Each volume in this series offers analysis and contextual guidelines on ethics in education with contributions from authors from around the world. The series has been conceived to appeal to students and professionals alike, providing a blend of approaching values-based education for life-long learning and concrete examples of the development of ethical standards in universities. There is a particular focus on fostering global citizenship using open education models and distance learning possibilities.

Recent Submissions

  • Creating and communicating value through integrated reporting : findings emerging from action research in five European HEIs

    Robertson, Fiona (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    If ever there was a time to conclude that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to integrate sustainability into their strategic planning processes it is now. HEIs have been grappling with climate change for many years and it appears inevitable that COVID-19 will have an enduring impact on the way HEIs think about the value that they create for a range of different stakeholders. To be successful in this new, ever-changing world, HEIs will need to clearly identify the drivers of value in an academic setting and communicate how they create value for a variety of stakeholders both now and in the future. This paper draws on the role that Integrated Reporting (IR) can play in strategic planning and enhancing connections between management practice, value creation and reporting. According to the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), Integrated Reporting (IR) is the concise communication about how an organization's strategy, governance, performance, and prospects lead to the creation of value over the short, medium, and long term. It helps to bring the different stakeholders of a HEI into the same arena when it comes to understanding impacts and outcomes and clearly illustrates the value created by an HEI in terms of multiple capitals. This is much deeper and wider than value for money. It is about understanding the relationships between the resources available to a university, the stakeholders impacted by the activities of the institution, and the consequent creation (or destruction) of value across multiple capitals. Despite the clear benefits associated with IR, many organisations face considerable barriers associated with implementing the IIRC framework. In this study we use action research to explore and bridge the strategy-implementation gap in five HEIs in five different European countries as they seek to develop their first prototype IR as part of an Erasmus+ funded project (ISSUE). The analysis draws on data collected by each HEI including stakeholder analysis, various planning documents, questionnaires and qualitative data collected through a variety of face to face and e-meetings during the IR development period. The analysis draws on comparisons to identify similarities and differences between the approaches, analysis, and experiences of the participating HEIs. This research contributes to the improvement of the knowledge base associated with the understanding of the implementation of IR in an HEI context and provides evidence-based intelligence to inform practice and help to bridge the implementation gap.
  • Finding a voice : SDGs, ethical identity and the curriculum

    Robinson, Simon; Arrigoni, Adalberto (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    The first part of this chapter briefly examines SDGs education research suggesting that – even though a wide range of initiatives in the field of responsible management education have been put in place – the level of integration of responsibility and sustainability into professional and managerial education/HE is still insufficient. This is reinforced by research into professional ethics which suggests that recent graduates do not effectively identify with the ethical values of organisational or professional ethics, and thus have little commitment to such values in practice. This leads to a focus on the key modes of responsibility, and the three practices which undergird the development of responsibility: deliberation, narrative development, and dialogue. The second part sets out the principles behind an integrated approach to ethics teaching in HE, which focuses on the practice of responsibility, accountability and creative responsibility, as key to learning in general and to ethical development in particular. This is embodied in pedagogy for critical moral consciousness focused in: critical reflection; holistic decision making; dialogue (engaging complexity and difference); mutual accountability; and the exercise of the moral imagination. These stresses both the development of ethical autonomy and positive engagement with plural community (be those professions, institutions, such as universities, or intermediate organisations such as religions) but also the nature of learning. This also from the basis for leadership at all levels of the organisation and beyond. The third and largest part of the chapter will set how ethical identity can be developed in the curriculum, involving a fourfold strategy and related examples of teaching:-Establishing with the parent university key curriculum outcomes focused on responsibility and key ethical virtues. This will detail how virtues such as courage relate to intellectual and psychological virtues, and thus to employability; -Developing ethical teaching based in identity, with modules or parts of modules over three years focused in student identity, professional identity, global identity, and how these relate to personal identity; -Developing pedagogy which focuses on the practice of mutual dialogue and decision making. The pedagogic examples will include student dialogue with university administrators, different professions, and community stakeholders;-Developing integration with the other modules in the curriculum, e.g. through focus across modules on the same professional decision making frameworks, and skills of reflective practice. The examples given will focus on a holistic view of professional practice and ethics through reflection on identity and practice, offering an account of how ethical behaviour can be motivated in the learning environment, and link directly to the SDGs.
  • Educational social responsibility in the practice : new pathways in Argentina's training of principals

