Email   Print

Share

Educating for change

How schools are offering paths for personal and social growth.

Ode Editors | June/July 2009 issue

When Barack Obama won the U.S. presidency on the platform of change, it signaled how potent the notion of transformation could be: People in the U.S. and abroad itched for something new, an overhaul of business and government that could herald a sustainable 21st-century world. The question now is how to get there. That question has sparked a trend in academic institutions toward educating for change. Universities around the globe have proven eager to integrate sustainability into their curricula.

A recent survey in The Chronicle of Higher Education found that substantially more professors are interested in transforming their students into "agents of social change" than in teaching the Western classics. Increasingly, colleges are focusing on social activism and business schools on social innovation. The biennial survey Beyond Grey Pinstripes, performed by the New York-based Aspen Institute Center for Business Education, reveals that business schools are determined to emphasize ethics, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.

At the same time, transformational learning (also known as the Integral or holistic education movement) continues to blossom. The idea is to approach all subjects from a variety of perspectives so education can better reflect the interconnectedness of the modern world. Couple this with the rising tide of life coaches who work with individuals and corporations to inspire more meaningful ways of living, and you arrive at a compelling portrait of how critical change is to education in the 21st century.

Business schools

With the global economy in tatters, the business sector is under fire for short-sightedness and exploitation of the public good. Injecting more transparency into the system, along with increased regulation and emphasis on social and environmental return, now seems critical for future success. Business schools have taken the lead in preparing their students for such challenges. Many have started programs geared toward sustainability and reform.

Norwich Business School in the U.K. has launched an MBA program in strategic carbon management. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based Brandeis University International Business School recently announced a "Global Green MBA" to teach students to build sustainable businesses in a global marketplace. The Saïd Business School at Oxford University in the U.K. has welcomed the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship into its fold. INSEAD in Fontainbleau, France, the Ngee Ann Polytechnic School in Singapore and Keio University in Japan have followed suit with social-education centers.

With the slogan, "Change lives. Change organizations. Change the world," the Stanford School of Business in Palo Alto, California, perennially ranks as the most sustainably oriented MBA program in the U.S. Its Center for Social Innovation (CSI) focuses on how business can drive public benefit and redress global problems. The school enables students to take summer internships with social purpose, runs a popular Board Fellows program to match students with leading San Francisco Bay Area non-profits and in 2009 introduced a Social Innovation Fellowship that will provide financial and strategic support to students launching social-interest ventures.

Kriss Deiglmeier, executive director of operations at CSI, says even before the economic crisis, students were increasingly interested in aligning personal ethics with professional goals. Ninety percent of the student body now takes at least one course at the Center, and 20 percent graduates with certificates in corporate responsibility. "The world has changed," says Deiglmeier. "We have global problems that need to be addressed, and MBA programs have the responsibility to educate leaders so that they can be. Stanford is trying to lead the way."

Launched in 2003, The Presidio School of Management in San Francisco, California, has distinguished itself for its MBA in Sustainable Management. Here the emphasis is on teaching business with an eye to all forms of capital: human, natural and financial. Students learn about the "integrated bottom line," which incorporates issues like climate change, energy efficiency and social good into traditional subjects. The School offers both full- and part-time MBAs, as well as a five-month Executive Program that exposes executives to the field of sustainability and encourages them to rethink their assumptions. In all programs, teachers integrate traditional classroom lectures with innovative online learning tools.

"The reality is that issues like climate change, energy efficiency, social responsibility... these are things that every business has to navigate now, and those that understand it are at a great competitive advantage," says Diane Mailey, senior vice president for business development and planning. "Our curriculum is designed to prepare our students to be leaders for these 21st-century challenges."

1 2 3 4 NEXT >>
view as a single page

Tools: Discuss | Email | Print | RSS | Weekly Newsletter Save/Share:

Comments (2)

Post a comment