The enSI international NETWORK

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The enSI international NETWORK

• Environment and School Initiatives is a
  decentralised international network set up in
  1986 under the umbrella of OECD's Centre for
  Educational Research Innovation (CERI)
• For more than 20 years, enSI has supported
  educational developments that promote
  environmental understanding, active approaches to
  teaching and learning, and citizenship education,
  through research, policy development and the
  exchange of experiences and knowledge
  internationally.

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enSI partners and members

• enSI main partners are
• Governments committed to improving environmental
  education and education for sustainable
  development.
• Pilot schools with teachers and pupils
• Researchers and experts
• Teachers educators and their students
• Member countries and countries involved in ENSI
  include
• Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia,
  China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
  Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea,
  Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Spain,
  Sweden, Switzerland, UK

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enSI aims

• to foster the democratic participation of
  students as active citizens in shaping the
  environmental conditions of their life and work,
• to promote and facilitate the development of an
  ecologically sustainable society and related
  actions within educational systems,
• to create innovative research networks which link
  practice in schools and the community with
  academic educational research and with
  institutional decision making.

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A new Era for enSI

• An Institutional partnership with UNESCO and a
  key role in the UN Decade for Education for
  Sustainable Development ( 2005-2014)
• A driving force in promoting the UNECE strategy
  document on education for sustainable development
  ( 2004)
• New project concepts in the areas of
  intercultural learning, disabled people and other
  marginalised groups, vocational training, higher
  education and informal education

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Examples enSI projects to date

• Teachers education, supports the integration of
  innovative approaches into teacher education
  programmes through environmental education.
• CSCT Curriculum, Sustainable development,
  Competences, Teacher training. www.csct-project.or
  g
• Learnscapes across the globe, involves the school
  community redesigning its school grounds to
  enable children, teachers and their communities
  to interact with their local environment.

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Examples enSI projects to date

• European Council
• Engaging youth in sustainable development
• Comenius networks
• SEED School development through Environmental
  Education
• Quality Criteria for ESD schools
• Tools for ESD schools
• SUPPORT Partnership and Participation for a
  Sustainable Tomorrow

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Engaging youth in sustainable development

• Collection of good practices from 14 countries
• Learning and Teaching Sustainable Development in
  Lower Secondary Schools
• inspire teachers and students to engage towards
  an ecologic, economic and social improvement of
  their community.

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Quality Criteria for ESD-schools

• Michela Mayer
• Finn Mogensen

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ESD-schools, what is that?
Forest schools
Green schools
Eco-schools
Model schools
Outdoor schools
Schools for a sustainable future
This kind of schools are increasing in number and
improving in quality under different names at
European and international level
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Why focusing on Quality criteria?

• The schools use explicit or implicit criteria for
  reflecting on the processes and for evaluating
  their achievements
• More often these criteria are given to the
  school networks by educational authorities or by
  NGOs
• Criteria can be used for Quality control or for
  Quality enhancement

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Quality criteria for ESD-schools

• Aimed at facilitating discussions within the
  school to clarify the main aims and changes and
  to develop the schools own list of quality
  criteria, adapted to the schools own situation
  and the schools plans for change.
• 3 groups of criteria
• Quality criteria regarding the quality of
  teaching and learning processes
• Quality criteria regarding the school policy and
  organisation
• Quality criteria regarding the schools external
  relations

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How they are organised

• An example
• The rationale
• The quality criteria
• The .open dots

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Future challenges the use of Quality Criteria
for an ESD school development

• In order to really be a frame of reference and a
  binding element of a programme or a school, it
  must be jointly constructed and accepted by all
  the participants.
• The SEED-ENSI proposal as a non-exhaustive list
  of quality criteria to be used as a starting
  point for reflections, debates and further
  development.
• Translation to national languages, ENSI offer
  help to layout the new language versions.

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Other challenges

• Intercultural challenges
• What examples, criteria or rationales are
  meaningful in our local, regional, national
  context?
• Teachers training challenges
• What kind of teachers training we need in order
  to be consistent with these criteria?

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Tools for ESD schools

• A guide for teachers involved in school
  partnerships and school networks that are
  considering the use of exchange and dialogue
  amongst schools for school development through
  Environmental Education.
• It offers methods that help to plann and run a
  project on Education for Sustainable Development
  and international partnerships.

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SUPPORT

• Comenius network Partnership and Participation
  for a Sustainable Tomorrow,
• 31 partner institutions in 14 European Union and
  EFTA countries, plus 9 other participants from
  7countries.
• The project will bring concepts and issues of SD
  into the education system by linking schools,
  research institutions and communities in
  aweb-based network.
• http//www.sustain.no/

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CASALEN

• CArpathian Sustainability Education LEarning
  Network
• The aim of the network is facilitating social,
  economical change towards sustainable development
  in the society through shared learning
• CASALEN is a learning network rather than an
  official or administrative network. In this
  learning network the participants would like to
  share their knowledge and would like to learn
  together what they are uncertain about with a
  strong focus on practical and experimental
  approaches

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CASALEN -ideas

• Common web platform
• Network of ESD commissions in the region
• Common researches,
• Common projects

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CASALEN opportunities

• UNEP - OMV
• Visegrad fund
• EU-LLL program
• ..