Today’s classroom learners, tomorrow’s global leaders: An international collaboration preparing socially responsible future leaders

Wednesday 3 July: Conference day one, 2:00pm – 2:30pm parallel session

Venue

Room 4 – 303-G16, Sem

Presenters

Dr Bonnie Amelia Dean
University of Wollongong, Australia
bonnie_dean@uow.edu.au

Dr Stephanie Perkiss
University of Wollongong, Australia

Dr Alec Wersun
Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland

Dr Belinda Gibbons
University of Wollongong, Australia

Theresa Heithaus
The WikiRate Project

Professor Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez
Universidad EAFIT, Colombia

Dr Stephanos Anastasiadis
Royal Holloway, University of London, England

Dr Leopold Bayerlein
University of New England, Australia

Dr Hannah Jun
Ewha Womans University, South Korea

Dr Pilar Acosta
Universidad ICESI, Colombia

Professor Roman Mesick
IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria

Dr Richard Mills
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Background

There is consensus among educators that the workplace we are preparing our students for is changing. In 2018, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a supporter of the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, published a report on The Future of Education and Skills 2030 in which they ask: ‘What knowledge, skills, attitudes and values will today’s students need to thrive and shape their world?’ Not only do 21st century learners need a range of disciplinary and soft skills to succeed in their future professions, but they also need the ability to know what role they play when it comes to matters of social responsibility and to be cognisant of their values to navigate these complexities. Teaching the knowledges, skills and attitudes of global social responsibility, however, remains a challenge for educators in many disciplines.

This paper presents on a collaborative project across eight countries, nine universities and one not-for-profit organisation to embed an experiential activity in curriculum to develop socially responsible future leaders. The activity was facilitated through the UN Global Compact’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) network and a new online platform for corporate reporting against the Sustainable Development Goals, named WikiRate. The aim of this project was to evaluate the activity across seven universities who embedded the activity in eight courses, reaching 1,575 students, in the first session of 2018.

Seven coordinators were interviewed and 549 students responded to survey (35% response rate). The findings suggest that for the vast majority of students, this activity had significantly shaped their knowledge and attitudes towards social responsibility, transforming their professional identity and opinions of organisation’s contributions to society. Similarly, coordinators shared their perceptions on the value of the activity for increasing awareness of the SDGs and growth in students’ sustainability mindsets.

Presentation topic

Students – Future Graduates