Suchergebnisse

Purpose
In Malaysia, research indicates that there is an interest amongst the stakeholders, namely, administrators and academicians to be engaged in education for sustainable development (SD), but it is rarely implemented as a part of the higher education curriculum due to various barriers. This paper aims to develop a framework for integrating SD concepts into the chemistry curriculum, using a case study approach.


Design/methodology/approach
This study was conducted at a local university located in Selangor, Malaysia, offering a foundation programme to students between 17 to 18 years of age. Data was collected using a qualitative approach that involved 12 experts as informants. The collected data was analysed via three coding stages, namely, open coding, category coding and thematic encoding using Atlas.ti 7.0 software.


Findings
The research revealed that six aspects contribute to the integration of SD concepts into the chemistry curriculum, namely, educational policy, awareness, resources, curriculum, pedagogical approach and stakeholders' engagement. The proposed framework was formulated by considering these aspects.


Originality/value
The findings of this study can be used as a guide to facilitate the integration of SD concepts into the chemistry curriculum. It is expected to encourage the involvement of more teachers in adopting sustainable chemistry teaching.

Purpose
Higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world are engaged in internationalisation efforts. Yet internationalisation per se is associated with significant pressures on the environment and environmental resources, which need to be addressed. This study aims to assess the opportunities, benefits and challenges associated with the internationalisation of universities at a global level.


Design/methodology/approach
A total of 27 relevant case studies were extracted from the literature to illustrate how HEIs worldwide are ensuring sustainability in their internationalisation efforts.


Findings
Through case studies of international HEIs, the study lists the opportunities, benefits and challenges associated with the internationalisation of universities at a global level and some of the measures that may be deployed to reduce the environmental impacts of their international activities.


Originality/value
This study provides a welcome contribution to the literature because it outlines some of the works taking place at universities, where matters related to sustainable development are considered against a background of internationalisation efforts.

Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the knowledge levels, attitudes and behaviours regarding the concept of sustainable development among pre-university programme educators, as well as the potential barriers and opportunities they face in adopting the concept of sustainable development in the teaching of the pre-university level chemistry module at a public university in Malaysia.


Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted with eight educators of a pre-university programme at a public university located in Selangor, Malaysia. This pre-university programme exposes students to advanced courses in science, which are very much like first-year university courses for candidates who are interested in gaining admission to degree programmes. For this study, the focus was on chemistry educators only. The collected data were analysed through descriptive analysis following which interviews were conducted with the respondents.


Findings
In general, the educators have good knowledge and attitudes towards the concept of sustainable development. Moreover, their projected knowledge (K), attitude (A) and behaviour (B) focus more on environmental dimensions, as opposed to other sustainable development dimensions. While the integration of the concept of sustainable development in chemistry teaching is restricted by a few barriers, such as content-based learning, lack of guidebooks related to sustainable development and an overcrowded curriculum, positive responses from the chemistry educators indicate that there are opportunities to implement sustainable chemistry concepts in the pre-university chemistry module.


Research limitations/implications
The present study was conducted with several limitations; the data were obtained from a small sample size at an institute located within a public university. The respondents of this research consisted of only three existing chemistry educators and five administrators who are also educators. Further studies about sustainable chemistry teaching should include samples from other public and private universities.


Originality/value
This paper is instrumental in assisting the Ministry of Education, administrators, as well as educators within the pre-university sector to shift their goals towards sustainable chemistry teaching to achieve success in education for sustainable development.

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of foundation chemistry learners concerning the sustainable development concept.Design/methodology/approachQualitative and quantitative studies were conducted. Atlas.ti software was used to analyse the chemistry curriculum based on selected themes and sub-themes. A survey was carried out involving 132 chemistry learners. The chemistry learners were students from a foundation programme in a local university located in Selangor, Malaysia. The collected data were analysed using SPSS 21.0 involving descriptive and inferential statistics.FindingsDocument analysis on the chemistry curriculum shows that water is the theme most covered in the chemistry learners' textbook, as compared to other themes. In general, the chemistry learners have good knowledge and attitude concerning the sustainable development concept. However, their knowledge and attitude do not reflect in their behaviour as an individual, as well as in the classroom. Moreover, their knowledge, attitude and behaviour focus more on environmental dimension, as compared to other sustainable development dimensions.Practical implicationsThis paper is instrumental in assisting educators to assess how chemistry learners perceive sustainable development, and this may help to bring about changes to improve chemistry teaching and learning processes towards education for sustainable development.Originality/valueThis paper is an original and novel research paper which is first conducted on sustainable development concept in chemistry curriculum in Malaysia.

Abstract
Background
This paper presents a review of the literature and trends related to social values and sustainable development and describes a set of case studies from a variety of community-based projects which illustrate the advantages that social values bring about as part of efforts to promote sustainability. Three approaches were used to develop this study: a bibliometric analysis of the topic "social values and sustainable development", an analysis of case studies that concretely present community projects addressing social values and sustainability, and the development of a framework linking up bibliometric clusters and the cases studies.

Results
While the bibliometric analysis revealed clusters where social values are strongly connected with sustainable development, the case studies indicated the lack of a common terminology and understanding of the relation between social values, sustainable development, and community-based projects.

Conclusions
The study concludes by suggesting a set of measures that could be deployed to better take social values into account when planning policies or making decisions related to community projects.

Purpose
It is still unclear how Asian universities incorporate the theory or practice of sustainable development (SD) in their research and education programmes. To address this gap, the purpose of this paper is to report on a study that has examined how universities in Asian countries handle and address matters related to SD.


Design/methodology/approach
The study used a bibliometric analysis and an online survey-method. The online survey data were analysed through descriptive analysis and one-sample student's t-test.


Findings
The study indicates that there is considerable variation among the Asian countries regarding sustainability practices in higher education institutions (HEIs). The HEIs in far eastern countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are perceived to demonstrate more sustainability practices.


Research limitations/implications
Even though a substantial number of participants participated in the survey, it did not cover all Asian countries. The online survey was carried out over a limited period of time, and not all HEIs in the field may have received information about the study.


Practical implications
Asia is the largest continent facing a number of sustainability challenges. In this context, the contribution of HEIs is very important. The findings of the current study may serve as a baseline for Asian HEIs to take more initiatives towards SD goals, as HEIs are responsible for the education and training of hundreds of thousands of students who will be occupying key positions in industry, government or education in the coming years.


Originality/value
The study contributes to the existing literature in two distinct ways. First, it was possible to develop a comprehensive instrument to measure sustainability practices in HEIs. Second, this study has filled the gap of the scarcity of studies regarding sustainability practices in HEIs in Asia.