Global research landscape of sustainability curricula implementation in higher education

Abstract

Purpose
This paper aims to outline the global research landscape of sustainability curricula implementation processes in higher education. The focus is twofold and investigates where research that aims at integrating sustainability into the curriculum is happening and how the research area of curriculum change for sustainability is developing.

Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review of peer-reviewed case studies published in English in selected journals and edited volumes between 1990 and 2017 was carried out. Data ( n = 270 publications) were analyzed via descriptive statistics and bibliometric analysis.

Findings
The study demonstrates that research on sustainability curricula implementation processes in higher education has produced a growing output in a broad range of journals. Nevertheless, the cross-country distribution is imbalanced, with most cases coming from the USA, Europe and Asia, but with the relatively highest density in Oceania. A citation network analysis revealed that the “Western world” is quite well interlinked, whereas other countries are not, indicating that sharing information between and learning from other cases is limited.

Research limitations/implications
The exclusion of non-English publications likely skewed the global distribution of the research landscape included in this study.

Social implications
These findings demonstrate the need for more research and funding for case studies in countries that have not yet been adequately examined.

Originality/value
This study offers the first systematic reflection on the current global research landscape in sustainability curricula implementation and can guide further research endeavors.

Full text

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Marie Weiss/ Matthias Barth
Global research landscape of
sustainability curricula
implementation in higher education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-10-2018-0190
Received 27 October 2018
Revised 15 February 2019
1 April 2019
Accepted 3 April 2019
Publication date: 7 May 2019
Citation: Weiss, Marie; Barth, Matthias, (2019) “Global research landscape of sustainability
curricula implementation in higher education”, International Journal of Sustainability in
Higher Education, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 570-589.
Version: Authors’ final postprint version

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Global research landscape of
sustainability curricula
implementation in higher education
Marie Weiss
Center for Global Sustainability and Cultural Transformation, Faculty of Sustainability,
Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Niedersachsen, Germany
Matthias Barth
Center for Global Sustainability and Cultural Transformation and Institute for Integrative
Studies, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Niedersachsen, Germany
Acknowledgement: The authors would like to thank the editor and reviewers for their
constructive comments, feedback and recommendations relating to earlier drafts of the article.
Funding details: The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Lower Saxony Ministry
of Science and Culture and Volkswagen Foundation for the grant “Educating Future Change
Agents –Higher Education as a Motor of the Sustainability Transformation” (A115235) through
the program “Science for Sustainable Development”.

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Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to outline the global research landscape of sustainability curricula
implementation processes in higher education. The focus is twofold and investigates where
research that aims at integrating sustainability into the curriculum is happening and how the
research area of curriculum change for sustainability is developing.
Design/methodology/approach – A systematic review of peer-reviewed case studies published
in English in selected journals and edited volumes between 1990 and 2017 was carried out. Data
(n = 270 publications) were analyzed via descriptive statistics and bibliometric analysis.
Findings – The study demonstrates that research on sustainability curricula implementation
processes in higher education has produced a growing output in a broad range of journals.
Nevertheless, the cross-country distribution is imbalanced, with most cases coming from the
USA, Europe and Asia, but with the relatively highest density in Oceania. A citation network
analysis revealed that the “Western world” is quite well interlinked, whereas other countries are
not, indicating that sharing information between and learning from other cases is limited.
Research limitations/implications – The exclusion of non-English publications likely skewed
the global distribution of the research landscape included in this study.
Social implications – These findings demonstrate the need for more research and funding for
case studies in countries that have not yet been adequately examined.
Originality/value – This study offers the first systematic reflection on the current global research
landscape in sustainability curricula implementation and can guide further research endeavors.
Keywords Sustainability, Universities, Education for sustainable development, Higher education,
Systematic review, Curriculum change
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
While the implementation of sustainable development as a societal vision should be supported in
all educational sectors, it is higher education that has a particularly key role to play in the overall
process of striving for sustainable development. Universities not only generate and transfer
relevant knowledge but also enable future change agents to contribute to a sustainable future
(Barth, 2015; Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2015). Accordingly, the “International Association of
Universities” highlights the notion that:
Leaders of higher education institutions and their academic colleagues are in a key
position to contribute to an equitable and ecologically sound future by making sustainable
development a central academic and organisational focus. [. . .] It is critical that higher
education institutions understand and accept their responsibility within the broader
context of social and economic development, and the building of democratic, equitable
and ecologically-minded societies. (International Association of Universities (IAU), 2010,
para. 1)
Higher education for sustainable development (HESD) supports future change agents in acquiring
the necessary competencies for undertaking the societal transition toward sustainability. This

