Developing capacities for meeting the SDGs: exploring the role of a public land-grant institution in the civic engagemen
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Developing capacities for meeting the SDGs: exploring the role of a public land‑grant institution in the civic engagement of its African alumni Amy Jamison1 · Meggan Madden2 Accepted: 2 October 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Higher education institutions and lifelong learning opportunities offer important skills and knowledge for developing the complex, sustainable, and integrated solutions that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require. Utilizing interview data from a retrospective study of 14 African alumni of a US public land-grant institution, this research explores alumni’s lived experiences to understand how their graduate education contributed to postgraduate civic engagement activities that are aligned with the SDGs. Each individual’s social, civic, and political experiences are mapped along a spectrum of political and civic engagement to provide a foundation for drawing out the types of capacities developed. We contend that developing greater capacity for civic engagement may contribute to sustainable development as outlined in SDG 4.7. Findings indicate that while alumni experiences varied, the majority of alumni had greater engagement post-degree. Core capacities developed among alumni, which may have contributed to this engagement, include researchers’ empowerment through development of hard and soft skills, expanded networks, and enhanced confidence for graduate students both intrinsically and because of the credential they achieved. Keywords International development · Social and civic engagement · Scholarships · Alumni · Africa
Introduction The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (UN, 2018, p. 6). While SDG 4 builds on earlier global development and education strategies such as * Meggan Madden [email protected] Amy Jamison [email protected] 1
Michigan State University East, Lansing, MI, USA
2
Principia College, Elsah, IL, USA
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the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA), its focus on lifelong learning and tertiary education is new (Webb et al., 2017). This new orientation is important because it recognizes that higher education institutions and lifelong learning opportunities offer important skills for developing the complex, sustainable, and integrated solutions that the SDGs require. While six of the seven sub-goals of SDG 4 focus on improving access to education for individuals, SDG 4.7 promotes knowledge for sustainable development, which includes a dual focus on training the individual and developing knowledge for the wider society. “The knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes required by citizens to lead productive lives, make informed decisions, and assume active roles locally and globally in facing and resolving global challenges can be acquired through education for social development and global citizenship education” (UNESCO, 2015, p. 49). Therefore, knowledge for sustai
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