Teaching Managing Sustainability to Non-business Undergraduates

An Exploration in Fluidity Teaching

Authors

  • Nancy A. Hubbard Goucher College, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol2.iss3.151

Abstract

This paper reviews the challenges and opportunities facing business and environmental management education while outlining pedagogies recommended for creating an environment which encourages transformational education. This approach, deemed ‘fluidity teaching’ is used to teach managing sustainability to non-business majors with the objective of promoting critical thinking and heightened problem solving skills. The course positively impacted student’s awareness of sustainable management complexities and solutions. Techniques utilized help students gain ownership of their learning process and knowledge gathering thus allowing them to make multidisciplinary linkages and offer complex suggestions across boundaries. Finally, students’ assessments indicated they felt they developed critical thinking skills which lead to rich discussions and ‘thinking for themselves’ in determining viable solutions in sustainability issues.

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Author Biography

  • Nancy A. Hubbard, Goucher College, USA

    Miriam Katowitz (’73) Professor in Management and Accounting

References

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Welsh, M .A., Murray, D.L. (2003), "The ecollaborative: Teaching sustainability through critical pedagogy", Journal of Management Education, Vol 27 Iss: 2. pp. 220-236. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562903251415

Hasan, S., Komur, S. (2008), “The relationship between critical thinking skills and in-class questioning behaviours of English language teaching students”, European Journal of Teacher Education, Vol: 31 Iss:4. pp 389-402.Table 1. Student reported assessments in various categories Fall 2009-Fa02013 (n=125) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02619760802420784

Class assessment ranking (1 to 5, 1 being low and 5 being high)

Business course rankings

Does the written work contribute to the course understanding?

66

61

Does the course encourage you to think for yourself?

71

Not available

The class encouraged discussion and dialogue?

90

Not available

Overall course rating?

71

25

*This number differs from the number of students having taken the course as not all students who took the course completed course evaluations

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Published

2014-03-01

How to Cite

Hubbard, N. A. (2014). Teaching Managing Sustainability to Non-business Undergraduates: An Exploration in Fluidity Teaching. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 2(3), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol2.iss3.151