Second Baltic Conference on ESD
Focus on Diversity workshops
13th December 2014, 9.30-11.00
"Education for Sustainable development - it’s everyone’s business"
Dace Helmane, Head of InCSR Sustainability Index, Latvia
On one hand businesses overall the world faces different sustainability challenges, on the other hand they are potentially powerful drivers of change. How can educators and businesses cooperate in order to contribute to sustainable development? Are there already any good practice examples in world, Baltic States, Latvia? What is the business case of investing in ESD?
"Deep ecology- a pathway to teacher sustainable self"
Rea Raus, Head of the Centre for Sustainability, Tallinn University, Estonia
What lies in the core of the discussion about sustainability? All of us, probably, agree that we need to protect nature, save resources, recycle…but why the real changes are so slow? We, as teachers, what are the issues we need to address in every single lesson? Is it even possible- transdisciplinary approach in teaching and learning? What should we teach? What should we learn? How? These are the questions that we will seek answers together in the workshop.
"Bring the Politicians in !"
Tamara Malkova, ICO “Green Dossier”, Ukraine and Ostap Stasiv, project coordinator at the Open University of Maidan
It is clear that those who make decisions at national or local level should perhaps to be aware about sustainable development. Unfortunately, politicians and authorities try to care about economic and social development and forget about the third pillar of SD. Unfortunately, governmental structures are usually narrow-minded and limited by their concrete fields of activities. Civil society takes a responsibility: force them for integrating, push them to cooperate, teach them how to do that.
The workshop participants will find together the best ways for politicians’ engagement into the process, approaches to their education, methods to raise their interest to the issue.
"A Pathway to Entrepreneurial Educational Institutions"
Diāna Pauna, Pro-Rector, Associate Professor, Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia
In national policy documents a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship is described as one of the priorities for educating individuals at all levels for the future labor market, and entrepreneurial skills are described as one of the eight lifelong learning competences. However, educational institutions and educators are provided insufficient support to implement the stated policy guidelines. The Kauffman Foundation in the US, the world’s leading advocate of entrepreneurship, encourages and supports educational institutions and educators to become the drivers of entrepreneurial skills, and it is argued that Europe has much to learn from the US entrepreneurship education approach. Even though there is no one-size-fits-all approach, good practice examples explored in the United States can spur a productive discussion and generate ideas of embedding entrepreneurial education across educational institutions at all levels.
"Sustainability issues in agenda of higher education"
Prof. Māris Kļaviņš, Head of Environmental Science Department, Faculty of Geographical and Earth Sciences, Vice Chairperson of UNESCO National Committee “Men and Biosphere”, Latvia
Concept of education for sustainable development requires change of approaches for all levels of education but especial role have higher (university) education. Accordingly to approach “training of trainers” education for sustainable development at university level can cover maximally wide coverage of all levels in society and can support implementation of ESD concept in other levels of education. A key role in ESD implementation at university level has training on environmental issues.
"Ekolibria: a student-led organization for Education for Sustainable Development"
Sachiko Ishihara, Enkhtuya Boldkhuyag and Jesse Schrage, co-founders of Ekolibria, Master students at the Centre for Sustainable Development, Uppsala, Sweden.
Ekolibria is a student run organization that has for aim the dissemination of knowledge on sustainable development issues so as to enhance the young generations’s ability to actively take part in the future transformation of society. The organization’s purpose is to transfer relevant knowledge to high school students while at the same time enabling university students to develop their pedagogical skills. With an approach embedded in the practice of ESD, there is a strong focus on experimental forms of teaching.
Creating such learning environments has helped to address the many economic, social and environmental dimensions of SD in the classroom while at the same enabling the development of skills both for university and high school students.
In this workshop, the participants will be introduced to the structure of the organization and the many activities run by Ekolibria. In a second part they will discuss how the role of youth can be increased in ESD around the Baltic Sea. In order to help develop and drive their own ideas, the participants will join in a specific form of idea generation methods termed the “Lotus blossom” technique.