The role of statistics to advance the sustainable development goals
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52041/iase2023.102Abstract
With less than ten years underway to achieve the United Nations Sustainability Goals (UN SDGs), the urgency to accelerate our collective efforts has never been greater. Given their critical stand in educating future generations of leaders, business schools have been tasked with significant responsibility in making progress towards the finish line. Business schools have proactively integrated the SDGs into the curriculum by developing specific courses. Still, the inclusion of the SDGs in core and elective courses is lacking. This paper addresses this gap by providing two illustrative examples of teaching SDGs in a first-year business statistics unit. Through contextual learning, students develop familiarity with the SDGs, identify their interconnectedness, and become more aware of their future roles as business participants and leaders in achieving the SDGs. Our examples can provide strategies for others to adopt or adapt to integrate the SDGs into their courses.References
Adams, R. V., & Blair, E. (2019). Impact of time management behaviors on undergraduate engineering students’ performance. Sage Open, 9(1), 2158244018824506.
American Statistical Association (2016). (2016). Guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education (GAISE) college report 2016.
Arruda Filho, N. D. P. (2017). The agenda 2030 for responsible management education: An applied methodology. International Journal of Management in Education, 15(2), 183–191.
Bidgood, P. (2010). Relating Assessment to the Real World. Assessment Methods in Statistical Education: An International Perspectives (2010): 153-161.
Bilgin, A. A. B., Powell, A., & Richards, D. (2022). Work integrated learning in data science and a proposed assessment framework. Statistics Education Research Journal, 21(2), 1-12. [12]. https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v21i2.26
Bilgin, A. A., & Prvan, T. (2021). Different approaches to group project work in statistics classes. In A. Bilgin, & S. Budgett (Eds.), Proceedings of the 10th Australian Conference on Teaching Statistics (pp. 79-84). Statistical Society of Australia.
Chung, F. (2018). Plastic bag ban wins overwhelming support. https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/plastic-bag-ban-wins-overwhelming- support/news-story/abcd0a8f74e1666a1278a805d105126d
Cortese, A. D. (2003). The critical role of higher education in creating a sustainable future. Planning for higher education, 31(3), 15-22.
Dean, B. A., Gibbons, B., & Perkiss, S. (2018). An experiential learning activity for integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into business education. Social Business, 8(4), 387– 409.
Dierdorp, A., Bakker, A., Eijkelhof, H., & van Maanen, J. (2011). Authentic practices as contexts for learning to draw inferences beyond correlated data. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 13(1-2), 132-151.
Iftakhar, N., & Bahauddin, K. (2018). Why leadership is essential for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. International Policy Digest, 10(1).
Kinzer, K. (2021). Integrating professional sustainability literacy into the master of public administration curriculum. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Murray, S. A., Davis, J., Shuler, H. D., Spencer, E. C., & Hinton, A. (2022). Time management for STEMM students during the continuing pandemic. Trends in biochemical sciences.
Neumann, D. L., Hood, M., & Neumann, M. M. (2013). Using real-life data when teaching statistics: Student perceptions of this strategy in an introductory statistics course. Statistics Education Research Journal, 12(2), 59-70.
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Wilson, V. A. (2003). Statistics Anxiety: Nature, etiology, antecedents, effects, and treatments--a comprehensive review of the literature. Teaching in higher education, 8(2), 195- 209.
PRME. (2020). Blueprint for SDG integration into curriculum, research and partnerships. https://d30mzt1bxg5llt.cloudfront.net/public/uploads/PDFs/BlueprintForSDGIntegration.pdf.
Stewart, K., Rowling, K., Hegarty, A.M., Nuttall, A. (2010). Industry & Investment NSW – Fisheries Research Report Series: 27, Size and age at sexual maturity of snapper Pagrus auratus in New South Wales 2008/09.
Storey, M., Killian, S., & O’Regan, P. (2017). Responsible management education: Mapping the field in the context of the SDGs. International Journal of Management in Education, 15(2), 93–103.
United Nations. (2018). The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome.
United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. United Nations: New York, NY, USA.
United Nations Conference on Environment, & Development (1992: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). (1993). Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development: Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992 (Vol. 1). New York: United Nations.
Weybrecht, G. (2017). From challenge to opportunity–Management education's crucial role in sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals–An overview and framework. The International Journal of Management Education, 15(2), 84-92.
Weybrecht, G. (2021). How management education is engaging students in the sustainable development goals. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 22(6), 1302–1315.
Weybrecht, G. (2022). Business schools are embracing the SDGs–But is it enough? How business schools are reporting on their engagement in the SDGs. The International Journal of Management Education, 20(1), 100589.
World commission on environment and development. (1987) Our common future, 17(1), 1-91.
