Who we are

Teacher Academy Project-Teaching Sustainability (TAP-TS) is one of 11 inaugural Erasmus+ Teacher Academies running from June 2022 until July 2025. The project aims to strengthen the sustainability education competences of European primary and secondary level student teachers, teacher educators and teachers through the co-production, piloting and use of learning and teaching materials, through participation in international teacher development courses, and through participation in an international community of practice.

The TAP-TS consortium comprises 11 partners, coordinated by the Centre of Teacher Education and Education Research at TU Dresden, University of Technology. The consortium includes two secondary schools (Friedrich Schiller Gymnasium, Pirna, Germany; and Kings Hospital School, Dublin, Ireland); four higher education institutions providing initial teacher education (TU Dresden; TU Darmstadt, Germany; Pedagogical University Vienna, Austria; Pedagogical Institute Santarem, Portugal; and University College, Dublin, Ireland); a Ministry of Education agency providing continuous professional development (Cyprus Pedagogical Institute, Cyprus); an education technology company (EUMMENA, Belgium); a sustainability education civil society organisation (CorEdu, Leipzig, Germany); and quality assurance in education experts (K and R Education, Sweden).

Overarching objectives

As an Erasmus+ Teacher Academy, TAP-TS has four overarching objectives:

  1. To contribute to the improvement of teacher education policies and practices in Europe;
  2. To enhance the European dimension and internationalisation of teacher education; 
  3. To develop and test jointly different models of mobility (virtual, physical & blended) in initial teacher education and CPD; and 
  4. To develop sustainable collaboration between teacher education providers to impact on the quality of teacher education in Europe and inform teacher education polices at European and national levels. 

Purpose and vision

The purpose of TAP-TS Academy project is to build a new, creative, and diverse European partnership of teacher education and training providers to design and deliver an Erasmus+ Teacher Academy centred on Education for Sustainability, based in high-quality resources and pedagogical innovation, attractive to teachers from across Europe, and informed by science-led practice and concerns for equity, social inclusion and a just transition to a green future. 

The vision of TAP-TS is to engage a diverse, international community of teachers, student teachers and teacher educators to develop their teaching sustainability competences through participation in professional learning communities, events and activities and in the co-creation, piloting and ongoing adaption of learning and teaching materials.

Outputs

TAP-TS has two main output streams focused on Education for Sustainability, our Teacher Learning Programme and Learning Teaching Packages.

Teacher Learning Programme

The TAP-TS Teacher Learning Programme draws on the experience and expertise of international partner organisations to create a rich professional learning environment for student teachers, teachers and teacher educators. Our different learning models include a range of study durations, and diverse approaches to teacher internationalisation and mobility (through face to face, digital and hybrid programmes).

The TAP-TS Teacher Learning Programme comprises three distinct models, these are:

  • Active Learning Events (ALE): This series of theme-based hybrid, short courses are open to participants from initial and/or continuing teacher education from the countries of the project core partners and the associate partners. Online activities at-distance promote engagement with theoretical background, allow the sharing of experiences, and foster innovative teaching concepts, to be tested and evaluated at school. The online phase of each ALE is connected to a three-day workshop for further engagement, reflection and optimization, hosted by the TAP-TS partnership institutions.
  • Online Workshops (OW): A series of fully online workshops are directed at teacher participants in geographically / regionally remote areas, who might not otherwise be in a position to participate in this Academy’s activities. Online Workshops employ state of the art digital learning methods to engage participants in Education for Sustainability themes and methods, and the TAP-Ts community of practice.
  • Summer Schools: These residential programme of in-person study and activity are open to participants from the TAP-TS Programme Online Workshops and Learning Events who wish to deepen and consolidate their competences and present their own materials and activities, and those related to and adapted from LTPs. Over one week, the participants share their experiences through differently themed workshops related to Education for Sustainable Development. Participants from different professional backgrounds collaborate to provide feedback on, and adapt LTP materials for use in their particular context of practice, to be further tested and evaluated in their classes afterwards. Follow-up Learning Events allow reflection and optimization based on collegial discussions and mentoring by experts. Established best practices will be documented and published.

Learning Teaching Packages

TAP-TS will generate seven sets of high-quality open and flexible learning and teaching packages (LTPs), co-developed, piloted and validated by partner institutions, and Teacher Academy participants (student teachers, teachers and teacher educators) through our Teacher Learning Programme.

Specifically, TAP-TS will:

  • Produce high-quality, innovative and pedagogically sound Learning & Teaching Packages (LTPs) comprising teacher education and learning and teaching materials linked to education for sustainability.
  • Ensure LTPs promote capability to educate for a sustainable environment in inclusive and science-informed ways, with immediate and longer-term practical and professional value 
  • Align LTPs to the newly developed EU Green Competence Framework (GreenComp). (See JRC 2021 / Bianchi 2020.)
  • Embed concern for accessibility, inclusion, and gender sensitive teaching into all project resources and practices
  • Publish all resources as Open Educational Resources (OERs) aligned to ECTS Standards.
  • Translate LTPs into the working languages of the partners in the final quarter of year 3 (EN, DE, PT, EL).

The seven LTPs are:
  1. A Sustainable Europe; Content, Competencies & Approaches for Secondary Teachers.
  2. Sustainability & Digitality: Content, Competencies & Approaches for Primary Teachers.
  3. Sustainability & Environmental Education: Content, Competencies & Approaches for Primary Teachers.
  4. Climate Crisis Resilience: Content, Competencies & Approaches for Secondary Teachers.
  5. Dealing with Climate Disinformation: Content, Competencies & Approaches for Secondary Teachers.
  6. Green Citizenship in/for Europe: Content, Competencies & Approaches for Primary and Lower Secondary Teachers.
  7. Sustainable Entrepreneurship Education (SEE): Content, Competencies & Approaches for Primary and Secondary Teachers.