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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!
