Field Of Education For Sustainability Research Articles

Reducing dropout rate through a deep learning model for sustainable education: long-term tracking of learning outcomes of an undergraduate cohort from 2018 to 2021

In recent years, initiatives and the resulting application of precision education have been applied with increasing frequency in Taiwan; the accompanying discourse has focused on identifying potential applications for artificial intelligence and how to use learning analytics to improve teaching quality and learning outcomes. This study used the established dropout risk prediction model to improve student learning effectiveness. The model was based on the academic portfolios of past students and built with statistical learning and deep learning methods. This study used this model to predict the dropout risk of 2205 freshmen enrolled in the fall semester of 2018 (graduated in June 2022) in the field of sustainable education. A total of 176 students with a dropout risk of more than 20% were considered high-risk students. After tracking and the appropriate guidance, the dropout risk of 91 students fell from > 20% to < 20%. To discuss the results from the perspective of gender and financial disadvantages, the improvement rate of the dropout risk for male students was 10.2% better than that of female students at 2.9%. The improvement rate in dropout risk for students with disadvantageous financial situations was as high as 12.0%, surpassing the 5.9% rate among general students. Overall, the dropout rate in the second year of the 2018 freshman cohort was lower than that of the 2016 and 2017 freshman cohorts. A predictive model established by statistical learning and deep learning methods was used as a tool to promote precision education, accurately and efficiently identifying students who are having difficulty learning, as well as leading to a better understanding of AI (artificial intelligence) in smart learning for sustainable education.

The Impact of Shared Values on CSR Programs in the Field of Vocational Education

CSR programs in the field of sustainable education are very important in supporting sustainable development goals, namely the achievement of quality education. Industry involvement is an important factor in the realization of quality education, especially for vocational high schools, so that the competencies possessed by students and teachers are in accordance with the competencies needed by industry and the times. Therefore, it is interesting to explore more deeply what CSR programs are carried out by the industry to improve the quality of schools through increasing the competence of students and teachers and the impact felt by schools with this CSR program. The method used is a mixed method with concurrent embedded design ? where in this study qualitative method is the primary method used, while the quantitative method is used only to find supporting data.&#x0D; PT. X &amp; PT. Y is two automotive companies that have been fostering vocational schools in Indonesia for more than 3 years, through CSR programs in the field of vocational education. The short-term goal of the program is to improve the competence of students and teachers. And the long-term goal of this program is to contribute to sustainable development goal (SDG) number 4, namely quality education. The results showed that CSR carried out by the industry had a positive impact on schools and companies, and in its implementation using the concept of creating shared value (CSV).

Unsettling the Hegemony of ‘Western’ Thinking: Critical Reflection on My Journey to Understanding Campesino-a-Campesino Pedagogy

In the field of education for sustainability, there is a call to consider diverse livelihoods and world views beyond dominant anthropocentric, scientific, and ‘Western’ ways of understanding and living. For scholars and educators trained in ‘Western’ culture, this is complicated by how this dominant culture is infused in all our ways of thinking and being. This paper explores the authors’ journey to unsettle their ‘Western’ thinking through analysis of reflexive field notes taken during field research. Data is shared from the author’s doctoral study of Campesino-a-Campesino (CaC) as an anti-racist pedagogy. The paper tells a story of the unsettling of the author’s assumptions about research, race, development, and education prompted by field experiences and guided by critical educational ethnography. An interdisciplinary approach to analysis is used including scholars in critical race theory, TribalCrit, Indigenous education, decolonization theory, and post-development theory. Conclusions illuminate researcher reflexivity, understanding critical context, learning the history of research, and shifting which scholars are considered in the analysis as crucial in the process of decolonizing the study of anti-racist pedagogies for sustainability.

Defining the capable engineer: Non-technical skills that support safe decisions in uncertain, dynamic situations

Education and learning are key topics in the safety research literature but the literature focuses primarily on organisational learning from accidents and non-technical skills for those in frontline roles where avoidance of active errors is key. This article addresses the non-technical skills that engineers need in order to make the best long-term choices for public safety while navigating organisational complexity. Previous contributions on engineering education reflect a strong focus on technical competence. Situated in the emerging conversations among education scholars on professional capabilities, we identify the holistic attributes and skills that empower engineers to make the best decisions for safety in uncertain, dynamic situations. Drawing on interviews with 41 engineers in the gas pipeline sector, the analysis develops a framework of individual capabilities for public safety decision-making consisting of 20 core elements. We see these 20 capabilities as falling into six categories: (a) use long-term, foresighted reasoning, especially in the face of uncertainty, (b) understand norms and values that inform actions, (c) think systematically and understand interconnectedness, (d) collaborate with and draw on the experience of others, (e) ground decisions in reality and (f) advocate for action and take responsibility. This capability framework has resonance with comparable work done in the field of sustainability education and extends the safety literature on non-technical skills into a domain where latent errors, rather than active errors, predominate.

