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The usual discourse of sustainable development and its impact on students of economics: a case from Czech higher education context

Roman Buchtele (Department of Regional Management and Law, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice Faculty of Economics Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic)
Miloslav Lapka (Department of Regional Management and Law, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice Faculty of Economics Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic)

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education

ISSN: 1467-6370

Article publication date: 11 October 2021

Issue publication date: 10 May 2022

141

Abstract

Purpose

In recent decades, the concepts of sustainable development (SD) and sustainability have become a part of the everyday information flow. Is there real impact on students who have potential to become stakeholders and decision-makers? To be able to answer this question, the authors focussed on the following problems: whether the discourse of SD has any impact on students of economics concerning their knowledge of the environmental pillar of SD; and whether it has an impact on their individual value orientation towards the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP).

Design/methodology/approach

A group of 120 university students of economics programs from the Czech Republic was chosen for the quantitative research of this study. About a half of them have already encountered environmental education. The questionnaire included topics of environmental pillar of SD and revised NEP scale.

Findings

Using correlation analysis, the results show that the discourse of SD does have an impact on the students’ knowledge of the environmental pillar of sustainability and it also has an impact on their individual value orientation towards the NEP in general. The knowledge of the environmental pillar of SD is not significantly influenced by the study of a subject which included the topic of SD and its principles. Value orientation towards NEP is not significantly influenced by the study of a subject which, among other things, included the topic of SD and its principles.

Research limitations/implications

Findings should be accepted with the knowledge of the limited sample from one country, on the other hand, information flow – usual discourse of SD is global.

Social implications

There is positive NEP orientation among the students of economics – young women and men have pro-environmental attitudes. This can be considered as great unused social potential in higher education.

Originality/value

This study deals with knowledge of SD, environmental education and value orientation. It is broader concept taking into account the real social environment in terms of usual SD discourse and individual value orientation, not only direct influence of education on knowledge. The study rejected direct impact of the environmental education on knowledge and value orientation in terms of SD discourse among the students of economics. The findings bring several important questions regarding the effective forms of environmental education.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support of the Grant Agency of the University of South Bohemia (grant no. GA JU 067/2021/S). Work of Miloslav Lapka was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (grant no. GA19-10694S). The authors would like to thank Jan Vávra for comments on earlier version of this article and Justin Calvin Schaefer (both from the University of South Bohemia) for correcting the English.

Citation

Buchtele, R. and Lapka, M. (2022), "The usual discourse of sustainable development and its impact on students of economics: a case from Czech higher education context", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 1001-1018. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-02-2021-0067

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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