Education for sustainability in management courses: reflection on paradigms and practices

Abstract

There has been a multiplication of sustainability related modules, courses, programs over the last decade in Higher Education in general, as well as more specifically in Business Education. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critique/ evaluation of these efforts and to map avenues for the design of modules, courses and programs through a reflection on education paradigms and practices. This paper’ goal is to contribute to the debate about the role of higher education, notably the role of administration and management courses, as it is observed a significant increase in the number of institutions of higher education that have an effective motivation to educate students with knowledge and skills needed to put sustainability at the core of its future management activities. It presents a reflection on the main strands of thought, about the main debates, it identifies ambiguities and contradictions in the debate and presents the possibilities of integrating the theme of sustainability in business administration courses. The authors bring up the issue of sustainability in its dialogue with companies and academia, the implications of the emergence of risk society to higher education and business schools. It also discusses the current schools of thought in economics and ecology proposals for education within paradigms that address complexity, the inclusion of sustainability in higher education and management education. The paper is divided into four sections: the first maps the risk society and the recent economic thought, outlines the reasons / assumptions of society and education paradigms. The second part presents a survey on promotion / dissemination of sustainability in higher education, highlighting the context, outcomes and challenges. The third focuses on sustainability in management education and its major challenges. The last section proposes three ways to integrate the theme of sustainability in management education, skills for sustainable development and finally, the implications, obstacles and opportunities for integrating sustainability in management education. The article dialogues with the latest international literature and seeks to draw readers’ attention on key conceptual challenges to educate individuals responsible and committed to sustainability.