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acquisition occurs predominantly on the micro-level of courses (with their topics, learning
objectives, pedagogies and assessments), where the focus is on courses as well as their
classroom- and out-of-classroom activities, teaching and learning processes. Attempts to integrate
sustainability into the classroom have often brought an innovative element to teaching and
learning settings, for example, by introducing an intercultural, interdisciplinary or problem-based
perspective to higher education (Barth and Rieckmann, 2009; Wiek et al., 2014; Caniglia et al.,
2018).
However, there is also a second, complementary macro-level to HESD on which institutional
culture, drivers and barriers are of special interest. In research on HESD, this macro-level of
curriculum change or development gained momentum because integrating education for
sustainable development (ESD) is “[. . .] not just another issue to be added to an overcrowded
curriculum, but a gateway to a different view of curriculum, of pedagogy, of organizational
change, of policy and particularly of ethos” (Sterling, 2004, p. 50).
The latter topic is addressed in this paper via a systematic review to gain a better understanding of
the sample universe of existing approaches to implementation of sustainability in higher
education around the globe.
2. Theoretical framework
Research on education for sustainable development in curricula builds on the tradition of broader
curriculum change research (Lattuca and Stark, 2009; Barnett et al., 2001; Drake, 1998). Over the
past decade, there has been a growing body of work on curriculum change processes in HESD (de
La Harpe and Thomas, 2009; Lozano, 2006; Blewitt and Cullingford, 2004; Thomas, 2004;
Corcoran and Wals, 2004; Leal Filho, 2000, 2009). Case study research plays a prominent role
within this body of research. These case studies can be categorized into:
 single case studies that focus on one specific higher education institution (HEI)
(Albareda-Tiana et al., 2018; Cebrián, 2017; Jones et al., 2008; Lidgren et al., 2006;
Lozano and Young, 2013; Poon, 2017); or
 comparative studies that summarize insights based on a limited number of cases either
within the same country (Sterling and Scott, 2008) or across countries (Junyent et al.,
2008; Leal Filho et al., 2017; Ferrer-Balas et al., 2008).
These case studies offer two general insights. First, most of the case studies focus on internal and
external factors of implementation (Timmerman and Metcalfe, 2009; Littledyke et al., 2013).
Second, these case studies often merely tell a story, and only “[. . .] few studies have sought to go
beyond description to include a critical and theoretical analysis of findings or to ground
explanations in social or organisational theory” (Fien, 2002, p. 244).
More empirical research is needed on typical patterns of implementing HESD with respect to the
form and extent of the implementation, the characteristics of the process, the role of drivers and
barriers, as well as different institutions’ coping strategies. Initial insights from single case studies
suggest that there is a limited number of implementation patterns with specific characteristics. For

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instance, by using a small N of case studies in Germany, Barth (2013) explored three different
patterns of how changing the curriculum toward embedding ESD can happen as:
(1) a student-led change from informal to formal learning;
(2) sustainability as a concern in campus operation; and
(3) sustainability as a unique selling point (Barth, 2013).
However, there is still a gap in understanding how curriculum change can best be pursued within
these different patterns. Understanding the specific role of drivers and barriers in these patterns
and how they influence curriculum development will enable planned interventions for curriculum
change in the future.
What makes it difficult to understand patterns and draw conclusions is that studies on curriculum
change are significantly differentiated and fragmented. Further there are mainly conducted within
numerous individual studies that demonstrate a variety of existing approaches. A global and
systematic overview of research on sustainability curricula implementation processes would
enable reflection on the research field and current developments to draw further conclusions from
what remains to be researched.
As higher education for sustainable development (HESD) becomes an established research field,
systematic reviews are playing an increasingly important role. For instance, Barth and Rieckmann
(2016) conducted a systematic literature review on HESD and demonstrated that HESD is an
emerging field of research that is mainly characterized by descriptive studies (Barth and
Rieckmann, 2016). A study by Kajikawa et al. (2014) also showed that ESD is an emerging small
research cluster (Kajikawa et al., 2014). In other studies on global research landscapes of
sustainability science, Yarime et al. (2010) revealed that there is an increasing number of HEIs
that engage in sustainability research and that most of the output has been published by authors
affiliated with North America, Europe (especially the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, France
and Sweden), Australia and Asia (especially China and Japan) (Yarime et al., 2010).
While research on sustainability curricula implementation processes is recognized as being an
important and significant part of research on HESD, there has not yet been any detailed mapping
of how and where such processes occur. To better geographically locate where higher education
institutions (HEIs) are implementing sustainability curricula, a number of networks have begun
aggregating and documenting such cases. For instance, the Copernicus Alliance network for
Europe, the network for the promotion of sustainability postgraduate education and research
(ProSPER.net) for the Asia–Pacific region, the African network for Sustainable Development
Education (RAEDD) and the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
(AASHE) (with a special focus on North America) all began with overviews of relevant HEIs.
Further endeavors to collect research on case studies have been undertaken by specialized edited
volumes, such as the “World Sustainability Series” (Leal Filho, 2018, 2015) and “Environmental
Education, Communication and Sustainability Series” (Leal Filho, 2012, 2010).

