<p> Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) play a central role in global efforts toward environmental sustainability. With 23 campuses, the California State University (CSU) is the largest higher education system in the world. The CSU graduates over 100,000 students annually and significantly contributes to developing the workforce of the state and the country, which underlines the vast opportunity for the CSU system to influence culture change toward sustainability within California and beyond. This qualitative research study focused on CSU campus presidents because previous research has demonstrated the important role IHE leaders play on their campuses by setting a vision, establishing priorities, and allocating funding. This study aimed to investigate the 23 CSU campus presidents&rsquo; perspectives on sustainability in higher education. The semi-structured interview protocol explored how the presidents understood environmental sustainability, how they viewed the role of IHEs generally and the CSU system in particular in efforts toward sustainability, how they viewed their role as president, and what they perceived as barriers and enhancers to sustainability efforts on campus.</p>

<p> To prepare students to disentangle the complicated environmental, social, and economic challenges exacerbated by the previous generation and propose effective solutions, they need to be taught the necessary knowledge and skills. Education for Sustainability (EfS) is one such modality. Organizations such as the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, Shelburne Farms, and the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development have opened the doors for EfS in the K-12 education system; however, curriculum to address these standards has not yet fully been developed. Furthermore, EfS curriculum that aligns to state and national standards needs to be written so that teachers can then use it in their courses and cultivate systems thinking skills in all learners. The primary objective of this project is to propose a high school level biology curriculum that uses an EfS lens to enhance core science content. A comparison of five EfS curricular frameworks was conducted and the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education&rsquo;s EfS Standards &amp; Performance Indicators was selected as the primary reference for the sustainability lens of the forthcoming curriculum. The proposed high school biology curriculum focuses on two Next Generation Science Standards themes: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems and Natural Selection and Evolution. This curriculum integrates many EfS themes. The dynamics of systems and change and inventing and affecting the future are the two most prominently explored EfS themes in the curriculum. </p>

<p> This ethnography explores the practices and activities of an experiential learning program in sustainable agriculture, the Student Experimental Farm at the University of California, Davis, from a community development and social justice perspective. We need more dialogue about the work to imagine and live new futures&mdash;ways in which human beings might rectify the social and environmental contradictions created by structural and historical injustices in their own lives and organizations. We need more records of the activities and approaches of programs attempting to do the work of changing a system inside and out&mdash;the subversive work of peaceful and self-determined adaptation to a more just way of working with ourselves, other people and nature. And importantly, we need more records of programs working in public view; not just in the oft-detached realms of liberal counterculture, though these spaces can be creatively rejuvenating, but in the institutions of education and politics&mdash;land grant universities in particular&mdash;that still carry much weight in the agricultural field, to which many practitioners are connected, and which most still consult as a major resource for guidance and knowledge. </p><p> This research is framed by three broad relationships for inquiry: the individual&rsquo;s relationship to oneself in the learning process, social relationships between members of a learning community, and institutional relationships that frame activity. In discussion I address issues of the opportunity for critical transformation in experiential learning, meaning and motivation for individuals in the learning process, and emphasize the value of peer relationships and a broader learning community for successful results. I present various social tensions between responding to the needs of both novice and advanced learners; between education and production in the student farm setting; and in socio-spatial identity and meanings. I argue for building communities of inquiry in sustainable agriculture education more proactively, with the goal of acknowledging cultural difference and working for social equity from the inside out. </p><p> Additionally, I discuss institutional relationships and structures at the Student Farm and in the undergraduate major in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems (SA&amp;F) staff, educators and students have developed to adapt existing institutional structures for more shared power in decision-making and progressive learning aims. I offer research findings, discussion and recommendations as resources that can be consulted by educators, student farmers, and those interested in developing contextualized learning programs for the purposes of social justice, sustainability, and community development.</p>

The paradigm of design is changing. Designers now need to be equipped with the skills and knowledge that will enable them to participate in the global move towards a sustainable future. The tenets of Sustainable Development and Design: economy and environment are being dealt with extensively in both practice and theory. The social elements, unfortunately, have proven more difficult to define and implement. The challenges arise as social sustainability deals with softer and more complex issues as diverse and unquantifiable as ethics, values, cultural diversity, holistic perspectives, collective and personal responsibility. The competencies needed to address these wicked problems are based in the realm of Social Sustainability and require a shift in how designers are taught as students and will subsequently practice as professionals. This thesis proposes that by introducing various models of collaboration into design education the capacity for responsible design practice can be developed. Arguably, by capitalising on the process of collaboration a culture of individual and collective sharing can be encouraged leading to new knowledge and openness to multi-disciplinarity, holistic perspectives and diverse cultural backgrounds. Across a Delphi Study and four consecutive phases of Action Research, the competencies for social sustainability in design are identified and their emergence evaluated through practical collaborative projects in an educational setting. From the panel of twenty-one design experts the Delphi Study developed a construct for social sustainability in design, as well as an initial Framework of the key competencies. These two tools were then used to underpin the planning, implementation and subsequent analysis of the four Action Research phases. The pragmatic nature of Action Research allowed for continuous iteration and development, where data gathered through each phase informed the proceeding phase so as to fix on an approach that is both realisable and realistic. This thesis does not offer a panacea solution but rather a pathway towards achieving the necessary changes in design practice. The findings clearly show that building capacity for responsible design practice is not a simple or one size fits all approach, as each individual experience is different. The construct, framework of competencies (and their interconnections) along with the guidelines for effective collaboration, provide a starting point that can be built upon, evolve and progress as the debate around sustainability becomes more clearly defined. Over time these generic design skills can be honed and refined to meet previously unmet societal challenges.

