ESD:SuperVision 4.0 Erasmus Project

Project Title

ESD:SuperVision 4.0

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

A) The basis of ESD:SuperVision 4.0 are three key factors relating to the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into school curricula, that were identified during the previous MetESD project:
1) Capacity building for teachers and educators
2) School development as a whole institution approach and
3) Policy making in the sense of a support system towards ESD in secondary schools to deliver ESD more effectively.

This results in three challenges that the ESD:SuperVision 4.0 project will tackle:

1. Capacity building – training and further training challenge
• The insufficient level of support for teacher training on ESD in the context of both pre-service and in-service programs in Europe
• Issues/topics of sustainable development require appropriate learning and teaching approaches, enabling students to make a connection between their (daily life) habits, their professional training and global challenges.
• Many topics are presented solely through knowledge acquisition, so that it is difficult for students to develop their own mind-set/attitude towards a certain subject/topic and to verify/reassessing their values and knowledge.

2. School development as a Whole Institution Approach – curricular challenge
ESD is thematically inter- and transdisciplinary and in many countries is not formally integrated within the school subject curricula of secondary schools. This challenge is to be tackled through taking a Whole Institution Approach (WIA) to ESD, which means that an educational institution includes sustainability principles in every aspect of school life. This includes teaching content and methodology, school governance and cooperation with partners and the broader communities as well as campus and facility management.

3. Policy making – educational systems challenge
ESD is not only environmental education, but also includes aspects of economics, social, culture and policy. For this reason, a support system must be developed at the level of funding policy that helps teachers and schools to integrate ESD into curricula. There are several reasons for this:
• Contribution to SDG 4 Education 2030 – ESD is an excellent and future-proof framework for general education
• Criteria for a European wide Curriculum – ESD helps to structure a competency-based educational training and further training as well as the development of subject curricula, because it is compatible with the European Qualification Framework (EFQ)
• Concepts for school curricula – lessons and learning are designed for students to everyday life.

B) Aims and objectives of the projects:
As part of the project, school staff and teacher trainers shall be trained to facilitate an ESD-based school curriculum development process to provide a specific concept for school quality management. A differentiated political strategy for implementing ESD in schools is to be proposed, which considers national peculiarities on the one hand and claims validity across Europe on the other hand.

C) Participants:
Our consortium is made up of ESD-experienced and reliable partners and new partners, who are also experienced in the implementation of complex EU projects, and newcomers with special technical expertise.

D) Methodological approach:
ESD Supervision takes following four folded approach:
• Blended training of school staff for the implementation of ESD via a WIA;
• The schools integrate the learnings ESD as part of their school’s curriculum;
• Review and revision of cross-curricular school materials;
• Policy driven strategies and educational marketing concept to contribute to further development of ESD in the educational system of the participating countries towards ESD

E) Description of activities:
• Training of teacher trainers and school staff on the implementation of ESD-focused school curriculum development;
• Transferring, evaluation, adaptation and development of competence-oriented methods (tool-set) for the promotion of ESD
• Implementation, reflection and review of school and curriculum development towards a WIA
• Networking within the participating regions
• Marketing – Making ESD and school development visible
• Development of an ombudsman system for regional, national and Europe-wide educational policies

F) Results and impact envisaged:
Expected results and products (tangible and intangible outcomes):
• (virtual) Training courses and methods for teaching sustainability issues as part of a WIA
• Co-design and development of ESD-based school curricula – adapted/aligned internationally
• Evaluation tools, performance review
• Manual of methods
• Support system for ESD and school development on a policy level
• Marketing strategy

Anticipated effect (impact envisaged):
• ESD issues/topics as part of the subject curricula
• Improvement of teacher-student and teacher-teacher relationship through a WIA
• Open-source acceptance of cross-curricular school material
• Contribution towards achieving SDG 4.7 in countries

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 332186 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITAET VECHTA & Country: DE

Project Partners

• RCE Oldenburger Münsterland – Kompetenzzentrum für Bildung zur nachhaltigen Entwicklung e.V.
• DAUGAVPILS UNIVERSITATE
• Integrierte Gesamtschule Oyten
• Casa Corpului Didactic Dambovita
• Daugavpils Valsts gimnazija
• Scoala Gimnaziala Buciumeni
• UNIVERZITA KARLOVA