Teaching Sustainability in European Higher Education Institutions: Assessing the Connections between Competences and Pedagogical Approaches

Rodrigo Lozano, Maria Barreiro-Gen, Francisco J. Lozano and Kaisu Sammalisto
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Rodrigo Lozano: Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, 80176 Gävle, Sweden
Maria Barreiro-Gen: Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, 80176 Gävle, Sweden
Francisco J. Lozano: Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Toluca, Av. Eduardo Monroy Cárdenas, 2000, San Antonio Buenavista, 50110 Toluca de Lerdo, Mexico
Kaisu Sammalisto: Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, 80176 Gävle, Sweden

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: There has been considerable progress in the incorporation of sustainable development (SD) into higher education institutions’ curricula. This has included research on competences for SD and pedagogical approaches used; however, there has been limited research on the connection between how pedagogical approaches are used and how they may develop sustainability competences. A survey was developed, based on the ‘connecting sustainable development pedagogical approaches to competences’ framework, to investigate sustainability being taught, sustainability competences developed, and pedagogical approaches used in European higher education institutions. The survey was sent to a database of more than 4000 contacts from which 390 complete responses (9.80%) were obtained. The results show that the social dimension was the least addressed at 18% of responses, while the economic, environmental, and cross-cutting dimensions were addressed almost equally. The correlation analyses showed a relation between the contribution to sustainability and the strength of competences, and between the strength of competences and the strength of pedagogical approaches. The results from the survey helped to update the theoretical framework, which provides a more precise perspective on how sustainability competences can be better developed in class, and how to better develop all the sustainability competences.

Keywords: higher education for sustainable development; European higher education institutions; competence; pedagogy; STAUNCH ® (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (55)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1602-:d:214438

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