Dialogue Method: A Proposal to Foster Intra- and Inter-community Dialogic En- gagement

How can we learn and experience dialogue within and between communities? Inspired by the methodological ideas of David Bohm, William Isaacs and Paulo Freire, as well as by the professional experiences of the first author of this article in the field of education and the environment, our aim in the present text is to present in detail a method, which has been developed, tested, and analysed in recent years, to learn and experiment dialogue, which can be used within and between communities. The method is composed of two major interdependent cycles that alternate. The first is a reflexive one, without agenda, composed of four practices that constitute a junction and a transformation of the procedures of suspension of assumptions, by Bohm and Isaacs, and codification and decodification, by Freire, with the purpose of stimulating interpersonal understanding and connection. The second is a deliberative one, with agenda, inspired by Freire’s ideas of dialogic collaboration and the principles of educative intervention for sustainability, as suggested by several authors in the field of education for sustainability and social learning, with the purpose of promoting structural changes. We recognise that there is still a long way to go to verify the efficiency of the proposed method and that numerous research and experience reports are needed based on its application.

Business students’ value priorities and attitudes towards sustainable development

Business students of today are future executives in companies and governments. Therefore, their education for sustainability needs to be carefully considered. However, very little is known about business students in terms of their value priorities and attitudes towards sustainable development. Value priorities guide attitudes, but they are more abstract and long-lasting. Teachers who understand their students’ value priorities and attitudes could develop and customize their teaching accordingly. Our goal in this study is to measure business students’ value priorities and their attitudes towards sustainability. We compare the results obtained from students in a university business school with a comparable nationwide sample. Our results show that there are differences in almost all values among business students and the comparable sample, in particular in universalism and power. Interestingly, attitudes to sustainable development are equally or even more favorable among business students. As a theoretical contribution in the field of education for sustainability we combined Sterling’s three levels of sustainability education into our considerations and suggest that the evolvement of students’ values and sustainability attitudes measured regularly should be reflected against them or a corresponding categorization.

Facilitating Collaborative Partnerships in Education Policy Research: A Case of Multi-Stakeholder, Co-Investigation for Monitoring and Evaluation of Education for Sustainable Development

Strengthening the research-policy interface is dependent on conducting good research, as well as the appropriateness and applicability of identified policy options. The involvement of relevant stakeholders in collaborative research efforts to co-produce knowledge and recommendations to advance policies is one approach that can arguably improve this interface. This paper provides a practical instance of a research process on education for sustainable development (ESD) to develop a monitoring and evaluation (M&amp;E) framework, which was conducted in the Asia region with participants from seven countries. This research process is presented as a pragmatic case study of how a collaborative research partnership was facilitated, and it examines how the interaction between researchers, policymakers and practitioners can be structured to support mutual learning in the field of sustainability education. The paper examines the wider debates regarding the research-policy interface, and it identifies the learning features that were achieved in this collaborative partnership, as well as the benefits this had for the research and knowledge co-generation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges and issues M&amp;E raises about the relationship between research and policy in ESD and suggests ways to address them.

What about the Migrant Children? The State-Of-The-Art in Research Claiming Social Sustainability

This study aimed to investigate research articles that relate to education for sustainability, primarily in early childhood, in order to describe to what extent a holistic perspective on education for sustainability has been applied, and how the social dimension is conceptualized. The review comprised research articles in Nordic Journals of Education, International Journals of Early Childhood Education, and International Journals of Education/Environmental/Sustainability education. The findings disclosed that researchers within the field of education for sustainability acknowledged, to a large extent, environmental, economic, and social aspects, and thus applied a holistic perspective. This review shows, however, that even if the social dimension were conceptualized as strongly related to topics such as social justice, citizenship, and the building of stable societies, few articles have investigated diversity, multicultural perspectives, or migrant children’s situations in the context of early childhood education for sustainability. This review discloses that the concept of belonging is rarely used in connection to migrants and refugees in research on early childhood education for sustainability. A further argument encourages the inclusion of these aspects in further research which claims social sustainability.

