This book investigates how educators and researchers in the sciences social sciences and the
arts connect concepts of sustainability to work in their fields of study and in the classrooms
where they teach the next generation. Sustainability with a focus on justice authenticity and
inclusivity can be integrated into many different courses or disciplines even if it is beyond
their historical focus. The narratives describe sustainability education in the classroom the
laboratory and the field (broadly defined) and how the authors navigate the complexities of
particular sustainability issues such as climate change water quality soil health
biodiversity resource use and education in authentic ways that convey their complexity the
sociopolitical context and their hopes for the future. The chapters explore how faculty engage
students in learning about sustainability and the ways in which working at the edge of what we
know about sustainability can be a significant source of engagement motivation and challenge.
The authors discuss how they create learning experiences that foster democratic practices in
which students are not just following protocols but have a stake in creative decision-making
collecting and analysing data and posing authentic questions. They also describe what happens
when students are not just passively receiving information but actively analysing debating
dialoguing arguing from evidence and constructing nuanced understandings of complex
socioscientific sustainability issues. The narratives include undergraduate student
perspectives on what it means to engage in sustainability research and learning how students
navigate the complexities and contradictions inherent in sustainability issues what makes for
authentic empowering learning experiences and how students are encouraged to persevere in the
field. This is an open access book.