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While attention has been given to small N comparative approaches that focus on a few HEIs in
one or various countries, applying a reliable methodology to map a global research landscape of
sustainability curricula implementation processes in HEIs has not yet occurred. The study
presented here intends to close this research gap by analyzing the global research landscape in
terms of a cross-country distribution and a general development trend of the research field.
3. Research method
A systematic review was carried out to explore the scope of case studies that report on
sustainability curricula implementation processes in higher education. The term “sustainability
curricula implementation processes” refers solely to the education level, which is defined as “[. .
.] the development and implementation of new approaches to teaching and learning in the
paradigm of education for sustainable development, and at the same time the acknowledgement
of sustainability as a cross-cutting theme within the existing curricula” (Barth, 2015, p. 47). In
this context, the “implementation process” is understood to be an institutional implementation
process with various drivers and barriers.
The term “higher education” refers to institutions that offer at least a Bachelor degree.
3.1 Data collection
Due to the involvement of many academic disciplines in higher education for sustainable
development (HESD), the data were likely to be fragmented between many sources. A systematic
review approach was therefore chosen that aimed “[. . .] to comprehensively locate and synthesize
research that bears on a particular question, using organized, transparent, and replicable
procedures at each step in the process” (Littell et al., 2008, p. 1).
For the structured collection of data, desk research was conducted to identify research papers that
report on sustainability curricula implementation processes. A paper counted as relevant if the
following inclusion criteria were applicable:
 the overall topic was on HESD;
 at least one specific case (HEI) was mentioned;
 the focus was on reporting, analyzing, or discussing a case-specific sustainability
curricula implementation process; and
 the articles and reviews were published in English between 1990 and 2017.
To compile a sample universe as comprehensively as possible, the data collection process was
structured as follows (Figure 1). In a first step, selected journals dedicated to HESD were
reviewed. The identified journal selection was based on previous research (Barth and Michelsen,
2013; Barth and Rieckmann, 2016) and reflected the highly relevant journals in this field of
research. All selected journals were searched via a review of tables of contents and abstracts;
however, due to the large number of data, two journals (Environmental Education Research and
Journal of Cleaner Production) were initially searched via a search string in the title, abstract and
keywords and were subsequently reviewed based on abstracts (for details on keywords, see
Figure 1).

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Figure 1. Search strategy for structured data collection
Second, supplementary search queries were applied in three bibliographical databases: Scopus,
Web of Science and Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). Scopus and Web of
Science were selected as the two largest databases representing social sciences and sustainability
sciences. ERIC was chosen as it covered research collections in educational science. The
following search string was applied in all three databases with a few adjustments depending on
the different functions: TITLE-ABS-KEY ((“higher education” OR universit* OR college OR
“tertiary education” OR “post-secondary education” OR facult*) AND (curricul* OR course OR
program OR degree) AND (“education for sustainable development” OR “education for
sustainability” OR “sustainability education”)).
In a final step, the sample universe was reviewed and complemented in two ways. First, an expert
review was carried out by ten experts in the field of HESD from around the globe who were
asked to identify missing cases and publications. Second, to add supplementary data published in
offline media, relevant edited volumes were researched via reviews of tables of contents and

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abstracts. The final sample universe added up to 270 publications without duplicates and included
230 cases (Figure 1).
3.2 Data analysis
A database was created from all of the publications and included bibliographical data, the abstract
and the full text. Additional variables for investigating the research focus were created, including
the country and the name of the higher education institution (HEI). The sample of publications
was identified and coded by a trained team consisting of three student assistants and one of the
authors. All cases identified as relevant were double checked by one of the authors.
The distribution of case studies was analyzed via descriptive statistics. Additionally, bibliometric
analyses conducted in R and VosViewer added to the findings and enabled greater insight into the
publication trends of the articles of interest and of journals as well as into influencing factors
within the research area.
4. Findings
The identified sample consisted of 270 publications representing 230 unique cases. In total, 85
per cent of these publications focused on one specific higher education institution (HEI), whereas
15 per cent were comparative case studies covering more than one HEI. To provide a mapping of
the research landscape of sustainability curricula implementation processes, the following results
first show the global distribution of case studies. A bibliometric analysis of the publication trend,
key journals and investigations on what influences the research field most also added to the
findings.
4.1 How are case studies on sustainability curricula implementation processes in higher
education institutions distributed globally?
The literature review identified 230 case studies worldwide whose distribution varied widely
across regions (Figure 2). Each case represents a higher education institution (HEI) for which
peer-reviewed publications on the HEIs’ specific sustainability curricula implementation process
were identified. Most case studies were published on North American (n = 76) and European (n =
71) HEIs, many were published on Asian HEIs (n = 41), less were published on HEIs in Oceania
(n = 22), and very few were published on Latin American and Caribbean HEIs (n = 13) or
African HEIs (n = 7). The detailed number of cases per country and the affiliated region based on
the UN geographical regions (United Nations (UN), 2018) is shown in Figure 2. Overall, it is
clear that the global distribution of research on HEIs that implement sustainability curricula
varies both across and within regions. Moreover, many blind spots are evident. For instance,
many countries in Latin America and Africa are not represented. Possible reasons for this
irregular representation are specified in the discussion section.

