research intern at several higher education institutions, such as the Center for Health and the Global Environment of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, in the US; the Universidade Paulista, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; and the University of Applied Sciences in Zittau/Gorlitz, Germany.
Abdul Hannan Waheed was educated in Kuwait, Egypt, UK, India, and Australia, and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Maldives Qualifications Authority (MQA). Dr. Hannan is a renowned expert in multiple fields. He has worked in the field of higher education quality assurance since 2004 and holds a PhD in this field from the Queensland University of Technology, and has been instrumental in the development and strengthening of higher education quality assurance in the Maldives. He is a multilingual (Dhivehi, English, Arabic) language expert and is a Chartered Linguist and Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, UK. He is a current affairs analyst on a live weekly TV program called Dhuniye (World) on VTV. He is also a talented Arabic calligrapher.
Sakunthala Yatigammana is a professor in the Department of Education in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Peradeniya. Sakunthala received her PhD from the Graduate School of Education, The University of Bristol, UK in 2011 and MSc from the Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya. She is involved in a number of European and Canadian funded projects as a co‐investigator. Further, she has published more than 30 papers in journals and conferences and has also co‐authored five books. Her current research interest focuses on the use of mobile phones for science teaching and learning, Educational Technology, Pedagogy, Inclusive Education and Comparative Education
Mengting Yu is a PhD student in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, UK. She holds a master's degree in Educational Research from the University of Glasgow, UK, and an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Tianjin University of Technology (TJUT), China. She worked as a language teacher and overseas educational consultant in Beijing from 2015 to 2019. Such enriched working experiences have provided her with a broad view of research interests, including higher education, digital learning, language education, interdisciplinary and technological pedagogies, and innovation in education. Her present study focuses on how technology‐supported classrooms, together with the trend to move from traditional teaching to student‐centered teaching methodologies, impact the learning experiences of international students.
David Slim Zepeda Quintana is a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Sonora, Mexico where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the field of sustainable development and where he is a full‐time researcher in the Sustainability Graduate Program. He holds a BSc in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Universidad del Valle de Mexico and a master's degree in Sustainability from the University of Sonora. His major research and teaching interests are sustainable development, sustainable management systems, sustainability in higher education, cleaner production, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable innovation.
1 Sustainable Development: Embedding Sustainability in Higher Education
Kelum A. A. Gamage and Erandika K. de Silva
1.1 Introduction
The concept of “sustainable development” has become far‐reaching due to the major breakthrough in efforts toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2015. Following the UN Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, a global framework was developed to “redirect humanity towards a sustainable path.” This global framework is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that is centered around 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that branched out from the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda.
The SDGs describe major development challenges faced by humans universally. Consequently, SDGs are considered “challenges for humanity” giving them a sense of urgency in both international and national agendas. UN SDGs emerged with the aim of securing “a sustainable, peaceful, prosperous and equitable life on earth for everyone now and in the future” (UNESCO 2017). As SDGs cover global challenges that need to be overcome for the survival of humanity, they establish “environmental limits and set critical thresholds for the use of natural resources” (UNESCO 2017).
Poverty and associated challenges such as the lack of access to education, healthcare and sanitation, employment opportunities, and social protection are detrimental to human lives and human dignity. UN SDGs are based on the basic premise, that ending poverty, requires strategies that develop economies. Economic development, therefore, is understood and realized alongside a range of social needs that include education, health, social protection, and employment opportunities simultaneously with climate change and environmental protection. Inequality, unsustainable consumption patterns, weak institutional capacity and environmental degradation are identified as the key systemic barriers to sustainable development.
For the realization of the long‐term goals put forward as SDGs, the active involvement of governments, the private sector, civil society, and all of humanity is needed. Governments are expected to establish national frameworks, policies, and measures for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda that focuses on 17 SDGs, where Quality Education (SDG 4) is understood as ensuring “inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
In 1987, the UN's World Commission for Environment and Development (WCED) published the report “Our Common Future,” also known as the “Brundtland Report” in honor of the chair of the Commission, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. The publication of the report was a milestone in raising international awareness, calling for action, and creating discourse on the importance of sustainable development and global partnerships. This makes the Brundtland Commission an indispensable forerunner in sustainability discourse. Therefore, this book adopts the Brundtland Commission's definition that sustainable development “meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Report 1987, p. 8). The Commission concludes that two concepts are embedded in this overarching concept of sustainability. The first is the concept of needs, that is the essential needs of the poverty‐stricken populations that demand the priority of intervention networks; the second is the idea of limitations imposed on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs due to the state of technology and social organization (Brundtland Report 1987).
Very often, sustainability is understood as having three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. Kagawa (2007), Dvořáková and Zborková (2014), and Venkataraman (2009) are prominent scholars who contributed to the sustainability discourse by envisioning sustainability as a three‐dimensional endeavor. Efforts to achieve sustainability of these three dimensions collectively is understood as sustainability. For instance, environmental sustainability is achieved through efforts to conserve and enhance the natural resource base through sustainable consumption patterns. Social sustainability includes efforts to promote equity, diversity, and social justice. At the same time as environmental and social sustainability, economic sustainability is achieved through efforts to reduce poverty and promote fair trade. Garcia et al. (2017) state that the term “sustainable development” originates from the three dimensions, namely the environmental, economic, and sociocultural. On that ground, they emphasize the importance of “extensive collaboration among diverse partners” to implement a holistic approach to sustainability goals. They maintain that all three pillars of sustainable development need to be served to attain the transition to a sustainable society. Sustainability education, too, must therefore address these three dimensions to equip individuals with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to make informed decisions in shaping sustainable futures. Earlier policy statements on sustainable transformations through education include environmental education (EE) in 1977, the introduction of education for sustainable development
