I have had a lovely inspiring week after listening to so many great projects taking place around Europe. The wide variety of activities that people are engaging with to help tackle challenges in the community is very motivating. So I would like to first and foremost say thank you to everyone that has joined in the dialogue, found time to connect and engage, and support each other in this much-needed work that is being conducted around the world in so many different forms and formats. Thank you all!
I would like to thank all the students who have participated in the IN4RF project this week. I had the pleasure of hearing about the great engagement Blythe Kaddour, Environmental Geoscience student at Glasgow University, has put to work with clean water projects as well as empathy and compassion awareness. She demonstrates remarkable enthusiasm but also highlights the collective energy and passion for development within this international community. It’s evident that each of the students is committed to growth, and as their projects evolve, so too does our collective potential. Keep up the excellent work; more updates are coming soon!
This week, I was invited to take part in a panel of experts to collaborate on a project to help assess sustainability learning experiences. Dr. Pableo Martín-Ramos at Universidad de Valladolid has been working on a project Open Pass for Climate to develop an Open Badge and Passport assessment system. The aim is to recognize informal lifelong learning skills with a focus on climate change and provide a certification by Europass. Several researchers and practitioners that are involved with GreenComp work had a dialogue about how to help support this Open Badge project. The aim is to define learning outcomes for actionable targets that are observable and measurable.
We also had the opportuntity to listen to all the wonderful projects on GreenComp work taking place across Europe. Valeria Napoli presented her work with the European Commission that explores the needs of the communities and how to develop knowledge, skills and abilities in sustainability challenges. Also, Nikola Neshkoski works with ECO LOGIC and local councils in Macedonia to help intgrate sustainbility into school curriuculum for pre-school to primary and secondary school age (pre to 14 year old students). Dr. Chiara Scalabrino at the CMI Business School in spain, presented some of her work with projects in sustinability competence frameworks, working with UNESCO as well as work with schools and communities to develop sustainability education. There were many more participants that I have not met yet, so looking forward to meeting you all. Thank you for inviting me into this group and I look forward to listening to more of your inpiring work soon.
I have also had the pleasure of catching up with the Klimatnetwork for sustainability education in Sweden. Today we listened to several interesting approaches that have been conducted to evaluate sustainability education in courses and programs in different disciplines in higher education. We reflected on the task about how to create a standardized measurement tool that can follow the development of integrating sustainability education into higher education. There were many thoughts on the opportunities and challenges of this task and some ideas about how to begin tis task.
The work already conducted by Dr. Anders Rosén and Dr. Hélène Hermansson at KTH University shows an interesting rubric that could be adaptable to different contexts. Dr. Johan Boman and the sustainability department at Göteborg University have developed a tool that can help students recognize which study path might be best suited for sustainability education, which could be a tool adaptable for other purposes too. Also, the assessment tool developed and applied by Loanna Fasari at Dalarna University could together help provide support in this area. How to navigate the complexities of disciplinary differences, the ultimate purpose of this work, and the opportunities that could inspire transformations in sustainability education provided some insightful reflections on this work.
How can we support student engagement in sustainability challenge projects? Can lifelong learning certificates in sustainability learning help transform the job market? How can we inspire the total integration of sustainability education into higher education?
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