New Perspectives in Science Education

Sustainability challenges such as accelerating climate change, population growth, and escalating energy demand, coupled with the disruptive speed of technological innovation in machine learning and artificial intelligence, have generated a polycrisis where the world is rapidly being reshaped, by both intentional design and emergent accident. What directions the future takes will depend greatly on how we design business education to engage with these emerging STEM related issues.  Ensuring that human-deliberated values remain at the fore as AI is incorporated widely and deeply into business practice, and that sustainability goals are pursued with inclusivity and justice, requires a new kind of leadership and business education. In this paper we describe the pedagogy of design thinking, sustainable business practices, sustainability strategy and leadership ethics courses that enhance student awareness of STEM by taking a future-focused, ethically-aware view with a dual objective of developing resilient learners and learning for social-ecological resilience. Students in these courses engage in dialogues to consider current and emerging STEM related issues threatening social stability and individual well-being. We use a raw case format and invite students to deliberate on a variety of inputs by developing their capacity in ethical reasoning, experiential design thinking and critically and creatively engaging in multiple levels of learning (single, double and triple loop). The UN Sustainable Development Goals are presented as the design constraints for STEM related sustainability solutions, with a focus on developing student qualities and capabilities to support social-ecological resilience identified in the companion Inner Development Goals.