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Four Impediments to Embedding Education for Sustainability in Higher Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2015

Fred Gale ,
Aidan Davison ,
Graham Wood ,
Stewart Williams  and
Nick Towle
Fred Gale*
Affiliation:
Discipline of Politics and International Relations, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, University of Tasmania, Australia
Aidan Davison
Affiliation:
Discipline of Geography and Spatial Science, School of Land and Food, Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology, University of Tasmania, Australia
Graham Wood
Affiliation:
Discipline of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Tasmania, Australia
Stewart Williams
Affiliation:
Discipline of Geography and Spatial Science, School of Land and Food, Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology, University of Tasmania, Australia
Nick Towle
Affiliation:
Rural Clinical School, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health, University of Tasmania, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Fred Gale, Associate Professor, Discipline of Politics and International Relations, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, University of Tasmania, Building L, Newnham Campus, Launceston TAS 7250, Australia. Email: Fred.Gale@utas.edu.au
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Abstract

Higher education institutions have an unavoidable responsibility to address the looming economic, environmental and social crises imperilling humans and ecosystems by placing ‘education for sustainability’ at the heart of their concerns. Yet, for over three decades, the practice of ‘higher education for sustainability’ (HEfS) has encountered significant barriers to implementation, begging the question as to why. Drawing on a diverse, interdisciplinary literature, we identify four structural impediments to implementing HEfS: (1) disciplinary contestation, which creates confusion over what ‘sustainability’ means; (2) institutional fragmentation, which prevents the interdisciplinary dialogue that sustainability demands; (3) economic globalisation, which transforms higher education into just another market opportunity; and (4) ‘fast and frugal’ habits of reasoning, which steer time-pressed academics towards poorly integrated decisions and unsustainable positions. Our analysis highlights that wider structural change within and beyond the academy will be required if higher education institutions are to meet their responsibilities and drive the necessary social transformation.

Keywords

higher educationsustainabilityneoliberalismglobalisation
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , December 2015 , pp. 248 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015 

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