Education for sustainable development in Pakistani higher education institutions: an exploratory study of students’ and teachers’ perceptions
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 31 August 2020
Issue publication date: 5 September 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to determine the current state of implementation and effectiveness of education for sustainable development (ESD) in Pakistani higher education institutions (HEIs) using students’ and teachers’ perceptions of sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey on teachers and students was conducted in public and private universities in Punjab, Pakistan. Data from 1,915 students and 120 teachers were collected through semi-structured questionnaires implemented during face-to-face interviews. Students were asked to rank social, environmental and economic indicators of sustainability consciousness (SC) on a five-point Likert scale. Structural equation model and regression model are used to analyze the data. The perceptions of students and teachers were assessed from their knowledge of sustainability.
Findings
The occurrence of ESD in Pakistani HEIs is low and teachers have inadequate knowledge of sustainability. The holistic approach to ESD has a more pronounced effect on students’ SC as compared to the pluralistic approach to ESD. Also, there is a correlation between the students’ grades/class and the effectiveness of ESD. There is a need to pay more attention to implement ESD for undergraduate students in Pakistani HEIs.
Originality/value
The study stands out for using cross-sectional data from public and private universities of Pakistan. Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Pakistan which attempts to investigate the effectiveness of ESD in terms of students’ SC.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Liam Butler for his dedication to providing language editing to improve the language of the manuscript. In addition, the authors thank the Pakistan data collection team for their efforts.
Funding: This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant/Award Number: 71572115), the Major Program of Social Science Foundation of Guangdong (Grant/Award Number: 2016WZDXM005) and the Natural Science Foundation of SZU (Grant/Award Number: 836).
Conflicts of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Citation
Saqib, Z.A., Zhang, Q., Ou, J., Saqib, K.A., Majeed, S. and Razzaq, A. (2020), "Education for sustainable development in Pakistani higher education institutions: an exploratory study of students’ and teachers’ perceptions", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 21 No. 6, pp. 1249-1267. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-01-2020-0036
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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