Sustainable education and organizational identity: a conceptual framework for higher education institutions

Purpose The transformation of higher education institutions towards sustainability requires a profound paradigm shift in their organizational cultures and identities. Yet this issue has received limited empirical and conceptual attention. This paper aims to address that gap, proposing a conceptual framework for studying how compatible a higher education institution’s organizational identity is with the principles of sustainable education before implementing any transformation strategy. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors show that sustainable education pedagogical values are also organizational values, demonstrating their strong conceptual affinity with the Mental Models for Sustainability in Organizations. Implications are then derived for the main institutional missions, and, using the notion of “mission-related organizational identities”, the authors propose a series of preliminary, exploratory analytical categories for studying the relationship between organizational identity and sustainable education. The framework is built through a conceptual dialogue with relevant works in both literatures. Findings The framework is mainly an analytical approach for understanding an institution’s identity-readiness for change, including, in its operational dimension, some preliminary exploratory categories. It is designed to be used mainly with faculty members. Research limitations/implications The form and content of the framework rest on a specific selection of relevant literature, and its categories are points of departure for investigating identity. Originality/value The framework advances organizational identity as a lens for studying sustainable transition in higher education, based on a comprehensive formulation of sustainable education, and brings sustainability in higher education studies and organizational theory closer together.