Sustainability in a Digital Age as a Trigger for Organizational Development in Education

Grünberger, Nina; Szucsich, Petra

As we all know the terms sustainability and digitization are often used these days to describe current social challenges from a global perspective. In order to face these challenges, it is clear that we need an efficient and future-oriented education system. The question arises if the challenges in relation to climate change and digitization change these (learning) organizations as well? And, if yes, in what way? As this chapter points out, sustainability can be regarded as a trigger for an extensive organizational development focusing on ecological, economic (e.g. regarding learning outcomes and assessment) and social aspects. As a consequence, the social structure of the various actors in educational organizations as well as the way in which they interact with each other may/will change as well. In addition to that, climate change and digitization are both so-called wicked problems as there is neither a single solution nor a stringent strategy on how to cope with them.