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Figure 2. Cross-country distribution of sustainability curricula implementation processes in higher
education institutions. Based on peer-reviewed case studies published between 1990 and 2017, the map
was designed using Tableau software
While a perspective on global distribution provides valuable insights, it does not reveal the
significance that these cases have in different countries. For this purpose, other factors – such as
the number of HEIs in a given country – have to be considered to report on the extent to which a
country implements education for sustainable development (ESD) or the research performed on
sustainability curricula implementation processes. To better understand these elements, a closer
look is taken at three different countries that represent the global areas of North America,
Germany and Australia. Each of these countries has a long tradition of integrating environmental
and sustainability aspects into higher education. Furthermore, the authors are familiar with the
higher education area in all three countries due to their own experience and research and can
make evidence-based assumptions. In the following Table I, these three countries are described in
terms of some salient aspects – such as the country-specific context and the number of HEIs in
the country – that should be considered when comparing countries. Moreover, the cases in the
sample are succinctly characterized to provide an idea of what types of institutions are displayed
in the sample.

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Table I. Closer characterization of 3 countries: Australia, Germany, the USA.
AUSTRALIA
GERMANY
USA
N HEIS IN COUNTRY
143 HEIs (private:6, public:
38; other: 99)1
105 HEIs (except for
universities of applied
science) (public: 87)3
3,039 4-year colleges (public:
691, private: 2,348)5
STUDENTS ENROLMENT IN
COUNTRY
2016: 1,034,916
-majority of students
(952,144) at public HEIs1
2017: 2,842,225
-majority of students
(1,782,369) at public HEIs3
2016: 19,841,0145
SUSTAINABILITY STUDY
PROGRAMS IN COUNTRY
62 study programs with the
keyword sustainab*, and 414
with the keyword
environment* 2
177 study programs with the
major or minor topic
sustainability4
1,525 study programs with
the topic sustainability6
RATIO N CASES IN SAMPLE/
N HEIS COUNTRY
20 cases  52.63% of all
public HEIs are displayed in
the sample
3 cases (except one university
of applied science)  3.4% of
all public HEIs are displayed
in the sample
58 cases 1.9%
SIZE OF HEIS
LARGE (> 30,000 STUDENTS)
MEDIUM (≥ 12,000 STUD.)
SMALL (≥ 5,000 STUD.)
VERY SMALL (≥ 5,000 STUD.)
Large: 14 HEIs (70%)
Medium: 6 HEIs (30%)
Medium: 2 HEIs (50%)
Small: 1 HEI (25%)
Very small: 1 HEI (25%)
Large: 12 HEIs (21%)
Medium: 24 HEIs (41%)
Small: 12 HEIs (21%)
Very small: 10 HEIs (17%)
FOCUS OF HEIS
Range from research-
oriented universities to more
industry-based universities
Range from research-
oriented universities to a
university with a clear
sustainability focus and a
small institution dedicated to
applied science
According to the Carnegie
classification, nearly 60% are
research-focused institutions
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
Evenly geographically
distributed
The geographical distribution
of the cases is spaced out
evenly (North, South, West,
East), but not every state is
pictured in a small N of cases
Spaced out evenly but reveals
that some states are missing
in the sample
SHANGHAI RANKING
14 of 20 (70%) HEIs are listed;
3 HEIs in the top 100
1 HEI (25%) is listed
29 HEIs are listed (50%), 14
HEIs in the top 100
Notes: 1 Australian Government, Department of Education and Training, 2016; 2 Online search in study program database
(Australian Government, 2018), 3 Statistisches Bundesamt, 2018; 4 Online search in study program database, topic: sustainability
(Hochschulkompass, 2018); 5 U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2016a, 2016b; 6 Online search
in study program database (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, 2018).
4.2 What does data on these three countries tell us?
Australia has a higher percentage of cases than do Germany and the USA due to its comparably
limited number of higher education institutions (HEIs) and to an implementation of higher
education for sustainable development (HESD) that began early and with wide dispersion (Table
I). In contrast, the USA has a large number of HEIs and sustainability study programs, but the
ratio of the number of cases to the number of HEIs reveals that HESD has not yet been fully
implemented. For Germany, the data show a low number of cases and a high ratio of
sustainability programs to HEIs. The number of cases reveals where research has been performed
and not necessarily where students can study sustainability topics. Beyond the country-specific
distribution, there does not seem to be a direct dependency between the integration of HESD and
the HEI size or reputation according to rankings.

