Student-led action for sustainability in higher education: a literature review
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 8 August 2018
Issue publication date: 20 September 2018
Abstract
Purpose
Over the past few decades, universities have been recognized as ideal leaders for the development of policies and innovative solutions required to support the transition to sustainable societies. As a major stakeholder group, students play a significant role in moving this agenda forward; however, their actions remain understudied in the sustainability in higher education (SHE) literature.
Design/methodology/approach
In response, this systematic literature review was conducted to determine what research has been done on student-led action for SHE.
Findings
Findings demonstrate that while students are an understudied stakeholder group, there is a growing focus in the SHE literature on their contributions. The results suggest that students are working to increase the uptake of SHE through multi-stakeholder collaborations, collective action and interdisciplinarity. This review identifies a lack of engagement with intersectionality (interrelated environmental and social issues) and highlights the need to redirect future SHE research, calling for increased comparative research studies and research syntheses to provide greater depth to our understanding of student-led initiatives.
Research limitations/implications
This literature review is limited by the smaller sample size of articles; however, conclusions can nonetheless be drawn from these results to guide future scholarship. Implications exist for theoretical contributions to social movement theories and theories of organizational change for SHE.
Originality/value
This research provides insight into student-led action for SHE and how their efforts might better be supported to encourage the increased integration of SHE.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to sincerely thank the reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive feedback to improve this manuscript. She would like to specially thank Dr Marcia McKenzie and Dr Maureen Reed for their support through the process of this review, helpful edits and ongoing guidance.
Funding details: This publication was partially supported by the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (SEPN), supported by a Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Grant No 895-2011-1025, Principal Investigator Dr Marcia McKenzie). For more information, visit SEPN.ca.
Citation
Murray, J. (2018), "Student-led action for sustainability in higher education: a literature review", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 19 No. 6, pp. 1095-1110. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-09-2017-0164
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited