“Education is an essential tool for achieving sustainability. People around the world recognize that current economic development trends are not sustainable andthat public awareness, education, and training are key to moving society toward sustainability.”
Rosalyn Mckeown, York University
Project EduSTA, which focuses on re- and upskilling VET teachers, is building a community: “Academy of Educators for Sustainable Future”. The project brings together five teacher-education institutions from around Europe (Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the Czech Republic) to develop a close network with a strong commitment towards educating teachers who are willing, able, and competent to transform educational practices and policy to meet sustainability challenges and ready to combine innovative approaches to use digitalisation in teaching.
The EduSTA consortium can be seen as a catalyst for leading and empowering a profound change in the present, and for educating teachers ready to meet the challenges of and act as active change agents for a sustainable future. Emphasizing teachers’ essential role in the green transition also adds to the attractiveness of a teacher’s work.
During the project, the participating teacher educators will:
1) Conduct Context and Competences research to achieve a more holistic and operational understanding of sustainability competences as part of professional teacher skills and identity.
2) Design and implement new learning modules to develop future VET teacher ESD competences.
3) Plan and construct open digital badge-driven learning pathways.
4) Test pilot courses with more than 300 university students (future VET teachers).
5) Enhance ESD competences in practising international collaboration in a sustainable way.
The project is certain to introduce changes in the practices of vocational schools and their curricula. It will create greater need of in-service training or tailored projects among vocational schools, which can be answered with the modules and learning pathways developed in the project.
Text: Barbora Jordánová
Photo: Shutterstock