Date of Award
8-1-2014
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Geography and Environmental Resources
First Advisor
Duram, Leslie
Abstract
Many within and outside of the discipline of geography see it as a highly appropriate home for sustainability studies. Despite a history of human-environment education within geography and support from professional research or education organizations, some studies show that geography has not developed a lead role in sustainability education. This study examines the role of geography in offering "Sustainability Focused" courses as reported by AASHE STARS institutions with geography programs. The results show that although geography departments are highly utilized when available at an institution -offering the highest proportion of sustainability courses, averaging 14% of "Sustainability Focused" curriculum- there is much room for improvement both within geography departments and campus-wide. Further, geography's weak standing in higher education may be a barrier in capitalizing on the growing sustainability curricula.
Access
This thesis is Open Access and may be downloaded by anyone.