Embedding sustainability in curricula: a case study of an Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) framework at the Westminster Business School : WestminsterResearch

Title	Embedding sustainability in curricula: a case study of an Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) framework at the Westminster Business School
Authors	Espinoza Ramos, G. and Capucci Polzin, A.
Type	Conference paper
Abstract	Increasingly complex socio-economic and environmental issues have been transforming all industries, with education playing a critical role in shaping a sustainable future. For that reason, UNESCO created the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which is an interdisciplinary approach to learning that enables students to develop the values, knowledge and competencies needed to address the current local and global challenges (UNESCO, 2023). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by United Nations in 2015 provide a comprehensive framework for addressing these challenges (United Nations, n.d.). However, there are barriers to the implementation of ESD in the curricula, including a lack of detailed guidance to implement it in educational contexts (Waltner, Scharenberg, Hörsch, & Rieß, 2020) resistance to change, and lack of financial resources (Calvert, Higgins, Thompson, & Galvin, 2023). For that reason, there is a need for guidance in the implementation of ESD, in this case, in the context of higher education. This conceptual paper is aimed at providing a framework to aid educators in embedding ESD in their curricula. This framework has nine stages: alignment of ESD policy and education strategy, mapping course and module learning outcomes, pedagogy, training of module design, learning activities, assessment, indicators and feedback for improvement. This paper uses narrative inquiry (Adams, Ellis, & Jones, 2017) as a research strategy to analyse the module leaders’ experiences when developing the ESD framework and applying it to Sustainable City Economies (SCE), a second-year undergraduate module (340 students) at the Westminster Business School (England) that has been implemented since 2021/22. This paper showcases the positive impact of the ESD framework in different areas, including assessment performance, consistent engagement on a field trip and positive feedback during module evaluation. The early findings represent an opportunity for further research to assess the impact of the ESD framework over time and its application to other disciplines.
Keywords	Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), ESD framework, case study, ESD in curricula, Sustainability in Education, Sustainable development, Education for sustainability, problem-based learning, project-based learning, team-based learning, SDGs, Westminster Business School, Sustainable City Economies, pedagogy.
Year	2024
Conference	10th International Conference on CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance
Publisher	Springer
Accepted author manuscript	File Access Level Open (open metadata and files)

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