From Linear Industrial Structures to Living Systems: A Design Shift in Education for Sustainability

If sustainability is to be an integral part of rethinking education organization, it is necessary to redesign mental models that shape present curricular structures. Assumptions underlying the design of most schools and curricula are based on linear industrial models, which raises an essential question: How can we use opposite concepts of systems dynamics and living structures to create a shift in our present thinking about curriculum and learning for sustainability? From this, we can begin a dramatic design shift toward innovative curriculum to prepare future students and teachers. This article begins with a critique of modern industrial education, then moves into an overview of sustainability concepts and structure through systems thinking. The article then presents the research of an original sustainability curriculum that structures assessment to measure systems thinking. From the results, the article then explores a conceptual design framework for a 21st century curriculum that bio-mimics living systems and organic molecular structure, based on systems thinking and mechanistic principles. By placing assessment on competency relationships and not solely assignment completion, this new framework encourages students and educators to develop emerging 21st century skills in the age of digital technology and communication. This essay and framework, which emerged from the author’s dissertation research and findings, offers a new conceptual tool to the field of sustainability education while challenging educators to adopt living systems into their own instructional designs.

Envisioning Complexity: Towards a New Conceptualization of Educational Research for Sustainability

AbstractThis paper aims to present some conceptual insights into the research paradigm of complexity that deals with such problems like sustainability, education, and, more specifically – sustainability education. The transdisciplinary perspective and cognitive approaches of a hermeneutical cycle and semantic waves used in argumentation assist in grasping the essence of complexity and the main principles of complex dynamic systems. The comparison of simple, complicated and complex systems in a field of sustainability education provides an example of using complexity thinking with social systems. Then the complexity in an epistemological context, as the research paradigm, could be used for dealing with the challenging problems of sustainability, education and sustainability education from the point of view of post-normal science. The concept of transdisciplinarity has been developed as a research framework starting from the general approaches to its application for sustainability, education and sustainability education. The specific types of collaboration in educational research for sustainability and the modes of knowledge produced by transdisciplinary research in this field will be described, ending with reflections and suggestions for further analysis.

Education for Sustainability—Looking Backward and Looking Forward—IUCN CEC Perspective on the United Nations Decade of ESD

A network of volunteers, the International Union for Conservation of Nature Commission on Education and Communication (CEC), present some reflections on their contributions towards the field of education for sustainability from 1992 to the present. Many CEC members have been thought leaders to this multidimensional field, and advocates for a more strategic approach that engages key stakeholders in action. Through the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, the CEC continues to reflect on how to leverage change more effectively in dialogue with young professionals and those from diverse disciplines. Finally, in looking forward, some thoughts for this still emerging field are advanced.

Implementing a holistic process for embedding sustainability: a case study in first year engineering, Monash University, Australia

While there is clear recognition of the need to incorporate sustainable development into university curricula, there is limited research that examines how to achieve that integration or evaluates its impacts on student learning. This paper responds to these knowledge gaps through a case study of curriculum renewal that involved embedding sustainability into a first year engineering curriculum. The initiative was guided by a deliberative and dynamic model for curriculum renewal that brought together internal and external stakeholders through a structured sequence of facilitated workshops and meetings. That process identified sustainability-related knowledge and skills relevant for first year engineering, and faculty members teaching in the first year program were guided through a process of curriculum renewal to meet those needs. The process through which the whole of curriculum renewal was undertaken is innovative and provides a case study of precedent in the field of education for sustainability. The study demonstrates the contribution that can be made by a web-based sustainability portal in supporting curriculum renewal. Learning and teaching outcomes were evaluated through ‘before and after surveys’ of the first year engineering students. Statistically significant increases in student's self-reported knowledge of sustainability were measured as a result of exposure to the renewed first year curriculum and this confirmed the value of the initiative in terms of enhancing student learning. While applied in this case to engineering, the process to achieve integration of sustainability into the curriculum approach is likely to have value for other academic disciplines. Considering student performance on assignments and exam questions relating to sustainability would provide a stronger basis for future research to understand the impact of initiatives like this on student learning.

