Sustainability Initiatives Through Collaborative Engagement Projects

Abstract

This study explores the factors that drive respondents’ willingness to collaborate on interdisciplinary sustainability projects focusing on attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention. This is a mixed method participated in by randomized sample of 250 education, engineering, and business management students. Respondents were asked to answer a 4-point Likert Scale survey.

Respondents’ intention to collaborate suggested strong capacity for interdisciplinary projects or activities. The overall result implied that students were ready to embrace sustainability initiatives under supportive conditions. The qualitative results revealed ten key challenges among the student-respondents as they engaged in interdisciplinary teamwork; namely, divergent disciplinary approaches, interdisciplinary language gaps, power dynamics in collaboration, logistical challenges, structural limitations, misaligned project goals, cognitive dissonance, skill gaps in collaboration, interpersonal friction, and undefined collaboration roles. Despite these challenges, there are mutual learning opportunities for students’ life skills in interdisciplinary collaborations.