    Durand, Julio César; Pujadas, Carlos; Laguto, Sebastián (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    Promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) requires institutional engagement of the whole school community and especially of the Principals and school heads. Educational Social Responsibility (ESR) constitutes a high-impact approach for the management of educational institutions aligned with ESD vision. Resolution 72/222 (2017) of the United Nations General Assembly recognized that ESD is an integral element of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) and decisively enables the achievement of all other SDGs (UNESCO, Framework for the implementation of ESD after 2019, n.1). In the training of directors of educational institutions in Argentina and Latin America there is a gap in relation to ESD. We present two initiatives of higher education institutions that seek to fill this vacancy: a postgraduate degree for principals of educational institutions that includes the ESR approach and a joint award between a State and a private university that recognizes best practices in schools. We analyzed the project proposals presented by principals and school heads attending de ESR seminar and asked them to reflect on the real impact and improvement opportunities in institutional management. We also present the impact of the ESR award in the community and the contribution to improve the knowledge of SDG.
  • Actioning 'Be Good' : how Torrens University Australia's research contributes to sustainable development goals and impacts communities and practices

    Baker, Mandi (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    Sustainability is an important agenda embedded in Torrens University Australia (TUA)'s research strategy. To illustrate how Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets are addressed by Torrens University researchers, this chapter identifies real-world problems and reports on research that has delivered sustainable change. The four case studies presented in this chapter demonstrate impactful research on education, health, and business contexts. These studies show how to address challenges unique to these contexts and implement sustainable improvements. A strategic priority of TUA is to provide research and education outcomes that improve people's health and wellbeing. To 'be good' and 'be well' are core TUA values. These institutional values influence the research process and assessment of research impact at TUA. The 'Be Good' agenda shapes the university's interdisciplinary approach to addressing quality education (SDG 4). Notably, TUA's intentional prioritisation of access and equity values in research enables multiple SDGs to be addressed, as identified within the case studies reported in this chapter. TUA's research strategy encourages such studies that develop sustainable solutions, by promoting research focused on helping people and their communities enact positive and enduring change.
  • South African business schools SDG integration : MBA curricula, research, and partnerships

    Oosthuizen, Jacobus H. (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    Business schools have an important role to play in developing future leaders of business and industry, and more specifically, to encourage the emergence of socially responsible behaviour in companies whilst simultaneously enhancing corporate performance. Unfortunately, business schools are facing criticism regarding the capabilities they claim to impart. Among this criticism are views of business schools failing to impart suitable skills, prepare leaders, or instil norms of ethical behaviour; that business schools have historically inculcated depraved values contributing to the unethical behaviour visible in most corporate boardrooms and public policy formulation. Many are of the view that business schools give too little attention to ethics and values-based leadership, and that more need to be done in terms of ethics and socially responsible leadership and behaviour. In 2007, the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), an UN-supported initiative, was founded to raise the profile of sustainability in schools around the world through Six Principles to which business schools commit to ensure they provide future leaders with the skills needed to balance economic and sustainability goals, while drawing attention to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). If South African business schools pursue the objective of building intellectual capital for the country and industries, and providing knowledge relevant to sustainable business management practice, demonstrable commitment to the SDGs in relation thereto should be paramount. The question then beckons to what extent South African Business Schools integrate the SDGs into MBA curriculua, research, and partnerships. By running the information of South African business schools' mission, vision, values, and MBA curricula found in the public domain through the "Linked SDG" application, this paper sets out to answer this question. The application extracts key concepts related to sustainable development from text documents and linking them to the most relevant sustainable development goals, targets, indicators, and series. The aim of the investigation is to highlight the SDGs with limited foci by SA business schools, and to propose recommendations for improving SA business schools SDG Integration into MBA curriculum, research, and partnerships.
  • Challenging violence, building a culture of peace : experiences and lessons from the Center for Peace Education-Miriam College

