This article presents the results of a study that explores the incorporation of sustainability across the Universidad Veracruzana’s higher education dimensions (teaching, research and outreach) through the experience of eight research and/or community outreach projects. The purpose was to analyze the articulation of teaching for sustainability based on the experience of the projects linked to rural/indigenous communities in the state of Veracruz.
The methodological approach was qualitative and involved working with the projects over a period of two years, gathering information through document analysis, participative observation, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. In light of a theoretical framework on sustainability and its implications for university teaching and learning processes, the dynamics within each project were analyzed.
Results revealed that these projects effectively integrate teaching for sustainability not as a separate subject, but through interdisciplinary approaches linked to situated research and community outreach. This organic integration allows for a contextualized learning experience, fostering a critical understanding of socio-ecological challenges.
This qualitative study, based on eight specific projects at Universidad Veracruzana, provided rich, contextualized insights. However, its findings may not be directly generalizable to all university contexts, especially those with different institutional structures or socio-cultural dynamics. The primary focus on participant and faculty perspectives also suggests incorporating community members’ or other stakeholders’ views could offer additional dimensions. Future research could expand on these findings using mixed-methods approaches, broader samples or comparative studies across institutions and countries, to explore the long-term impact and scalability of such sustainability initiatives.
Insights obtained offer crucial avenues for curricular reform and operationalizing sustainability education within HEIs. In terms of higher education institution (HEI) policy, the identified “proto-curriculu” underscores the need for flexible, bottom-up approaches that complement, rather than merely replicate, top-down directives. Policies should therefore foster spaces for emergent, situated learning, recognizing and supporting projects that organically integrate sustainability through research and outreach with communities, rather than imposing rigid curricular frameworks. For teacher development, the findings highlight the importance of training programs that move beyond theoretical instruction, emphasizing pedagogical approaches rooted in interdisciplinary collaboration, experiential learning and intercultural dialogue. Such programs should equip educators to facilitate learning in complex, real-world settings, valuing diverse epistemologies.
Strategies for incorporating sustainability in Higher Education reflect a top-down transition approach; however, in particular contexts, sustainability has been articulated through university research projects linked to communities that are at the same time educational experiences for the students involved. This research seeks to recover the experiences of the projects from the dimensions of teaching, research and outreach of the projects, recognizing the learning achieved in this type of initiatives, raising the importance of seeking to incorporate sustainability to a greater extent in the Universidad Veracruzana based on what has already been built.
