Sustainable Fashion: A Handbook for Educators

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The following learning goals were established for students
taking the full set of courses:

1. Evaluate how apparel, textile, and footwear businesses
   address principles for human rights, labor standards and
   environmental stewardship, and how they can more
   effectively address them in the future.


2. Analyze the responsibility of business and individuals (i.e.
   moral, ethical) toward human rights labor standards, and
   environmental stewardship.


3. Recommend various strategies for how they/we
   can effect change in the apparel, textile, and
   footwear industries.

ForMat and dElIVEry oF thE coursEs

We elected to develop web-based courses to enhance
accessibility to graduate students and working professionals,
without geographical considerations. Ease of access
through the Web opens the doors for reaching a larger
number of students pursuing degrees at colleges and
universities without the resources or expertise to offer
comprehensive training in social responsibility. Additionally,
offering the courses through the Internet encourages
critical thinking by moving learning beyond memorization
or even comprehension of facts. The Web offers the
opportunity for flexible learning pathways through the
use of text, video, interactive communications, and links to
additional sources of information. This medium encourages
students to absorb basic information in a manner
appropriate to their learning style, and also encourages
them to take the initiative to pursue particular interests
in greater depth. The interactive nature of the Web and
email engages and encourages peer-to-peer interaction and
learning while considering a range of perspectives, possible
solutions, and rationales for decisions, while enabling
worldwide discussions. In addition, this format enables us
to easily update the courses on the topics that are evolving
quickly so that students have access to the most up-to-date
information.

We chose to use case studies as one pedagogical tool for
encouraging advanced students to think critically about
the complex topics. Case studies encourage students to
extend the application of theory to the world outside
the classroom, improving their ability to solve problems
using knowledge, concepts, and skills (McKeachie, 1986).
Presenting case studies on the Web offers additional

educational benefits, including incentives to learn, as well as

new and flexible learning methods (Hayden and Ley, 1997;

Owston, 1997).

Toward objective 2 and in preparation for teaching the

courses, we developed all new learning materials including

the following:

• Narrated PowerPoint lectures (nine to ten lectures
  per course).


• Book chapters for background reading.


• Reading worksheets to guide reading and engage
  students in critical thinking about the readings (two to
  four worksheets per course).


• Questions for threaded online discussions among
  students and the instructor to discuss course content,
  integrating and building on current and previous course
  material, adding new/diverse perspectives, and stimulating
  thought and further discussion (four to five discussions
  per course).


• Proposition statement assignments to recommend
  strategies for effecting change in the apparel industry
  (one per course).

We have written 11 case studies. Additionally, we recorded

and edited 27 videos, some of which are available

through Cornell University’s e-clips (see elsewhere in this

Handbook), to augment lectures from interviews with a

variety of business professionals, and NGO leaders. We

anticipate the development of a few more case studies, a

variety of additional videos, and specific learning materials

over the coming year in order to fill in the gaps we have

noticed in teaching the courses for the first time.

While refereed publications were not part of the

objectives of the project, we nonetheless found the need

and opportunity to write for publication as part of this

collaborative effort. The most significant publication is the

textbook Social Responsibility in the Global Apparel Industry

(Fairchild Books, 2009) that will provide a foundation of

knowledge for all the courses. We also conducted a few

different small research projects to develop material for the

courses and publications are forthcoming in the Journal of

Business Ethics and Business and Society.

pEdagogy and InstItutIonal approachEs