Toward a Sustainable Built Environment: A Scoping Review of Teaching Social Sustainability to Construction Students

Social sustainability remains fragmented in construction education, with accreditation standards addressing related aspects, such as ethics and jobsite safety, largely in isolation. This fragmentation may limit graduates’ preparation to support the sustainable development of cities and communities around the globe. To address this fragmentation, this paper identifies key topics, teaching approaches, and challenges for integrating social sustainability into the undergraduate construction curricula. Using a scoping review, 63 relevant documents were analyzed qualitatively around four major dimensions: worker welfare, community engagement, end-user involvement and satisfaction, and ethics. Findings show that worker safety dominates over other broader social themes, which converge toward stakeholder collaboration; and critical areas such as worker mental health and wellbeing remain largely overlooked. Moreover, while virtual reality is commonly used for safety training, high-impact active educational practices (e.g., service learning, intercultural experiences) are more commonly reported for teaching construction students about stakeholder collaboration. Holistic curriculum frameworks for addressing social sustainability within construction education remain rare. Our findings suggest that achieving true social sustainability in the built environment may require a broader evolution of construction education beyond traditional occupational safety. Through active and high-impact learning activities, updated accreditation frameworks, and industry-partnered practice, educational institutions may better prepare graduates to lead ethically sound, community-oriented projects that contribute to equitable social impact.