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4.3 When and where are cases documented?
The number of case studies on sustainability curricula implementation in higher education per
year increased nonlinearly from 4 publications in 1999 to 15 in 2017, with a peak of 37
publications in 2015 (Figure 3). The causes of the peaks cannot be investigated by bibliometry,
but it is conceivable based on the data that the number of manuscripts from the IJSHE and edited
volumes corresponds with some peaks. The data suggest that the IJSHE was crucial to the
beginning of the publication process in peer-reviewed journals and characterizes the entire
publication process between 1999 and 2017, with a peak of 11 case studies in 2004. The edited
volumes (Environmental Education, Communication and Sustainability and World Sustainability
Series) appear to also have been important at the beginning of the research trend, with a peak of
10 case studies in 2002.
Figure 3. Time curve of case studies on sustainability curricula implementation processes in higher
education institutions. Based on peer-reviewed case studies published between 1990 and 2017.
The number of academic journals also increased from 1 Journal in 1999 (European Journal of
Engineering Education) to 10 journals in 2017, with a peak of 14 different journals in 2013.
Overall, 46 different journals between 1999 and 2017 published case studies on sustainability
curricula implementation processes in higher education. Most of the case studies were published
in 9 key journals (Table II). With 109 out of 270 publications, the International Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education is the most dominant journal, followed by the Journal of
Cleaner Production (with 23 publications) and 7 other key journals. A detailed examination of
the time span of the 9 key journals reveals that until 2008, 4 key journals had been involved in
publishing case studies on sustainability curricula implementation in HEIs and 5 further key
journals have gotten involved since 2008. In total, 4 of these 5 key journals were founded in 2006
or later, and nearly all have a specific focus on sustainable development and education. Despite

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these key journals, the distribution is very scattered, with 37 other journals having produced less
than 5 publications on sustainability curricula implementation in HEIs. The foci of the journals
are broad, which was investigated based on the journals’ names. Only one journal has a clear
focus on higher education for sustainable development, and some focus on education for
sustainable development and environmental education. Many other journals focus on educational
science, with specializations in management, higher education or engineering education, or are
characterized by a discipline orientation without an educational link and vary from social science
and management to sustainability science. Moreover, the edited volumes (Environmental
Education, Communication and Sustainability and World Sustainability Series) play an important
role in 47 of the 270 publications.
Table II. Key journals for case studies on sustainability curricula implementation processes in higher
education institutions.
Journal
n publications
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
109
Journal of Cleaner Production
23
Environmental Education Research
8
Journal of Education for Sustainable Development
8
Journal of Sustainability Education
8
Sustainability: The Journal of Record
6
Australian Journal of Environmental Education
5
Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability
5
European Journal of Engineering Education
5
37 other journals
46
Book series
47
Overall publications
270
Notes: Based on peer-reviewed case studies published between 1990 and 2017.
4.4 How are cases linked, and how do they learn from each other?
Communication between scientists mainly happens via journal publications. The influence of
researchers can be indicated by the number of their publications and the number of citations of
these publications, which signifies the range of other researchers who have taken these
publications into account. To identify what influences the research field, key publications were
identified, and a citation network was calculated. Both analyses were run with publications
indexed in Scopus, which included 184 of the 270 publications.
11 key publications with a threshold of 50 citations were identified within the data set (Table III).
The regions, countries, and affiliations were retrieved for all collaborating authors. Nearly half of
the publications were published by European authors (n = 5), 2 were published by North
American authors, 1 was from Australia and 3 contributions came from international
collaborations. The European authors came from The Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, the UK,
Germany and Switzerland. Canada and the USA represented the North American authors, and
Asia was represented in the collaborative publications by authors from Japan and India. The
regions of Latin America and Africa were not represented.

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A citation network based on countries is able to offer insights useful in analyzing how knowledge
spreads geographically. The network analyses of citations between the countries in the sample
revealed imbalances between the countries (Figure 4). For the analysis, 39 countries with at least
one document and one citation were chosen. In total, 34 of the 39 countries were connected to
one another through citations. The size of the dots and the country names were determined by the
weight of the item, which was calculated via the number of citations. The color was determined
by a calculation of the average number of citations. The lines illustrate the link (number of
citations) between two countries, and the thickness of the lines indicates the strength of the link.
When interpreting the results, it should be noted that only citations between countries within the
database are possible and that the analysis is affected by the bibliometric database coverage,
which largely indexes journal articles.
In the network, it is clear that the so-called “Western world” has the greatest number of citations,
which indicate the international visibility of their research activities. Additionally, the “Western”
countries are quite well interlinked with one another, whereas countries such as Russia, Iran,
Jordan, the Philippines and Oman have no citation links to other countries, and countries such as
Latvia, Lithuania and Jamaica are linked to only one country with a high impact, including Japan,
The Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Spain, the USA, the UK and Germany. It is surprising that
countries located next to one another (e.g. Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, and the Czech Republic) do
not cite each other’s work. Australia, the USA, the UK, The Netherlands, Sweden, Canada and
Spain have the highest total link strength and are very well interlinked with many countries
(Figure 4).
Figure 4. Citation network between countries engaged in sustainability curricula implementation research.
Included articles are based on peer-reviewed case studies on sustainability curricula implementation
processes in higher education institutions published between 1990 and 2017 that are indexed in Scopus.
The country is determined by the affiliation of the first author. The network is calculated in VosViewer.