Academics' Conceptions of Teaching Sustainability

AbstractOver the last decade, a growing number of universities have committed to ensuring that sustainability is integral to higher education with the intent of preparing eco-literate graduates who can make positive contributions to the sustainability of the environment. With particular consideration for the increasingly internationalised teaching environment of many higher education institutions, this study sought to explore how academics’ conceptions of teaching sustainability might differ across disciplines. This study builds upon the seminal work of Reid and Petocz (2006), Cotton, Bailey, Warren, and Bissell (2009) and Cotton, Warren, Maiboroda, and Bailey (2007), who explored the views of academics across a range of disciplines not traditionally associated with sustainability. This study extends their research by specifically identifying academics from a variety of disciplines who might be considered experts in the field of sustainability.The study takes a constructivist view of ‘conceptions’ that are developed through one's experiences, beliefs and interactions with community. The theoretical framing also identifies pedagogical approaches recommended in the fields of sustainability and intercultural education, and establishes eco-literacy and environmental ethics as integral to one's conceptions of sustainability.This research applied a multi case-study approach, including open-ended interview questions with participants from four different faculties of Monash University, namely: Science; Business and Economics; Education; and Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. All four participants were selected on the basis of the synopsis of the unit they taught overtly stating that sustainability-related content was included in the syllabus, and thus might be defined as experts in the teaching of sustainability. The data was analysed using descriptive followed by interpretative coding, which ultimately identified six different components that might contribute to the participants’ conceptions about their teaching. These components included: discipline; conceptions of sustainability; ethical position; pedagogical approach; approach to intercultural education; and approach to eco-literacy.The findings of the study conclude that there were likely to be disciplinary differences in the academics’ conceptions of teaching sustainability. While there was no evidence of a disciplinary link to the academics’ understanding of what sustainability is, the research did appear to support a correlation between an academic's previous education and their ethical position. Furthermore, the current discipline of their unit appeared to strongly reflect their pedagogical approach to teaching sustainability. The research also highlights that, while there are clearly some innovative teaching strategies being utilised, there is room for more transformational learning to be included in syllabus design. Additionally, as the number of unit outlines that overtly referred to sustainability was surprisingly low, and not all sustainability-related units seemed to demonstrate a comprehensive approach to the teaching of eco-literacy, questions are raised about whether all students are actually engaging in sustainability education as signatories of the Talloires Declaration have pledged.The significant contribution of this study is represented by its implications for the development of curriculum and syllabus design in the field of sustainability education. Having highlighted the potential disciplinary differences between approaches to teaching sustainability, a range of stakeholders, including university faculties and individual academics, can review how sustainability education is taught in their curriculum and address areas that require greater attention to ensure students receive a comprehensive exposure to the skills and knowledge required to develop eco-literacy.

Rizoma, an R&D&i Proposal in Education for Sustainability between Universities and Companies

The University has three essential missions: teaching, research and knowledge transfer. In the European academic context knowledge transfer is an opportunity to incorporate sustainability into the university as long as in-depth reflections are addressed. A first reflection shows that the transfer designation encompasses a wide range of activities, including lectures, training seminars, innovation and development processes, contracts for product design, counseling of organizations and public administration ... that have a common link between university and society. It is therefore necessary to determine what knowledge transfer means for each institution and what kind of activities refer to it. This study offers a transfer definition (transformation of knowledge generated by the university in innovation that is useful to society), assuming that it involves addressing the implications of the relationship between the university and society. Thus some reflections on this relationship are presented, including the demands on the university from society; what the university can offer to society beyond teaching and researching; the changes that the university should make in order to develop these transfer activities and which professional competences must be developed by the faculty. Finally, a case of transfer of knowledge in the field of education for sustainability is presented, from the Complex Research Group, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, to the spin-off Rizoma_Educación_Transferencia SL, highlighting its creation process and the results achieved so far.

Conceptualizing digital literacies and digital ethics for sustainability education

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to discuss the need for integrating a focus on digital literacies and digital ethics into sustainability education, proposing a conceptualization of these for sustainability education.Design/methodology/approach– The paper draws on relevant literature in the field of sustainability education and in the field of digital literacies and digital ethics. It synthesizes perspectives in both fields to form a conceptualization of digital literacies and digital ethics for sustainability education.Findings– The paper conceptualizes “digital literacies” as a capacity to reflect on the nature of digital space in relation to sustainability challenges and “digital ethics” as a capacity to reflexively engage with digital space in ways which build rich discourses around sustainability. Critically reflective and exploratory activities in digital space are a means of developing these capacities.Originality/value– The conceptualization allows sustainability education to account for the increased role digital space plays in shaping views of sustainability challenges. It proposes a pedagogical approach to doing this.

