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Contextualising the Principles, Policies and Practices Needed to Implement Education for Sustainable Development Into HEIs in Myanmar
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Universities can make significant gains in two very important areas: food security and environmental sustainability. However, the results will not come by themselves, as policies and educational and learning activities can contribute to these gains. The current study aimed to explore the role of universities in enhancing the sustainability of food security, which is necessary to lay the scientific foundations for the universities’ approaches in the service of development. The current study was based on the opinions of 272 faculty members from Saudi public universities. The data were collected using a developed questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of the study showed that the level of a university’s role was high in promoting the sustainability of food security in the fields of education and learning and policies and regulations. It also showed that there were no differences in the study sample’s estimations of this role according to gender. In addition, there were differences in the levels of the role of universities in achieving sustainable food security between faculties, with the humanities in favor of this role. The authors of this study recommend that universities adopt an educational policy that includes specific measures that support the sustainability of food security and are linked to the state’s general plans in this field, as well as being reflected in the courses and activities they provide to students.
Higher education has been considered either as a goal and an approach for achieving sustainable development goals at global level. This chapter aims at investigating and visualizing current commitment and practice of the AUA Universities in the promotion of sustainability in Asia. First, it gives a review of the strategies and practices of the AUA Universities to engage and contribute to sustainable development based on their feedbacks to our questionnaire conducted between August and September 2018. Then, it gives a detailed analysis of policies and practices of the University of Tokyo as a case study. The chapter concludes by summarizing prospects and challenges for promoting innovative approaches in higher education for sustainable development in Asia. It also proposes a framework and a roadmap for the university partnership to collaborate to further promote sustainable development in Asian by higher education.
Thematic analysis is a poorly demarcated, rarely acknowledged, yet widely used qualitative analytic method within psychology. In this paper, we argue that it offers an accessible and theoretically flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. We outline what thematic analysis is, locating it in relation to other qualitative analytic methods that search for themes or patterns, and in relation to different epistemological and ontological positions. We then provide clear guidelines to those wanting to start thematic analysis, or conduct it in a more deliberate and rigorous way, and consider potential pitfalls in conducting thematic analysis. Finally, we outline the disadvantages and advantages of thematic analysis. We conclude by advocating thematic analysis as a useful and flexible method for qualitative research in and beyond psychology.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to present the strategy used for achieving change towards sustainability at Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers). Examples of how this strategy has been used are described and discussed, and exemplified with different lines of activities in a project on Education for Sustainable Development, the ESD project.
Design/methodology/approach
– The strategy consists of three important building blocks: Create a neutral arena; Build on individual engagement and involvement; and Communicate a clear commitment from the management team. The analysis is made along three different lines of activities in the ESD project: The work to improve the quality of the compulsory courses on sustainable development; The efforts to integrate ESD into educational programmes; and The work to collect and spread information on good teaching practices within ESD. Some other related examples where the strategy has been applied are also presented.
Findings
– The ESD project functioned as a neutral arena since it was not placed at any specific department but rather engaged participants from many departments. This neutral arena has been important, for example, to increase the willingness of teachers to share their good teaching examples. The process was successful in creating a shared responsibility and for starting learning processes in many individuals by the involvement of a broad range of educational actors at Chalmers. The strong and clear commitment from the management team has worked as a driving force.
Originality/value
– This paper can provide valuable input to universities that struggle with change processes.
Purpose
Academic sustainability programs aim to develop key competencies in sustainability, including problem‐solving skills and the ability to collaborate successfully with experts and stakeholders. These key competencies may be most fully developed in new teaching and learning situations. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the kind of, and extent to which, these key competencies can be acquired in real‐world learning opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper summarizes key competencies in sustainability, identifies criteria for real‐world learning opportunities in sustainability programs, and draws on dominant real‐world learning models including project‐ and problem‐based learning, service learning, and internships in communities, businesses, and governments. These components are integrated into a framework to design real‐world learning opportunities.
Findings
A “functional and progressive” model of real‐world learning opportunities seems most conducive to introduce students (as well as faculty and community partners) to collaborative research between academic researchers and practitioners. The stepwise process combined with additional principles allows building competencies such as problem solving, linking knowledge to action, and collaborative work, while applying concepts and methods from the field of sustainability.
Practical implications
The paper offers examples of real‐world learning opportunities at the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, discusses general challenges of implementation and organizational learning, and draws attention to critical success factors such as collaborative design, coordination, and integration in general introductory courses for undergraduate students.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to sustainability education by clarifying how real‐world learning opportunities contribute to the acquisition of key competencies in sustainability. It proposes a functional and progressive model to be integrated into the (undergraduate) curriculum and suggests strategies for its implementation.
The English higher education landscape has recently experienced a significant change with the addition of 74 Centres for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETLs), each one devoted to a particular educational issue or theme. This paper highlights a CETL which is of special interest to geographers in that it is focused on the promotion of education for sustainable development (ESD). The CETL is based at the University of Plymouth, UK, and is tasked with the responsibility of embedding a whole-university approach to sustainability. It will also seek to encourage best practice more widely, working with other institutions regionally, nationally and internationally.
This report examines the main questions that need to be addressed by agencies concerned with processes of reconstruction in countries that have experienced crisis (e.g., war, natural disaster, and extreme political and economic upheaval). The report focuses on educational reconstruction in its various manifestations. Within each heading, the report examines a number of issues exemplified by particular countries. After explaining educational reconstruction and the organizational framework of reconstruction (at the national, local, and institutional levels), the report discusses (1) physical reconstruction (buildings, supply of electricity and water, and environmental safety and security); (2) ideological reconstruction (education for democratization and retraining of teachers); (3) psychological reconstruction (demoralization, lack of confidence, and nostalgia; stress, anxiety, and depression; and trauma); (4) provision of materials and curricular reconstruction (provision of basic equipment, teacher emergency packages, textbooks and other educational materials, and curriculum development); (5) human resources (use of additional human resources, development of new management strategies to strengthen and advance capacity-building among teachers, and inter-university teacher training programs for capacity building); and (6) population and demography (basic needs for survival, development of life and educational skills, provision of basic educational materials, development of human resources, and development of new perspectives and longer-term life skills). Two appendixes present case studies of Bosnia and Rwanda. (SM)
Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (UN Document A/42/427)
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Brundtland, G.H. (1987). Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on
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Final Report: Data Collection Survey on Education Sector in Myanmar Final
JICA. (2013). Final Report: Data Collection Survey on Education Sector in Myanmar Final
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Greening Universities Toolkit V2.0 Transforming Universities into Green and Sustainable Campuses: A Toolkit for Implementers
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UNEP. (2014). Greening Universities Toolkit V2.0 Transforming Universities into Green and
Sustainable Campuses: A Toolkit for Implementers. Advance Copy.
The Millennium Development Goals Report-2015
United Nations. (2015a). The Millennium Development Goals Report-2015. New York:
United Nations. Available at:
https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/publications/mdg-report-2015.html
70/1. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN resolution
United Nations. (2015b). 70/1. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, UN resolution [Preprint]. New York: United Nations.
Contact emails: bo.lwin@open.ac.uk
andy.lane@open.ac.uk
rachel.slater@open.ac.uk