Teaching Managing Sustainability to Non-business Undergraduates

Abstract

This paper reviews the challenges and opportunities facing business and environmental management education while outlining pedagogies recommended for creating an environment which encourages transformational education. This approach, deemed ‘fluidity teaching’ is used to teach managing sustainability to non-business majors with the objective of promoting critical thinking and heightened problem solving skills. The course positively impacted student’s awareness of sustainable management complexities and solutions. Techniques utilized help students gain ownership of their learning process and knowledge gathering thus allowing them to make multidisciplinary linkages and offer complex suggestions across boundaries. Finally, students’ assessments indicated they felt they developed critical thinking skills which lead to rich discussions and ‘thinking for themselves’ in determining viable solutions in sustainability issues.