A Pathological Study of the Curriculum Renewal Process (CRP) Based on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Strategic Approach at Shiraz University

Abstract

Recently, sustainability has emerged as a core context for 21st Century living, to maintain or improve our quality of life without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. This has led to the sustainable development as a basis for overcoming the environmental challenges. The purpose of this research is a pathology study of the curriculum renewal process based on education for the sustainable development strategic approach at Shiraz University for undergraduate courses. The research tools were designed following the Helix model (Desha & Hargroves, 2011) for Rapid Curriculum Renewal. After assessing its validity and reliability, the samples were distributed among the individuals and the final data were analyzed by mean and standard deviations of descriptive statistics method. The statistical population consists of members of the curriculum development council at Shiraz University. Using purposeful sampling method, 54 people were selected as members of the analytical sample. The results showed that in the ‘prepare' stage of the curriculum renewal process at Shiraz University, the mean of element ‘identify graduate attributes', in the ‘explore' stage of the mentioned process , the mean of elements ‘ identify graduate attributes' and continually monitor and evaluate, in the ‘test &pilot' stage of the process, the mean of elements ‘ identify graduate attributes', ‘continually monitor and evaluate' and ‘implement program', and in the ‘integrate' stage of the process the mean of elements ‘identify graduate attributes', ‘ continually monitor and evaluate' and collaborate Internally and externally, were lower than the standard mean and were considered as some defects.