Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Problematics

   1. The Problematics of Sustainability in Higher Education: An Introduction

      • Peter Blaze Corcoran, Arjen E. J. Wals

      Pages 3-6

   2. The Evolution of Sustainability Declarations in Higher Education

      • Tarah Wright

      Pages 7-19

   3. Sustainability as Emergence: The Need for Engaged Discourse

      • Richard Bawden

      Pages 21-32

   4. Critical Realism: A Philosophical Framework for Higher Education for Sustainability

      • John Huckle

      Pages 33-47

   5. Higher Education, Sustainability, and the Role of Systemic Learning

      • Stephen Sterling

      Pages 49-70

   6. Assessing Sustainability: Criteria, Tools, and Implications

      • Michael Shriberg

      Pages 71-86

   7. The Problematics of Sustainability in Higher Education: A Synthesis

      • Peter Blaze Corcoran, Arjen E. J. Wals

      Pages 87-88

3. Promise

   1. The Promise of Sustainability in Higher Education: An Introduction

      • Arjen E. J. Wals, Peter Blaze Corcoran

      Pages 91-95

   2. Environmental Education for Sustainability: A Force for Change in Higher Education

      • Daniella Tilbury

      Pages 97-112

   3. The Contribution of Environmental Justice to Sustainability in Higher Education

      • Julian Agyeman, Craig Crouch

      Pages 113-130

   4. Learning Our Way to a Sustainable and Desirable World: Ideas Inspired by Arne Naess and Deep Ecology

      • Harold Glasser

      Pages 131-148

   5. The Contribution of Ecofeminist Perspectives to Stainability in Higher Education

      • Annette Gough

      Pages 149-161

   6. Sustainability and Transformative Educational Vision

      • Edmund O’Sullivan

      Pages 163-180

   7. Teaching Interactive Approaches to Natural Resource Management: A Key Ingredient in the Development of Sustainability in Higher Education

      • Niels Röling

      Pages 181-197

   8. Living Sustainably Through Higher Education: A Whole Systems Design Approach to Organizational Change

      • James Pittman

      Pages 199-212

   9. Disciplinary Explorations of Sustainable Development in Higher Education

      • Geertje Appel, Irene Dankelman, Kirsten Kuipers

      Pages 213-222

   10. The Promise of Sustainability in Higher Education: A Synthesis

       • Arjen E. J. Wals, Peter Blaze Corcoran

       Pages 223-225

4. Practice

   1. The Practice of Sustainability in Higher Education: An Introduction

      • Kim E. Walker, Arjen E. J. Wals, Peter Blaze Corcoran

      Pages 229-234

   2. Education and Sustainabile Development in United Kingdom Universities: A Critical Exploration

      • William Scott, Stephen Gough

      Pages 235-247

Sustainability challenges universities around the world to rethink their missions and to re-structure their courses, research programs, and life on campus. Graduates are increasingly exposed to notions of sustainability, which are emotionally, politically, ethically, and scientifically charged. They must be able to deal with conflicting norms and values, uncertain outcomes and futures, and a changing knowledge base. At the same time they will need to be able to contextualize knowledge in an increasingly globalized society.

This book provides a variety of valuable theoretical and practical resources for students, teachers, researchers, and administrators who seek to integrate sustainability in higher education. Sustainability is not only explored as both an outcome and a process of learning, but as a catalyst for educational change and institutional innovation. The book raises the various problematics related to this inchoate field and provides an intellectual history and critical assessment of the prospects for institutionalizing sustainability in higher education.

• Campus
• Curriculum
• Master
• development
• education
• higher education
• innovation
• learning
• organization
• teaching
• university

"This collection, by leading practitioners, critics, and researchers, is a valuable educational tool. It has the potential to advance significantly the movement towards education for sustainability."
(Hans van Ginkel, President, International Association of Universities and Rector of the United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan)
"This is a valuable book; it makes a significant and unique contribution to the burgeoning field of sustainable development. It is a fresh breeze with its stories of real academics working to make a difference in their courses, faculties, and universities."
(Dr. Karen Malone, Associate Professor, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Australian Director of UNESCO's Growing Up in Cities Project)
"Issues of sustainability pose a Copernican level challenge to educators and educational institutions everywhere. Professors Corcoran and Wals have assembled an exemplary group of scholars and change agents to survey the field and the results are both useful and exciting. Strongly recommended for educators, administrators, and all interested in the transition to a world better than that in prospect."
(David W. Orr, Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies, Oberlin College, USA)

• Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida, USA

  Peter Blaze Corcoran

• Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

  Arjen E. J. Wals

Policies and ethics