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TAP-TS Faces: Rachel Bowden
Welcome to the first post of the "TAP-TS Faces" series! In this series of blog posts, we will be introducing you to the faces of TAP-TS, outlining their work with the project and their personal ambition related to the project. And in general, anything else that they're willing to share with us! We're kicking off with Rachel, our project coordinator.
A little about me
I have worked as an international development volunteer in Nicaragua, and as an English teacher, teacher trainer and education project manager and researcher in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Rwanda. I have degrees in English, Education for Sustainability and applied linguistics. I am particularly interested in the intersection between decoloniality, multilingual education and sustainability. I am the project coordinator for TAP-TS – or as Mats said, “the spider in the web”!
My work
I am passionate about working towards high quality education and lifelong learning for all, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4. I am particularly concerned with educational inequities within and between countries. I find sustainability education endlessly fascinating. For me, it involves understanding current crises – social, economic, and environmental – and how these are connected and their historical roots. It is also about exploring future alternatives and valuing different perspectives and practices. I love the fact that every ‘subject’ at school has important perspectives to contribute. So, of course, do people outside of schools: families, local communities, businesses. Given that un-sustainability has been caused by people with the most power in society today, there is a strong reason to learn from people who have been marginalised. Sustainability can be the frame, the reason, and the challenge to bring different people and perspectives together and forge new understandings and practices”.
For this blog post, we are delighted to post this reflection on the experience of our last summer school, from Andrea Vivas. Thank you Andrea!
This blog is about explaining about the interesting and relevant Teacher Academy Project (www.tap-ts.eu), and the experience of their first Summer School in Cyprus. It was a dream learning about sustainability on this beautiful island in Europe. A country full of culture, warm people, sand, waves, deep history and of course so much to learn In this case the host Institution was the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute, Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth and their highly professional team. We were lucky to stay at the modern Sun Hall Hotel in front of the beach in Larnaca. The planning was well thought out and not only regarding the Workshops but also offering participants the option to live the culture through their traditional meals, doing outdoor activities and getting to know the history of Larnaca. They gave us also a glance at the history of the country with a visit to the Observatory of Ammochostos in Famagusta.
The Summer School lasted 5 days (from 26 th June till 30 th June 2023), where we as student teachers and practicing teachers got to learn from different education organizations around Europe such us: Politecnico de Santarem (Portugal), TU Dresden (Germany), University College of Teacher Education (Vienna), Eummena (Belgium), University College Dublin, University of Bristol, Cape Greco Environmental Education Centre, Education Unit for the Environment and Sustainable Development – Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Friedrich-Schiller-Gymnasium (Pirna), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Every day we met each other, people from different cultures (Hungary, Austria, Mexico, Germany, England, Venezuela, Portugal, Ireland, etc.), ages, and part of various education systems and learned together how one can teach and learn for sustainability. The dynamic of all the activities made it so interesting and diverse that I was never bored. Every organization had a practical activity planned out, about a sustainable relevant topic, which could be taught in our schools and universities and all of them were creative and innovative. We participated in each one of these “learning packages” as “hypothetical students”. That made it very interactive, and it was also planned time to reflect in our different groups about the learnings of the day. I remembered for example, building an ecosystem with Legos, and talking about the issues in it, discussing how to improve it, the focus here was to talk about biodiversity.
Talking about Sustainability and Digitality we got the chance to turn trash in to treasure and converting cellphone parts into something with a new propose. I used my imagination and created a necklace and earrings with bronze aluminum.
Another day we got to do a role play and play an online game (stopdisasters.com) where we had to make different choices to save a community from a flood and we could see immediately the consequences (the topic here was: Climate Crisis Resilience)
One of my favorite experiences was going to Cape Greco Environmental Center, where they showed us all the programs that they offer for schools with different sustainable topics, promoting the protection of the biodiversity in Cyprus. We got to do an experiment and watched the effect of oil falling in to water and how hard it can be to control and collect it from the ocean. After this there were outdoor activities at Malama Beach, including a snorkeling citizen science activity!
But I think for me, coming from Venezuela was unbelievable the fact of having the financial and organizational support from my University (TU Dresden) to live this learning experience and getting to know so much amazing people who had such knowledge and sensibility. Because sustainability is also about equal education and that is what I lived.
At last, to get the chance to reunite with the ocean, being able to see turtles and fishes jumping into the water, enjoying the palm trees and walking over the sand made it a magical experience. All of these made me fall in love with Cyprus and the TAP Summer School.
Teacher education staff and students from TU Dresden joined an international group of European educators in Santarem, Portugal at the beginning of June for the face to face part of the Active Learning Event ‘A sustainable Europe’. The event was part of Teacher Academy Project-Teaching Sustainability (TAP-TS), one of 11 inaugural Erasmus + Teacher Academies running from June 2022 until July 2025. TAP-TS aims to strengthen the sustainability education competences of primary and secondary student teachers, teacher educators and teachers through the co-production, piloting and use of learning and teaching materials, and participation in international courses and workshops as part of a growing community of practice of sustainability educators. During the first year of the project (June 2022 to July 2023) the main focus has been drafting learning and teaching materials, and piloting these locally and internationally, through a range of online, hybrid and face to face events.
