| Abstract |
As part of a current research project on undergraduate students’ learning about economy and environment, this paper explores economics students’ reasoning about ‘responsibility’ in education. In higher education, the amount of economics courses including environmental issues and ethics is constantly increasing. However, recent reviews in the field of environmental education research have made clear that insufficient attention has been paid to students’ conceptions and learning in the realm of social science, as opposed to natural science. In the light of this situation, this paper report findings from a study on students’ reasoning about ‘responsibility’ concerning environmental and social aspects in business. The purpose of the paper is to describe the students’ different conceptions and ways of reasoning about these issues, focussing specially on the moral views on ‘responsibility’. The study that informs this paper was undertaken with 20 students at a course on ‘Sustainable management’ at the Stockholm School of Business. Questions for discussion were designed, including economical key concepts and issues related to environmental aspects of relevance to the business world. The analysis drew on concepts from research on students’ interpretations of learning activities, in particular the distinction between the task as presented by the teacher and the problem (or ‘project’) as understood by an individual student. Drawing on data, the paper will present the outcomes in terms of the students’ conceptions of business and the different ways ‘responsibility’ is perceived, for example, as a conflict of moral obligations and profit and feasibility. This paper is regarded as a contribution to the development of environmental education as a research-informed practice, focussing specially on the under-researched domain of the social sciences and environmental education. |
| Summary |
Extended Summary Aims In recent reviews in the field of environmental education research have made clear that insufficient attention has been paid to the subject domains within the social sciences, in comparison with subjects in the natural science domain (Rickinson, 2001. p. 307). In practice however, there is a growing amount of courses in higher education focussing environmental and sustainability issues in disciplines such as business and economics, law, political science, history and philosophy. In the light of this situation, this paper will report findings from a study that focused on economy and business students reasoning about ‘responsibility’ for the environment within companies given the situation of the global economy and production in the supply chain. The purpose of the paper will be to highlight the students’ conceptions of responsibility and the different ways companies are perceived to function. Methodology The study that informs this paper was undertaken with 20 students at a course on ‘Sustainable management - theory and practice’ at the Stockholm School of Business. In collaboration with the teacher questions for group discussions were designed, all including economical key concepts (‘supply and demand’, ‘outsourcing’, ‘supply-chain’), relating them to environmental and social aspects. The questions thus reflected current issues of relevance to business, which also have been addressed and debated in media. By designing the study in such a way the purpose was to explore the students’ reasoning and conceptions of economical and environmental issues, while at the same time creating a situation for the students to discuss and explore ‘real-life’ issues related to business. In this paper the students reasoning about responsibility in the supply-chain is presented, and the question for discussion was stated as follows: “Discuss the following questions regarding the supply-chain and environmental and social aspects. 1. What responsibility has a company that buys products from another company concerning environmental impact? If you think there is an aspect of responsibility - what does it concern? And how far down in the supply-chain is this responsibility an issue of concern? 2. If production is taking place in another country, and where production may have for example negative impact on nature, should that be of concern for the retailer?” The analysis drew on concepts from research on students’ interpretations of learning activities, in particular the distinction between the ‘task’ as presented by the teacher and the ‘problem’ (or ‘project’) as understood by an individual student (e.g., Hallden, 1988; Haglund, Hallden, Stromdalh, in press, Lundholm, 2003, 2004a,b; 2005, Lundholm & Rickinson, 2005, 2006). Outcomes Drawing on data in the form of tape-recorded and transcribed group discussions of six groups, different ways of reasoning will be presented. These different ways concern regarding ‘responsibility’ as: - an issue of morality, stated by the majority but not all students as being in conflict with the responsibility of production and economic interest. - a problem of feasibility concerning gaining information about suppliers. - a legislative issue. Laws are considered to solve the problem of information about suppliers, since the legal system has the authority to execute power and create a controlling system. Theoretical and educational significance This paper can be seen as a contribution to future educational debates and developments in two main ways. Firstly, business ethics regarding responsibility concerning environmental and social aspects is of growing recognition and an issue to deal with on a daily basis in many companies. Thus, courses and teaching of these aspects are emerging in higher education as in engineering programmes, economy programmes and programmes on leadership and organisation. The findings presented and discussed in this paper are therefore to be seen as contributing to the understanding of students’ conceptions and perspective in the teaching-learning situation. Secondly, the contribution of the paper is to raise the interest and further develop research focussing the social science domain and the moral dimension in environmental education. References Hallden, O. (1988). Alternative frameworks and the concept of task: cognitive constraints in pupils’ interpretations of teachers’ assignments, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 32, 123-140. Hallden, Haglund & Stromdahl (in press). Conceptions and context. On the interpretation on interview and observational data. Educational psychologist. Lundholm, C. (2003). Learning about environmental issues. Undergraduate and postgraduate students’ interpretations of environmental content. Unpublished PhD thesis, Stockholm University. (In Swedish) Lundholm, C. (2004a). Case studies – exploring students’ meaning and elaborating learning theories, Environmental Education Research, 10, 1, 115-124. Lundholm, C. (2004b). Learning about environmental issues in engineering programmes: a case study of first-year civil engineering students’ contextualisations of an ecology course, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 5, 3, 295-307. Lundholm, C. (2005) Learning about environmental issues. Undergraduate and postgraduate students’ interpretations of environmental content, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 6, 3, pp. 242-253. Lundholm, C. & Rickinson, M. (2005) Exploring students’ learning in Environmental Education. Paper presented at the 11th EARLI conference, 23-27 August, 2005, Cyprus. Lundholm, C & Rickinson, M. (2006) ’I didn’t really feel sorry for the trees, it was just something to write’: Exploring students’ learning in environmental education. Paper presented at the AERA conference, 7-11 April, 2006, San Francisco. Rickinson, M. (2001). Learners and learning in environmental education: a critical review of evidence. Special issue. Environmental Education Research, 7, 3, 207-317. |
