Research and Solutions: Sustainability: What's the Big Idea? A Strategy for Transforming the Higher Education Curriculum

The concept of sustainability is gaining mainstream currency in U.S. higher education. Currently the term is primarily associated with prescribed practices for individuals and campus operations. Although this association is positive, it limits the potential of the concept to integrate broadly across the curriculum. For sustainability to realize its full transformative potential in higher education and society, it must transcend an association with prescribed practices and even specialized areas of study. Sustainability must become a pedagogical big idea, capable of complementing and connecting avenues of inquiry across the academic disciplines that organize and prioritize teaching and learning on campus. If sustainability is employed as a method of examining the relationship between environmental limits and the human values, decisions, and actions that shape the future, it will transform not only what we do on campus, but also how we think.