Educação para sustentabilidade em escolas de administração de empresas: a perspectiva de coordenadores acadêmicos no Brasil

• Ano de defesa: 2011
• Autor(a) principal: Gathas, Sandra Lays
• Orientador(a): Brunstein, Janette
• Banca de defesa: Beduschi Filho, Luiz Carlos , Marcondes, Reynaldo Cavalheiro , Jacobi, Pedro Roberto
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Administração de Empresas
• Departamento: Administração
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: sustentabilidade; educação para sustentabilidade; escolas de administração; administradores acadêmicos
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: sustainability, education for sustainability, business schools; academic administrators
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS SOCIAIS APLICADAS::ADMINISTRACAO
• Link de acesso: http://dspace.mackenzie.br/handle/10899/23380

One of the reasons for the rising interest in education for sustainability among business schools is the belief that it has a central role in the education of a new generation capable of thinking and acting by principles that go beyond the economic reasons. In the international academic sphere studies have grown in number as well as in diversity of approaches. Despite the global scenario, the discussion of sustainability in higher education in Brazil is still under disseminated in practices that integrate education, environment and society as well as in the literature supporting the academic debate. Thus, the present study objective was to discuss the meanings of education for sustainability in higher education and the consequences for the education of the future generation of business administrators. The intention was to reflect upon the experiences of the directors and deans of undergraduate courses on the integration of sustainability in business education in the context of Brazilian universities, promoting a debate on its specificities, difficulties and advances in contrast to the international context. To achieve its objective, a basic qualitative study was conducted with 17 business schools in the north, south and southeast of Brazil. The data collection strategy included interviews and document analysis. It starts with a discussion of sustainability, based on the works of Sachs (1995), Wright (2004) and Shriberg (2002). After that a discussion of the international literature on education for sustainability reviews European, North and Latin American, South-Pacific, African and Brazilian researchers. At the end the works of Down (2006), Beringer (2007), Beringer, Wright e Malone (2008), Lozano-García, Huisingh and Fabián (2009) are explored to present the experiences of integrating sustainability into higher education. The results indicate that at one side the insertion of sustainability in the business schools curricula has shown advances in the last years. Experiences are being conducted in most of the studied schools in terms of curricula, research, community extension, student opportunities, academic staff development, inclusion of sustainable goals in the vision and mission declarations and even in the university governance and administration. At the other side, the experiences show there is still a distance from meaningful changes that may affect the presuppositions of the business education. It is important to mention this scenario is not a prerogative of the Brazilian context, as studies of Calder e Clugston (2003), Tauchen and Brandli (2006) and others indicate this is an international issue. Nonetheless, this does not minimize the need for a significant effort from the Brazilian schools for the advancement of alternative models towards an education for sustainability.