Higher Education for Sustainability

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Exploring Our Practices

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. About Higher Education for Sustainable Development and for Sustainability in New Zealand, and Elsewhere

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 3-12

   3. Campus Sustainability

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 13-25

   4. University Teacher as Critic and Conscience of Society

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 27-39

   5. Environmental Education in New Zealand

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 41-58

   6. Roles and Responsibilities for Higher Education in New Zealand, and Elsewhere

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 59-67

   7. Global Perspectives and Competitive Individualism

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 69-77

3. Researching Our Practices

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 79-82

      PDF

   2. What Guides Our Beliefs and Actions?

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 83-102

   3. On Deep, Critical and Independent Thinking and Why It Is So Challenging for Higher Education to Teach These Things

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 103-120

4. Changing Our Practices

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 121-123

      PDF

   2. Community Engagement and Higher Education’s Third Mission

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 125-135

   3. Empowering Students in Higher Education

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 137-141

   4. On Assessment and Evaluation, and Researching the Practices of Higher Education

      • Kerry Shephard

      Pages 143-155

5. Back Matter

   Pages 157-163

   PDF

This book explores how higher education and sustainability interact in New Zealand, and argues that higher education at present may be contributing as much to unsustainability as it does to sustainability. It considers how education, and higher education in particular, works alongside a wide range of other life experiences to impact individuals’ attitudes and actions. In turn, it envisions a form of higher education that supports graduates to decide what their contribution to a sustainable future will be. This book addresses those aspects of higher education that are best suited to fostering the development of students’ abilities and dispositions to think deeply, critically and independently about the world, and how higher education will know if it is on the right track if it chooses this path.

• Education for sustainability
• higher education for sustainability
• sustainability education
• environmental education
• higher education roles and responsibilities
• critical thinking
• intellectual independence
• academic development

• Higher Education Development Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

  Kerry Shephard

Kerry Shephard is Professor of Higher Education Development at the University of Otago’s Higher Education Development Centre. Kerry researches and teaches policy and practice in higher education with particular interests in sustainability, global citizenship and integrity. Kerry’s work has a particular focus on learning and teaching involving values, attitudes, dispositions and behaviours and argues that for higher education to make a serious contribution to sustainability we need to be interested not only in the knowledge and skills that we teach but also in what people choose to do with the knowledge and skill that they learn. Kerry’s work at Otago as educational researcher and academic developer is substantially informed by a previous academic career teaching and researching biology.

Policies and ethics