A Longitudinal Comparison of Sustainability Learning between Men and Women in Engineering and Nursing Programmes

Abstract

For many years, Higher education institutions have been engaging with sustainability, many focussing on environmental ones. In this context, two phenomena have arisen that have, usually, been studied separately: (1) engineering schools have been at the forefront of sustainability efforts; and (2) women have tended to be more concerned about of environmental sustainability than men are. This paper is aimed at analysing the differences in perception between engineering students and nursing students at the University of Gävle, Sweden. Engineering and nursing programmes are practice-oriented with different foci on sustainability and usually being dominated by male and female students, respectively. The data for this article were based on two surveys carried out during 2010 and 2013, in which the same students answered the same questions at the beginning and at the end of their studies. Principal component analysis and regressions were carried out to analyse the survey answers. The results show that engineering programmes and gender affect actions positively. The results also show that engineering students increased their sustainability performance significantly more than nursing students. To improve environmental sustainability, it is important to promote the presence of women in engineering schools, and at the same time, social science oriented programmes (such as nursing) could learn from the efforts and action taken by engineering schools, so that sustainability is taught and learnt in a more holistic way.

Sustainability in African higher education institutions (HEIs)

“…Table I describes the participants' academic backgrounds, with most originating from the natural sciences. The participants' academic backgrounds are, therefore, in line with the work of authors who have argued that sustainability activities in a higher education setting primarily stem from engineering and environmental sciences (Haartman et al, 2017;Kates, 2011;Reid and Petocz, 2006;Fien, 2002).…”

Analysing the factors affecting the incorporation of sustainable development into European Higher Education Institutions' curricula

“…Third, females tend to teach SD in a more balanced way than men, which may be linked to their higher awareness and interest in SD (see Von Haartman et al, 2017;Zelezny et al, 2000).…”

“…During the last decade, there has been an increase in sustainable development (SD) integration into Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) (Friman, Schreiber, Kokkonen, Mutanen, & Salminen, 2018;Holm, Sammalisto, Grindsted, & Vuorisalo, 2015), where European HEIs have been leaders in this process (Disterheft, Ferreira da Silva Caeiro, Ramos, & de Miranda Azeiteiro, 2012;Karatzoglou, 2013;Sepasi, Rahdari, & Rexhepi, 2018). It has been argued that, in this process, women have tended to be more concerned about environmental sustainability than men (Von Haartman, Sammalisto, R. Lozano, & Blomqvist, 2017;Zelezny, Chua, & Aldrich, 2000).…”

Conditions for Transformative Learning for Sustainable Development: A Theoretical Review and Approach

“…First: methodological individualism. The dominant model for learning presented within the sustainable development literature is that of the individual, who may learn 'facts' but also 'values' (e.g., [33]). There is, however, often a cognitive bias in this literature.…”