    Nario-Galace, Jasmin; Pabotoy, Arlyssa Bianca (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    The Philippines is faced with various threats to peace and security: poverty, economic instability, violent extremism, inequality, war, community, and gender-based violence, among others. In 2020, the country ranked 129th of 163 in the World Peace Index, due primarily to high levels of internal conflict, extrajudicial killings, militarization, and vulnerability to the climate crisis. The Center for Peace Education (CPE)-Miriam College is an advocacy center that promotes the building of a culture of peace through its education, advocacy, women and youth organizing, and networking programs. CPE's theory of change is that reduction of violence and a culture of peace can be achieved when people develop the will to address local and global problems, have the skills to resolve conflicts, and work collaboratively and nonviolently for justice, equality and human dignity. This article describes how peace education, interfaith dialogue, advocacy for arms control and disarmament, and the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security and Youth, Peace and Security Agenda have helped change mindsets and attitudes of indifference, passivity and aggression to those supportive of action that will challenge various forms of violence. Data used were drawn from interviews, project evaluations, surveys, focus group discussions, tracer studies, and personal observations and experiences.
  • Responsible consumption and production (RCP)

    Coria, I. Daniel; Hernández Guiance, Sabrina (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    The University of Centro Educativo Latinoamericano (UCEL), related to the Argentina Methodist Evangelical Church (IEMA), works responsibly and with commitment to achieve the United Nations’Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and has the SDG 12 in particular focus.
  • Decent work and economic growth : imperatives and responsibilities for higher education to drive positive and practical change

    Ngambi , Hellicy; Nthoesane, Meiya G. (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    Institutions of higher learning are revered as a force to drive change in society. Arguably, by both their ability and capacity to question the status quo through intense research and knowledge production and by transforming societies through empowering students. Noble as it sounds, the question that the institutions of higher learning of the 21st century should ponder lies in their ability and willingness to drive economic growth and advance the attainment of Goal 8 of the SDGs.This is more so critical on the backdrop of COVID-19 ravaged economies. The calamities resulting in the current spate of the pandemic further threatens the attainments and prioritisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is more so pronounced in the Sub Saharan Africa and in countries like Zambia in particular. This reality demands for pragmatic solutions driven by focused leadership. Based on this realisation Mulungushi University positioned itself, both philosophically and practically as an institution of higher learnin hat develop targeted future looking scenarios for driving sustainable creation of livelihoods, through a myriad of work creation and entrepreneurship initiatives. This chapter, therefore outlines a near decade long period of how the University, transformed its systems and put in motioned a strategy that positively enhanced decent work and participated in economic growth, at the least of the Central Province of Zambia situated in Kabwe, thus actively ensuring the attaining of the SDGs.
  • Deignan Award of Responsible Entrepreneurship : exploring the ethical underpinnings of a proposed award in the context of the United Nations sustainability goals

    Rothlin, Stephan (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    The article discusses a proposed "Deignan Award for Responsible Entrepreneurship", "DARE," by examining the economic theory and empirical methods, with a special attention to the ethical presuppositions, underpinning DARE. Given the overall focus on the achievement of the UN Sustainability Goals, the article argues that Compliance based administrative approaches need to be supplemented with intrinsic motivation through awards like DARE. These offer incentives for businesspeople and key stakeholders to freely embrace and compete for the achievement of the UN Sustainability goals as well as to maintain a focus on the genuine meaning of core issues of Responsible Entrepreneurship. This approach maintains the importance of compliance but argues that it needs to be supplemented by intrinsic motivation which may be especially relevant in an Asian Confucian context where "walking the talk" and setting the tone from the top play a decisive role within strictly hierarchical settings, prone to widespread corruption. Awards like DARE may in fact play a modest but significant role in shaping a new economic paradigm oriented towards the common good, contrasted with a reductive model of economics and finance focused exclusively on profit maximization, economic growth, monetary rewards, and cost cutting, coupled with a questionable rhetoric about Corporate Social Responsibility which may easily be abused as a tool for PR unfettered by either proper oversight or mechanisms supporting transparency.
  • Architecture studios for sustainable cities and communities : a radically inclusive perspective : a response to SDG 11 : sustainable cities and communities

