The role of education for sustainable development in fostering students’ innovativeness at technical universities

Abstract

The relevance of the research lies in the fact that in the face of local and global challenges, universities are reluctant or slow to transform the traditional paradigm of education into a new one. There is a lack of consistency in implementing the principles of ESD in curricula of universities. Very often technical universities show inadequate attention to interdisciplinary and context-specific model of learning as well as such general purpose competences as innovativeness and creative thinking. This threatens universities to become technocratic institutions. The present study employs qualitative descriptive and explanatory research methods. An extensive research and a critical evaluation of international and Lithuanian literature on the field have been done in order to offer the current perspective on the issue. What is more, a pilot survey on the students of Lithuanian technical universities supplementes the qualitative research by providing with their opinions on the issue. The results of a theoretical study points out to some limitations of a traditional disciplinary paradigm which fails to foster students’ creativity and innovativeness at technical universities at their full potential. Similarly, the findings of the students’ survey support the results of the qualitative study. However, they also reveal a significant potential of ESD to spawn these general purpose competences, which, in a long-term, could contribute to sustainable development at the national and global levels.