Books
Becoming a Critical Thinker (Oxford University Press)
My book Becoming a Critical Thinker: for your university studies and beyond with Oxford University Press was released in January 2021. It draws on over a decade of teaching in a UK university context, and most recently my experience designing and delivering an award winning first year undergraduate course which explicitly incorporates and teaches elements of critical thinking.
You can hear me provide suggestions on teaching critical thinking in universities in a 45 minute webinar recorded for Oxford University Press available here.
Presentations and Lectures
Becoming a Critical Thinker: For your univesrity studies and beyond
Listen to this recorded webinar in which Dr Sarah Ivory discuss how critical thinking can and should be integrated into univesrity teaching, in conversation wtih OUP editor Nicola Hartley and members of the audience. Available here.
Lecture Series: Guidance on Studying at University
To support of students all over the world whose learning and university experience has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Sarah Ivory recorded a series of lectures on different topics available here. Available lectures are listed below and more will be added. If you have a suggestion for a lecture you would like to see from Dr Ivory, get in touch with her via twitter or the contact page.
Journal Articles
Scaling sustainability from the organizational periphery to the strategic core: Towards a practice-based framework of what practitioners “do”.
Sarah Birrell Ivory and R. Bradley Mackay
Business Strategy and the Environment
SUMMARY: We studied 44 Heads of Sustainability at companies around the world. We explored what they did to integrate sustainability into their organisation. Importantly, we wanted to know what was special about those who are able to reach – and alter – the strategic heart of their business. That is, how can individuals contribute to sustainability becoming mainstream in business?
Read the full article: Here
Managing Corporate Sustainability with a Paradoxical Lens: Lessons from Strategic Agility
Sarah Birrell Ivory and Simon Bentley Brooks
Journal of Business Ethics
SUMMARY: Sustainability is an increasingly important issues for organisations to address. What can they do when a ‘win-win’ approach to sustainability is too simplistic and a trade-off approach too harmful? Many sustainability issues are paradoxical, or contradictory, requiring the management of alternative strategic demands simultaneously and on an ongoing basis. Can organisations manage sustainability with a paradoxical lens? We suggest they need to draw on strategic agility, which comprises strategic sensitivity, collective commitment and resource fluidity.
Read the full article: Here
Media
Dr Ivory was interviewed for the University of Edinburgh Edit Magazine feature article ‘Changing the mindset on climate’.
Full details available: Here
“The problem isn’t knowing if climate is going to be bad or not; we know it’s going to be bad,” she says. “And the problem isn’t having scientists work on the technologies we need; many of them already are. The problem is behavioural change, business investment and policy change. And all of those things are social sciences. There’s no easy solution, but it’s clear we need more political scientists and business researchers to focus on climate so that we can bring about real change.”
Dr Ivory appears in the University of Edinburgh Alumni, Edinburgh Friends: stories of philanthropy and the future feature entitled Our questions 2020.
Full details available: Here
“Climate change used to be a problem on the horizon that we needed to consider seriously – now it is a crisis that impacts us daily, for some in a devastating and life- changing way. We used to think that some good policy, behaviour change, and a little bit of sacrifice would be needed – now we realise the truth. The climate crisis is changing the way our environmental, societal, and economic systems interact and are organised.”
Dr Ivory is featured in University of Edinburgh Business School Aluminate Magazine article entitled The Past, Present, and Future of Teaching Business.
Full details available: Here
"We have to ask the difficult questions about what the purpose of business is, and its purpose in society and in communities. That's when you have to think of this not just as a business school but as business' role in communities, social injustices and inequality, totally changing how we see the world. Business individuals need to understand the complexities of how all these things are intertwined and impact each other."
External Blogs
Do you feel sorry for first year university students?
