An analysis of the difficulties associated to sustainability insertion in engineering education: Examples from HEIs in Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to understand how the difficulties associated with the inclusion of sustainability in engineering education are related. From the literature review, eleven difficulties were compiled and posteriorly, a panel of experts was conducted to divide them into two groups, namely “difficulties associated with structure and planning” and “difficulties observed in didactic practice”. These groups were used as a basis of a survey, involving Brazilian lecturers who work with sustainability in engineering courses. The collected data were analysed through Structural Equation Modelling, using Partial Least Squares method. The validation of the model was divided into nine different steps. A causal relationship between the two groups was verified through the present research, that is, the greater the difficulties associated with the structure and planning, the greater will be the difficulties observed in didactic practice. The results of this paper may be used by researchers in their future studies and by lecturers and coordinators as a guide to the inclusion of sustainability in engineering education.