An Exploratory Study on the Composition of ESG Content as Liberal Arts Education

As a part of liberal arts education, ESG should provide college students with the knowledge and practical opportunities necessary for participation and coexistence with people and as citizens of the community. However, in order for the goals of ESG education to be realized, particularly when it comes to participation and coexistence, ESG content must be organized first. In order to construct ESG content, this study analyzed the content validity of 4 liberal arts professors and the subjective suitability of the ESG content composition among 164 college students. Five topics were selected for their ESG content that is suitable for general education in the environmental field: climate change and carbon emissions, waste management, energy efficiency, environmental regulations, and biodiversity. In the social sector, four topics were selected: community relations, data protection, human rights⋅gender⋅diversity, and worker safety. In the governance area, three areas were extracted: corporate ethics, bribery and anti-corruption, and fair competition. In the future, ESG liberal arts education needs to be approached with content related to 12 topics. In addition, ESG in liberal arts education should be approached by integrating the three areas rather than providing a curriculum for each of the E(environment), S(society), and G(governance) areas, and should be conducted in such a way that it that integrates ESG theory and practice cases.