    Delport, Hermie; Morkel, Jolanda; Gorman, Michele (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    "Sustainability is not just about energy efficiency, but rather a complex and overarching multidisciplinary field that requires appropriate expertise, as well as a moral obligation and an opportunity for inspired architecture." (Almonte (ed).2012:17) Cities are collectives of buildings that "are complex socio-technical entities, embedded in a social–cultural–economic–climatic context" (Passe 2020:566). The design and development of cities and hence the quality of lives of resident communities are directly impacted by the practices of the architectural profession.Our aim with this chapter is to explore the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within architectural education with specific attention given to the architectural studio. Although there have been many actions taken and attempts made to include sustainability in architectural curricula and guidelines provided for the inclusion of the SDGs there is limited research that provides a perspective of sustainability in architectural schools globally. Our perspective is from the position of the Radically Inclusive Studio (Gorman et al.2021) which we conceptualise as part of the cities and communities and ultimately the world that we live in. The Radically Inclusive Studio is not an isolated space, but forms part of an ecosystem, defined as "a system of people, content, technology, culture, and strategy, existing both within and outside … which has an impact on both … formal and informal learning" (Eudy 2018:3), in which it supports and is simultaneously supported. We present the Radically Inclusive Studio and its structuring 6S Conceptual Framework of Inclusive Contexts (Gorman et al. in-press) as a theoretical framework for conceptually (re)organising the SDGs and for exploring the Radically Inclusive Studio principles that could serve as guidelines for sustainable development in architectural and other education. We use an integrative literature review to investigate articles, books, and other published texts with the "aim to assess, critique, and synthesize the literature ... in a way that enables new theoretical frameworks and perspectives to emerge" (Snyder 2019:335). We include sustainable architectural solutions from both practice and education to present an overview of how architectural projects address the SDGs. As authors we present aspects of our own work and we propose that the pedagogic principles of the Radically Inclusive Studio could serve as a guideline for sustainable development education.
  • Reassessing African higher education and the 13th sustainable goal (Climate Action) : unpacking salient contributions

    Msafiri, Aidan G. (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    Fundamentally, the 2030 Global Agenda for Sustainable Development encapsulated with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's), occasions a powerful architecture for a new revolutionary global lifestyle and for earth communities locally and globally. This book chapter has a three-fold purpose. First, it re-makes a critical assessment of the 13th Sustainable Development Goal (Climate Action) towards true realization of sustainable development and particularly the contribution of African higher education both pedagogically and practically. Second, it underscores the multi- and interdisciplinary dimensions and functions of all the SDG's especially in providing fundamental principles strategies, policies, values and motivation as global "game changers" and breakthrough for sustainable and long-term climate justice, anthropogenic sinks and peaceful sustainable living. Nonetheless, it identifies the inherent "lacunae" limitations and challenges as whole! Third, on more transformative, methodological and practical perspectives, today's African model of higher education in particular, needs to truly demonstrate result-based innovative, creative, interdisciplinary contributions, solutions and alternatives towards global realization of SDG 2030. Hence, avoiding only the North- Atlantic and American based solutions and models. Consequently, going beyond the business as usual approaches and dangerous inaction nationally and continentally. Briefly, the fundamental task and rationale of this chapter is to concretely calibrate and review substantial and concrete contribution of Africa's academia both qualitatively and quantitatively towards realization of SDG 13 (Climate Action). Admittedly, this quest calls for a new African avantgarde for sustainable climate action solution for and with our collaborative endeavors towards true domestication of key institutional visions, values and strategies towards climate justice and sustainable development as a whole.
  • Ethical leaders : lessons learned from a sustainable infrastructure delivery process

