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On Thursday 30th January, the European network of Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) in Education for Sustainable Development welcomed a global audience to the inaugural event in its ‘Exploring the potential of…’ webinar series.

Co-hosted by RCE Fryslân, Netherlands, and RCE Scotland (‘Learning for Sustainability Scotland’), this event focused on ‘Exploring the potential of…a whole-setting approach to Education for Sustainable Development’

Welcoming our guest speakers

Following an introductory overview from the hosting RCEs, we were delighted to welcome Arjen Wals, Professor of Transformative Learning for Socio-Ecological Sustainability at Wageningen University, Netherlands, and UNESCO Chair of Social Learning and Sustainable Development; who shared a thought-provoking keynote address on ‘A whole child in a whole school: a relational approach to creating vibrant
green ecologies of learning’.

We then heard from three inspirational speakers; each of which provided insights into real-life examples of whole-setting/institution approaches to Education for Sustainable Development. Ms Jennifer Hutton, Principal Teacher at Dunblane Primary School, Scotland, shared the story of how her primary school setting is embedding ESD (or ‘Learning for Sustainability’ as it is known in Scotland) across its daily activities. Mr Dieter Schmidt, Didactic Director at the Integrated Comprehensive School, Oyten, Germany, then told us more about the strategic approach being taken across the secondary school setting in which he works. Finally, we heard from Mrs Heleentje Swart, SPARK the Movement (RCE Fryslân), who shared more about the way in which AERES University of Applied Sciences, Wageningen, Netherlands, has woven ESD across its everyday ethos.

Continuing the conversation…

Participants were then invited to share their favourite resources, ideas, and questions regarding a whole-setting approach to Education for Sustainable Development. This facility remains open for participants to continue this ‘conversation’.

Event outputs

Please click on the hyperlinks below to view the slides from this event:

1. Introductory and closing information
2. Keynote address: Professor Arjen Wals
3. Practice example #1: Dunblane Primary School, Scotland
4. Practice example #2: Oyten Integrated Comprehensive School, Germany
5. Practice example #3: AERES University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands.

Webinar #2

Our next webinar in this series will have a focus on ‘Exploring the potential of…an arts-based approach to Education for Sustainable Development’. Further details will follow in due course.

Our warmest thanks goes to Professor Arjen Wals, Ms Jennifer Hutton, Mr Dieter Schmidt, and Mrs Heleentje Swart for providing us with such thoughtful and inspirational insights into their work. Our thanks goes also to Mrs Betsy King (RCE Scotland) and Mr Maximilian Eisenbart (RCE Fryslân) for organising and hosting this event.