The importance of, and interest in, sustainability in management education has increased significantly over the past three decades. However, the definition of sustainability remains complex and elusive, thus creating significant issues for sustainability instruction, assignment design, and student learning. We reviewed definitions and use of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) nomenclature from academics, corporations, and business and society course textbooks. The evidence is clear that sustainability and CSR are commonly and frequently used interchangeably not only in academic research and the classroom but also by textbook authors and business reports. Using a sustainability assignment gone wrong, we present data and analysis showing that this lack of definitional clarity and intermingling of the concepts of sustainability and CSR led to problems with student learning and outcomes from the assignment. Student work was heavily influenced by corporate terminology, which superseded textbook, nomenclature, and classroom instruction. We call for future research to delve into the issue of clarifying the definitional complexity and conflation.

中文翻译：

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设计有效的可持续性作业：可持续性影响作业和学习成果的定义如何以及为什么

在过去的三年中，管理教育可持续性的重要性和兴趣显着增加。然而，可持续性的定义仍然复杂且难以捉摸，从而为可持续性教学、作业设计和学生学习带来了重大问题。我们回顾了学术界、企业以及商业和社会课程教科书中对可持续性和企业社会责任 (CSR) 术语的定义和使用。有证据表明，可持续性和企业社会责任不仅在学术研究和课堂中，而且在教科书作者和商业报告中都普遍且频繁地互换使用。使用可持续性任务出错，我们提供的数据和分析表明，缺乏定义的清晰度以及可持续性和企业社会责任概念的混合导致学生学习和作业成果出现问题。学生工作深受企业术语的影响，取代了教科书、术语和课堂教学。我们呼吁未来的研究深入探讨澄清定义复杂性和混淆的问题。