Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The sustainable development goals in a Bachelor of Design course; current integration and benefits, constraints and opportunities for deeper integration

The sustainable development goals in a Bachelor of Design course; current integration and... Universities’ unique position within society means they have an important role to contribute to sustainability and to help achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are one of the most widely recognised articulations of sustainability. This study aims to look at the integration of the SDGs in education, specifically, in the Bachelor of Design (B-DES) “pathways” at the University of Melbourne, Australia.Design/methodology/approachInterviews with pathway coordinators and a survey of all 45 core subjects were used to understand the current degree of integration and the benefits, constraints and opportunities of deeper integration.FindingsSustainability is deeply incorporated into B-DES curricula, but the SDGs are not. Most teachers, but particularly pathway coordinators, see value in deeper incorporation. Issues that constrain this include some students’ fatigue with the idea of “sustainability”, a crowded curriculum and some teachers’ scepticism, even disdain for the SDGs, which they see as contradictory, too broad or overly political.Originality/valueThis study sheds light on the extent of integration and reveals several possible pedagogical approaches: analysing what industries need to do to make a proportionate contribution to achieving the SDGs, critical review of industries’ use of and alignment with the SDGs, comparing and contrasting the SDGs with disciplines’ theoretical frameworks and critiquing the SDGs’ ambition with reference to the capabilities and technologies of a discipline. Provided they are done with due consideration of the SDGs’ limitations, these methods of integration have the potential to better prepare students as global citizens and for international employment. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education Emerald Publishing

The sustainable development goals in a Bachelor of Design course; current integration and benefits, constraints and opportunities for deeper integration

Download PDF
19 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/the-sustainable-development-goals-in-a-bachelor-of-design-course-uI7axVwIGs

References (64)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
1467-6370
eISSN
1467-6370
DOI
10.1108/ijshe-02-2022-0043
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Universities’ unique position within society means they have an important role to contribute to sustainability and to help achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are one of the most widely recognised articulations of sustainability. This study aims to look at the integration of the SDGs in education, specifically, in the Bachelor of Design (B-DES) “pathways” at the University of Melbourne, Australia.Design/methodology/approachInterviews with pathway coordinators and a survey of all 45 core subjects were used to understand the current degree of integration and the benefits, constraints and opportunities of deeper integration.FindingsSustainability is deeply incorporated into B-DES curricula, but the SDGs are not. Most teachers, but particularly pathway coordinators, see value in deeper incorporation. Issues that constrain this include some students’ fatigue with the idea of “sustainability”, a crowded curriculum and some teachers’ scepticism, even disdain for the SDGs, which they see as contradictory, too broad or overly political.Originality/valueThis study sheds light on the extent of integration and reveals several possible pedagogical approaches: analysing what industries need to do to make a proportionate contribution to achieving the SDGs, critical review of industries’ use of and alignment with the SDGs, comparing and contrasting the SDGs with disciplines’ theoretical frameworks and critiquing the SDGs’ ambition with reference to the capabilities and technologies of a discipline. Provided they are done with due consideration of the SDGs’ limitations, these methods of integration have the potential to better prepare students as global citizens and for international employment.

Journal

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jun 26, 2023

Keywords: Pedagogy; Design; Undergraduate; Sustainable development goals; Curriculum integration

There are no references for this article.