Taking stock of sustainability in higher education: a review of the policy literature

Abstract

This paper provides a review of the current literature that examines the uptake of sustainability policies in higher education. Articles were retrieved from both ERIC and Scopus databases and then manually reviewed to ensure that they focused on each of: higher education; sustainability; and policy. A total of 91 articles were analysed using a multi-stage process that involved sorting data according to typologies (i.e. temporal, terminology, methodology, geography), coding the text of the articles based on topical content, and an indexing method used to label data for further analysis and the development of broader code categories. Results suggest that drivers and barriers associated with the integration of sustainability policy in higher education are well known; yet increased research is needed to understand best practices and processes by which sustainability can be furthered through higher education policy. In addition, findings demonstrate the need for future research to focus on various aspects of the policy process, including policy development and enactment, and on implications of policy for practice. While there have been some reviews of sustainability policy in higher education research to date, this review contributes to this literature by highlighting research primarily focused on sustainability policy within higher education.

Keywords:

• Higher education policy
• education policy
• sustainability in higher education
• education for sustainable development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This publication draws on research from the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (SEPN), supported by a Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Grant No 895-2011-1025, Principal Investigator Dr. Marcia McKenzie).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 InVivo coding refers to coding direct text from data, while descriptive coding refers to codes developed to describe a theme or trend from the data (Saldaña 2013).

2 Interdisciplinary approaches are those that connect sustainability concepts between disciplines, while transdisciplinary approaches represent learning, research, and teaching that occur across disciplines (Ashford, 2004).

Additional information

Adam Cheeseman holds a Master in Environmental Studies from Dalhousie University and works on various higher education, environmental education, and conservation projects throughout Atlantic Canada.

Tarah Wright is Professor of Environmental Science at Dalhousie University. Her research focuses primarily on environmental education, and she has published numerous articles related to education for sustainable development. Most recently Tarah has begun to pursue a research program that investigates the various roles that The Arts can play in influencing cultural norms, encouraging pro-environmental behavior, and providing drivers for the creation of a sustainable future. Recent projects include: examining how the global artistic community expresses the climate crisis; investigating what David Suzuki “Playlist for the Planet” artists' perspectives are on the use of music as a tool for environmental education; and, a national project to understand Canadian artists conceptualizations of sustainability and their role in creating a sustainable future. Tarah and her family make their home in the city of Halifax, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq People, in the Acadian Forest Bioregion, at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.

Jaylene Murray is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Saskatchewan. Hailing from the West Coast, Jaylene holds a Diploma in Adventure Tourism Business Operations and a BA in Recreation and Tourism Management with a focus on sustainable community development. Her background as an outdoor educator and sustainable tourism researcher shapes her interest in sustainable education. Currently, Jaylene is investigating students' perspectives of and engagement with sustainability at Canadian higher education institutions.

Marcia McKenzie is a Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Director of the Sustainability Education Research Institute at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. She is Principal Investigator of the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (SEPN), and co-author of Critical Education and Sociomaterial Practice: Narration, Place, and the Social (Peter Lang, 2016) and Place in Research: Theory, Methodology, and Methods (Routledge, 2015), and co-editor of Land Education: Rethinking Pedagogies of Place from Indigenous, Postcolonial, and Decolonizing Perspectives (Routledge, 2016) and Fields of Green: Restorying Culture, Environment, and Education (Hampton, 2009). Her interdisciplinary research focuses on social theory and education; education policy; critical education; climate change, environment, and sustainability education; place; and the politics of social science research.