Tag Archive for: education

Education as if People and Planet Matter. Present your essay and win 5,000£

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Schumacher College is celebrating its 30th anniversary launching an international essay competition on the theme of “Education as if People and Planet Matter”, in collaboration with Resurgence & Ecologist magazine.
Schumacher College has pioneered and promoted a very different paradigm of values-based, holistic education over the past 30 years.

Today’s education system presents young people with a world still dominated by materialism, consumerism and the heedless exploitation of both people and the planet. It’s hopelessly ‘unfit for purpose’ as we wrestle with today’s converging crises of the Climate Emergency, ecological collapse, racial inequality and worsening social injustice.
This educational system is in urgent need of transformation if we wish to see education remaining relevant to the age of ecology and serving the purpose of the regenerative culture and sustaining the integrity of our precious planet earth.

Competition rules. Schumacher College invites you to write an essay under the title “Education as if People and Planet Matter”. The essay should be addressed to general readers, and not to either education or sustainability specialists as such. The length of the essay should be between 1,000 and 1,500 words.

The Entry Fee is £10 ( or $15.00 or €15.00) and this fee will cover the administration of the competition, with any surplus going to support learning programmes at Schumacher College.

The winner will receive a £5,000 cash prize, with an opportunity to present their essay at the anniversary event at Schumacher College in autumn 2021. A £2,000 cash prize will go to the second place, and £1,000 to the third runner-up.  The winner and two runners-up will receive their awards at the anniversary event.

Apart from the cash prize, we are also planning to publish a book of essays on “Education as if People and Planet Matter”.

To enter, complete the form.

The final deadline for the submission is 1st July 2021. Winners will be announced: 1st October

Call for interview with Prairie Climate Center

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The Prairie Climate Center  is looking for teachers from all over Canada and who teaches every age group to do an online interview about their online resource, Climate Atlas of Canada.

The interview will last about 1 hour. No previous experience with Climate Atlas of Canada is required. You will be asked about the browsing experience on their site to give a  feedback in real time.

You can find all the details in the image below.

 

Research Grants Program for academic projects

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The Spencer Foundation launches the Small Research Grants Program. It supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years.

This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or location. The goal is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education. The proposals will span a wide range of topics and disciplines that innovatively investigate questions central to education, including for example education, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, economics, history, or neuroscience, amongst others.

Projects that utilize a wide array of research methods including quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, ethnographies, design-based research, participatory methods, and historical research are welcome.

Proposals to the Research Grants on Education program must be for academic research projects that aim to study education. Proposals for activities other than research are not eligible.

Applications are accepted three times per year. The first deadline is March 1, 2021.

Read more information here

Program contact: Jasmine Janicki, smallgrants@spencer.org

Let’s talk about education

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Wednesday 20th January at 5 PM – 5.45 PM (Montreal local time)

During this webinar Parlons d’éducation (Let’s talk about education), Lucie Sauvé, WEEC Advisory Board member and associated professor at UQAM didactic Department, will answer Martin Duquette questions, deputy general director of CSSPI (Centre de services scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Ille) about environmental education.

You can follow the event live at this page facebook.com/uqamdiplomes/

To participate you just have to register at event on Facebook or LinkedIn

This activity is organized by the Bureau des diplômés of Quebec University in Montreal in collaboration with the Conseil de diplômés of Environmental Science Faculty.

For further information: https://diplomes.uqam.ca/55-a-l-agenda/1093-parlons-d-education

Celebrating the World EE Day 2020, experiences and activities all around the world

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The third edition of the World Environmental Education Day took place from 14 to 26 October 2020.  The Weec Network invited all the stakeholders of the environmental education to join the World Environmental Education Day organising special events to highlight the importance of environmental educational actions all over the world.

The aim of EE Day is to focus on the complexity of the challenges in a world where everything is ever more interconnected. Several associations, environmental education centres, schools and institutions sent us information about their events in 2020. We would like to thank all those who wanted to promote environmental education this year, despite the pandemic.

Here we present a selection of interesting case histories.

 

Bénin
Cercle de Recherche pour l’Identification et la Promotion des Alternatives du Développement Durable (CRIPADD)

CRIPADD is convinced that an environmental education program for children is essential to raise environmental awareness. It is with this in mind that they initiated an animation campaign for the benefit of schoolchildren at the public primary school of Hio. It will focus on environmental themes drawn from their environment.

