Academic Strategy in the Administration Course on Solid Waste Reuse Know-How Experience

Abstract

The expectations of students in the digital era of the Business Administration course and the concern with the preservation of the environment demand new performances from professors. The complexity of the problem provokes strong reflection on the teachers’ role. This study proposes the re-thinking of sustainable pedagogical practices anchored on a vast theoretical referential, articulated with the active teaching-learning methodology based on problems and projects. It describes the strategy of this method in an experience carried out in a higher education public institution, with the creation of a fictitious enterprise “PuffPet University Industry” by students, with the reuse of pet (plastic soda) bottles, in puff. Student-managers from the university industry formed an innovative ecosystem, learned to learn, to live together, and to integrate people using management technologies, sharing the knowledge of this production. This space of circular creation and academic production was achieved by the support of faculty members in the process of observation and listening to students’ desires, in the mediation of the learning process, which requires the appreciation of the subjects, their autonomy and respect for the environment. It encouraged students to play a leading role in their history, in the stake of emancipation, by becoming transformative entrepreneurial professionals in society, as environmental agents responsible for their actions.