2012/65

Management Journal for Theory and Practice Management 2012/65

Nataša Petrović1, Alfred Snider2, Marko Ćirović1, Nemanja Milenković1

1
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Serbia
2
University of Vermont, United States of America

Debate in Education for Sustainable

Development
UDC: 378.147:[502/504(497.11) ; 005.6:502.131.1
DOI: 10.7595/management.fon.2012.0031

There is no doubt that higher education should contribute significantly to education for sustainable develop-
ment. Given the need to develop new approaches to improve students’ environmental awareness, knowledge
and understanding of environmental issues and sustainability topics, the implementation of debating in clas-
rooms has been presented in this paper, as an aditional educational tool, at the course of Environmental Man-
agement at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences.
Keywords: debate, education, sustainable development, education for sustainable development

1. Introduction

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent, but the one most respon-
sive to change.”
Charles Darwin

Industrialization and population growth cause pollution, erosion, habitat fragmentation, and wasteful con-
sumption, consequently endangering the integrity of global ecosystems. Ecosystem management programs
that focus on patches or categories, such as forestry management and wildlife management, are not enough
to counter the growing damage inflicted upon our finite natural resources.

Sustainable development was developed to fulfil that need. Sustainable development is a global develop-
ment management philosophy that aims to conserve the integrity of the Earth’s ecosystems while support-
ing economic growth and social welfare. It was developed by the Brundtland Commission during the World
Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 (WCED, 1987). Its primary purpose was to reduce
the resistance to the conservation of the environment while raising awareness of the importance of the
Earth’s natural resources, both for those who need them today and those who will need them tomorrow.

Sustainable Development has become a popular management philosophy in many countries throughout the
world. Its popularity can be partially attributed to reports of global climate change and the declining stabil-
ity of global ecosystems. However, its initiation can also be attributed to the efforts of the United Nations (UN),
which has encouraged all countries to develop their own national sustainable development strategies. Today,
countries on all five continents have developed and are in the process of implementing national sustainable
development strategies.

Further on, sustainability is defined as “development that meets the needs and aspirations of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (West, 2008) and, therefore,
is generally linked to ongoing economic growth and development (Petrović et al, 2011).

2. The prism of sustainability

The Prism of Sustainability (Fig. 1) is an extension of The Three Pillars of Sustainability Theory with the ad-
dition of institutions. Otherwise The Three pillars of Sustainability is a very common depiction of sustainable
development. Represented are the three primary pillars upholding three essential elements of sustainable
development: economic development, social development, and environmental conservation (UN, 2002).

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Institutions are large organizations that are influential in a community such as Government Organizations,
Non-Government Organizations, Universities, and Hospitals. The development of institutions is not enough;
achieving enough cooperation and coordination to successfully implement sustainable development re-
quires institutional, social, and financial strength. Strong institutions are necessary to develop, implement,
enforce, and evaluate policies and regulations. Social vigour is also important, meaning that the society has
the knowledge, technical, and social capacity to adhere to rules and regulations and to participate in new
initiatives. Support from the lowest levels of society is essential for the success of sustainable development
(Ghai & Vivian, 1995).

However, for the lowest levels of society to provide support from the bottom up they must first obtain liveli-
hood security (food, water, and basic necessities) to make sustainable choices as well as the financial power
to pay for them. Without these components, sustainable development, as defined by the Brundtland Com-
mission, cannot be achieved (WCED, 1987).

Education and public outreach programs, like Agenda 21 (1992) have been developed to increase the local
public understanding and support of the concept of sustainability.

Figure 1: The Prism of Sustainability

3. Education for sustainable development

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD, 2005-2015), offers an oppor-
tunity to rethink the manner in which we approach global environmental and sustainable challenges (DESD,
2009). Apart from the regional and national launches, progress has been achieved in both institutional and
programmatic areas at international, regional and national levels. The Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development comes at a time when the economic, social, environmental and cultural realms of global soci-
ety are faced with daunting challenges. The obligation of higher education is work in a way of mobilizing fur-
ther political support in countries where Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is not yet a priority.
Today, more than ever before, the need for a holistic approach to learning and teaching becomes both vital
and urgent. If its potential to contribute to the paradigm shift in thinking, learning and teaching for a sustain-
able world is to be realized, Education for Sustainable Development has to move to the political centre-stage.

Sustainable development needs to be added to an already overcrowded curriculum of foundation subjects

that must teach the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic (UNCED, 1992). At the same time it can be
seen as an integrative, cross-curricular theme that can bring together many of the single issues that schools
are already expected to address. Education for Sustainable Development learning goals include: acting with
respect for others, acting with responsibility locally and globally, critical thinking, understanding complex-
ity, the capacity to imagine the future, understanding inter-disciplinary relations, responsible behaviour and
the ability to identify and clarify environmental values (DESD, 2009).

