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We’re delighted to announce three recent award successes for Learning for Sustainability Scotland and our partners.

1. The Global RCE Awards: ‘Outstanding Flagship Project Awards’

At the recent Global Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) conference in Kuala Lumpur, our partnership work was awarded two Outstanding Flagship Project Awards for Innovative Projects on Education for Sustainable Development. 

Established in 2012, the RCE Award celebrates projects and programmes on ESD within the Global RCE Network; honouring RCEs who have made outstanding contributions to address local sustainable development challenges in their regions. 

The Award recognises projects and programmes that bridge local and global perspectives on sustainable development, those that engage with transformative learning and research, and initiatives that contribute to community engagement, research & development and capacity development of stakeholders and partners.

The first of these Awards recognised the impact of our ongoing partnership with the General Teaching Council for Scotland on the national ‘Learning for Sustainability Hub’. In Scotland, the Professional Standards for Teachers are underpinned by Learning for Sustainability as a key cross-cutting theme; interdependent with the other key cross-cutting themes of Values and Leadership. The Learning for Sustainability Hub supports educators to reflect on, engage with and enhance Learning for Sustainability in both their own practice and the wider life of their setting. It does this through the provision of freely-available resources, self-evaluation tools, professional learning, professional reading, curated resources, and regular opportunities for educators to connect and network with each other.

The second Award recognised our part in the collaborative development of generic tools for monitoring and developing education for sustainable development (ESD) in universities. The resulting Monitoring and Evaluating ESD in Higher Education Handbook and accompanying tools provide accessible, practical resources to support educators in engaging with evaluation of quality and impact of education for sustainable development in their settings. These resources can be adapted and deployed at department, faculty and institutional level; using both quantitative measures and reflective approaches that strengthen the learning experience.

Read more about all of the Award winners here.

2. The Frontiers journal: Honourable Recognition Award

We were also grateful for the opportunity to work with colleagues from our fellow Regional Centre of Expertise, RCE Czechia, on a special issue of the peer-reviewed Frontiers’ journal which was subsequently awarded an Honourable Recognition Award. The journal focused on ‘The Role of the Human Dimension in Promoting Education for Sustainable Development at the Regional Level’. We provided contributions to the editorial and an article entitled: ‘The future starts in the past: embedding learning for sustainability through culture and community in Scotland‘.

All of these accolades would not, however, have been achieved without the expertise and input of the many and diverse partners with whom we worked. Our grateful thanks goes to The General Teaching Council for Scotland, The University of St Andrews, EAUC (The Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education) Scotland, Students Organising for Sustainability UK, Sparqs (Student Partnerships in Quality Scotland), University of Edinburgh, UK Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)for Higher Education (funder) and RCE Czechia.

Special thanks goes to Dr Rehema White, University of St Andrews; Professor Ullrich Kockel, University of the Highlands and Islands; Professor Pete Higgins, University of Edinburgh, and our much-missed colleague, the late Dr Andy Samuel, Abertay University.