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Table III. Highly cited references
Document
Region
Country
Affiliation
n Citations
(1990–2017)
Thomas, I. (2004). Sustainability in tertiary curricula:
what is stopping it happening?. International Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education, 5(1), 33-47.
Australia &
Oceania
Australia
RMIT
110
Ferrer-Balas, D., Adachi, J., Banas, S., Davidson, C. I.,
Hoshikoshi, A., Mishra, A., Motodoa, Y, Onga, M., &
Ostwald, M. (2008). An international comparative
analysis of sustainability transformation across seven
universities. International Journal of Sustainability in
Higher Education, 9(3), 295-316.
Europe,2
Asia,5
North
America2
Spain,
Japan,4 The
USA,2 India,
Sweden
Technical University of
Catalonia, The University
of Tokyo,3 Carnegie
Mellon University, TERI
University, Hokkaido
University, Linköping
University
99
Brundiers, K., Wiek, A., & Redman, C. L. (2010). Real-
world learning opportunities in sustainability: from
classroom into the real world. International Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education, 11(4), 308-324.
North
America
The USA
Arizona State University
99
Moore, J. (2005). Seven recommendations for creating
sustainability education at the university level: A guide
for change agents. International Journal of Sustainability
in Higher Education, 6(4), 326-339
North
America
Canada
Simon Fraser University
88
Van Weenen, H. (2000). Towards a vision of a
sustainable university. International Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education, 1(1), 20-34.
Europe
The
Netherlands
University of Amsterdam
85
Lidgren, A., Rodhe, H., & Huisingh, D. (2006). A
systemic approach to incorporate sustainability into
university courses and curricula. Journal of cleaner
production, 14(9-11), 797-809.
Europe
Sweden
Lund University
83
Fenner, R. A., Ainger, C. M., Cruickshank, H. J., &
Guthrie, P. M. (2005). Embedding sustainable
development at Cambridge university engineering
department. International Journal of Sustainability in
Higher Education, 6(3), 229-241.
Europe
The UK
Cambridge University
80
Barth, M., & Rieckmann, M. (2012). Academic staff
development as a catalyst for curriculum change
towards education for sustainable development: an
output perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 26,
28-36.
Australia &
Oceania,
Europe
Australia,
Germany
RMIT University,
Leuphana University
55
Yarime, M., Trencher, G., Mino, T., Scholz, R. W.,
Olsson, L., Ness, B., Frantzeskaki, N. & Rotmans, J.
(2012). Establishing sustainability science in higher
education institutions: towards an integration of
academic development, institutionalization, and
stakeholder collaborations. Sustainability Science, 7(1),
101-113.
Asia,3
Europe5
Japan,3
Switzerland,
Sweden,2
The
Netherlands2
University of Tokyo,2 ETH
Zürich, Lund University,2
Erasmus University
Rotterdam3
56
Holmberg, J., Svanström, M., Peet, D. J., Mulder, K.,
Ferrer-Balas, D., & Segalàs, J. (2008). Embedding
sustainability in higher education through interaction with
lecturers: Case studies from three European technical
universities. European Journal of Engineering
Education, 33(3), 271-282.
Europe6
Sweden,2
The
Netherlands,
2 Spain2
Chalmers University of
Technology,2 Delft
University,2 Polytechnic
University of Catalonia2
56
Peet, D. J., Mulder, K. F., & Bijma, A. (2004). Integrating
SD into engineering courses at the Delft University of
Technology: The individual interaction
method. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher
Education, 5(3), 278-288.
Europe3
The
Netherlands3
Delft University of
Technology2
51
Notes: Based on peer-reviewed case studies on sustainability curricula implementation processes in higher education institutions
published between 1990 and 2017 that are indexed in Scopus. The superscript numbers behind the countries indicate the number of
authors from that country, no number equals one author

