ESD: District organised digital symposium
Think and act in a way that is fit for the future: This is the goal of the nationwide initiative "Education for Sustainable Development" - also in Waldeck-Frankenberg. Under the motto "Look up - Think global - Global perspectives in primary schools", the district, together with the University of Kassel and the Hessian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, recently organised a virtual specialist day within this framework.
The aim of the event was a joint exchange and networking of the many different multipliers on this topic. The focus is always on taking up developmental and sustainable topics and integrating them into lessons in order to give children an early awareness and sensitivity for sustainability in all areas of life. "This requires holistic and age-appropriate concepts to promote sustainable thinking and action on a regional as well as global level by children and young people," said District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst during the event.
As part of the event, there were not only workshops that gave participants concrete implementation options for working with primary school children and young people, but also a lecture by educationalist Antje Brock from the Free University of Berlin, who joined the online panel from Costa Rica. "In this context, the focus was particularly on the aspect that emotion-sensitive education for sustainable development should focus especially on beauty and hope - and with the question of how we would like to live on this earth," reports Raphael Chirakakis, the district's ESD coordinator. In addition to the workshops and the keynote speech, there was also a virtual panel discussion with leading experts from the field of education for sustainable development and global learning from all over Germany.
Background
For several years now, the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg has been actively promoting the education of children and young people in the field of sustainable development. It actively supports all schools in the district in implementing the sustainability strategy and provides them with concrete measures for this purpose.
One building block of the concept is the ESD diploma "Clever macht Zukunft" (Clever Makes the Future), whose content and organisational coordination he takes over completely. The pupils can take a basic course with four or an advanced course with six thematic modules - whether climate, environment, agriculture, nature, animal welfare, nutrition, energy production, sport, children's rights, integration and much more. Their contents are based on the curriculum of the Hessian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, the principles of the Hessian Education and Training Plan and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. All topics are prepared and followed up in class, and the practical lessons take place mainly at extracurricular learning sites. In addition to the ESD diploma, the district also offers primary schools the opportunity to be certified as an ESD school: The aim is to recognise sustainable activities that are incorporated into lessons, everyday school life and organisation in the long term.