Lim, Y S; Xia, B; Skitmore, M; Gray, J and Bridge, A (2015) Education for sustainability in construction management curricula. International Journal of Construction Management, 15(4), pp. 321-331. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
In response to the call for sustainability education in construction courses, higher education institutions have started to incorporate sustainability components into their construction courses to some extent. This research aims to investigate sustainability embedded in construction management (CM) courses using the Queensland University of Technology as a case study. A content analysis of its CM course structure, unit aims, learning objectives and lecture materials is conducted to examine the sustainability elements incorporated into the CM curriculum. The results show that the course incorporates sustainability components into the existing course structure mainly through horizontal integration, embedding sustainability into general units rather than as an add-on subject. Additionally, the sustainability topics embedded in the course cover a comparatively broad and balanced range of sustainability categories, i.e. background knowledge, policies and regulations, environmental issues, social issues and economic issues as well as technology and innovation, although social sustainability aspects need to be further strengthened. This research addresses the need for urgency in the development of an effective sustainability education framework for construction courses. It is expected that the findings from this study will facilitate the improvement of sustainability education in construction courses generally.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Australia; content analysis; education for sustainability |
| Index terms: | higher education institution, environmental issue, regulation, Queensland, content analysis, social sustainability, sustainability education, case study, Australia, integration |
| Subjects: | communities and social development, organizational analysis, Geography, data analysis and analytics, educational innovation, data collection methods, educational institutions, environmental issues, political science |
| Topics: | Governance, Sustainability, Education, Stakeholder Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here