Assessment of education for sustainable development in universities in Costa Rica: implications for Latin America and the Caribbean

Higher Education is a key factor for social change influencing future decision-makers in business, education, politics and science. As such, sustainable development requires creating awareness amongst these decision-makers of their responsibilities and opportunities in this area. Higher education for sustainable development is championed in developed countries, but in developing countries it is just beginning to become an element of interest for the international community. The purpose of this study was to perform an assessment of the extent to which universities in Costa Rica are including education for sustainable development in their programs and curriculum, research and scholarship, faculty and staff development and rewards, outreach and service at the local, regional, national, and international level, student opportunities, and institutional mission and planning. The focus of this research is on universities in Costa Rica for being this country a pioneer in the region for introducing education for sustainable development in their national public education system. The study will be concluded describing some of the implications in the rest of the Latin America and the Caribbean region of the commitment of Costa Rica to ESD, specifically in higher education. The type of research selected for this study was quantitative-qualitative exploratory cross-sectional. The instrument selected was based on The Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire developed by the University Leaders for a Sustainable Future and supplemented with six addition questions based on the framework of UNESCODESD.

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