From 25-27 April the UNESCO meeting “Looking into the Future of ESD, together” was held at the Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development at the University for Peace in Costa Rica.

This was the Third Partners meeting of the UNESCO Global Action Programme on ESD and had the purpose to review and discuss the draft UNESCO position paper on the "Future of ESD" (as a post-GAP position papaer) and to plan the work of the Partner Networks until the end of 2019 (when the GAP is actually ending). This meeting was held thanks to the financial support of the Japan Fund.

Read more:

https://en.unesco.org/events/meeting-key-partners-global-action-programme-education-sustainable-development-looking-future

"What are the types of childhood experiences that instill a lifelong value for nature and promote stewardship behaviour later in life? It turns out that the sense of wonder that children experience in nature is a crucial factor."

An interesting article about the components that we need to stress, as educators, in designing educational , experiantional or awareness activites in nature.

Authors: Bronwyn Cumbo  & Marthe Derkzen

Read the entire article here:

https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2018/04/14/sense-wonder-missing-ingredient-long-term-value-nature/

The air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat all rely on biodiversity, but right now it is in crisis – because of us. What does this mean for our future and can we stop it?

by Damian Carrington Environment editor

Read more here.

On the 10th anniversary of the first massive open online course, here’s a thoughtful article by Diane Peters of University Affairs on MOOCs’ evolution.

Under the title Education: Still searching for Utopia?, the January-March 2018 issue of the UNESCO Courier, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, evaluates the state of global education and explores how it responds to some of the main challenges we face. It approaches the question “Can education really change lives?” from several different angles and the perspectives of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, journalists, professors and scientists.

Link to the English Version of Courier.

The issue is available online in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

With forced displacement reaching historic levels, schools all over the world are welcoming increasing numbers of refugee children. Teachers are facing new challenges in making sense of forced displacement and its complexities. With refugees and migrants regularly making headlines in the media and the internet bustling with information on the topic, explaining the situation of refugees and migrants to primary and secondary school children has become part of many educators’ daily work.

In addition, training and guidance for teachers with refugees in their classrooms is not always based on best practice, and is not always easily available.

This UNHCR portal offers resources to help teachers create a welcoming environment for refugee pupils and to help explain the meaning of refugee, asylum, migration and statelessness to school children aged 6 – 18.

http://www.unhcr.org/teaching-about-refugees.html

Do you also want to scale-up sustainability efforts at your university? Now, students and staff have the chance to apply for an online course that rootAbility and Leuphana University Lüneburg is running for students and staff who want to establish a sustainability hub, based on the Green Office Model. A Green Office (GO) informs, connects and supports students (and staff) to act on sustainability at their university and beyond.

The model won the UNESCO Prize on Education for Sustainable Development.

They are now launching an online course to help you establish your Green Office. The course is interesting for all:

• Volunteer-led sustainability student or staff groups who want to learn how to get more institutional support, access and mandate for their sustainability efforts
• Individual sustainability staff who want to establish a central hub working on sustainability, rather than just working on sustainability as a lone champion
• Well-established and resourced staff-led sustainability teams, who are interested in setting-up a student-led sustainability team that works alongside them on student engagement and communication.

Find more information on the GO Model on www.GreenOfficeMovement.org, including 23 case studies of existing GOs. The model is open-source, freely available to everyone and you have the opportunity to join our international network.

The online course is also free of charge – thanks to our sponsor. Click for more information and course registration. Registration deadline is 14.02.2018

In 2015, 193 countries committed to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, a shared vision of humanity that provides the missing piece of the globalisation puzzle. The extent to which that vision becomes a reality will in no small way depend on what is happening in today’s classrooms. Indeed, it is educators who hold the key to ensuring that the SDGs become a real social contract with citizens.

Read more: https://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.gr/2017/12/educating-our-youth-to-care-about-each.html?spref=fb