Sustainability: Nutrition and Dietetic Students’ Perceptions

Sarah Burkhart, Michele Verdonck, Theresa Ashford and Judith Maher
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Sarah Burkhart: School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC, Queensland 4557, Australia
Michele Verdonck: School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC, Queensland 4557, Australia
Theresa Ashford: School of Social Science, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC, Queensland 4557, Australia
Judith Maher: School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC, Queensland 4557, Australia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-9

Abstract: Opportunities exist for nutrition and dietetic (N&D) professionals to contribute to sustainable development and support actions towards the attainment of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SGD’s). Students undertaking higher education are well-placed to develop skills and capabilities in creative and critical problem solving for sustainability. However, there is limited literature exploring nutrition and dietetic students’ perceptions of sustainability that would help to inform an effective and constructively aligned embedding of sustainability content and active learning opportunities into curriculum. This descriptive cohort study design utilised a 17-question online survey to explore 95 Australian N&D undergraduate students’ self-reported familiarity with and perceived importance of sustainability and related concepts, and view of sustainability for future practice. Participants reported being more familiar with the term environmental sustainability and related concepts than economic or social sustainability. Varying levels of familiarity of 42 sustainability related concepts within economic resilience, environmental integrity, social development and cross-cutting issues were reported. Most participants (82%, n = 78) reported sustainability was very important in general (82%, n = 78), and for professional practice (63%, n = 60). Over half of the participants identified government led initiatives to address the future of society (65%, n = 71). Our study highlights the complexity of sustainability in a discipline specific context and the need for understanding students’ perceptions of sustainability to inform N&D curriculum design.

Keywords: undergraduate; sustainable development; environmental sustainability; social sustainability; economic sustainability; Australia; professional practice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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