Teaching sustainability as a contested concept: capitalizing on variation in engineering educators' conceptions of environmental, social and economic sustainability

Carew, AL; Mitchell, CA

Teaching sustainability as a contested concept: capitalizing on variation in engineering educators' conceptions of environmental, social and economic sustainability

Carew, AL Mitchell, CA

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Journal of Cleaner Production, 2008, 16 (1), pp. 105 - 115
Issue Date:: 2008-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Carew, AL	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Mitchell, CA https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9842-540X	en_US
dc.date.issued	2008-01-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Journal of Cleaner Production, 2008, 16 (1), pp. 105 - 115	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0959-6526	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/9405
dc.description.abstract	This study documents variation in engineering academics conceptions of sustainability. We investigated how a group of Australian engineering academics described environmental, social and economic sustainability, and identified a broad range of actions that participating academics associated with achieving sustainability. The study suggested marked variation in the actions that participating academics viewed as coherent with sustainable engineering practice, and therefore, potentially marked variations in the sustainability actions academics might advocate to their undergraduate students. Rather than framing this variation as problematic for teaching and learning sustainable engineering, we suggest that such variation in conception of sustainability, and explicit contestation of this variation in the engineering classroom, offers opportunities to enrich undergraduate sustainability learning and teaching. We develop this argument by using some generic environmental, economic, and social theoretical frameworks to characterize the differences according to the values and assumptions that may underpin the observed variation. Validated frameworks are useful to move beyond discussions based on 'opinion', because they provide a framework for critical reflection by engineering students and academics about the values and assumptions that inform engineering practice generally and sustainable engineering practice, particularly. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Journal of Cleaner Production	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.11.004	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Environmental Sciences	en_US
dc.title	Teaching sustainability as a contested concept: capitalizing on variation in engineering educators' conceptions of environmental, social and economic sustainability	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	1	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	16	en_US
utslib.for	0907 Environmental Engineering	en_US
utslib.for	0910 Manufacturing Engineering	en_US
utslib.for	0915 Interdisciplinary Engineering	en_US
dc.location.activity	ISI:0002504658	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/DVC (Research)
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/DVC (Research)/Institute For Sustainable Futures
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - ISF - Institute for Sustainable Futures
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.issue	1	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	16	en_US

Abstract:

This study documents variation in engineering academics conceptions of sustainability. We investigated how a group of Australian engineering academics described environmental, social and economic sustainability, and identified a broad range of actions that participating academics associated with achieving sustainability. The study suggested marked variation in the actions that participating academics viewed as coherent with sustainable engineering practice, and therefore, potentially marked variations in the sustainability actions academics might advocate to their undergraduate students. Rather than framing this variation as problematic for teaching and learning sustainable engineering, we suggest that such variation in conception of sustainability, and explicit contestation of this variation in the engineering classroom, offers opportunities to enrich undergraduate sustainability learning and teaching. We develop this argument by using some generic environmental, economic, and social theoretical frameworks to characterize the differences according to the values and assumptions that may underpin the observed variation. Validated frameworks are useful to move beyond discussions based on 'opinion', because they provide a framework for critical reflection by engineering students and academics about the values and assumptions that inform engineering practice generally and sustainable engineering practice, particularly. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/9405