Cross-cultural transformative learning: Fostering sustainability mindsets among business school students

Abstract

We are facing urgent sustainability challenges owing to climate change. Considering the social and environmental crisis resulting from it, higher education institutions are called upon prepare current and future generations to meet their needs through a more balanced approach to the economic,
social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Universities and business schools worldwide are increasingly seeking to explore concrete approaches to incorporating sustainability into their curriculum and operations (Rusinko, 2010; Holt, 2003; Kopnina, 2014; Thürer et al., 2018).
However, traditional teaching methods in Higher Education have been proven to be inefficient to trigger a true change of mindset among students and only a transformative learning experience can lead to a change. Through a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project we show the
mind-set transformation that students face when working with integrating sustainable development into the education through a global and collaborative perspective.