Abstract:

Recent works on Business & Sustainability education have acknowledged the importance of engaging students emotionally for a more effective learning (e.g. Montiel et al., 2017; Shephard, 2008; Shrivastava, 2010). For example, according to Shrivastava (2010) the instruction of Business & Sustainability topics should be strongly based in a holistic pedagogy, that is, a pedagogy that promotes and integrates cognitive learning with emotional learning.

However, the business curriculum has tended to promote a cognitive learning overlooking the emotional learning that is intrinsic to corporate sustainability (Shephard, 2008). Business & Sustainability education has been generally devoted to help students understand cognitively how to manage companies in a more sustainable way, for example using sustainability as a managerial decision criterion.

However, if emotional learning is needed to create more responsible leaders, it seems logical that Business & Sustainability education paids more attention to the emotions and values that can trigger more responsible practices in the organizational context (Shrivastava, 2010). In addition, Starik et al. (2010) warns that more knowledge is needed on how widely used teaching methods can be used to promote a more holistic learning and on teaching materials that could elicit emotions on students, the responsible leaders of the future.

This study proposes a classroom methodology that can be implemented to teach Business & Sustainability to promote both cognitive learning and emotional learning. Drawing on the theoretical framework proposed by Montiel et al. (2017), we propose specific examples of news that can be used in the classroom to elicit emotions and foster the development of the diverse of cognitive and emotional skills that are required for an effective learning of corporate.

We hope this study contributes to the development and implementation of good teaching practices for updating and improving Business & Sustainability education, a topic that is transversally promoted at higher level education institutions and that due to the severity of environmental challenges is an urgent issue.

References:
[1] Montiel, I, Antolin-Lopez, R. & Gallo, P. (2017). Emotions and sustainability: A literary genre based framework for environmental sustainability management education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, published online.
[2] Shephard, K. (2008). Higher education for sustainability: seeking affective learning outcomes. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(1), pp. 87-98.
[3] Shrivastava, P. (2010). Pedagogy of passion for sustainability. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 9(3), pp. 443-455.
[4] Starik, M., Rands, G., Marcus, A.A., & Clark, T. S. (2010). From the guest editors: in search of sustainability in management education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 9(3), pp. 377-383.

Keywords:

Sustainability, emotional learning, teaching methods.