TY - JOUR
T1 - Key competencies in sustainability in higher education—toward an agreed-upon reference framework
AU - Brundiers, Katja
AU - Barth, Matthias
AU - Cebrián, Gisela
AU - Cohen, Matthew
AU - Diaz, Liliana
AU - Doucette-Remington, Sonya
AU - Dripps, Weston
AU - Habron, Geoffrey
AU - Harré, Niki
AU - Jarchow, Meghann
AU - Losch, Kealalokahi
AU - Michel, Jessica
AU - Mochizuki, Yoko
AU - Rieckmann, Marco
AU - Parnell, Roderic
AU - Walker, Peter
AU - Zint, Michaela
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their detailed and thoughtful comments and suggestions. We also like to thank the experts who participated in the study and Drs. Elyzabeth Engle, Eban Goodstein, Ian Thomas, and Arnim Wiek for their valuable comments to earlier versions of the manuscript.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Hundreds of sustainability programs have emerged at universities and colleges around the world over the past 2 decades. A prime question for employers, students, educators, and program administrators is what competencies these programs develop in students. This study explores convergence on competencies for sustainability programs. We conducted a Delphi study with 14 international experts in sustainability education on the framework of key competencies in sustainability by Wiek et al. (Sustain Sci 6: 203–218, 2011), the most frequently cited framework to date. While experts generally agreed with the framework, they propose two additional competencies, suggest a hierarchy of competencies, and specify learning objectives for students interested in a career as sustainability researcher. The refined framework can inform program development, implementation, and evaluation to enhance employability of graduates and facilitate comparison of sustainability programs worldwide.
AB - Hundreds of sustainability programs have emerged at universities and colleges around the world over the past 2 decades. A prime question for employers, students, educators, and program administrators is what competencies these programs develop in students. This study explores convergence on competencies for sustainability programs. We conducted a Delphi study with 14 international experts in sustainability education on the framework of key competencies in sustainability by Wiek et al. (Sustain Sci 6: 203–218, 2011), the most frequently cited framework to date. While experts generally agreed with the framework, they propose two additional competencies, suggest a hierarchy of competencies, and specify learning objectives for students interested in a career as sustainability researcher. The refined framework can inform program development, implementation, and evaluation to enhance employability of graduates and facilitate comparison of sustainability programs worldwide.
KW - Curriculum development
KW - Education for sustainable development
KW - Key competencies
KW - Learning objectives
KW - Sustainability problem solving
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U2 - 10.1007/s11625-020-00838-2
DO - 10.1007/s11625-020-00838-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85088800103
VL - 16
SP - 13
EP - 29
JO - Sustainability Science
JF - Sustainability Science
SN - 1862-4065
IS - 1
ER -