This initiative was set up after the momentous decision to ban mangrove cutting in Avlékété, an area of ​​impressive biodiversity, but overexploited. However, the decision of environmental protection is putting many families in economic difficulty.

 

Bhutan
Royal Education Council

Environmental education is one of the national priorities towards achieving the goals of Gross National Happiness. To this effect, Environmental Science for classes 9 to 12 was introduced as optional subject with the aim of developing youths who are in peace and harmony with the tangible and intangible environment. As a consequence, nature is used sustainably for the wellbeing of people and the nature.


Canada
International Francophonie (Francophonie internationale)
Revue Éducation relative à l’environnement

The Revue Éducation relative à l’environnement, part of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), has set up a Google discussion group (mailing list) concerning the field of Environmental Education. In this group, members can exchange information (announcements of colloquia, seminars or webinars; publications; call for contributions for an event; call for publication; links to a website or webpage, etc.), ask subscribers research questions on the subject of the list, help other subscribers by answering the questions asked, receive information… as long as it is in the field of Environmental Education. The language used by this group is French. This list is moderated and you will have the possibility to unsubscribe at any time.

To be a member of this group, send an email at revue.ere@uqam.ca

 

Chile
Fundación Cosmos

Fundación Cosmos manages the Rio Maipo Wetland Nature Sanctuary located on the central coast of Chile. This is one of the most important coastal wetlands in the area, both because it is home to more than 180 species of birds, and because of the environmental services it provides to local communities and the ecosystem in general. However, it is not free from threats and factors that deteriorate it and affect its biodiversity, such as the presence and accumulation of rubbish that reaches it through high tides or the flooding of the Maipo River. To commemorate World Environmental Education Day, they have organised a community rubbish clean-up, which is more important than ever, given the arrival of migratory birds in the wetland. Through the clean-up, the Fudación generates awareness about the origin of the rubbish and the possible destiny of the waste that we all produce, encouraging a change in behaviour with respect to it.

 

France
Association Centre de découverte du son

The Association Centre de découverte du son will organize a nature outing: “Sons Buissonniers”. Walks will be organised in search of musical instruments that nature can offer. Magical moments where a blade of grass turns into a whistle, fruit into percussion. Then pupils will discover how to manipulate and have fun with these sound objects.

 

France
Litt’Obs

Litt’Obs will organise an educational discovery of rays and sharks with a school public as part of the Festival Baie des Sciences in St-Brieuc, on 14th of October.

 

Italy
Department of Education Studies at University of Bologna

An informal group of professor and students engaged on environmental education is organizing a web event (in Italian) addressed to students of the Department of Education Studies at University of Bologna, on the 16 October, 11 am-1 pm.
Title: Educazione ambientale, scuola, Indicazioni Nazionali (Environmental education, school and National Guide-lines), relator Prof. Stefano Piastra.

 

Italy
“MAREARTE” Project, travelling exhibition

The “MareArte” project was born from an idea of the artist Diego Racconi as a collective of small paintings by international artists, received through the postal system. The theme of the works develops on the relationship between Man and the Sea, transforming art into a valid tool of awareness, through which to send a message to the community, stimulating virtuous behaviour and raising awareness of respect for the environment. The large participation of the artists with their personal postcards led to the development of the initiative by organizing a traveling collective exhibition, in which some specific works created by the artist Diego Racconi are also presented for a charity action in support of reality. that deal with the recovery of marine animals. The exhibition is structured and proposed thanks to the collaboration of various institutional bodies involving them for the promotion of the initiative in their own territory and is sent through the postal system from location to location in the various destinations, through a tour and a travel route using the postal system. The initiative focuses on environmental sustainability issues and for this reason the invitation to participate in the initiative is also extended to children, precisely to involve the new generations on ecological environmental issues and sustainability objectives. All the works received will be collected at the end of the exhibition in an artist’s book and will therefore not be returned. The Exibition is now hosted at the Museo Barca Lariana (MBL) – Pianello del Lario, Como, Italy

 

Madagascar
Institute of People and Nature (IPN)