    Onyia, Chidiebere (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    This chapter focuses on ethical considerations that guide developing and implementing sustainable higher education infrastructure delivery processes in developing nations. Sustainable Infrastructure thinking should be supported with clear policies to inform the leadership decision process. These decisions should also factor in climate mitigation and adaptation concerns that have been relegated to a check-off list in the past. Strong collaborations across the stakeholder groups to ensure clarity of purpose, transparency in procurement and project monitoring stages are critical for piloting an ethical culture. Ethical leaders must be mindful of the nuances that may erode the values that underpin setting a culture where the learning environment strengthens ethical champions. This chapter explores how ethical relationships can boost ethical decision-making process in higher education institutions. Ethical leaders and their teams set out the "social rules of practice" to support the engagement and management of all relations in developing sustainable infrastructure that supports academic and students' learning outlook (Frost, 2016,3). For institutions where unethical practices are rife, ethical champions should demonstrate that ethical behaviour is beneficial and possible. The chapter will build on ethical leaders who showed resilience and courage in developing a model power infrastructure project in selected higher education institutions in Nigeria.
  • Leading ethical leaders : higher education institutions, business schools and the sustainable development goals

    Ekué, Amélé Adamavi-Aho; Singh, Divya; Usher, Jane (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    This volume provides unique and profound insights from within educational institutions in diverse regions of the world on how ‘learning outside’ and ‘learning inside’ can be holistically integrated, so that the sustainable development agenda does not remain static and programmatic, but a creative and permeable framework. The shared hope across the thirteen chapters, which constitute complete original essays on the theme, is to develop meaningful, interdisciplinary curricula and research projects which serve the human community as a whole. The aim of the editors is directed towards a similar United Nations’ valuable ideal: to advance knowledge in respect of the earth and the future generations who will inherit it.
  • Driving economic growth with the power of small businesses : the University of Stellenbosch Business School’s Small Business Academy

    Smit, Arnold; Choe, Julie; Theron-Wepener, Marietjie (Globethics Publications, 2023)
    The University of Stellenbosch Business School, known as SBS, forms a part of the University of Stellenbosch, a leading global research university. Located in the suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa, SBS offers postgraduate-level academic and executive programmes in Business Management and Administration, Development Finance, and Futures Studies to students from all over the globe. The Small Business Academy, a project of the University of Stellenbosch Business School (SBS), is a multi-stakeholder educational initiative that upskills and uplifts South African small-business owners in low-income communities to capacitate them for long-term business success. The chapter highlights the Small Business Academy (SBA) and how it serves as a development vehicle for economic growth and decent work as set forth in Sustainable Development Goal 8, within a country where the informal sector and small businesses are in desperate need of capacity building interventions. Key stages of the SBA's development will be conveyed: how the project began, how its target population was determined, and ways in which its development programme was adapted to better serve its participants and stakeholders, including the addition of coaching and mentoring as a key enabler for participant progress. Relevant lessons learned and success factors for implementing learning interventions in complex environments are shared, particularly the importance of programmatic agility and the holistic benefits of directly engaging stakeholders in the program. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the project’s impacts and contributions toward SDG 8.
  • Robo-teachers in the university classroom

    Singh, Divya; Singh, Avani (Globethics.net, 2022)
  • AI ethics and higher education : good practice and guidance for educators, learners, and institutions

    Green, Erin; Singh, Divya; Chia, Roland (Globethics.net, 2022)
    Artificial intelligence (AI) is exerting unprecedented pressure on the global higher educational landscape in transforming recruitment processes, subverting traditional pedagogy, and creating new research and institutional opportunities. These technologies require contextual and global ethical analysis so that they may be developed and deployed in higher education in just and responsible ways. To-date, these efforts have been largely focused on small parts of the educational environments leaving most of the world out of an essential contribution. This volume acts as a corrective to this and contributes to the building of competencies in ethics education and to broader, global debates about how AI will transform various facets of our lives, not the least of which is higher education.
  • Educating teachers for tomorrow : on ethics and quality in pedagogical formation

    Adhiambo, Jacinta M.; Ndeke, Florentina N. (Globethics.net, 2021)
    Teacher education ought to be carefully designed, developed and administered. It is at the core of this research to show that quality teacher education stands for the kind of preparation which places learning for sustainable development and societal needs at the center of teacher education. This book gathers 22 presentations in ten chapters, selected among the plethora of papers presented during the interdisciplinary session, held at the Faculty of Education of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in 2016.
  • Money and morality in higher education : seven countries case studies

    Stückelberger, Christoph; Andreescu, Marie Renee (Globethics.net, 2021)

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