15
Analysis also revealed that different terminology is used to refer to sustainability curricula
implementation in different regions. Terminology was analyzed based on word counts in titles
and abstracts. In North America, “sustainability education” (SE) is the most commonly used
term, whereas in Australia and Oceania, the term “education for sustainability” (EfS) is used, and
in Europe, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, the term “education for sustainable
development” (ESD) is generally used. In Africa, ESD and SE are used with nearly equal
frequency.
5. Discussion
5.1 Limitations of the case universe
A systematic review approach is generally well suited for collecting publications that are
dispersed and should reduce bias in the selection of publications (Littell et al., 2008). However, as
the field of case studies is very diverse and publications are distributed around many sources, it is
impossible to collect all published case studies from around the globe due to some limitations.
First, the sample is biased by the selection criteria that were used. The search only collected
publications in English, which likely lead to a lack of cases from Latin American, in particular.
Including articles published in other languages could change the global distribution of the
research landscape and could lead to a more salient contribution from other countries. This
limitation is recognized, and there is a need to further integrate a more complete sample into
future studies. At the same time, this imbalance is typical in academic journals and is also
reflected in the manner by which case studies are referenced and cited. Nevertheless, a stronger
representation of cases and authors from the “non-Western world” in key journals would support
a greater recognition and a North–South dialogue of context-dependent sustainability curricula
implementation processes.
Furthermore, due to the specific terminology of the search string, the case universe is biased
regarding the concept of education for sustainable development (ESD). Nevertheless, this focus
was deliberately chosen to enable the investigation of the research landscape of sustainability
curricula. However, there are other valid concepts, such as environmental strengthening of higher
education institutions (HEIs) or curricular environmentalization, neither of which is fully
reflected in the sample.
Additionally, the vast array of journals and the peer-review restriction may have led to missing
cases since some journals may not have been indexed in the databases. For instance, student-led
research into implementation processes in HEIs are not likely to be published in peer-reviewed
journals. To counteract the scattered nature of the publications, HESD experts were asked to
review the sample, which led to the inclusion of additional publications and cases.
5.2 Research on sustainability curricula implementation in higher education institutions is
an emerging field of research
The systematic review found that the research on sustainability curricula implementation process
in HEIs began to emerge in 1999 and has produced a steadily growing output of publications.
This clearly indicates that there is a growing number of journals dedicated to higher education for

16
sustainable development (HESD). Sustainability curricula implementation processes are one of
the key topics that are researched in HESD, which is in line with earlier findings on general
publication trends of the (H)ESD research area (Barth and Michelsen, 2013; Vaughter et al.,
2013; Barth and Rieckmann, 2016). Besides quantity, another key finding is that case studies on
sustainability curricula implementation processes are being published in a broad range of journals
from different disciplines and communities. The increasing number of different journals clearly
indicates that curriculum development in HESD is an interdisciplinary topic that is published in
various disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals. At the same time, this large number of journals
leads to a very broad field of case studies. Even though sustainability curricula implementation
processes figure prominently in the key journals of HESD research, a complete picture of these
cases is difficult to ascertain.
5.3 The global distribution of case studies is imbalanced
The analysis of existing case studies on sustainability curricula implementation reveals a
considerable imbalance of the global distribution of documented cases. There is a dominance of
cases from the USA, Europe, and Asia. At the same time, significant areas around the globe –
such as Africa and Latin America – are largely underrepresented. While this underrepresentation
reflects a general imbalance in published research around the globe that can also be studied in
other areas of (sustainability) research (Liu et al., 2011; Hou et al., 2015) and is apparent in
research on higher education for sustainable development (HESD) in general (Barth and
Rieckmann, 2016), it also severely limits the understanding of curricula implementation
processes on a global level.
Given the imbalanced distribution of case studies and context-dependent implementation
processes, it appears that much remains to be learned, especially for cases in Africa and Latin
America. This finding is affirmed on a policy level by UNESCO, which emphasizes the notion
that local, national, regional and global contexts should be taken into consideration for fostering
sustainability curricula implementation (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), 2016). The UNESCO Global Action Program on Education for
Sustainable Development (GAP), which “[. . .] focuses on generating and scaling up ESD action
at all levels and in all areas of education, and in all sustainable development sectors” (United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2016, p. 3), stresses the
idea that developed and developing countries – especially Small Island Developing States and the
Least Developed Countries – should engage in intensifying efforts for ESD (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2016, p. 5). Transforming learning
and training environments is one of five priority action areas, and all HEIs are called upon to
engage in “[. . .] collaborative and transformative knowledge production [and] dissemination, [. .
.]” (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2016, p. 5).
The publication of “more of the same” (i.e. case studies largely from “Western” countries) would
likely add very little to our understanding of this topic; rather, it seems more pressing to support
research that more strongly considers regional contextual factors in countries that have not yet
been as well examined. Approaches such as the SARUA project in Southern Africa
(www.sarua.org/) might represent one option of overcoming these limitations.

