Implications of Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
This section will describe the general perspective of the chapter and end by specifically stating the objective. As part of the edited volume ‘Implications of Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Teaching, Learning and Assessment’, this chapter will form part of a collection of research that will provide insights regarding the implications of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for educational practice of the applied developmental science of teaching, learning, and assessment in higher education (Darling-Hammond, Flook, Cook-Harvey, Barron, & Osher, 2020). ESD empowers learners to make informed decisions and take responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations, promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion, which, according to Meletiadou (2022f), “are at the forefront of current” discussions, as these issues had “become an international concern for” e.g., politicians, government agencies and social activists. ESD aims at developing competencies that foster reflective thinking, taking into account current and future social, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts, from local and global perspectives. ESD has to be understood as an integral part of quality education that promotes lifelong learning. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can and should consider it their responsibility to deal intensively with issues in, for example, distance education and foster the development of educational sustainability competencies (Sherry, 1995). ESD provides an education that matters and is truly relevant to every student in the light of the challenges related to e-learning systems from higher educational institutions’ perspective (Shahmoradi, et al., 2018). The purpose and objectives of this chapter, as part of the edited volume, are to respond to the needs of learners of any context and background, practitioners, educators, teacher educators, policymakers, administrators, program planners, educational managers, educational leaders, and researchers through a relevant case study that includes sound pedagogical and content knowledge. As one of the chapters of this book, it will explore the impact of the effective use of mobile technologies by first year students amid the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, using a situational analysis and active theory, on learning in Africa (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2021). Moreover, this study will unveil intersectional problems and educational inequality between ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’ at the Rundu campus of the University of Namibia (UNAM), as these higher education students are moving from disruption to recovery (UNESCO, 2020). The study aims at examining how the interventions of distance and/or online learning are exclusive, exposing many, especially first year, students to educational inequality (Belay, 2022). The study reported on by the latter author was situated in rural Ethiopia against the background of global risk and contingency management research in times of crisis.
In the proceedings of the 26th Conference of the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE), Goosen (2018a) argued that sustainable and inclusive quality education can be achieved through research-informed practice on Information and communication Technologies (ICTs). Therefore, the socio-cultural implications of sustainable development in higher education in terms of linking theoretical understanding and practical experiences of using ESD-informed teaching, learning and assessment practices in cyberspace will be considered towards making a valuable contribution in terms of new directions to the fields of higher, adult and continuing education (Conceição, 2002).
Target Audience
Like the target audience of this book, that of the chapter consists of researchers, practitioners, educators, teacher educators, policymakers, administrators, program planners, educational managers, and educational leaders in higher education, who are interested in the fields of teaching, learning, assessment, and sustainability in higher education at large.