Contextualising and reframing sustainability in higher education

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

One of the key dynamics of the contemporary world is the emergence of discourses and practices associated with sustainability and sustainable development (Binagwaho et al. 2022; König 2013). These trends have a complex relationship with the rise of new technologies and the digital society. On the one hand, technological advances enable virtual working and international connectivity that reduce the need for fossil fuel burning for travel, and have opened the door to other potential solutions to environmental and social crises. On the other hand, they are complicit in the paradigm of destructive exploitation of the natural environment and human societies, and create their own significant energy usages and mineral waste (Hickel 2021; Klein 2014). Furthermore, the educational implications are far from straightforward, with digital technologies opening access, but often encouraging a transmissive rather than a transformative approach.

At the international level, sustainability has come to the fore through the adoption in September 2015 of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This framework represents a significant step forward from the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In addition to including a range of environmental protections to complement the attention to basic human welfare in the MDGs, they also acknowledge the importance of equality, and are demanding on all states, including high-income countries in the Global North. Furthermore, the focus on primary education in the MDGs was significantly expanded. The new agenda included attention to early years, secondary, vocational and higher education, as well as the broader role of learning in fostering sustainability, global citizenship, peace and intercultural understanding (Chankseliani & McCowan 2021; McCowan 2019).

Nevertheless, despite the positive gains, there remain a number of anomalies, contradictions and omissions in the current global compact. SDG8 asserts the importance of economic growth, which many environmentalists see as inherently incompatible with a sustainable planet (Jimenez & Kabachnik 2023). Indigenous groups have argued that their distinctive worldviews and experiences are not represented in the global agreement, and there is a general lack of acknowledgement of history, coloniality and power relations, as highlighted by the Rhodes Must Fall and decolonization movements. Issues of racism, language, culture, community and care are notably absent from the goals (Shields 2023, Stein et al 2023). Furthermore, while attempts were made at a broad consultation in the formation of the SDGs, many groups and constituencies found themselves without a voice in the process.

Higher education is among the constituencies whose contributions to the SDGs have not been fully appreciated. Universities are recognized as powerful sites for generating new knowledge, challenging conventional paradigms, and educating future generations. Yet, much of the focus of the growing field of higher education for sustainable development has been on how universities have implemented the SDGs, often through an additive and piecemeal approach, rather than how they can serve as sites for critique, challenging and reimagining the SDGs and the global development agenda in more fundamental and transformative ways.

This panel explores these critical perspectives on the SDGs in relation to higher education. Bringing together voices from diverse geographical contexts in Africa, the Middle East, Central and South-East Asia, Europe and North America, it interrogates the epistemic assumptions of the hegemonic development agenda, and the ways in which universities are complicit in that blindness. It also puts forward alternative perspectives that can enrich the agenda, and provide hope for a new inclusive and democratic agreement. The theoretical and empirical contributions made in this panel aim to reimagine not only what might be meant by ‘development’, but also how we think of learning, research and the university as institution. This critical engagement is particularly important as we move towards 2030, with discussions underway on the replacement for the SDGs.

Key questions to be addressed during the symposium as a whole include the following: to what extent can there be a win-win situation between sustainability and marketization in higher education, or will it lead to ‘green-washing’ and undermining of transformative agendas? In resource-constrained contexts is sustainability perceived as a luxury agenda, or one closely tied to fundamental needs of poverty reduction, peace and livelihoods? Do sustainability rankings present an opportunity for prioritization of public good in higher education, or will they bring narrow competition to yet another sphere of university activity? How successful have universities been in opening spaces for diverse, contextualised understandings of sustainability to emerge?

In the first presentation, Elizabeth Buckner presents a quantitative analysis of participation in sustainability rankings and benchmarking, highlighting asymmetries and inequalities across countries and global regions. Following that, You Zhang provides an analysis of institutionalization of the SDGs, drawing on interview data from 45 countries, exploring tensions in the adoption of the framework with competing demands of internal and external actors. The third presentation by Khalaf Al’Abri shares a case study of a university in Oman, providing rich contextualization of the challenges and possibilities opened up by the sustainability agenda. Olga Mun, Gulzhanat Gafu and Aizuddin Mohamed Anuar explore how dominant narratives of sustainability and research capacity invisibilise local knowledges, instead putting forward alternatives based on Kazakh and Malay knowledge traditions. Finally, Kuyok Abol Kuyok and Tristan McCowan explore engagement with the SDGs in the conflict-affected context of South Sudan, highlighting the important role of universities in fostering dialogue across social divides. After these five brief presentations, the symposium will open out for participatory discussion drawing on the experiences and insights of the audience.

Sub Unit

• Higher Education SIG

Chair

• Tristan McCowan, University College London

Individual Presentations

• How to Become Green: Participation in Higher Education Sustainability Rankings - Elizabeth Buckner, University of Toronto OISE

• Institutionalizing Sustainability in Universities: Actors and Complexities - You Zhang, OISE, University of Toronto; Elizabeth Buckner, University of Toronto OISE

• Pioneering the Path to Sustainability in Gulf Higher Education: From Vision to Strategic Policy Implementation at Sultan Qaboos University - Khalaf Al’Abri, Sultan Qaboos University

• Obal Philosophy and Proverbial Wisdom from the Global South as Alternative Visions of Sustainability and Repair in Higher Education - Olga Mun, Oxford University; Gulzhanat Gafu, Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education; Aizuddin Mohamed Anuar, Keele University

• Grappling with the Sustainable Development Goals in South Sudanese higher education - Kuyok Abol Kuyok, Ministry of General Education and Instruction, South Sudan; Tristan McCowan, University College London