Consideration of sustainability in product and industrial design courses is becoming more common and relevant within higher education in the UK. However little is known about how widespread the teaching is and what is actually understood as sustainable design with discrepancies in the definitions used in different institutions. Literature highlights that many universities now engage with the tangible environmental aspects of sustainable design, whilst the intangible social aspects are left unaddressed. This thesis explores methods for encouraging and enabling students to address the social aspects within sustainable product design (SPD) education. The first research stage presents the results of a nationwide survey, which investigated how widely SPD is taught, which social aspects are addressed, how SPD is taught and assessed and the attitudes and awareness of it amongst academics. The second research stage presents further research into best practice in SPD through detailed interviews with leading academics in the field. A third research stage built upon the findings from both these studies, and sought to address a perceived weakness in SPD education; the lack of understanding and consideration of the social aspects in sustainable product design in teaching and project outcomes. Three Rethinking Design workshops were developed and tested at five universities in the UK and Ireland. These workshops were designed to introduce students to the wider social aspects of SPD, through the use of audio visual group based workshops. The design of the workshops enabled a learning environment where a deep understanding of the social aspects of Sustainable Product Design could be developed through; group work, discussion and critical reflection, which led to students exploring design thinking responses, suggesting that deep learning, had occurred.

Background Sustainability involves progressing economic, social and environmental goals together in an attempt to meet current needs without compromising with the needs of future generations. Universities can play an important role in educating young people in sustainability. Many future managers study at business schools which makes this discipline particularly interesting in terms of creating sustainability across society. Swedish universities are by law encouraged to embed sustainability which requires significant changes at all levels including the work of lecturers. Aim The purpose of this study is to examine lecturers’ attitudes and perceptions on making changes to embed sustainability into the courses they teach. Methods A qualitative research method with semi-structured interviews was applied. An interview guideline was developed and eight lecturers from basic and intermediate education programmes at Umeå Business School and Economics (UBSE) were recruited. Data was transcribed and analysed in relation to the theoretical framework of change models. Findings Eight lecturers were interviewed and overall they reported positive attitudes towards making changes to incorporate sustainability into their courses but many of them found it difficult to do so in practice. Obstacles to make such changes included being limited in the decision-making of changes to the syllabus, limited knowledge, time constraints and motivation. Findings show that management plays an essential role in making changes and that a number of key persons (change agents) who want to implement more sustainability to the courses already exist in the organisation. ConclusionsLecturers are important to fulfil changes to their existing courses to incorporate sustainability but in need of more time and training in this subject. A sustainable approach at UBSE positively affects lecturers’ attitudes to incorporate sustainability to their teaching.

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Die umfassende ökologische Krise erfordert es, den Lebenszyklus von Artefakten und Prozessen bereits im Entwurf zu integrieren. Design spielt deshalb eine zentrale Rolle in der anstehenden Transformation der Gesellschaft und Produktionssysteme (Irwin, 2015). Design vermag Umweltauswirkungen zu senken und vereinfacht die Umsetzung von Kreislaufstrategien. (Desing et al., 2021) Zirkuläre Designmethoden schließen Aspekte wie Reparierbarkeit, Wiederverwertung sowie alternativ angelegte Nutzungskonzepte mit ein. Sie sind inzwischen in vielen Curricula integriert.

Submitted by Rosina Valeria Lanzellotti Mattiussi Teixeira (rosina.teixeira@unisantos.br) on 2016-08-09T14:35:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Meilyng Leone Oliveira.pdf: 1097255 bytes, checksum: 9ecc06441f27179418a3d8cf6ac3c2fa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-09T14:35:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Meilyng Leone Oliveira.pdf: 1097255 bytes, checksum: 9ecc06441f27179418a3d8cf6ac3c2fa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-14 / This study's main axis Sustainable Development and how the education can be impactful in terms of environmental responsibility. The existing legal framework in Brazil on the subject provides for environmental education and education for sustainability, be applied in a holistic and cross-sectional shape, in relation to formal education as informal, and the study focused on education for sustainability in higher education institutions, even if performing empirical research with academics in the cities of Santos, São Vicente and Guaruja, in order to check at what stage is the education for sustainability in the universities of the region. / O presente estudo tem como eixo principal o Desenvolvimento Sustentável e de que modo a Educação pode ser impactante em termos de responsabilidade socioambiental. O arcabouço jurídico existente no Brasil sobre o tema prevê que a Educação Ambiental, bem como a Educação para a Sustentabilidade, seja aplicada de forma holística e transversal, tanto em relação à educação formal quanto à informal, tendo o presente estudo focado na Educação para a Sustentabilidade nas instituições de Ensino Superior, inclusive, realizando-se pesquisa empírica com professores universitários das cidades de Santos, São Vicente e Guarujá, com a finalidade de verificar em que estágio se encontra a Educação para a Sustentabilidade nas universidades dessa região.

This thesis aim to theoretically and empirically cover the theme of self-sufficient way of living in full spectrum from local economy supporting associations to clear pictures of live of the people who are trying to live self-sufficient. The work deals with many forms of self-sufficiency: energetic self-support, home schooling and sharing. In theoretical part of the work author specifies research questions whose are used for expanding and verifying conclusions or data from another researches. In the empirical part author analyse data collected during an ethnographic research (participant observation and semi-structured interviews in three households.