A

Sustainability Action Competencies of Future Teachers

This lesson addresses the SE competencies using the framework developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE, 2013) as a reference. It establishes SE teacher competencies as what teachers need to do, to understand, to be and how they need to live and work with others, focusing on the former. Furthermore, this lesson addresses the perception of trainee teachers about the difficulties to achieve these “to do” competencies. The Intended Learning Outcomes refer to the understanding of the need of these competencies and how to promote them among trainee teachers. 

B

Skills for Sustainability in Education and Training. Professional Standards and Training Proposal in HE

The lesson focuses on the sustainability skills held by education and training professionals. Beginning with GreenComp, it examines the significance of these professional skills, particularly in relation to professional standards, their development through university courses and degree programs, and their practical application in the field of education and training. The lecture is based on the analysis of two HE pathways oriented to the initial training  of the professionals in the education and training field.

Host

Glenda Galeotti

PhD, she is Associate Professor in General and Social Pedagogy at University of Florence. Her research focuses on adult and continuing education for organizational and territorial development, sustainable development, and community capacity building. She is a member of the Italian Network of Universities for Sustainable Development (representing the University of Florence for the Education Area), promoted by the Conference of rectors of Italian universities (CRUI). 

Lecturers

Isabel Banos-Gonzalez

PhD, she is Lecturer in the Department of Didactics of Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Education, University of Murcia. She has previously taught Science at different secondary schools. She has participated in national and international projects, and is the author of scientific publications related to science education and sustainability education in national and international journals. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2569-1210

Giovanna Del Gobbo

Professor of Experimental Pedagogy at the University of Florence. The topic of sustainability is transversal to her fields of interest. She is coordinator of research unit Pedagogical approach for Sustainable Development and Heritage valorisation (PUSH-D) and President of the Master Degree Programme on Pedagogical Sciences and Management of Education for Sustainable Development.

A

Educational Marine Areas in Réunion Island: Cultivating Ocean Stewardship through Outdoor Learning. Case Study.

This presentation delves into the concept of Educational Marine Areas (EMAs), a unique approach empowering primary school pupils to manage coastal maritime zones, fostering a profound connection with the ocean. Originating in the Marquesas Islands in 2012, this initiative is grounded in three core principles: understanding the sea, coexisting with the sea, and passing on maritime knowledge. The discussion will explore the rapid expansion of EMAs across France, including the ambitious goal of establishing 18,000 educational areas by 2030, alongside the growing appeal of outdoor learning. A case study from Reunion Island will provide insights into stakeholder perceptions and motivations regarding EMAs.

B

Placed-Based Learning and Powerful Knowledge

The lecture will introduce the concept of “place” as ways of seeing the world and a resource for giving young people powerful knowledge. Powerful knowledge provides ways to analyze, explain and understand the society we live in. Such powerful pedagogy requires subject content that is meaningful for the children and built on what they already know. All places have a past, a present and a future. By using the local environment as a resource, the students can work with historical and geographical dimensions as well as sustainable development and social justice.

Host

Wilfried Admiraal

Wilfried Admiraal is a psychologist and full professor at the Centre for the Study of Professions of Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway. His research interest is in the social and emotional aspects of the teaching profession. Current projects relate to attrition of early-career and late-career teachers, and schools as a safe and democratic learning environment.

Lecturers

Elsa Tabart

Elsa TABART is a PhD student in Education Sciences at CREN, supervised by Céline Chauvigné. My research focuses on educational areas in the Anthropocene era. 

Siv Eie

Siv Eie is a human geographer and teacher educator at OsloMet, Faculty of Education and International studies, Department of Primary and Secondary Teacher Education. Her research field is within geography didactics, education for sustainable development, and explorative teaching methods. She also writes textbooks in social studies for young learners in grade 1-7. She leads the international course ‘Sustainability in Education - Place, Justice, and Environmental Awareness’.

A

Socio-Scientific Issues Education

In this presentation, Lida Klaver will present the group problem-solving approach, where students learn about, discuss, and make decisions about a socio-scientific issue. Socio-scientific issues education is an approach to both science education and citizenship education. In this presentation, Klaver will focus on relations between socio-scientific issues education and approaches to sustainability education and let participants think about their views on sustainability education.

B

Futures Thinking & Sustainability Education

In the short presentation, Tapio Rasa will outline some connections of sustainability education and futures education. A central idea in futures education is conceptualising futures as images constructed in the present that matter through anticipation and action. For sustainability education, these future frames can emphasise "preparing for" the future or "having an influence on" the future. Drawing from research by himself and colleagues, Rasa will give a brief overview of how to discuss futures in sustainability education.

Host

Iina Hyyppä

Iina Hyyppä is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, focusing on pre-service teachers' futures thinking skills and teachers as future change agents.

Lecturers

Lida Klaver

Lida Klaver is a researcher at Saxion University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands, focusing on (scientific) citizenship in primary, secondary, and teacher education.

Tapio Rasa

Tapio Rasa is a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland, examining how people engage with futures and technology, and other facets of future discourses.

Topic

Lecturer

Drew Nelson

Since 2024, Drew Nelson has served as a guest lecturer at the University of Cologne, by invitation of Dr. Kirk Junker, Vice Rector for Sustainability. After graduating from the “Mind, Brain & Education” program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, he returned to Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education to work as a fellow under Dr. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa from 2016-2023. The research focus at that time revolved around cognitive bias identification and mitigation as it relates to the “science of learning." From 2018-2020, that research was integrated into the German Aerospace Center's (DLR) Think Tank, to address sustainable digital transformation, change management, and the integration of AI systems into their strategic foresight management processes. His consulting and media production work includes the creation of assets that translate and disseminate research for a broader audience. His current research relates to the development and refinement of a "theory of mental frameworks," a scaffolded and transferable approach to complex (wicked) problem solving methods and strategies for both groups and individuals.

A

Hopeful Climate Education in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, a team of secondary geography teachers, teacher trainers, geography education specialists and psychologists developed and tested six hopeful lessons and lesson series for secondary geography education. In this presentation, we explain the design of the lesson "Museum of the future" and discuss the experiences of teachers and students when they conducted the lessons.

B

Hopeful Climate Education in the Germany

This short lecture will give a short insight on some survey results of teaching climate hope to school and university students. A recap of the methods and contents of the taught lesson units will be presented. After that the students will be engaged in a short exercise with a miracle question and a reflection on what gives them hope.

Host

Moritz Langer

Moritz Langer studied special education and is currently doing his doctorate at the Institute of Physics Education (Cologne) with a focus on inclusive science education. His research focuses on universal design for learning and sustainability education. He is also involved in various projects, for example a project at the  Ecological Rhine Station.

Lecturers

Tim Favier

Tim Favier is a teacher trainer in geography education at Utrecht University (Netherlands), and associate lecturer in sustainability education at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. His research focuses on climate change education. Also, he has worked on many projects which aim to develop innovative climate change education.

Cristal Schult

Cristal Schult works in physics didactics at the University of Cologne (Germany) and conducts research on (urban) climate, climate change and in particular on the role of hope in the climate crisis in didactic and interdisciplinary contexts. Her focus is on the greening of cities, the use of sensors in the classroom and project-based learning with pupils.