Sustainability education in information systems’ curricula: A conceptual research framework

In recent years, “sustainability education” in Higher Education has become an increasingly popular topic among researchers driven by the constant calls for the research community to contribute novel research that can aid in building a sustainable world. The objective of this paper was to explore how sustainability concepts have been integrated in Information Systems (IS) curricula, to determine the state of knowledge in this area and provide guidance for future research. Using Arksey and O’Malley’s five-stage scoping review process, the current landscape of sustainability in IS classrooms is mapped and key themes and factors which were found to influence sustainability education in IS are identified. Eight databases were searched for relevant papers published on this topic. Fifteen articles were selected and deemed high quality for a thematic analysis. As a result, nine themes emerged from the thematic analysis, and key research gaps and directions for future research are presented. The findings show that there is currently no unified approach to sustainability education in IS. This paper presents the themes in a novel conceptual research framework which can guide the incorporation of sustainability concepts in IS education. In addition, the framework can be used as the basis for future research in this area.