Getting an Empirical Hold of the "Sustainable University": A Comparative Analysis of Evaluation Frameworks across 12 Contemporary Sustainability Assessment Tools

Autor/inn/en	Fischer, Daniel; Jenssen, Silke; Tappeser, Valentin
Titel	Getting an Empirical Hold of the "Sustainable University": A Comparative Analysis of Evaluation Frameworks across 12 Contemporary Sustainability Assessment Tools
Quelle	In: Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 40 (2015) 6, S.785-800 (16 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0260-2938
DOI	10.1080/02602938.2015.1043234
Schlagwörter	Higher Education; Sustainable Development; Universities; Comparative Analysis; Evaluation Methods; Educational Indicators; Evaluation Criteria; Mixed Methods Research; Content Analysis + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Nachhaltige Entwicklung; University; Universität; Educational indicato; Bildungsindikator; Inhaltsanalyse
Abstract	Although it is increasingly recognised that higher education institutions have to play a critical role in the progression towards a sustainable development, the question of what fields and issues universities should attend to in their attempt to become more sustainable remains subject to debate. In recent years, sustainability assessment tools have begun to play a prominent role in strategies to reorient higher education institutions systematically and holistically towards sustainability. In the course of their further advancement, sustainability assessment tools have not only become instrumental facilitators of change processes towards sustainability, but also established implicit normative standards by framing the overall understanding of what fields and issues a sustainable university should engage with. So far, researchers in the field have paid little attention to the understandings of a sustainable university that are underpinning and informing sustainability assessment tools. This paper addresses this gap. Based on a comparative analysis of indicators and criteria, as well as introductory passages in supporting documents of twelve sustainability assessment tools, the authors sketch the dominance and marginalisation of different fields and issues. In doing so, the paper contributes to building the capacity for a more sophisticated and reflexive engagement with different approaches to assess and evaluate sustainability in higher education institutions. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01