The main thrusts of Education for Sustainable Development, originally identified in Chapter 36 of Agenda 21,
have been expanded upon in the Work Programme of the UN Commission of Sustainable Development –
CSD, reports of the major UN Conferences of the 1990’s:

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1. Public understanding of the principles behind sustainability. ESD has a major role in furthering the dis-
cussion of sustainability itself and the evolution of the concept from a vision to its practical application in
culturally appropriate and locally relevant forms.
2. Mainstreaming ESD. This social process needs to be mainstreamed into all sectors including business,
agriculture, tourism, natural resource management, local government and mass media, adding value to
program development and implementation.
3. Lifelong learning for all. The quality life – long education and learning opportunities are required for all peo-
ples regardless of their occupation or circumstances.
4. ESD is relevant to all nations. The realization that it is our most highly educated countries that create
some of the greatest threats to a sustainable future for the planet, the reorienting of existing education
programs in all nations to address the social, environmental, and economic knowledge, skills, perspec-
tives, and values inherent in sustainability is also a major thrust of ESD.
5. Specialized Training Programs. The development of specialized training programs to ensure that all sec-
tors of society have the skills necessary to perform their world in a sustainable manner (UNCED, 1992).

The nature of Education for Sustainable Development demands new perspectives on matters such as cur-
riculum, teaching and learning. Education for Sustainable Development and Education Sustainable Devel-
opment tend to focus on connections, feedback loops, relationships and interaction. Yet the dominant
educational structures are based on fragmentation rather than on connections and synergy. Another ob-
servation is that the search for a more sustainable world requires the full and democratic involvement of all
members of society which should also have implications for teaching and learning (Petrović et al, 2011b).

Education for Sustainable Development calls for new kinds of learning that are not so much of a transmis-
sive nature (i.e. learning as reproduction) but rather of a transformative nature (i.e. learning as change)
(DESD, 2009).

This kind of education implies four descriptors - educational policy and practice which is sustaining, tenable,
healthy and durable:
• Sustaining: it helps sustain people, communities and ecosystems.
• Tenable: it is ethically defensible, working with integrity, justice, respect and inclusiveness.
• Healthy: it is itself a viable system, embodying and nurturing healthy relationships and emergence at dif-
ferent system levels.
• Durable: it works well enough in practice to be able to keep doing it.

4. Effective teaching environmental topics and sustainable issues

Education for Sustainable Development allows every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, atti-
tudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future. Education for Sustainable Development means
including key sustainable development issues into teaching and learning; for example, climate change, dis-
aster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption. It also requires partici-
patory teaching and learning methods that motivate and empower learners to change their behaviours and
take action for sustainable development. Education for Sustainable Development consequently promotes
competencies like critical thinking, imagining future scenarios and making decisions in a collaborative way.
Education for Sustainable Development requires far-reaching changes in the way education is often prac-
ticed today (UNESCO, 2012).

Strategies to teach environmental and sustainable topics, particularly controversial ones, without coming up
against affective barriers to learning are:
• Teaching the science first: presenting the science objectively, using data and relevant examples; next, dis-
cussing issues related to this topic. By setting the stage deliberately, learners are more likely to be recep-
tive to the information.
• Teaching with data: presenting the topic without emotional statements and consequent emotional re-
sponses in learners.
• Using active learning techniques: learners learn better when they can learn for themselves. Environmen-
tal issues lend themselves to teaching techniques like using local examples, gathering data from the field,
using role-playing or debates, or participating in environmental projects.
• Leading by example: the goal is to promote environmentally-favourable behaviour in learners, consider a
hands-on project that will challenge them to consider the environmental impacts of their own actions.

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5. Debate

A debate is an equitably structured communication event about some topic of interest, with opposing ad-
vocates alternating before a decision-making body (Snider & Schnurer, 2006).

This definition implies a number of principles for a debate. A debate should be equitably designed. All des-
ignated “sides” should be given an equal opportunity to present their views. A debate should be structured,
with established communication periods and patterns with a beginning and an end. This structure allows for
preparation and strategy.

A debate is a communication event where the mode of operation is oral or written communication (a text de-
bate) and serves as performance as well as a method of transmitting ideas and arguments. Every debate
has a topic, allowing the debate process to be more directed than a normal conversation. The topic itself
should be of some importance and interest to the participants and any audience that may observe the de-
bate. A debate is composed of two or more sides of an issue where the advocacy positions are identified in
advance.

