appear in discursive and sociomaterial practices. Practical contributions: Enacted knowing and doing were perceived when students reported replacing unsustainable practices with sustainable ones, based on the experiences they had during the research.