From teacher training and solidarity schools to critical science education: a series of online fora on how to get ecosocial education into schools.
In 2024, to kick off our Ecosocial Education strand, we ran a series of online fora bringing together teachers, teacher trainers, parents, activists, public servants and researchers to talk about different strategies and tactics for getting ecosocial education into curricula and schools. Below you can watch our different sessions – enjoy!
Intro forum
January, 2024
The introductory session to our Ecosocial Curricula forum series, with presentations by Edualter and Entrepueblos, both based in Barcelona, on designing and using their guide to ecosocial education.
Critical Science Education
February, 2024
This video features three presentations:
1) Introduction to the STEPWISE framework by Dr. Larry Bencze, Associate Professor Emeritus at OISE of the University of Toronto. STEPWISE is a way to help students develop expertise, confidence and motivation to create and implement personal and sociopolitical actions that help to overcome the harms of their concern, in relationships among fields of science and technology on the one hand, and societies and environments on the other.
2) Dimitris Tsoubaris shares his experiences as a science teacher promoting student-led activism on socio-scientific issues, adapting the STEPWISE framework in secondary schools.
3) Nelly Alfandari shares her insights as a participant in Dimitri’s classes, reflecting on possibilities and issues when trying to carve out spaces for critical pedagogies in the secondary school classroom, and what that tells us about the education system more generally.
Campaigning, Institutions, Policy
March, 2024
This latest installment of our Ecosocial Curricula series focused on how we can bring ecosocial education into institutions via different pathways: campaigning from the outside, working from within public administrations, and designing transformative policy. This video features three presentations:
1) Florian Kaltseis of Teachers for Future Austria, talks about campaigning to pressure the education ministry to incorporate climate crisis teaching into the national curriculum, building alliances, legitimacy and finding pressure points and openings in the administration.
2) Déna Jansen of the Climate Change Directorate of Western Cape Government, South Africa, talks about trying to bring ecosocial education into schools via intra-institutional work, processes and protocols of curriculum adaptation, and working with different needs and positionalities vis-a-vis climate-ecological crises
3) Based on her work in Turkey and beyond, Burcu Arik, who works with UNESCO amongst other institutions, talks about transformative concepts and methodologies for ecosocial education policy, learning from movements and local realities.
Teacher Training for Ecosocial Education
May, 2024
Teacher Training as a Vehicle for EcoSocial Education, with a dense lineup and rich insights from those working to train teachers so they can teach children and young people what they really need to know in this context of climate and ecosocial crisis.
Climate Action Short Course (IR) talks about their experiences working with teachers and schools, offering resources and trying to change the system from within. www.climateactionshortcourse.ie
Martina Huber-Kriegler (AT) speaks from her long-term experience as teacher and teacher trainer, her work within the Austrian system of ‘pedagogical high schools’, also from the perspective of her involvement with Teachers For Future.
Edualter (ES) shares their experiences with teacher training, their tactics, concepts and methods in this context. https://blog.edualter.org/es/
Solidarity Schools and Migrant Climate Justice
May 2024
This forum is about solidarity, positionality, privilege, migrant knowledge and how we avoid patronizing in ecosocial education. We revisit the importance of knowledge of migration, from peripheries and diverse class positions, in ecosocial education.
First, we hear from C. Korolis and M. Kolliaraki from the Greek Solidarity Schools Network, about self-organizing afterschool education with an anti-racist and community focus.
Then we hear from Asmir, about the Munich-based KlimaGerechtMachen Project, which pursues Ecosocial Justice as Empowerment Training for young facilitators in Climate Justice.