The Institute of People and Nature (IPN) will take part at the celebration of the World Environmental Education Day with a webinar on “Environmental Education in Madagascar from 1985 to 2020: background and trends”. The main objective is to inform the audience about the EE actions taken in Madagascar Island since the start in 1985, their impacts and current trends. The target groups are: Members of IPN group (217 members from Malagasy public and private Universities); and Environmental Education, Conservation and Sustainable Development professionals, University students worldwide interested in EE and environment-related issues in Madagascar. It will take place on 14th October at 12:00 GMT. The webinar will be conducted in French. The speaker is Andrianambinintsoa RAKOTOMALALA (Environmental Educator – Sociolinguist, Faculty of Science, University of Toliara, MADAGASCAR)

 

 

North-Macedonia
School of OOU Vlado Tasevski, Skopje

The school of OOU Vlado Tasevski will organise a Climate Action Project and Climate Change and Environment Activities on: Climate Change and biodiversity loss; the effects of climate change; the solutions; pedagogy and education; sustainable education; and SSGoals.

 

Turkey
SUGEP

The Sustainable Development Youth Leaders Education program will develop knowledge, skills and attitudes about sustainability. This program not only increases knowledge and awareness, but also improves skills and enables individuals to make more informed decisions about the environment.

There are a few methodologies that will create a solution-oriented project approach to many issues such as global climate change, gender equality, disruption of ecological balance, separation of biodiversity, ending hunger and poverty, sustainability cities, clean and sustainability energy, life in water. They will find knowledge to improve have academic and personal skills through organizational skills, speaking in front of the community, speaking a speech, preparing a project report.

 

Uruguay
National Network of Environmental Education for Sustainable Human Development of Uruguay (RENEA), Montevideo

From 5 to 7 November, a virtual meeting will set up. Experts from all over the region are invited to present their experiences and reflections on Latin American environmental education. Environmental education for sustainable human development implies an ethical, political and social commitment in a given time and space with the formation of a citizenship committed to participating democratically in decision-making and the execution of actions aimed at a socially equitable development, supportive and balanced between human needs and environmental care. In this very special year, environmental educators have faced new challenges and generated new learnings. It is more than ever a good time to meet, this time virtually, to continue the tradition of reflecting and building environmental education together.

 

USA
California Institute of Environmental Design and Management (CIEDM)

CIEDM will support WEED2020 by participating in the global campaign with following actions:

1. Raise public awareness of WEED2020 by spreading its campaign messages through its social medias, along with those of other environmental awareness events in and around October 14-25, such as Earth Science Week, International Day for Disaster Reduction, and Image a Day without Water;

2. Maintain and enhance through physical works the ecological and environmental services of the homestead pocket forest at Arcadia EcoHome as a registered pollinator site, a certified wildlife habitat, a certified pollinator habitat, and a verified ocean friendly garden.

We invite you to sign our campaign on Change to ask the United Nations, institutions, private and public organizations of five continents, to recognize and celebrate every year, on October 14th, the World Environmental Education Day.

Covid-19 crisis and the Life-Principle of Learning

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As a teacher, I believe that the first principle of education is the affirmation and celebration of life. Life is precious and every bit worth preserving and honouring. Little wonder, here is the emphatic command of the King Himself on behalf of Life, Milu Rinpoche: ‘Not a single life should be lost to coronavirus’.

The whole world is coming around!

All our teaching and learning will go only so far and no further if this basic principle of education is missing. As unusual as the current situation is, it may provide a welcome opportunity to re-discover the fundamental goal of education – that is Sherig – meaning ‘deep learning’. We will then be able to locate the core purpose of education as it ought to be.

The scourge of the coronavirus has forced education systems around the world to find alternative ways of teaching the students and engaging them meaningfully during these uncertain periods of home-stay while at the same time hoping to ‘cover the sacrosanct syllabus’!

The Ministry of Education has formulated versatile plans and our fellow-teachers are making valiant efforts to marshal technology to reach out to their students. All this is as it ought to be in the given ongoing situation. And, the results, I would like to believe, must match the inputs.

In the unlikely event that current public security interventions warrant extension, an additional option could require the students to explore diverse and original formats to represent their previous year’s or semester’s learning and submit credible samples of work for assessment at the end of the designated period.

Knowledge is power but how knowledge is internalised and represented is success.

This alternative would provide greater diversity in learning and in representing what is learnt, free learning from undue dependence on expensive gadgets especially in disadvantaged areas, relieve teachers to focus on more purposeful support and monitoring, and build greater integrity in learning.

