A Methodology for Reorienting University Curricula to Address Sustainability: The RUCAS-Tempus Project Initiative
Our world faces considerable environmental, economic, social, and cultural challenges that need to be met at various levels. Responses to calls for curriculum revision to address sustainability, although very critical, are often slow and superficial. In t
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Abstract Our world faces considerable environmental, economic, social, and cultural challenges that need to be met at various levels. Responses to calls for curriculum revision to address sustainability, although very critical, are often slow and superficial. In this paper, it is argued that a participatory action and transformative learning approach toward engaging academics in curriculum change for sustainability is needed. The chapter describes the Reorient University Curricula to Address Sustainability (RUCAS) methodological approach aimed at engaging university staff in sustainability curriculum change at 12 universities. It also describes its underpinning theoretical assumptions, the research facts, and the critical curriculum design considerations. Keywords RUCAS
University curricula Reorienting Sustainability
The Current State of Sustainability Crisis In the course of the last few decades, humanity has been experiencing the impacts of an unsustainable economic model based on economic growth driven by profit maximization, resulting in excessive depletion and degradation of natural resources. The prevailing economic and monetary model has increased the people’s purchasing power in the most affluent societies but in turn it generated unsustainable modes of production and consumption. Even though global consumption has reached its highest peak in recent years, access to basic needs such as education, health, and food has not been met. It is estimated that of the more than six billion people on Earth, over 1.1 billion people in the developing world cannot V. Makrakis (&) N. Kostoulas-Makrakis University of Crete, Rethymnon, Greece e-mail: [email protected]
S. Caeiro et al. (eds.), Sustainability Assessment Tools in Higher Education Institutions, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-02375-5_18, Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013
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afford the necessary for their human survival, 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, 101 million children are not attending primary school, with more girls than boys missing out and 4 million newborns worldwide are dying in the 1st month of life (UNICEF 2010). The global economic disparity among nations is accompanied by equally devastating inequality within the nations. In 31 countries, less than 20 % of the population controls more than 50 % of the national wealth, so an enormous economic wealth has been accumulated almost exclusively in the developed world, while the world’s poorest nations have grown even poorer (UNDP 2000). Presently, about 20 % of the world is consuming eighty percent of the world’s resources, while those consuming less are trying to catch up by following existing models (UNEP 2011). A recent UN (United Nations) (2012) report shows that these disparities over the past three decades occurred in parallel with accelerating trade and financial flows, the spread of international production networks and rapid technological change. These disparities are in parallel with an increased milita
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