Institutional Fragility: Structures of Dominance in American Higher Educational Institutions Inhibiting Sustainable Education

Abstract

Higher educational institutions (HEIs) have become a requisite place to educate future change agents towards solving urgent sustainability issues facing society, and HEIs have responded to this imperative. As Vincent et al. (2016) reports, environmental and sustainability baccalaureate degrees grew by 57% between 2008 and 2012, master's degrees by 68 %, and doctoral degrees by 35% (p. 419). While HEIs' response to the demand for sustainability programming is evident, these curriculum and program add-ons primarily support first and second order change. First order change is adding content knowledge about sustainability to the curriculum and second order change is integrating teaching methods or practices to achieve sustainability. While these are very promising, Sterling and Schumacher Society (2001) insists that the whole institution needs to shift to an ethos of participation, appreciation and self-organization better known as third order change or transformative sustainability education.