Assessment of social responsibility in education in secondary schools

Abstract

The increase in the importance given to the social dimension of companies has led to an awareness in society of the right to require economic, social and environmental responsibility. Although several methodologies of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are being introduced in organizations, and in many others, it is already part of the corporate culture; however, it is a concept that is still being explored in the area of education, where there is no prior record of the application of a strategic assessment model in centers of learning. This study describes an innovative multicriteria model designed with the Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH) approach to assess CSR in high schools. It is in high schools that students are old enough to internalize the different dimensions of CSR and to include it in their most personal values throughout their entire life. The model is constructed using judgements from three decision centers with a great deal of experience and an extensive professional history in the field of high school teaching. This model, built specifically for centers of learning, assigns a score to the various limits between levels of excellence, considered as actions to be determined to identify the level of centers of learning. The model can be used as a tool for the continuous improvement of CSR as it allows the strengths and weaknesses of each center in the area of educational sustainability to be recognized and action plans to be produced for those with the worst performance. Furthermore, the model can be used as a tool for benchmarking, that is, the comparison of CSR efficiency between high schools, and act as a way of attracting students. The model has been applied in three state high schools of very different types.