IN-PERSON: Applying Education

Abstract

As there is an urgency to action the sustainability agenda, education for sustainable development (ESD) in Higher Education (HE) is essential. Evidence further highlights the demand by students to understand sustainable development within the HE courses (QAA Advance HE, 2021; Berchin et al., 2017). To achieve successful ESD integration, however, adaptations are required to current pedagogical practices (Papenfuss et al., 2019), approaches adopted for the implementation of ESD (Mazon et al., 2020) or the education system (Venkataraman, 2010). More specifically, literature associates engagement of ESD with a bottom-up approach (Littledyke et al. 2012) where students become active players (Mazon et al., 2020). There appears, however, a lack of knowledge on how to adopt a bottom-up approach, where questions surround the type of activities associated with this approach and how institutions collaborate with practitioners, students and the community. This qualitative study seeks to investigate the integration of sustainability within the Built Environment curriculum, student views of studying sustainability and insight into bottom-up approaches to ESD in HE. The research conducted a critical literature review on previous studies for the integration of ESD in HE, in addition to currently undertaking interviews with a local authority and institutions with experience in ESD implementation. Initial findings suggest innovation and creativity is required for ESD within the curriculum. A bottom-up approach also appears to promote collaboration between the institution and practitioners, along with value-added teaching activities. Previous studies further focus on the important role of the practitioner and stakeholders, such as the community, for ESD integration.