17
The presented data provide valuable insights into the research landscape, but due to the different
distribution of higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide, the data should not be interpreted
as a ranking across countries or regions but rather as a reflection of where research on
sustainability curricula implementation processes is happening and where blind spots can be
observed. To a certain degree, conclusions can also be drawn regarding where sustainability
curricula are implemented in HEIs in practice. To draw conclusions regarding the density that a
country reports and its research on sustainability curricula implementation processes, the
identified case studies have to be examined in relation with the overall number of HEIs in the
specific country. This point was clearly illustrated by examining the three countries in more
detail, which revealed that in proportion with the overall number of HEIs in the country, Australia
has a significantly higher rate (52.63 per cent) in terms of research and implementation in practice
(on the basis of the case universe) than do the other two countries. The data reveal where research
is happening but not necessarily where sustainability study programs or topics are offered. The
numbers of sustainability-related study programs that are revealed by country-specific databases
provide an idea of the number of sustainability study programs, but comparable data would need
additional exploration with a detailed review of study programs. Additionally, further research
would be required to examine how many students from the student population are offered the
opportunity to study sustainability topics.
5.4 Influencing factors within the research area
Eleven highly cited key publications were identified within the sample universe. The authorship
of these publications is dominated by researchers from European, North American, Australian
and Asian countries. The research area is obviously mostly influenced by authors from the so-
called “Western world”, whose output is highly visible. This fact also is visible in the citation
network, where these authors are highly cited overall and rather strongly connected via citations.
In contrast, there are many countries that are not at all or only poorly linked to one another. It is
interesting to note that some developing countries and countries that are geographically located
next to one another do not cite one another’s work. However, the results should be considered
against the background of the lack of an accepted theory that explains citation behavior (Case and
Higgins, 2000). Potential linkages may be reduced due to the different terminology that is used
for education for sustainable development (ESD). Researchers and higher education institutions
(HEIs) would only be able to learn from other cases if the diverse terminology were transparent,
which would enable the use of different terms in search engines to include research from other
regions.
In terms of authorship, the findings align with the results from other bibliometric analyses of the
global landscape of sustainability research (Kajikawa et al., 2014) and global patterns of
collaboration in sustainability science (Yarime et al., 2010). These studies found that an
increasing number of HEIs engage in sustainability research, and most articles are published by
authors affiliated with North America, Europe (especially the UK, Germany, The Netherlands,
France and Sweden), Australia and Asia (especially China and Japan). Yarime et al. (2010)
analyzed collaboration patterns and found that international collaboration patterns indicate that
countries located geographically next to one another tend to work together, whereas

18
communication exchange within larger regional clusters (EU and Africa, North and South
America, Asia Pacific) might be limited (Yarime et al., 2010).
Given the sparse interlinkages in the citation network of this sample, sharing information between
and learning from many of the cases is likely to be limited. The question remains as to how cases
learn from one another globally, locally and within networks. Do cases within the same country
learn from one another, or are the experiences from HEIs that are fairly equal in size and structure
or have similar contextual factors taken into account?
6. Conclusion
By mapping out the current global research landscape on sustainability curricula implementation
processes in higher education, this systematic review offers a source of reflection on how this
research area is developing. A steadily growing number of case studies – mainly in North
America, Europe and Asia – have been carried out since 1999. This publication trend indicates
that sustainability curricula implementation in higher education has gained momentum and that
many HEIs around the world have initiated attempts to integrate sustainability. Nevertheless,
experiences from many countries and regions (e.g. Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean) are
underrepresented. A similar pattern can be seen via citation analysis, in which a “Western”
influence is apparent. The citation network analysis leaves unanswered the question of how cases
learn from one another as the results reveal that “non-Western” countries, in particular, are not
well interlinked.
These results offer guidance for the direction of future research. First, there is a clear need to
better understand implementation processes in countries that remain underrepresented. In line
with the aims of the UNESCO GAP, more research and funding would assist in advancing
research on sustainability curricula implementation that is equally globally distributed. Second,
because this review has drawn on peer-reviewed English-language literature, complimentary
research would involve the examination of other publication formats – such as master’s theses,
conference proceedings and gray literature, as well as publications in other languages – to provide
a more comprehensive overview. Third, to understand the density of research on and the
implementation of sustainability curricula better, country-specific factors like the number of
higher education institutions (HEIs), the number of sustainability programs at each HEI, the
country’s budget for research and HESD and governmental policies to support HESD should be
further investigated. Fourth, there is a need to take a closer look how countries learn from one
another’s experience, for example, if and why countries establish more connections with some of
them than with others and what the implications are. Fifth, to learn how to change HEIs, it is
important to conduct research on various context-specific individual sustainability curricula
implementation processes, but it is even more important to learn from these experiences and to
understand how such implementation can be strategically supported. Thus far, the research field
remains quite fragmented, and there is little evidence of what the process to follow should be.
This database offers a starting point for further comparing and analyzing these processes of
change to identify specific implementation patterns from which other HEIs can learn.

19
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About the authors
Marie Weiss is a research associate and doctoral candidate at the Center for Global Sustainability
and Cultural Transformation (CGSC) at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. Her thesis
research focuses on implementation processes of sustainability curricula in higher education
institutions. She is investigating how various drivers and barriers influence this implementation.
With a background in environmental science (BSc) and sustainability science (MSc), she has a
broad understanding of factors influencing the transition to a more sustainable future. She is
keenly interested in finding ways to communicate and teach sustainability to a broad community
to drive societal change towards sustainable development. Marie Weiss is the corresponding
author and can be contacted at: marie.weiss@leuphana.de
Matthias Barth is a Professor for Education for Sustainable Development at Leuphana University
of Lüneburg, Germany. His strong passion is on research and teaching for sustainability with an
emphasis on competence development, innovative learning settings and curriculum change.