The programme of final seminar also included:
- Joint reflection sessions regarding piloting new EduSTA open badges
- Sharing innovations in environmental and social pedagogy
- Workshop on how to evaluate the pilot courses by CANVA
- Discussion with the Vice-Rector for Sustainability of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
- A tour of the CZU environmental campus in Suchdol
- Evaluation of individual project activities
A really important part of the event was international webinar on the topic Digital Open Badges Enabling Sustainable Future Educators to Become Change Makers. The focus was on the experiences with the educational pilots on teacher development for sustainability.
During afternoon on 1st April, the panelists shared their views on major learnings, obstacles and the most important results of the project. They also opened their insights on how to apply the results in each of the partnering organizations in the future. In between the discussions the short videos of the Czech, Catalan and Swedish pilots conducted in initial teacher education were showed to webinar participants. Hanze’s and TAMK’s videos presented the pilots in professional development programmes.
The critical friends Dermot O’Donovan and Jan-Willem Noom covered their views as project’s external evaluators. The community of 136 webinar participants (teachers, researchers, policy makers and project managers from EU and non-EU countries) got greetings from the Policy Officer Cécile Le Clercq, who oversees the Erasmus’ Teacher Academies in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC), Policy & Project Manager Monika Hoang from the European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE), Head of Office Mariagrazia Tagliabue from projects’ associate partner Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE) and concluding words from Policy Assistant Sophia Queckenberg, the Green Education team within the Schools and Multilingualism Unit at DG EAC.
Contribution of the Hanze
The Hanze team’s concluding workshop was about redesigning EduSTA educational pilots. The team used a ‘reflective canvas’ to map out which factors enhanced or hampered the learning process and how to translate these into the next iteration of the educational modules. Within Hanze, for example, we have learned that teachers have a great need for mutual contact and exchange about education for sustainable development and that practicing and getting acquainted with tools together is a powerful learning activity.
Hanze team members say:
“As Hanze, we work on regional impact and, inherently so, on education for sustainable development (ESD). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide worldwide direction for 2030 and have been translated into four social assignments in the Hanze’s strategic policy. Training students to become transition-skilled professionals on the major social themes requires specific competencies from the teacher.”
“In general, we are very positive about the results of the project. Although it still takes some getting used to badges for teachers, especially at the Hanze, good experiences have been gained in three different pilots with this way of recognizing teacher competencies.”
The project partners of EduSTA all recognize that education about sustainability is more urgent than ever, especially given the complex societal challenges we face worldwide. The consortium has conceived the plan to continue this collaboration in a so-called Community of Practice – a network in which the partners who are open to it continue to exchange ideas and work together.
Text: Juliette Ode and Barbora Jordánová
Photos: EduSTA team