ABSTRACT
The global community has faced significant challenges in the twenty-first century, such as COVID-19, which have led to uncertainty about the survival of current and future generations. Educating the next generation of employers and leaders is the primary goal of educational institutions, particularly in higher education. Education promotes sustainable development (SD) when learners acquire ethics, abilities, and skills that assist them in affecting positive changes in themselves and their communities. Policies, projects, and investments that benefit society today while protecting the environment, human health, and social well-being in the future are considered SD. This study aimed to develop our understanding of how to promote SD in Pakistani higher education institutions (HEIs) by finding out students' perceptions about their institutions' commitment to SDGs and SD. The data for this quantitative-descriptive study were gathered through an online survey. The study involved 1109 students from ten Pakistani HEIs. The study results show that SD has become an essential issue in the present era. In students' perceptions, HEIs should give more training on sustainable development goals. Furthermore, students' self-declared statements indicated that most have sustainable habits and behaviors. Students of different genders had different sustainability behaviors and habits. Students are less likely to participate in environmental or higher education organizations supporting sustainable development. HEIs and stakeholders in Pakistan and worldwide are still needed to participate actively and engage in improving education for SD.
ABSTRACT
Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic is triggering a public health emergency and crisis on a large scale, with far-reaching effects and severe damage to all aspects of politics, economy, cultural and social life, and health. Consecutive outbreaks over the past nearly 2 years of "living with COVID-19" have forced most schools to physically close, resulting in the largest educational disruption in human history. In turbulent times of the COVID-19 crisis, school leaders are facing numerous major challenges germane to school governance and leadership. The key objective of the study is to fully explore the prospective challenges principals are encountering in public schools in times of COVID-19. To fulfill the research purpose, a systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out to investigate the leadership challenges. As a result, a total of 24 challenges were explored through SLR approach. Frequency analysis approach was initially applied to figure out the most significant challenges. Accordingly, seven challenges were found statistically significant as showing frequency ≥ 50 each. Irrevocably, the study works as a contribution to K-12 school leadership by providing guidance for current and future leaders in crisis based on practical investigation, experiences, and recommendations. Policy makers can leverage these findings to make necessary adjustments to school policy to better prepare school leaders for crisis. Additionally, the findings of the current study are believed to have profound implications for future research. These findings expand our current understanding on school leadership in time of crisis that needs further investigation. Subsequent studies can quantitatively and/or qualitatively validate these leadership challenges findings regarding a particular school context.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic led to surprising and unexpected experiences for Saudi university students. Precautionary and preventive measures taken to contain this pandemic impacted the social and educational aspects of these students' lives. All Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) students were invited to participate in an online survey on 30 impacts, both positive and negative, of the COVID-19 pandemic on their lives. Social impact theory (SIT) was applied to illustrate these impacts. The survey yielded 1,360 responses. The results showed high to moderate levels of agreement regarding students' perceptions of the positive and negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their lives, with social aspects impacted more than educational ones; and no statistically significant gender differences. Weak correlations were found between the social aspects and the educational aspects of students' lives in relation to the impact of the pandemic, although all aspects were correlated positively. The SIT framework provided insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted students' lives.