This chapter examines the development and implementation of a sustainability focused university program. Given the complexity and fluidity of sustainability as a teaching subject, the creation of such a program is fraught with challenges. Based on a retrospective qualitative analysis of the implementation of such a program at the University of Groningen (UG), the chapter documents that the design choices for such a program are particularly difficult to make. These choices entail fitting the complex and fluid subject-matter of sustainability into a mostly stable university infrastructure. The analysis reveals that, in doing so, universities may help constrain and solidify an otherwise multi-layered and fluid concept. As such, universities can have an important role in making sustainability actionable for current and future generations of students. This is, the chapter argues, the educational challenge for the years to come: embedding the concept of sustainability in university teaching practices in such a way that it enables graduates to address the moving target that sustainability currently is.

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Shaping University Teaching Programs on Sustainability: Solidifying the Fluid Concept of Sustainability

  • Martijn Pieter van der Steen,
  • Kristina Linke,
  • Paula Dirks,
  • Nazim Hussain

摘要

This chapter examines the development and implementation of a sustainability focused university program. Given the complexity and fluidity of sustainability as a teaching subject, the creation of such a program is fraught with challenges. Based on a retrospective qualitative analysis of the implementation of such a program at the University of Groningen (UG), the chapter documents that the design choices for such a program are particularly difficult to make. These choices entail fitting the complex and fluid subject-matter of sustainability into a mostly stable university infrastructure. The analysis reveals that, in doing so, universities may help constrain and solidify an otherwise multi-layered and fluid concept. As such, universities can have an important role in making sustainability actionable for current and future generations of students. This is, the chapter argues, the educational challenge for the years to come: embedding the concept of sustainability in university teaching practices in such a way that it enables graduates to address the moving target that sustainability currently is.