Abstract:

In these last decades, many OCDE countries have experienced economic growth without precedents, although accompanied by increasing inequality and pollution problems (OECD, 2004). The sustainability paradigm approaches the link with economic, social and environmental objectives.

We consider that the higher education should help future professionals become aware of the importance of their actions and forge a sustainable relationship with the natural and social system that surrounds them (Luffiego and Rabadán, 2000; Collazo and Geli, 2017).

This shift towards sustainable development requires a profound transformation of our way of thinking and acting, but necessary in view of the major challenges imposed by the processes of technological development and globalization, which demand a greater critical and innovative capacity to face them. In short, higher education needs to train people to be ‘citizens for sustainability’ (Wals, 2015; UNESCO, 2017).

According to Coque, Ortega and Sianes (2012), the university must be a global formative space, which fosters human critical, scientific and rigorous development for the understanding of the world from the connection of different disciplines.

As lecturers, we want to participate in the construction of a better world and we believe that the approach and principles of sustainability can contribute to this end, training students for action and change (Aznar, Ull, Piñero, and Martínez-Angut, 2007; García-González, Jiménez-Fontana and Navarrete, 2017).

The approach of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), thus, empowers students to make conscious decisions and act responsibly upon environmental integrity, economic viability and just society for present and future generations ( UNESCO, 2017: 7).

Since the competencies are acquired during the action, based on experience and reflection (UNESCO, 2015), lecturers should place students as the centre of this learning process in order to successfully introduce this approach. To this aim, participatory and active methodologies, which favour discussion and dialogue in the classroom, as well as teamwork, become necessary.

In addition, the competences for sustainability should prepare students to face different uncertain situations related to socio-environmental problems that will occur in professional and personal contexts (Wiek, Withycombe, and Redman, 2011). Therefore, the development of specific competencies should be combined with transversal ones.

The main objective of this study is to unveil the crucial role that higher education plays in the achievement and development of critical skills, attitudes and competencies in future professional managers in the field of sustainability under the approach of Education for Sustainable Development (EDS). For that objective, we present different changes done in the learning objectives, and teaching contents, resources and methodology of an introductory subject to information systems in the degrees of Business Administration, Economics and Accounting in Universitat Jaume I.

Our methodological proposal guarantees that students who enter the labour market have an integral combination of knowledge, attitudes and skills to satisfactorily address the challenges posed by the sustainability paradigm.

Keywords:

Education for Sustainable Development, Higher Education, New Teaching Experiences, Sustainability Paradigm, Information Management Systems.