Sustainability education and community development in higher education using participatory and case based approaches in India

Souresh Cornet, Saswat Barpanda, Marc-Antoine Diego Guidi (jnd.guidi@gmail.com) and P.K. Viswanathan
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Souresh Cornet: Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Saswat Barpanda: Goa Institute of Management
Marc-Antoine Diego Guidi: LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - Université Paris-Saclay - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], UFSC - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina = Federal University of Santa Catarina [Florianópolis]
P.K. Viswanathan: Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

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Abstract: Purpose - This study aims at understanding how higher education institutions (HEIs) can contribute to sustainable development, by designing their programmes for bringing about a transformative impact on communities and students, and also to examine what alternative pedagogical approaches could be used for that. In the past decades, HEIs have increasingly created social innovation (SI) programmes, as a way to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These community-oriented and field-based programmes are difficult to ally with conventional classroom education. This study explores how these programmes could integrate the participatory approach and what would be the benefits. It also investigates the effectiveness of the experiential learning approach for teaching sustainability. Design/methodology/approach - A case study method is used to document SI projects initiated by an HEI programme in rural India. Findings - It was found that the participatory approach contributes to empowering communities and also benefits the students in terms of academic, professional and personal growth. Empirical findings show that experiential learning is an efficient method to teach sustainability. Ultimately, both pedagogical approaches are found to be mutually beneficial. Originality/value - This study fills a gap in the literature, by providing empirical evidence on how HEI can implement innovative educational strategies such as participatory approach and experiential learning in their programmes towards teaching sustainability. A conceptual model for HEI interested in developing similar programmes is also proposed. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is one of the first studies focusing on the context of Indian HEI.

Keywords: Sustainable development; Higher education; Social innovation; Participatory research; Experiential learning; Live-in-Labs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-12-16
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Published in International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 2024, 25 (9), pp.78-93. ⟨10.1108/ijshe-07-2022-0242⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04930667

DOI: 10.1108/ijshe-07-2022-0242

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