For example, a debate might be held on the issue of creating a national death penalty for certain crimes, one
side is in favour of death penalty (thus they may be called “pro,” “affirmative,” “proposition,” or “government”;
in this text we favour affirmative) and one side will be against death penalty (thus they may be called “con,”
“negative,” or “opposition”; we favour negative). This sense of “opposing sides” is critical to the probing
analysis of the topic to be debated because debaters will bring the strongest arguments to back their side
and be prepared to challenge the ideas of the other side. Presentations in a debate should alternate between
the sides, creating a pulse of critical communication in opposition to previous and subsequent pulses.

During the debate the advocates will be asking other participants and observers to agree with their point of
view and, in the end, call for a “decision” by those present, either publicly or privately (Snider & Schnurer,
2006).

Participation in academic debating creates numerous benefits for the students:

• Data analysis is an essential debating tool. Debaters must learn how to find the relevant information on the
topic when they are researching possible motions for a tournament analysis and save or remember their
results. After debating for some time, debaters collect a lot of information, but they will always encounter
new topics, where they will have to quickly utilize the data they know in a new problem.
• Presentation of knowledge is required from debaters in a limited time frame. Debaters learn how to pres-
ent vast amounts of knowledge briefly, effectively and to the point.
• Critical thinking is forced onto debaters, and debaters quickly adopt it. Sides are randomly assigned in a
debate, therefore debaters must know how to argue, analyze and assess opposing sides of any argument.
• Knowledge of the world problems is necessary in the international debating scene, as the topics must be
drawn from a pool of issues which are equally important to all the countries that are participating.
• Finding the right information is important because facts count in debate. Most global debates have com-
peting schools of thought, often with competing information. Debaters need to know how to weigh au-
thorities, how to compare sources and spot when information is biased.
• Intercultural communication is developed and trained in debate, as judges come from different cultural
backgrounds, as well as the opposition teams. That means debaters train to be understood, as well as to
understand.
• Persuasion is a peripheral skill for debaters. In theory, debates should be judged by completely objective
judges. As this cannot be the case, advance debating classes cover persuasion methods as a manner of
gaining that last bit of competitive edge (Snider, 2011).

6. Introduction of the concepts of academic educational debating in environmental

management course – case study

On the other hand, a number of courses in higher environmental education and a number of initiatives to in-
tegrate environmental issues into university curricula have been launched in the past decade worldwide.
However, to satisfy the specific needs of this kind of education implementing, innovative methods of deliv-
ering such knowledge for sustainability are needed (Petrović et al, 2011b).

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Higher environmental education has to be learner-cantered, providing learners with opportunities to construct
their own understandings through hands-on, minds on investigations (Petrović & Milićević, 2006; Petrović
& Milićević, 2007; Kostova, 1998). Having this in mind, we selected Environmental management course, be-
cause it is based on a wide range of scientific and practical knowledge of environmental science and sus-
tainable development. Thus this course represents a good benchmark for an adequate improvement of
students’ environmental awareness and knowledge about sustainability.

In the spring semester of 2012 school year, just over 200 students enrolled the Environmental Management
course at their third year of study at University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences. The course
classes consisted of two hours of lectures and two hours of exercise each week during a 13-week semes-
ter. The course has sections on ecology, environmental issues and protection, conservation of natural re-
sources, environmental management and sustainable development. The course program is based on a
strong methodology, requiring participants to turn their environmental and management knowledge and
understanding into appropriate environmental actions.

The introduction of educational innovations in the classroom develops the students’ independence and
gives them the capacity to be self-confident as well as self-reliable in striving to fulfil their goals and aspira-
tions (Kostova & Atasoy, 2008). Having that in mind, we wanted to work on students’ analytical skills through
their participation in contemporary environmental debates.

A framework for the introduction of the concepts of academic educational debating in Environmental Man-
agement course development consisted of:
• Introduction and overview of the course content. A review of major environmental topics and sustainable
issues, and the role of various actors in addressing environmental problems.
• About environmental debates. Identifying major themes in environmental discourse. E.g. Anthropocen-
trism vs. Biocentrism, Sovereignty vs. Global Commons, Resource use/Development vs. Conservation.
• Motion 1 - The Climate Change Debate.
• Motion 2 - Alternative Energy Sources.
• Motion 3 - Nuclear energy
• Motion 4 - Animal rights
• Motion 5 - Environmental protection Vs. Economic growth
• Motion 6 - Energy consumption limits
• Motion 7 – Zero growth
• Motion 8 – Vegetarianism

Students enrolled at the course were introduced to and familiarized with the concepts of academic educa-
tional debating. Students, encouraged to voluntarily participate in debating, worked on their skills in: or-
ganization, research, delivery, refutation, and argumentation. These students were trained to participate in
classroom practice environmental debates.

Assignment values were as follows: participation, practice speech (5 extra credits), practice debates (10
extra credits), winning tournament (20 extra credits).

