Crafting Education for Sustainable Development into an Entrepreneurship Module

Traditional business models have been disrupted by ‘wicked’ problems such as climate change and social inequity (Gulikers and Oonk, 2019).  Entrepreneurship is widely acknowledged as a key factor for global social, economic and environmental development, but also has been a driver and contributor of unsustainable practices, leading to many of these wicked problems.

Traditional entrepreneurial competencies are highly desirable graduate skills (Jack, 2022) and have been incorporated into many university programmes. However, if society is to solve wicked problems, entrepreneurship education needs to firmly incorporate sustainability going forward, and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) provides a vehicle for that, as it imbues learners with competencies, values and a sense of purpose to address the aforenoted global challenges (UNESCO, 2023).

This paper discusses the Business Innovation & Entrepreneurship (BIE) class at Queen’s University Belfast, a compulsory component of the Food Science, Environmental Management and Agricultural Technology pathways for >15 years. BIE was recently redesigned using the CRAFTS model of ESD learning design developed by the presenters to incorporate transformative pedagogy, lived entrepreneurial experiences and authentic assessment, to provide opportunities for students to develop key ESD competencies and mindsets.

Prior to the redesign process, student evaluations of teaching reflected significant problems, with students commenting ‘It’s not relevant to our course’. However, post-redesign, there was a notable improvement, with students expressing newfound interest in sustainable entrepreneurship and its relevance to their discipline.