Invited blog for Oxford University Press, September 2020 - “Because if we can pass on one thing to support young adults as they face the world they will inherit from us, it is to help them become critical thinkers: to understand the problems and develop workable solutions. And by doing that, we won’t have to feel sorry for them. We will feel proud of the future citizens we have helped to create.” Available Here
Covid-19 And Business Education
Invited guest blogger for Aspen Institute: Faculty Spotlight, 4-part series, April 2020
Part 1: In just a few weeks the state of globalization has changed dramatically; what lasting effects if any do you think this will have on business and the interconnectedness of our global economy? April 1st 2020 - “We will emerge on the other side of this with a greater sense of what it is to be a global citizen in a fight against an enemy that doesn’t discriminate on nationality or recognize borders.” Available Here
Part 2: While few predicted the situation that we find ourselves in today, what elements from your teaching do you hope best prepare students for the leadership necessary during such times of crisis? April 8th 2020 - “I teach my students that there are rarely ‘right answers’. This is what makes critical thinking so important. Because if there is no ‘right’ answer, all we can do is develop a logically reasoned argument based on strong evidence.” Available Here
Part 3: What are your top three predictions for how this crisis will impact the business education landscape? April 15th 2020 - “The role of business as a contributor to society will be re-examined. In debate ‘what is an essential service’?” Available Here
Part 4: What do you want other educators to know about what you’ve learned so far during this crisis? April 22nd 2020 - “Cal Newport’s book Deep Work demonstrates the importance of dedicated uninterrupted time for thought and learning, which contribute to us achieving our greatest intellectual potential.” Available Here
What Is Sustainability Anyway?
University of Edinburgh, Teaching Matters blog, 7th April 2020 - “As a researcher and lecturer focused on sustainability issues I often hear: ‘We know we should include more sustainability in the curriculum. But should we offer a course on sustainability, or should we include sustainability in existing courses?’ To me, this question misses the point. It categorises sustainability as a ‘topic’. Imagine the law school asking: should we offer a course on justice, or should we include issues of justice in existing courses? Or the med school asking: should we offer a course on patient care, or should we include issues of patient care in existing courses? Sustainability – as with justice and patient care – are not ‘topics’, they are lens through which we understand the world around us, our role in it, and impact on it.” Available: Here
What Is Essential?
Invited contributor to Responsible Research in Business & Management Covid-19 Insights from Business Sustainability Scholars, 31st March 2020 - “This is a question my family and I have asked many times in recent weeks, as Covid-19 forces us to reconsider both the meaning of that word, and the values that drive different people’s answers. Collectively, as a society, asking this question has led to us facing some fairly uncomfortable truths about human nature.” Available: Here
A New Foundation For Business Education
Aspen Institute ‘Ideas Worth Teaching’ blog, 4th March 2020 - “I simply want my students to remember that all humans matter, and everyone – even in a business context – can be treated with respect and compassion. That even in complex arguments, and with outcomes in which one group won’t get want they want, we can still act with integrity. More than that – given a university education is not available to everyone in the world – we have a responsibility to use that education in a way which advances society, in a way which respects humans but also our environment. I’m not sure this is something you can directly teach. It certainly isn’t something that you can say in a lecture and assume is ingrained. As Jim Henson said: “Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.” I – and my whole tutor team – try to be intellectual, critical thinkers who also display compassion, understanding and respect for each individual we engage with and for the individuals we discuss during seminars. My greatest hope is that all of my students take that sense of humanity with them throughout their careers.” Available: Here
You Can Teach All The Students Some Of The Time...
University of Edinburgh, Teaching Matters blog, 10th October 2019 - “At university there is an unwritten contract between lecturer and student: ‘I will teach you well – You will commit to do the things you need to, in order to learn well.’ This post looks more deeply at this simplistic characterisation, and to what happens when the contract fails.” Available: Here
Wherefore Art Thou...Undergraduate Education?
University of Edinburgh, Teaching Matters blog, 11th October 2018 - “If you ask academics ‘what is the purpose of undergraduate education?’, you’d get as many answers as academics you approach. Yet it was this question that informed my thinking in relation to the overhaul of our first-year compulsory undergraduate course. Now, each September, I stand in front of 350 new university students who are full of enthusiasm and anticipation, and I hope that my answer is right, and that my course Global Challenges for Business provides them with what they need.” Available: Here