Save-the-dates!

27 September, 13-15: Alice Annelin, Umeå University, and colleagues, will talk about their work on a digital platform for sharing experiences and materials - a platform that we can all contribute to and get inspiration from

Workshop on September 27

At our first meeting with the Climate Network, in December 2023, many expressed wishes for various forms of collegial support. In part, a moral support from others who are also struggling with developing education to be more relevant to the societal transformation towards sustainability, and partly a practical support in the form of knowledge and experience exchange around questions such as the following: How can you teach for sustainability and societal transformation? What are your experiences with respect to what works well (and less so)? What is important to consider? Is there an example of how to work with the development of systems thinking (or whatever it is)?

At the workshop on September 27, we will raise these issues again with a focus on digital platforms as a means of knowledge and experience exchange around learning for sustainability. Alice Annelin will present the possibilities of the platform she has built (https://advancingesd.com/about/ ).  Before the workshop, you are welcome to think about whether you know of other similar platforms and how you experience using them. In connection with the workshop, we will have a discussion about the different platforms and how they can possibly help us - or if something else/more is needed and if so, what we could do to assist with that.

If you have not received an invitation but is interested in participating, please send an e-mail to Anne or Cecilia, and we will be happy to send an invite.

13 September, 13-15: Fredrik Portin, Malmö University, held a workshop on facing resistance in teaching

How can university and college teachers promote a sustainable world through their teaching?

Time: Friday 17 May at 13.00 - 15.00
Place: Zoom

Welcome to participate in a meeting on how we as teachers in higher education can change our teaching to promote social transformation and a sustainable world.

The meeting is organised by the Climate Network Focus Group on Learning for Sustainable Development. We have invited teachers from all over Sweden. We will have a panel discussion with five university and college teachers from different Swedish higher education institutions who will share their experiences of how they, in different types of education, have worked to change their teaching so that their students can contribute to societal transformation for a sustainable world. They will also talk about support and inspiration available for working with educational change.

After the panel discussion, there will be an opportunity to share experiences in small groups. During the meeting, we will also raise questions about how we can work together for learning and change work across our different universities and colleges. The panel discussion will raise questions such as: What do students need to learn today? How do these teachers develop their teaching? How are they part of the change process in their universities? What obstacles have they encountered? How have they dealt with them to move forward and succeed in changing the programmes they are involved in? What support do they receive in their universities?

You are welcome to be inspired and contribute to the development of education by sharing your experiences. The meeting will be held via Zoom. Contact Cecilia Enberg or Anne-Kathrin Peters, and you will receive a link.

Please feel free to spread the invitation to teachers at your university who you think may be interested in the issues.

On Thursday 11 April, 14.40-16.30, we offer a workshop on the role of students in societal transformation for a sustainable world and in driving educational changes that make education more relevant to sustainability. We have invited student representatives from different unions and universities, as well as the Climate Students, to a panel discussion. During the workshop, you will hear about research on the role and opportunities of students in university development and examples of how students are working for a relevant education. We will have small group discussions that will hopefully lead to concrete ideas on what can be done and possible collaboration.

We have now continued to work on the basis of the input we received in connection with our meeting in December - THANK YOU! for all your input. Based on this, we have set out the focus of the work and the way we will work, and we would like to tell you more about this at a meeting on 8 March at 13.00-14.30.

And we want, as you expressed at the meeting, to make things happen. We want change. We will therefore organise a number of workshops in the spring based on the question: How are different actors working to enable societal transformation towards a sustainable world?

The actors that will be in focus are students, teachers and leaders in academia. This focus aims to contribute to the exchange of experiences and good examples and lay the foundation for further change-oriented work. Therefore, we will start already on 8 March when part of the meeting will also be devoted to an exchange of knowledge about research on students‘, teachers’ and leaders' views on and role in driving change for sustainability.

We also wonder if you who have knowledge of and/or conduct research on students‘, teachers’ and/or leaders' views on and role in driving change for sustainability can consider contributing through a short presentation on this 8 March? If so, please contact us.

If you would like to participate in the meeting on 8 March, please email us and we will send you the zoom link.