Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now central to governance, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement. However, dominant Euro-American CSR frameworks remain largely compliance-driven, performance-oriented, and externally regulated. While these models strengthen reporting and accountability, they are less effective in nurturing intrinsically motivated socially responsible individuals. In contrast, Indian Subcontinental traditions frame responsibility as an internalized ethical duty rooted in philosophical, cultural, and community value systems. This contrast highlights a critical gap in CSR scholarship and management education: responsibility is typically imposed at the organizational level rather than cultivated through early moral development. Addressing this gap, the paper adopts a conceptual and designbased research approach. It first presents a comparative synthesis of Western CSR models and Indian ethical traditions, identifying differences in motivation, locus of responsibility, and learning pathways. Building on this synthesis, the study proposes CSR in the Classroom, a values-based pedagogical framework anchored in Compassion, Responsibility, and Societal Awareness. The framework is operationalized through a structured nine-month classroom intervention for learners aged 4-13, evaluated using a composite CSR-Values Index. The design incorporates pre-testing, staged intervention, and comparison-group logic, while outlining pathways for longitudinal empirical validation. The study reframes CSR as a developmental construct, bridges strategic and ethical traditions, and offers a scalable model aligned with global agendas such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and national policy frameworks like National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog. It concludes that ethical consciousness must be cultivated early, from classroom to boardroom.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Education, Values-Based Pedagogy, Ethical Development in Early Education, Sustainability and Social Responsibility Learning, Developmental CSR Model