The SDGs journey : from learning to knowing to disseminating to mentoring

Purpose: This article recounts the author’s journey, which began unexpectedly in 2019 with research on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It describes how this work evolved into scholarly publications and, serendipitously, into teaching practices aimed at motivating and mentoring students to incorporate the SDGs into their academic reports and journal articles. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study adopts a reflective, semi-formal approach based on the author’s own experience of integrating SDG-oriented research into teaching. It draws on personal outputs, classroom interactions, and student feedback to illustrate how research and teaching roles can be synergistically combined. Findings: Over the last four years, the author has embedded SDG perspectives into teaching practices by using his own research outputs as examples. This approach encouraged students to think creatively, move beyond disciplinary and geographical silos, and recognize both synergies and conflicts that are often obscured by fragmented perspectives. Research Implications: The findings highlight the importance of bridging research and teaching through SDG-focused thinking, which can serve as a model for integrating global challenges into higher education. Such an approach demonstrates how academic research can influence pedagogy and vice versa, fostering cross-disciplinary insights. Practical Implications: Students reported that challenges must not be treated as isolated, local issues. They emphasized the importance of considering ripple effects—positive or negative—on other regions of the world, reinforcing the need for global awareness in problem-solving. Educators can thus promote holistic and interconnected approaches aligned with SDG principles. Originality/Value: The article provides a unique reflective account of integrating SDGs into both research and teaching, emphasizing SDG 4 (Quality Education) while illustrating its interconnection with other goals. By documenting the lived experience of aligning research outputs with teaching practices, it offers valuable insights into how higher education can operationalize the SDGs in meaningful ways.