Each practice debate simulated the British parliamentary format of debating. This format is one of the most
commonly and widely used debate formats currently. Students were divided into 4 teams, each team con-
sisting of 2 members hence all of the practice debates had 8 students actively participating. When the de-
bate was done, group discussion and an elaborate feedback from the educator followed.

After the students successfully completed the course and were graded, the students who participated in the
debates took part in a short preliminary research. The research was conducted at the University of Belgrade,
Faculty of Organizational Sciences. The number of students that participated in it was 51.
When these students were asked whether or not participating in the debates helped them evaluate specific
environmental problems - 27 of them strongly agreed and 21 of them partially agreed that it helped. That
gives us the total of 94.12% of analysed students that strongly or partially believe that the debate helped them
when approaching specific environmental problems, while only 5.88% partially disagreed with that statement.

When the same group was asked to express their attitude towards the statement “the debate helped me crit-
ically analyse all sides of the given environmental problem”, 90.19% strongly or partially agreed, while 9.2%
partially disagreed with it.

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Conslusion

The introduction of debate in higher education helps students articulate and appreciate alternative arguments about crit-
ical environmental issues even if they disagree with some of them. Understanding and articulating opposing points of view
are a hallmark of a strong advocacy and good literature, because respectful, informed, responsible discourse is neces-
sary to address difficult environmental topics and sustainable issues. Further, critical examination of major environmental
problems reveals numberless competing interests, priorities and perspectives.

Likewise, by using debate, Environmental Management course utilized these additional teaching methods:
1. Lectures about debating and debate theory. In this way, students are introduced with information about debate con-
cepts, practices, and vocabulary.
2. Class discussions. Class discussions provided environmental topics for debating, argumentative concepts, and on var-
ious debate methods and practices.
3. Practice speeches. Students had a task to give short, unprepared speeches about ideas in order to gain training in de-
livery, organization, and argumentative concepts.
4. Practice debates. Students were engaged in debates against each other in teams. These debates were supplemented
by research done by students as well as by additional material supplied by the educator.
5. Debate tournaments. Students were engaged in debates against each other. They would simulate all the elements that
are present at the university debate tournaments held in British parliamentary format. That would include motion analy-
sis, data preparing, organizing, structuring and labelling their speeches and speech delivery.
6. Research. Students were engaged in primary research on given environmental topic which was the motion and the
theme of the debate.

The preliminary research given in this paper and high percentages of students satisfied with debates at the course of En-
vironmental Management have encouraged us to proceed with this method and this research, and to involve other envi-
ronmental courses at the faculty.

Based on this, we would highly recomend others to explore the use of debating in clasrooms as a supplement to traditional
learning. Our data suggest that students would use debating as a good tool not only for a broader engagement in the
proces of learning but also as a way to develop a way of critical thinking and engaging in environmental transparency.

LITERATURE

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[3] Kostova, Z. (1998). How to Learn Successfully. Sofia: Pedagog 6.
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[13] UNESCO (2012). Education for Sustainable Development. .

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Receieved: August 2012.

Accepted: October 2012.

About the Author

Nataša Petrović
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences
petrovicn@fon,bg.ac.rs

Nataša Petrović graduated from the Faculty of Organizational Sciencesin 1991, got her masters
degree in 1999, and a Ph. D. in 2002. She currently works as an associate professor at the
University of Belgrade - Faculty of Organizational Sciences. The area of her scientific research
includes: environmental management, sustainable development, environmental education, eco
marketing, design for environment, public participation in environmental protection.

Alfred Snider
University of Vermont, United States of America
[email protected]

Alfred Snider is the Edwin W. Lawrence Professor of Forensics at the University of Vermont. He
teaches courses in Speech Communication, most often Argumentation, Persuasion, Debate,
Campaign Rhetoric, Issues in Public Address, and related subjects. He is also the Director of the
Lawrence Debate Union, an endowed co-curricular program that trains students to debate and
then sponsors their intercollegiate debate competition globally. He received a “Lifetime
Achievement” award from the Cross Examination Debate Association in 2001, the “Humanitarian
Award” from the National Forensic League in 2008 as well as a number of other honors.

Marko Ćirović
University of Belgrade, Faculty of OrganizationalSciences
[email protected]

Marko Ćirović works as a teaching associate at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University
of Belgrade. He graduated from this Faculty in management in 2010, and got his masters degree in
2012. He is currently enrolled in doctorial studies at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences. His
area of interest includes: environmental management, eco-marketing, environmental education and
debate as a method of education.

Nemanja Milenković
University of Belgrade,Faculty of Organizational Sciences
[email protected]

Nemanja Milenkovic graduated from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences in 2010. He received
his M.Sc. degree in 2012 in the scientific field of computational statistics. His area of interest
includes probability theory, statistics and linear-statistical models. He is a member of The Statistical
Society of Serbia.

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