From awareness to participation: how curriculum innovation and participatory pedagogies foster SDG engagement in higher education

While higher education institutions play a crucial role in advancing the UN Agenda 2030 through transformative teaching methods, gaps remain in understanding the lack of empirical evidence on how participatory, sustainability-oriented pedagogies operate within the Middle Eastern, and particularly Saudi, higher education context. This study investigates how transformative pedagogies in Saudi higher education institutions promote sustainability competencies and well-being as measurable outcomes linked to SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 3 (student well-being) through a comprehensive approach that serves as an analytical framework encompassing curriculum innovation, extracurricular engagement, and community involvement, rather than a direct intervention. Utilizing Smart-PLS structural equation modeling on data from 353 female undergraduates in Saudi Arabia, this research shows that (1) a curriculum redesign aligned with SDGs significantly enhances sustainability awareness; (2) hands-on community initiatives encourage environmentally friendly actions; and (3) these factors collectively account for 28% of the improvement in well-being as captured through students' self-reported learning experiences and perceived well-being outcomes. The study contributes to the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) theory by providing empirical evidence of the vital role community-engaged learning plays in cultivating sustainability leadership. Practical findings indicate that institutions combining three transformative elements, interdisciplinary integration of the SDGs, participatory teaching methods, and local sustainability partnerships, achieve the most significant outcomes. This research proposes a practical implementation framework highlighting faculty development in experiential and participatory teaching methods as a key transferable component, alongside long-term competency assessment. Although contextualized to Saudi Arabia, the study's whole-institution approach offers transferable insights for promoting the global Agenda 2030 through higher education. The findings emphasize the synergistic benefits for both student development and societal sustainability objectives that arise from linking academic knowledge with community action. Future studies should explore cultural adaptations of this model in various governance contexts to further elucidate the relationship between transformative pedagogies and the cultivation of sustainability leadership.