Active Learning Event (ALE2), which took place from may the 8th until June 3rd , was structured as a hybrid event with three weeks of online work (including weekly webinars and self-study), followed by three days of Face-to-Face workshops in Polytechnic Institute of Santarém (PIS). The course was targeted at secondary level educators, from across curriculum subjects. In total, 42 participants enrolled for the online course, and 28 attended the face to face sessions. During this ALE, units and activities from Learning Teaching Packages “A sustainable Europe” and “Climate Crisis Resilience” were piloted. The first online week drew material from unit 1.
‘Sustainability and me’ and engaged participants with foundational sustainability concepts, values and thinking skills. The second online week drew material from unit 2. ‘a sustainable Europe’, with a focus on European policies and actions for sustainability. The third online week drew material from unit 3. ‘linguistic and cultural diversity for a sustainable Europe’, with a focus on multilingual and anti-racist education and language across the curriculum.
The 3-day face to face course was an important opportunity to bring participants together to build our community of practice and to further engagement with and provide feedback on course materials. In addition, we explored the role/s of education for sustainability and the European commission’s sustainability Competence Framework GreenComp (Bianchi et al, 2021). Apart from that, participants also enjoyed a tour of the inspirational education facilities at PIS, an outdoor education activity exploring the Tagus river (a site of biodiversity and cultural importance), and a plenary session with an invited speaker. In the evenings, the group enjoyed visits to local restaurants!
We are excited to announce that registration is now open for the first round of Teacher Academy Project-Teaching Sustainability (TAP-TS) sustainability education courses, for primary and secondary-level teachers, student teachers and teacher educators.
Our focus in this first round is the co-development and piloting of learning and teaching materials, which will be published as Open Educational Resources (OERs) in the third and final year of the project. Topics include: Climate crisis resilience, using serious games, environmental education, digitality and sustainability, green citizenship, linguistic and cultural diversity, whole school approaches, and entrepreneurship education.
Participants have the chance to interact with educators from across Europe online and through face to face events in Portugal and Cyprus. We are keen to include educators from diverse backgrounds, and with varying levels of experience of education for sustainability. The main language of courses is English.
“We came as project partners and left as friends”, was a comment echoed by numerous participants of the first face to face meeting of the Erasmus+ Teacher Academy Project Teaching Sustainability (TAP-TS), which took place in Dresden from the 57th to 7th of October. The ‘partnership and planning’ meeting brought together representatives from 11 partner institutions, across 7 European countries, along with other invited local and international experts.
The meeting aimed to strengthen the TAP-TS partnership and move forward key organisational, conceptual and administrative aspects of the project. In sessions led by representatives of each of the 5 Work Packages, work conducted since the project launch in June 2022 was reviewed, and plans were made for the year ahead.
A central focus of the meeting was the Online Workshops, Active Learning Events, and Summer Schools, set to start in spring 2023. These three teacher mobility formats, will engage student teachers, teacher educators and serving teachers from across Europe, in a network of sustainability educators with novel and innovative, high-quality sustainability teaching & learning resources and supporting pedagogies ‘learning teaching packages’ (LTPs) and their adaption to diverse contexts of practice. Learning outcomes and structure for the LTPS, which will be piloted, refined and disseminated through teacher engagement events, were also established. In addition, partners developed the TAP-TS vision for sustainability, education for sustainability and teacher professional learning and provided feedback on the communications and dissemination and quality assurance and evaluation plans.
“Critical friends” to the project, Prof. Leon Tikly (University of Bristol), Prof. Sofia Avgitidou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Prof. Joanna Madalinska-Michalak (University of Warsaw) and Lara Leik (University of Salzburg), along with other local experts, provided important impulses from their individual and professional perspectives to strengthen the quality and impact of the project.
The following concrete details were agreed:
- Online Workshop 1, March 16-23, for secondary level educators has climate crisis resilience using serious games as a focus (LTP 2.4).
- Active Learning Event 1, with online workshops from 11-28 April, and face to face in Santarem, Portugal May 4-6, is for primary level educators, and focuses on environmental education (LTP 2.3).
- Active Learning Event 2, runs online from 9-26 May, with face to face in Santarem June 1st to 3rd. ALE 2 is for secondary level educators and focuses on Sustainability and Europe (LTP 2.1), and Sustainability and digitality (LTP 2.2).
- Online Workshop 2, from 8-14th June, is for secondary educators, with a focus on sustainable entrepreneurship education (LTP 2.7). Finally, the Summer School, in Cyprus from 26-30 June, will include a broad range of LTPs, and the addition of LTP 2.6 ‘Green citizenship through a whole school approach’, and ‘dealing with climate disinformation through media literacy’ (LTP 2.5).
Detailed course information and registration will be open through the TAP-TS website from mid-January 2023.
See you soon!
