Social Sustainability in Higher Education

The project Social Sustainability in Higher Education is aimed at the development of a profession-specific competence profile of social sustainability for social work and nursing, as well as corresponding educational contents and forms.

Situation

The sustainability discourse often refers to ecological as well as economic aspects. Social sustainability as a third dimension is often neglected. In nursing as well as in social work, aspects of social sustainability are in the focus due to profession-related factors.

Course of action

In the first part, a definition of social sustainability was developed, and general and profession-specific questions and challenges were derived on the basis of a literature review, expert interviews and a qualitative analysis of these interviews. Subsequently, the results were presented in a workshop with teaching experts from the two departments, and initial ideas were gathered for the development of skills that should be taught in teaching and acquired by students during their studies. Based on these results, general and specific skills were developed, considering existing BFH documents (https://virtuelleakademie.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Komp-DE-neutral.pdf) and the taxonomy levels according to Bloom (see Volk, B., 2020). Volk, B. (2020). Ordnung von Lernzielen – Ordnung des Wissens. Die Bedeutung der Taxonomie von Bloom für die Wissenschaftlichkeit und Praxis der Hochschuldidaktik. In P. Tremp & B. Eugster (Eds.), Klassiker der Hochschuldidaktik? Kartografie einer Landschaft (pp. 219-233). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28124-3_13

Result

The literature shows that, in addition to economic and ecological sustainability, social sustainability is particularly concerned with social justice and the associated consideration of the vital interests of future generations. The aim is to preserve the livelihoods and security of all people. The following aspects were also identified from the analysis of the expert interviews. On the one hand, it emerges that the social aspects should always be considered in the context of the other two areas, the ecological and economic aspects, and that therefore an isolated consideration of these is not effective. The relevant associated concepts include social transformation, democracy against power inequality, global justice, and equal opportunities, as well as social participation and involvement. Concrete skills for action focus on offers at the individual level of professionals, patients and clients in the social and health support system, but also on transformation at the system level. Recommendations for teaching include, among other things, that social sustainability be explicitly brought to the fore, that the topic be integrated into as many existing modules as possible, and that the topics be addressed in an interprofessional way (e.g. nursing and social work). (See linked brochure, from mid-November 2024 - only in German).

Looking ahead

The project contributes to the clarification of the concept of social sustainability in higher education and the corresponding competencies of the two professions. The key findings are expected to contribute throughout the university to make the topic of social sustainability visible and anchored in education.

Contact

Dr. Christian Burr

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• +41 31 848 54 43
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This project contributes to the following SDGs

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