The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Education and Thinking for the 21st Century

1.1 A noble education: sustainability education in the 21st century 5

1.2 The co-evolution of climate and life on Earth: a sustainability contest between survival, succession and extinction 15

1.3 Climate change understanding as a basis for sustainability education 20

1.4 Are bees and pollinators our most important sustainability indicator? 26

1.5 Why bees are critical for achieving sustainable development 37

1.6 The important role of pollinators in sustainability education 52

Bronwen Cowie and Paula Mildenhall

1.7 Honeybee leadership: many winners and no losers 63

2.1 Introductory university climate change education: an Australian review 79

2.2 Sustainability within a global environmental change context 98

2.3 Population, environment and welfare: a difficult conversation 116

2.4 Waste(d) values 131

2.5 Sustainability challenges in agriculture and food production 157

2.6 Moving beyond peak oil: the importance of renewable energy in the sustainability transition 171

2.7 Lessons from assessing sustainability in the mining and resources sector 200

2.8 Sustainability challenges in water management 218

3.1 Education for the sustainability transition 233

3.2 Beyond growth thinking: the promise of regenerative development 244

Joseli Macedo

3.3 Threshold concepts in sustainability education 255

3.4 Transdisciplinary sustainability courses: design principles and facilitation techniques to aid remote and hybrid learning environments 272

3.5 The important role of environmental impact assessment methodologies in sustainability education 288

3.6 Futures thinking and regenerative sustainability 307

3.7 Beyond jargon: the language of sustainability 325

3.8 Industry 4.0 approaches to sustainability 337

4.1 Engineering systems thinking in education 355

4.2 The value of life cycle thinking in sustainable engineering education 372

4.3 The UN SDGs learning objectives in higher education 386

4.4 Integrated problem solving and design thinking 399

4.5 (Re)thinking education for sustainable development: a capability approach 407

4.6 Bearing fruit: interpersonal competency development in sustainability education 420

Theres Konrad and Rebecca Freeth

5.1 Teacher education for sustainability: impetus and obstacles 439

5.2 Faculty empowerment in the sustainability education transition 452

5.3 Education for sustainable development in online teacher training 463

5.4 Thinking differently: developing pre-service teachers’ understanding of sustainability through inquiry and problem-based learning 477

5.5 Moving an elephant: the role of teachers in university sustainability education development 499

5.6 Promoting First Nations understandings of sustainability in both teacher professional development and in undergraduate course learning 509

6.1 Mapping the SDGs in university education: a responsible management education approach 527

6.2 Transformative learning in environmental and sustainability education: a transformation to what and how? 542

6.3 Prototyping in sustainability education 556

Mark C. Runacres

6.4 Living labs as a concept and place for holistic sustainability education 568

6.5 Learning to collaborate 582

6.6 Transdisciplinary learning communities 597

6.7 Service-learning as a teaching strategy for the promotion of sustainability 607

7.1 The environmental education imperative 2024 623

7.2 The transition from environmental education to sustainability education 639

7.3 Sustainable human development and the need for climate change governance 653

7.4 Seeing the wood and the trees: sustainability education lessons from sustainable forest management 664

7.5 Climate change policy: mitigation, adaptation, and resilience 676

7.6 Regenerative values in sustainability education: learning with ecological family 690

7.7 Risk and resilience: learnings from the blue economy 704

Sebastian Thomas

8.1 Education for sustainable development and the need for education in ethics 727

8.2 Teaching ethical decision making to students as 21st-century professionals 736

8.3 Sustainability leadership and the protection of the common good 754

8.4 Corporate social responsibility and responsible leadership education 774

8.5 Democracy deficit or governance deficit: the dilemma of transnational decision-making 787

9.1 University leadership that enables sustainability education and scholarship 805

9.2 Educating with sustainability leadership in mind at university: considerations for curriculum and pedagogy 824

9.3 Reviewing university support for sustainability education: an Australian case study 845

9.4 Anchoring sustainability in the Australian education curriculum 858

9.5 Sustainability education in India: a discourse in education development 876

Shaji Joseph, Kanchan Patil, Apoorva Vikrant Kulkarni and Michele John

9.6 Sustainability education development in Indonesia 900

9.7 Key learnings from integrating sustainability in European higher education institutions: the value of networks and reflective leadership 918

9.8 Education for sustainable development in China: an observation of policy and practice 934

Biography

Michele John is Professor of Sustainability and Director of the Sustainable Engineering Group (SEG), Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. Michele has been involved in sustainability education development for the past two decades. This Handbook was developed to fill an urgent need for a comprehensive resource in 21st-century sustainability knowledge and thinking for both education and management.

“As a resource for those seeking to foster a culture of humility, and an ethic of restraint and creativity to match our fraught moment in history, this Handbook may prove invaluable.”

Tim Winton AO, Australian author

“The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Education and Thinking for the 21st Century takes on big topics like climate change, mass extinctions, food production, forests, population, energy, and waste, while speaking the language of higher education: faculty support and training, leadership, governance, pedagogies, competencies. May this handbook be the positive tipping point that transforms colleges and universities everywhere into the Noble endeavours we urgently need them to be.”

Krista Hiser, PhD Professor and Senior Lead and Advisor for Sustainability Education; Global Council for Science and the Environment, Washington, D.C.

“A comprehensive international guide to the big issues facing humankind and what educators can do. A vitally important and timely book for teachers at all levels. Highly recommended.”

David W. Orr, Professor of Practice, Arizona State University and Editor: Democracy in a Hotter Time (2023)

“Education is the single most important investment that any society makes – and this timely collection of essays underscores the fact that sustainability education must now be our #1 priority if we are to make sense of the emerging market and political dynamics of the Anthropocene epoch in which we now find ourselves.”

John Elkington, Co-founder of Environmental Data Services (ENDS), SustainAbility and Volans, Author: Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism (2020)

“The current development trajectory is not sustainable. It is no exaggeration to say that our civilisation can only survive if we are educated about the principles of sustainable futures. This Handbook gives educators the tools and examples to fulfill their responsibility to future generations, helping us all to live sustainably.”

Ian Lowe, Emeritus Professor and Author: Australia on the Brink: Avoiding Environmental Ruin (2023)

“Progress toward sustainable development will require the reconceptualization and reorganization of our colleges and universities. Toward an essential transformation of sustainability education, this timely volume provides invaluable insights and practical guidance. The need to link knowledge with action is self-evident, and toward this end, the contributors provide a wide-ranging overview of the prospects for academic culture to contribute to shaping more sustainable futures.”

Michael M. Crow, President, Arizona State University