(List#109) What About Curriculum? A Call to Action...

A rather large box came in the mail the other day, and I was surprised to find a plaque in it with my name which says, “in recognition of 10 years of leading SIP”. I’ve been working with PRME for almost 20 years now and this is my second 10-year recognition (my first was a PRME Pioneer Award) and I am so thankful. 

Every year, I have read through every Sharing Information on Progress reports or SIP (basically business school sustainability reports) submitted to the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education. I have travelled around the world to each of your campuses, into your classrooms, mingled with your students and researchers within these report pages. They tell me about your journey, where you are at, who is involved, what kind of support you have and what kind of progress you have made. They tell me both what you want your reader to know, but also, through omissions or choice of language, what you perhaps hope your reader won’t notice is missing, or maybe you don’t even yet know is missing. They tell much clearer stories than many schools realise about what, and to what extend PRME and sustainability more broadly are integrated into your work. When I read a report, I don’t know the details of what you are allowed or not allowed to say, what support or resources you had, how your school sees the purpose of this report (PR or a real tool for change), but I can guess. 

Since the beginning, I have always encouraged schools to view the SIP reports not as a fancy marketing tool but as an opportunity to take stock, to be honest about progress made (and especially not), and to use them as tools to communicate this and next steps to their stakeholders. While the SIP guidelines may have changed recently, the purpose and the opportunity have not, and I still look forward to exploring your reports in the future. 

I’d like to thank all of those of you who created SIP reports that were engaging and inspiring and note that those of you who forced me to read reports with more than 100 pages owe me at least a hot chocolate if I’m ever in your neck of the woods (some of you owe me full 5 course meals, that’s how long some of the reports were). 

Reports tell the stories of individuals within much larger organisations that are doing most of the work alone in addition to their regular jobs, small groups of engaged faculties with limited support or staff and faculty in dedicated offices with generous budgets. I’ll add to this sentence the word unfortunately, because all three in many ways strongly suggest that, despite what many reports claim, these topics are yet to be truly embedded. After 20 years with PRME to a great extend this is all still separated in the curriculum, as it too often is in business as well. A lot has moved in the right direction, but this won’t change until business schools change. We need to take the lead. 

SIPs tell bits of the story, but rarely do they tell the whole story. And some of that story really needs to be told. This is often what I notice first: what’s missing. Schools are now experts at dancing around the topic, wowing readers with innovative research projects, grand goals in sustainable operations, new mission statements. But almost all of them fail to adequately present perhaps the most important bit of information: how and what students are being taught.

What about the curriculum?

Why are so few schools reporting on how sustainability is embedded into the core curriculum or flagship programmes? Reports are quick to describe courses with the word sustainability in it (elective or core), certificate programmes or MBA specializations with the terms in the title. But what about everything else? 

1.     What do your main degree programmes at the undergraduate, graduate and executive and even PhD levels look like from the day students come on campus to the day they graduate? What is it that your business school is teaching all its graduates?

2.     How are you teaching it and with what? Does doing a volunteer project in a disadvantaged community constitute embedding these topics into a particular degree programme? Is having a 30-minute lecture on the SDGs enough to cover the topic?

3.     What about everything else? If you, as many reports do, list out what you are doing and which classes do cover sustainability, then what about all the rest? If this is the subject of one case study but every other case study reinforces the opposite messages, then you are doing more to unteach sustainability than to teach it? That case study may show a great approach to business, but if it is at the expense of people and planet, can it really be considered best practice today? If you can list what you are doing, are you doing enough? Are you just adding things in, or are you also taking things out?

I’ll add to this that you can’t just pick and choose which SDGs you engage in. You influence them all, every one of them in all your courses. Business does. You teach business, therefore you do too. Take water for example. Few schools mention the SDG on water as one they are engaged and contributing to. But every business uses water in some way and thus influences and is influenced by the water agenda. So how is water not relevant?

If this sounds a bit like a rant, it is in many ways, but one I hope you will take note of. If you were to give a score to each initiative in your report in terms of how important it really is in relation to the impact your business school is having on the world through your alumni or even faculty and staff, would the initiatives you report on now score highly? Are the things that would score highly, such as faculty training and support, incentive structures, interdisciplinary opportunities, your core offerings, are they included?   

I have truly enjoyed going through most of the SIP reports I have read and am constantly impressed with the multitude of initiatives that each of you are able to successfully undertake with impressive results. But please, make more room for your curriculum. I assure you that you have not finished embedding sustainability into your offerings, you have only just begun and I’m excited to see what you do next.

Giselle

P.S. Over the next few weeks, I'll share some examples of schools that are reporting on their core curriculum. So if you have stories you'd like me to share, please do send them my way.