An analysis of the difficulties associated to sustainability insertion in engineering education: Examples from HEIs in Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to understand how the difficulties associated to the insertion of sustainability in engineering education are related. From the literature review, eleven difficulties were compiled and posteriorly, a panel of experts was conducted to divide them in two groups, named "difficulties associated with structure and planning" and "difficulties observed in didactic practice". These groups were used as a base of a questionnaire by survey, with lecturers who work with sustainability in engineering courses. The collected data were analysed through Structural Equation Modeling. A causal relationship between the two groups was verified through the present research, that is, the greater the difficulties associated with the structure and planning, the greater will be the difficulties observed in didactic practice. The results of this paper may be used by researchers in their future studies and by lecturers and coordinators as a guide to the insertion of sustainability in engineering education. The authors believe that these results may contribute to the engineering education improvement.

Some of the challenges in implementing Education for Sustainable Development: perspectives from Brazilian engineering students

“…Much is said in the need for the training of engineers to provide them with critical analysis and a vision that considers the impacts of their decisions in the long term and globally (Adomßent et al 2014;Holm et al 2015;Lazzarini et al 2018;Pérez-Foguet et al 2018;Thürer et al 2018). Despite the broad debate in the academic community about these needs in the training of new engineers (Ortega-Sánchez et al 2018;Rampasso et al 2018;Thürer et al 2018), there are many challenges for the integration of sustainability into a truly transformative education (Davim and Filho 2016;Rampasso et al 2018). Rampasso et al (2018) in their research, sought to analyse the perception of 112 professors about the main difficulties associated with the insertion of sustainability contents in engineering courses, in Brazil.…”

“…Despite the broad debate in the academic community about these needs in the training of new engineers (Ortega-Sánchez et al 2018;Rampasso et al 2018;Thürer et al 2018), there are many challenges for the integration of sustainability into a truly transformative education (Davim and Filho 2016;Rampasso et al 2018). Rampasso et al (2018) in their research, sought to analyse the perception of 112 professors about the main difficulties associated with the insertion of sustainability contents in engineering courses, in Brazil. These authors validated the hypothesis that challenges in the planning phase of actions related to sustainability teaching reflect the challenges in the didactic activities of this teaching.…”

Teaching sustainable urbanism in the higher school: theoretical and methodological approaches

“…Fourth, we believe that the educational program on sustainable development should also focus on (a) transformational processes aimed at intra-urban space in order to achieve urban sustainable development, including social, economic, political, and environmental aspects of such transformation processes; (b) to achieve an understanding of the impact of human activities on the urban environment [6]. For example, different economic activities of people (in industry, agriculture, transport) have a different impact on the territorial development of the city.…”

Incorporation of Sustainability Concepts into the Engineering Core Program by Adopting a Micro Curriculum Approach: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia

“…Implementing the ideas of sustainability, technical training is no longer enough to meet the needs of the society. Therefore, it is necessary to develop engineers who along with technical knowledge, also have a critical sense regarding the social and environmental aspects of their profession [12,13]. Accordingly, sustainability needs to be central to the design of curricula in higher education.…”

“…Many international declarations are regarded as landmarks for including sustainability into higher education, especially EESD (Engineering Education for Sustainable Development) and the Barcelona Declaration. Recognizing the variety of possible applied situations, the apprehension about incorporating sustainability into engineering courses has become an even more serious concern for curriculum development [13].…”