Notes

Incorporation of ‘Sustainability’ into Academic Curricula of Higher Education

This chapter provides the means to better understand meaning and application of this term in education for sustainability in HEIs, this section will discuss the usefulness of that term in given context of HEIs and conclude with gaps. The chapter also describes how these terms can be included in university curricula.
1.1 What is sustainability?
The word sustainability has been derived from the Latin word sustinere which means "to hold". In the start, sustainability has only ecological roots; including “limits to growth” and conservationism (Lele, 1991). With time, the concept of sustainability has been used more in the sense of human sustainability on planet Earth; it started having its elements in social activism, i.e., equal right and poverty elimination and economic sustainability (Kidd,1992).
The term sustainability and sustainable development have been mostly used interchangeably. The most popularly quoted definition of sustainability is from Brundtland Commission of the United Nations on March 20, 1987: "Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p.8). This definition contains two key concepts within it: (i) the concept of 'needs', in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which main preference should be given; and (ii) the idea of limitations commanded by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs." (AASHE, 20XX). This connects the issues of economic development and environmental stability. this definition aims to provide a vague framework for the integration of environmental protection and economic development (United Nations General Assembly, 1987).

1.2 Education for sustainability
1.2.1 Background: Sustainability and Institutions of Higher Education
Sustainability is an international movement in higher education. The Brundtland Report laid the foundation for the education for sustainability in HEIs (United Nations, 2007, p. 2). The Brundtland Report (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, P. 14) mentioned that "the world’s teachers … have a crucial role to play" in helping to bring about the "extensive social changes" required for sustainable development. After Bruntland, in 1990 the University presidents and chancellors gathered in Talloires, France to address their concerns and solutions about the deteriorating environment of earth. This group determined that “universities educate most of the people who develop and manage society’s institutions. For this reason, universities bear profound responsibilities to increase the awareness, knowledge, technologies, and tools to create an environmentally sustainable future” (Brodie, 2006, p. 2). They determined that HEIs carry the responsibility to “focus their schools’ attention on the critical issues by speaking out, acquiring new and mobilizing existing resources, creating incentives and programs for faculty development, and fostering interest in these issues” (ULSF, 2010, para. 1). This group of higher education leaders created the Talloires Declaration, which expresses these intentions of IHEs to transform in response to the sustainability movement. Over four hundred universities have signed the Talloires Declaration (ULSF, 2010).

After Brundland report and Tallories declaration, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared 2005- 2014 the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), with the aim of helping people “develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge to make informed decisions for the benefit of themselves and others, now and in the future, and to act upon these decisions” (UNESCO, 2010, p. 13). Since the Talloires Declaration and the United Nations’ “Decade of ESD” challenge, several other efforts and commitments have been made to allow leaders in higher education to express a engagement to sustainability. In the United States, the Presidents’ Climate Commitment is most well-known for the expressed commitment to attain carbon neutrality in campus facilities, but it also acknowledges the need for higher education to “reorient its curriculum to formally prepare students and thus society with the knowledge and skills necessary to address the critical, systemic challenges faced by the world in this new century” (ACUPCC, 2010, p. 1). There are currently over six hundred signatories to the Presidents’ Climate Change agreement. External stakeholders, including accrediting agencies, community members, government, and workforce, have all begun to exert pressure on universities and colleges to respond
to the issue of sustainability in campus operations as well as in the academic curriculum.
Multiple organizations such as the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in higher Education (AASHE), University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (ULSF), Second Nature, and College Student Educators International “assists colleges and universities in making sustainability an integral part of curricula, research, operations, and outreach." These organizations synthesize and publicize the important progress that has been made toward generating a coherent and significant response from IHEs.

1.2.2 Definition of sustainability in Higher education
Problems in Defining sustainbility: Genral and conflictive
The common concept of sustainability or sustainable development by Brundtland Commission’s (1987) definition has been criticized in literature in various ways. First, It consists of two terms that are difficult to interpret. Secondly, The concept of sustainability has been considered as an attempt to oppose a balance between ecology and economics. The balance between “sustaining” and “development” is impossible to obtain (Esty, 2001, p. 75). Thirdly, it is a very broad and unexplicit concept. It attracts a lot of audiences (present and future) for resource fulfillment. A sustainable society ten years from now might not be considered livable by today’s standard. So, the concept loses its value as time proceeds (Karlsson, 2003).

As can be understood from criticism, the above definition is quite general and so in relation to education in HEIs, it needs to be explained further. According to Sustainable Development Education Panel of the United Kingdom (1998), education for sustainbility means education which enables people to learn the knowledge and skills to participate in collective and individual decisions at local and global level. That will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future.” ULSF states that sustainability implies that the critical activities of a higher education institution are ecologically sound, socially just and economically viable and that they will continue to be so for future generations. A truly sustainable college or university would emphasize these concepts in its curriculum and research, preparing students to contribute as working citizens to an environmentally healthy and equitable society. (ULSF, 2015)

Problems in Implementation of Education of Sustainability
Despite all efforts and commitments of HEIs towards sustainability, they have slow progress toward implementation (Brodie ,2006). A survey of college administrators revealed that “despite all the talk of climate change, environmental degradation, energy costs, and other issues related to sustainability…teaching and learning about sustainability has been in decline” (Carlson, 2008, p. 25). One comprehensive analysis of sustainability in higher education found that sustainable campus operations were flourishing but that the academic curriculum was not keeping up with the transformation in the campus environment (National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Environment 2008). In short, despite two decades of good intentions, no coherent “sustainability curriculum” exists; the HEIs' curriculum remains largely the same. The rigid
disciplinarity of academic discourse communities has been accused as a root cause of this "lagging behind in implementation" condition. Some authors (Barlett & Chase, 2009) have accused the old education system about by saying “The crisis cannot be solved by the same kind of education system that helped create the problems”.