Enhancing Sustainable Development Literacy in Higher Education: Insights from Accounting and Pedagogy Courses

Universities have an essential role to play in sustainable development processes. The 2030 Agenda recognises the centrality of education for sustainable development, including at the university level. These processes go beyond disciplinary curricula. They require processes that can develop university students into active, future-oriented citizens. Considering the urgent need for pedagogical development, the present research presents the results of an explorative study that assesses how a common framework for teaching sustainable development can affect students’ literacy on sustainable development in different disciplines, such as accounting and pedagogy. Through a survey, authors developed data collection to examine higher education students’ literacy level and how their perception of sustainable development issues can change by embedding sustainability content during these courses. Data were collected at the beginning of two courses proposing a 6-h dedicated sustainability section. The same survey was proposed at the end of these courses to determine the change in the attending students’ sustainable development literacy level. The results underline how the same approach can obtain different results on students’ literacy levels in two subjects (accounting and pedagogy). The present study suggests the importance of a tailor-made education according to various subjects and proposes some approaches for embedding this perspective in the educational design.