Abstract
Higher Education Institutions are engaged in embedding sustainability in curriculum across disciplines. Previous research studies have offered practical examples by outlining the process for sustainability integration. Business schools have a key leadership role as a force for good to produce future managers and leaders. It is the responsibility of business schools across the world to equip graduates with the knowledge of sustainability and skills to solve real world challenges in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research is aimed at providing an analysis of the ways business schools can engage academics for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum. Academics are key to this transition in curriculum and teaching & learning practice. The study is action research and a case study of Nottingham Business School (NBS), Nottingham Trent University, UK has been carried out which is a leading business school in sustainability education. Action research involves an online and co-created short course as an intervention. NBS is a PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) Champion business school and is evidencing good practice for sustainability. Therefore, the main research question was: “How can an online sustainability short course help engage academic staff for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum?”. Research participants were experienced academic staff members from NBS who were interviewed, belonging to different disciplines including management, marketing, human resource management, accounting & finance, and economics. Data collection was focused to engage staff under time and resource constraint environment. This is because one of the ways for staff engagement is through the online courses and learning resources. The results found that the online SDGs and Future Thinking course is a useful tool in enhancing academics’ sustainability/SDGs knowledge and understanding. It can further inform teaching and learning practice as well as pedagogy in NBS adding value to its good practice which already exists. This type of intervention can facilitate staff skills and competency development for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum. The findings have implications beyond NBS as all the disciplines have a role to contribute to education for sustainable development.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | BAM Conference Proceedings 2023 |
Publication status | Published - 2023 |