Program and institutional predictors of environmental justice inclusion in U.S. post-secondary environmental and sustainability curricula

Abstract

Environmental justice (EJ) issues and perspectives, which emphasize the disproportionate environmental hazards experienced by low-income communities and communities of color, are often excluded from higher education sustainability discourses and curriculum. Utilizing a national sample of 297 interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability (IES) degree programs, this study identifies program-level values and student racial/ethnic demographics, as well as institutional structural characteristics influencing the inclusion of EJ content in IES curriculum. The findings have important implications for IES curriculum and program development, and racial/ethnic and class dynamics in this emerging field.

Keywords:

• diversity
• inclusive higher education
• environmental justice
• race/ethnicity
• environmental and sustainability curriculum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. It is important to note that while EJ has only been laterally considered in the environmental education research literature there are growing efforts in other countries to bring EJ to the center of environmental education as demonstrated by a special issue in the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education in 2013 titled ‘Removing Margins in Environmental Education.’