What the willow teaches: Sustainability learning as craft

Whilst the importance of mainstreaming sustainability in higher education curricula is now widely acknowledged, the challenge for educators at university level is to develop and maintain authority and confidence in an area dominated by limited knowledge and uncertainty. This article suggests that the most empowering and authentic response is to adopt an approach of shared learning, but with the pedagogue demonstrating expertise and inspiration. I suggest that this is an approach to learning and teaching more familiar in areas of craft learning, characterised by apprenticeship and learning-by-doing. The article relies heavily on the work of Richard Sennett in providing a sociological account of craft learning, which is then applied to the field of sustainability. I explore how his three modes of instruction – 'sympathetic illustration', 'narrative' and 'metaphor' – are being used in the field of sustainability education, and draw parallels from the craft of basket weaving in particular, to show how these approaches might be developed. I conclude by suggesting that sustainability education is best undertaken within a community and in place, rather than abstractly and in the classroom.

What the Willow Teaches: Sustainability Learning as Craft

The challenge for sustainability educators is to develop and maintain authority and confidence in an area dominated by limited knowledge and uncertainty. This paper suggests that the most empowering and authentic response is to adopt an approach of shared learning, but with the pedagogue demonstrating expertise and inspiration. I suggest that this is an approach to learning and teaching more familiar in areas of craft learning, characterised by apprenticeship and learning-by-doing. The paper relies heavily on the work of Richard Sennett in providing a sociological account of craft learning, which is then applied to the field of sustainability. I explore how his three modes of instruction — ‘sympathetic illustration,’ ‘narrative,’ and ‘metaphor’ — are being used in the field of sustainability education, and how these approaches might be developed. I conclude by suggesting that sustainability education is best undertaken within a community and in place, rather than abstractly and in the classroom.

Using a Fox to Guard the Geese? A German Debate on the Purposes of Economic Education in Relation to Sustainability and the Role of Values

What is the purpose of economic education? What role do values play in economic education? These questions have been deliberated on in a German debate on the role of economic education within education for sustainability. The authors draw on this discussion in order to specify the purpose of economic education in the field of education for sustainability and to examine the role of values in economic knowledge. They claim, first, that values education is an important part of economic education; second, that values that are important for environmental sensitisation must be discussed as ‘controversial’; and third, that economic knowledge is a basic requirement in this field.

Education for Sustainability in Scottish Secondary Schools: boundary maintenance or professional reorientation?

summary This article reports on a study of education for sustainability in Scottish secondary schools. The study was based at the Institute of Education, University of Stirling, and was sponsored (between November 1997 and March 1998) by the Sustainable Schools Partnership, with funding from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Worldwide Fund for Nature Scotland and (between April 1998 and July 1998) by the University of Stirling. It comprised three research strands: a trawl of documentary evidence relating to policy and practice within the field of education for sustainability; interviews with key personnel in secondary schools identified as developing good practice in the field of education for sustainability; and a series of discussions with policy makers having a national and/or international perspective on education for sustainability and its development in schools. Although the prime focus was on Scottish schools, each of these strands also covered as a secondary concern relevant work in the other national regions of the UK. Having briefly clarified some issues of definition, the article offers an analysis of the central problem faced by schools (secondary schools in particular) involved in cross‐curriculum developments of this kind. That analysis focuses upon the aspiration of these schools to bring about whole‐school change within an institutional context characterised by strong boundary maintenance. The article then outlines the first of two findings: where education for sustainability is being developed within a secondary school setting, whole‐school change is likely to be conceived as modest modifications to existing structures. The article goes on, however, to outline some of the changing practices within these schools and, in doing so, introduces the second finding: where education for sustainability is being developed within a secondary school setting, whole‐school change is likely to be conceived in terms of a reorientation of professional interest and practice towards the local community and wider community concerns. These two findings, we argue, should be seen neither as complementary nor as existing in creative tension. They point to a school system seriously at odds with itself: pulled by one set of professional and managerial priorities towards piecemeal change within fixed parameters and by a very different set of professional and educational responses towards the reconceptualisa‐tion of teaching and learning and the closer involvement of schools in the local communities. This increased interest in the outward‐looking school community extends to issues of global concern. The article concludes with some thoughts on how this tension might be resolved through a radical reordering of educational priorities in favour of boundary realignment and community participation.

Teaching English for Sustainability

In this article I begin by exploring ideas of sustainability and the emergence and prevalence of this term into international discourse. I then outline the connection between learning and sustainability and the emerging field of Education for Sustainability (EfS). I go on to draw parallels between EfS and English Language Teaching (ELT) suggesting that what, how, who and where we teach, gives us an exciting role to play in this emerging paradigm of education and wider societal changes- why we teach. I finish by making suggestions for strengthening this connection.Key words: Sustainability; English for sustainability; Teaching EnglishJournal of NELTAVol. 15 No. 1-2 December 2010Page: 16-21Uploaded date: 4 May, 2011DOI: 10.3126/nelta.v15i1-2.4605