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Job # 296 R&D

Supervisor

Professor Elizabeth Buckner, Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education

Job/Project Title

Higher Education’s Role in Supporting Sustainable Development

Job Description

Sustainable development (SD) is one of our most pressing global challenges. In 2015, member states of the United Nations, including Canada, adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which broadens older definitions of environmentalism to call for enhancing human flourishing without exploiting environmental, economic, social, or cultural resources. The agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that seek to end poverty, protect the planet, and improve wellbeing for all (Benavot, 2016). Canada has publicly committed to implementing the 2030 Agenda and called for collaboration and engagement from all sectors of society in reaching these goals.

An emergent body of literature has documented how the call to advance SD is becoming increasingly institutionalized as a mandate for universities. Scholars use the phrase Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) to describe this movement and studies focusing on HESD document how sustainable development is increasingly integrated into curriculum, mission statements, and university-wide strategic plans around the world (Ceulemans et al., 2015; Cortese, 2003; Disterheft et al., 2013; Hallinger & Chatpinyakoop, 2019b; Wu & Shen, 2016). More recently, numerous sustainability assessments have emerged to assess, compare, and rank universities’ HESD performance (Bullock & Wilder, 2016; Findler et al., 2018; Sayed Abu & Asmuss, 2013).

Although universities are key stakeholders in helping countries meet their SDG commitments (Chankseliani & McCowan, 2021; Cortese, 2003; Owens, 2017), the SDG agenda is also important for the field of higher education. As an emergent mandate, SD is quickly changing how we conceptualize the goals of higher education and will likely have a long-term impact on what students learn, what types of research is funded and conducted, and what values and dispositions graduates hold. The emergence of new rankings to assess universities’ contributions to SD may also shape perceptions of universities’ quality, relevance, and status, which has broader implications for university planning and governance (Salvioni et al., 2017; Urbanski & Leal Filho, 2015). Yet, systematic reviews find that most studies on HESD are small-scale, qualitative case studies that focus on documenting the practices of a few institutions (e.g., Hallinger & Chatpinyakoop, 2019). Such an approach gives the field a limited perspective on the wide range of activities undertaken in the name of HESD and why universities’ approaches vary cross-nationally (Caeiro, Hamón, et al., 2020; Leal Filho et al., 2021).

Addressing the need for large-scale, systematic research on HESD, this project will answer three overarching research questions:

1. How is the mandate of sustainable development integrated into the fabric of universities, and how do practices and approaches vary around the world?
2. How are ideas, approaches, and practices for supporting sustainable development localized in different communities and contexts around the world?
3. What contextual, policy and institutional factors shape variations in institutional understandings, priorities, and practices?

Duties

The R&D GA’s primary task will be to conduct interviews with sustainability practitioners and analyze data from semi-structured interviews with representatives from institutions around the world.

Qualitative data analysis will include conducting interviews, coding interviews in Atlas.ti, writing up memos on the interviews, and writing up abstracts for conferences and articles for publication.

Job Location

The work can be done remotely, although the R&D GA will be asked to be available for monthly in-person meetings at OISE throughout the year.

Period of Assignment

September 1, 2024—April 30, 2025

Hours of Assignment

240 hours                                            

Required Skills

1. Demonstrated interest in higher education and sustainable development
2. Familiarity with theories and methods in comparative higher education, including organizational change (i.e., diffusion) and critical theories (i.e., decolonial theories).
3. Experience conducting qualitative data analysis in Atlas.ti, NVIVO or Dedoose, and writing qualitative memos
4. Experience with dataset management and graphing in Excel
5. Experience conducting quantitative data analysis (i.e., regression) in Stata

Additional Requirements

Spoken/Written fluency in at least one of: Chinese, French, Spanish or Arabic is an asset.

Evening or Weekend Work

Not required.

Eligibility

• To hold an R&D GA, you must be registered as a full-time student at OISE in an eligible program.
• Masters students (including MA, MEd, MT, and MA-CSE) students are eligible to hold a R&D GA in the first 2 years of their program.
• MA-SCCP students are eligible to hold an R&D GA in the first 3 years of their program.
• Full-time doctoral students (PhD, EdD) are eligible to hold an R&D GA in the first 6 years of their program.
• Flex-time PhD students are eligible to be considered for a GA or R&D GA once during the first 5 years of their program and must be pursuing full-time studies as per the .
• You are ineligible for an R&D GA if you are holding a combination of scholarships, fellowships, OISE-arranged teaching assistantships, OISE-arranged course instructorships and/or research assistantships greater than or equal to the value of a full R&D GA during the academic year (September-August)
• You may not hold a Graduate Assistantship (GA) and an R&D Graduate Assistantship (R&D GA) at the same time
• For Fall/Winter, Fall, and Winter contracts, students who are full-time employees at the University of Toronto or elsewhere, are ineligible to be considered for R&D Graduate Assistantships under the  Full-time employment is defined as 35 hours per week, or where different, the number of hours specified in an employee's contract as full-time employment.
• Appointments are conditional upon a student being legally authorized to work in Canada by virtue of having a Social Insurance Number (SIN) and Canada-issued study permit by the commencement date of the appointment or, at the latest, within 14 days following the commencement date of the appointment.  Students will need a Canadian bank account to receive remuneration.

Application Deadline

June 13, 2024. No late applications will be considered.

Application Instructions

Please email your cover letter and resume as one pdf document to elizabeth.buckner@utoronto.ca and copy to oise.research@utoronto.ca. Please quote the job number in your subject line and your student number in your covering letter. If applying for more than one R&D GA position, please submit a separate application for each job.

Full-time students may not concurrently hold a Graduate Assistantship and a Research and Development Graduate Assistantship. 

Research Development Graduate Assistantships (RDGA) are remuneration for graduate students who are engaged in research and/or field development-oriented projects contributing to their academic and professional development. The wage rate for a 2024-25 Fall/Winter RDGA is $13,382.84. 

The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous / Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas. 

The University of Toronto invites all qualified applicants to apply.