Above all, such alternatives would emphasise depth over breadth, insights over information, quality over quantity, education over qualification, among other advantages.

The intent of Every Village a School: Every Home a Classroom, and Educating for Gross National Happiness initiatives was to pave the way for learning blessed with integrity.

For now though, precious Life is absolute Priority Number 1.

We are all in it together… in our efforts, in prayers, in our hope…

Thakur S Powdyel
Former Minister of Education in Bhutan, Starter of Green School in Bhutan

Daughters of the Forest, documentary film

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The documentary film Daughters of the forest tells the intimate, powerful story of a small group of girls in one of the most remote forests left on earth who are transformed by attending a radical high school where they learn to protect the threatened forest and build a better future for themselves.It tells the story of these girls living in a rural area where more than 95 percent of the forest has been razed for multi-national agri-businesses.

Meanwhile, more than 80 percent of the people in the region live in extreme poverty, and nearly 90 percent of the teenage girls become pregnant by the age of 16, then drop out of school.

Despite this landscape of despair, The Centro Educativo Mbaracayu, is a place of hope and opportunities for these young girls as they become agents of change.

 

Gender in Climate Change Negotiations. A Critical Look

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Photo UNDP. Village: Raypur, Panchayat: Sukala Block: Stayabadi District: Puri, State: Odhisa , India

In November of 2016 the Conference of Parties, COP22, took place in Marrakech, Morrocco. Although both the media and international policy makers gave it less attention than the COP21 in Paris, the Marrakech event was significant for its inclusion of gender as a critical climate change topic. The success in including gender as a relevant subject was partly due to the renewal of the Lima Work Program, a gender-focused initiative developed two years prior in Peru. Although at COP22 the joint discussion of gender and climate change became common practice, there remains significant challenges in defining what gender inclusion means.

The inclusion of “gender” within COP has largely and predominantly been focused on the inclusion of women, speaking within the frame of the gender binary. This year, three main lines of argumentation for this inclusion were clear; one based on a more “neoliberal” discourse, another that could be considered as more “ecofeminist”, and a third which focuses on the vulnerability of women.

The neoliberal frame is one focused predominantly on the monetary value of the inclusion of women. The idea that “investing in women causes a higher return on investment” is one couched in ideas of women as being more responsible, an argument most commonly seen in discussions on micro credit and micro finance. Though there may be truth in the findings that women tend to repay loans more often than men, this discourse is problematic in two ways. The first being that this can lead to a misleading generalization of women as being more responsible purely because they are women or mothers. It also implies that men are therefore irresponsible and not able to appreciate needs of the family or of children.

Read more

COP21 2015. The Paris Agreement recognizes the education

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A Thematic Day on Education and climate has been held on December, 4th, at the 21st Conference on climate change in Paris.

This Day and the Article 12 of the final agreement (‘Parties shall cooperate in taking measures, as appropriate, to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information, recognizing the importance of these steps with respect to enhancing actions under this Agreement’) are a bottom up initiative and a success of the Paris-Education2015 Collective, a group of educationalists, organizational leaders and politicians working for the integration of education into the Paris Climate Conference 2015.

It is the first time that the education is recognized as mean for fighting against the climate change. A ‘Manifesto’ – titled ‘Ten billion human beings: to live together, let’s change the education!’ – calls for a global citizenship education.

Now the group would like to confirm the initiative at the COP22 in Morocco and to design a three years action-research project between Africans and Europeans researchers and educators.

People interested in collaborating to the Marrakech environmental education meeting in 2016 and/or a action-research action can contact the WEEC Permanent Secretariat.

Download the Manifesto (English) (Français)

Read the introduction of Yves Reinkin to the Thematic Day (French only)

Read a comment of Jacqueline Charron, Secretary of the ‘Les Amis de Circée’ association (French only)

Links to documents on the Thematic Day/Liens aux documents du Thematic Day:

Ministries meeting/Pour la partie avec les ministres : Thematic Day Education au développement durable – COP 21 – Ouverture de la conférence

First round table/Pour la 1ère table ronde: Thematic Day Education au développement durable – COP 21 – Table ronde 1

Second round table/Pour la seconde table ronde : Thematic Day Education au développement durable – COP 21 – Table ronde 2 et clôture de la conférence

Download the youth speech (French only)