Integrating Education for Sustainable Development in Teaching and the Student Experience

1. New to ESD?: Integrating Education for Sustainable Development in Teaching and the Student ExperienceHEA Workshop & Seminar Series Keele University 22nd January 2014Carole ParkesDirector Social Responsibility & Sustainability

2. Overview • Ethics, Social Responsibility & Sustainability • The role of Business & Management Education • Approach and philosophy of the Aston MBA • Reflections of 300+ students • The UN Global Compact Principles of • Responsible Management Education (PRME) • Aston's strategy in implementing PRME • Enablers and barriers

3. ECONOMIC VIABILITY SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY ETHICS ETHICS, RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY LEGAL COMPLIANCE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY WORKER’S RIGHTS POVERTY & WEALTH HUMAN RIGHTS Adapted from J Dillard

4. It’s all our fault! • Is it time to retrain B-Schools? (New York Times 15/3/09) • ‘Did poor teaching lead to crash? • Business Academics are accused of ignoring social and political questions (THE, 25/09/08) • ‘Leading business schools need to develop a different language and a new narrative to legitimise their function and to overcome their fascination with a particular form of finance and economics. Business schools need to broaden their intellectual horizons..’. (Ken Starkey)

5. Bad Management Theories Are Destroying Good Management Practices • SUMANTRA GHOSHAL • Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM), UK • and London Business School • Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2005, Vol. 4, No. 1, 75–91.

6. What is the purpose of business? • http://50plus20.org/film

7. Ethics, MBA’s & Business Schools • In 2002 survey of MBA students asked for definitions of business ethics at top US schools, all respondents described ethics in market terms • In 2007, same survey found that students had broader view of business responsibilities but maximising shareholder value • still far ahead, followed by customer satisfaction. • Environment very low priority • Main benefit of meeting social responsibilities – reputation and image

8. Most Students felt likely to encounter conflict between personal values and what they are asked to do in business • BUT…. • Majority of students do not feel their MBA programme prepares them for this • Where will they Lead? MBA student attitudes about • Business & Society • The Aspen Institute (2007)

9. ASTON MBA - Approach & Philosophy • 10 years ago MBA Review • Ethics included? Core or integrated? • What would it be called? • Single discipline or multi disciplinary? • Interdisciplinary approach (different disciplines pooling • their approaches and modifying them so that students • are required to understand a given subject from • multiple perspectives)

10. Learning that involves emotion and not just rational thinking and that promotes reflexivity and application • Students are required to reflect on their own organisational experience and write a reflective account of their own values and comment upon whether their future decision making and actions may be influenced by their studies • “Self reflective writing is hard work, it makes you confront the reality that you may not always act in line with. The assignments really made us think about how we would act”

11. Giving Voice to Values - Aspen Institute Business & Society Program & Yale School of Management, • Developing the skills, knowledge and commitment required to implement values-based leadership • Beyond awareness and ethical analysis and focuses on implementation • “What if I were going to act on my values? What would I say and do? How could I be most effective?”

12. Taught by staff drawn from across the Business School and include outside business professionals • “The diversity of the lecturers, each with their own area of expertise has afforded me a more detailed reflection on intellectually and mentally challenging issues.”

13. Experiential learning with ‘live’ cases written and • co facilitated business practitioners to contextualise ethical decision making • “Students are often pressured into defending their knowledge rather than exhibiting their thinking. We were taken out of the passive role and placed into an active, thinking mode”

14. Reflections of MBA students • 300+ reflections • Students from 30 plus countries with very different legal, social, cultural, philosophical (and theological) traditions • Analysis • Origin of own values/personal ethics • Experience of ethical dilemmas • Previous approaches/thought processes • Future impact/thought processes • Perceived barriers • Changes implemented/planned

15. Range of outcomes • Heightened sense of awareness about issues in the media and thinking about matters at a much deeper level • Thinking about everyday activities such as shopping and travelling in a way they had not done so before • Provided a vocabulary’ or ‘the confidence’ to raise issues and concerns ( ‘voice’ and ‘legitimacy’ important themes) • Highlighted matters of conscience and discussed ways of making a difference to future policies and practices

16. Implementing/planning changes in their place of work • Then there are those who said; • ‘without overstating the case – this module has changed my life’. • Very few report no change • Parkes, C. & Blewitt, J. (2011) “Ignorance was bliss, now I’m not ignorant and • that is far more difficult” Transdisciplinary learning and reflexivity in responsible • Management Education Journal of Global Responsibility Vol. 2 No. 2, 2011 pp.206-221

17. Principles • 1. Purpose: Developing student capabilities • 2. Values: Curriculum • 3. Method: Learning experiences • 4. Research: Conceptual and empirical research • 5. Partnership: Business connections • 6. Dialogue: Stakeholders • ‘We understand that our own organisational practices should serve as example of the values and attitudes we convey to our students’. • www.unprme.org

18. Implementation • Strategy • Commitment from the top – University & School • New roles • School/ University Activities • PRME – Strategic Lever • Curriculum • Complete review of UG and PG curriculum • The Social Responsibility and Sustainability Curriculum Reports • Aim: SR & S literate graduates • University wide curriculum group • New core UG modules • New component for placements • New MSc Social Responsibility & Sustainability

19. Partnership/ Dialogue • UK Universities ‘PRME’ Events • PRME ‘Champion – Global Leadership Team • Birmingham Centre for Business Ethics (BCBE) • Birmingham Social Inclusion Process • Sustainable Aston Working Group • Platinum Eco Campus Award • People & Planet Awards • 2010 (5th) • 2007 (93rd)

20. Aston Forward 2020 Strategy • Aim 07 Sustainability and social responsibility are issues our staff, students and stakeholders feel passionately about, and are central to how we work at Aston, and how we relate to the world around us. • Sustainability and social responsibility are based on ethical values and underpinned by the idea of economic, social and environmental obligations to our range of stakeholders http://www1.aston.ac.uk/about/strategy/ 

21. Aston Forward 2020 Strategy • 07.01 Commitment to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME). Improving the integration of sustainability and social responsibility by embedding our activities in this area into all aspects of University life.   • 07.03 Social responsibility and sustainability literacy. Extending across the University curriculum changes aimed at enabling all graduates to be ‘literate in social responsibility and sustainability.’

22. What have we learned and what still needs to be done? • University & School Systems & Processes • Resource allocation • Teaching loads • Recruitment • The spectre of the REF • Funding/ Cuts • Legitimacy