Abstract
The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are designed to mobilize countries around the world to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind. Institutions of higher learning are important actors in creating individuals with the skills to accomplish these goals. The Environmental Science and Sustainability (ESS) Department at Allegheny College (Meadville, PA) has been working for 40 years to produce students capable of solving real-world environmental problems by teaching students to think critically and communicate science. This review involved a comprehensive analysis of existing classes at Allegheny College with a focus on the alignment of SDG principles with learning outcomes for core courses required of all students majoring in ESS. The ESS curriculum implicitly supports the goals of the UN SDGs by using local, state and international environmental issues to demonstrate the realities of considering both the environment and well-being to advance a more sustainable and equitable future. The aim of this paper is to highlight how a university curriculum might explicitly focus on the principles of the UN SDGs. In discussing this model, this paper identifies essential components and potential gaps in university curricula and offers one template to provide a more thorough approach to educating for the SDGs.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arbuthnott K (2009) Education for sustainable development beyond attitude change. Int J Sustain High Educ 10(2):152–163
Balint P, Stewart R, Desai A, Walters L (2011) Wicked environmental problems: managing uncertainty and conflict. Island Press, Washington
Choate B, Davis B, Verrechia J (2018) Campus bottled water bans, not always the solution. Int J Sustain High Educ 19(5):987–997
Costanza R, Daly L, Fioramonti L, Giovannini E, Kubiszewski I, Mortensen LF, Pickett KE, Ragnarsdottir KV, de Vogli R, Wilkinson R (2016) The UN sustainable development goals and the dynamics of well-being. Ecol Econ 130:350–355
Egan K (2015) Academic advising in individualized major programs: promoting the three I’s of general education. J Gen Educ 64:2
Ensign M (2017) Let’s train ‘Extension Agents’ for the 21st century. Chronicle of Higher Education. http://www.chronicle.com/article/Let-s-Train-Extension/240664. Last accessed 12 Dec 2017
Hajer M, Nilsson M, Raworth K, Bakker P, Berkhout F, de Boer Y, Rockstrom J, Ludwig K, Kok M (2015) Beyond cockpit-ism: four insights to enhance the transformative potential of the sustainable development goals. Sustainability 7(2):1651–1660
Hák T, Janoušková S, Moldan B (2016) Sustainable development goals: a need for relevant indicators. Ecol Ind 60:565–573
Hinton T, Martin K, Pallant E (2017) Teaching food security to low income rural families in the United States. In: Leal Filho W (ed) Handbook of sustainability science and research. World Sustainability Series. Springer. Cham, Switzerland, pp 161–175
Kelley L (2016) Corporate social responsibility in supply chains: factors for consideration in developing adaptation strategies for Ugandan Vanilla farmers affected by drought. Allegheny College Senior Thesis, Department of Environmental Science and Studies, Meadville, PA
LeBlanc D (2015) Towards integration at last? The sustainable development goals as a network of targets. Sustain Dev 23(3):176–187
Lu Y, Nakicenovic N, Visbeck M, Stevance A (2015) Five priorities for the UN sustainable development goals. Nature 520(7548):432–433
Lutz JS, Neis B (2008) Making and moving knowledge: interdisciplinary and community-based research in a world on the edge. MQUP, Proquest Ebook
Savelyeva T, Douglas W (2017) Global consciousness and pillars of sustainable development: a study on perceptions of the first year university students. Int J Sustain High Educ 18(2):218–241
Sterling S (2010) Learning for resilience, or the resilient learner? Towards a necessary reconciliation in a paradigm of sustainable education. Environ Educ Res 1(5–6):511–528
Stirling A, Kerr G (2015) Creating meaningful co-curricular experiences in higher education. J Educ Soc Policy 2(6):1–7
Strauss V (2015) What the ‘liberal’ in ‘liberal arts’ really means. Washington Post, 2 April 2015
SDSN Australia/Pacific (2017) “Getting started with the SDGs in universities: a guide for universities, higher education institutions, and the academic sector. Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Edition. Sustainable Development Solutions Network—Australia/Pacific, Melbourne”. http://ap-unsdsn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/University-SDG-Guide_web.pdf. Last accessed 12 Dec 2017
Vare P, Scott W (2007) Learning for a change. J Educ Sustain Dev 1(2):191–198
Venkataraman B (2009) Education for sustainable development. Environment 51(2):8–10
Vladimirova K, LeBlanc D (2016) Exploring links between education and sustainable development goals through the lens of UN flagship reports. Sustain Dev 24(4):254–271
UN (2015) General assembly, transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. A/70/1: New York
UNESCO (2014) Shaping the future we want: UN decade of education for sustainable development. Final Report, UNESCO Publishing, Paris
Wals AEJ (2011) Learning our way to sustainability. J Educ Sustain Dev 5(2):177–186
Wals AEJ (2007) Social learning: towards a sustainable world. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen
Wiek A, Withycombe L, Redman CL (2011) Key competencies in sustainability: a reference framework for academic program development. Sustain Sci 6(2):203–218
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pallant, E., Choate, B., Haywood, B. (2020). How Do You Teach Undergraduate University Students to Contribute to UN SDGs 2030?. In: Leal Filho, W., et al. Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-15603-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-15604-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)