How can today’s youth respond to climate change challenge issues starting at school?
According to project Initiation, the key to manage the issues connected to climate change can be found in environmental education, social entrepreneurship and social innovation, through upskilling teaching and providing them with tools aiming to raise awareness about how to face the business world taking into account the environmental challenges.
These themes are addressed through upskilling teaching for new generations, providing them with tools aiming to raise awareness about how to face the business world while taking into account the environmental challenges.
Environmental education, social entrepreneurship, and social innovation can offer an opportunity to stimulate individual responsibility among new generations, who will understand the meaning of participating and taking action to take care of a local and global community. The value-added of the teaching of social entrepreneurship in the high schools come from identifying, evaluating, and seizing the opportunities aiming at producing long-term social value within the local and global societies, opposed to personal or shareholder wealth.
To achieve these objectives, Initiation will support the training of high schools teachers by providing them with learning resources aiming at cultivating participation to environmental issues, through the introduction of social entrepreneurship. Among the resources to support the training of high schools’ teachers, it is relevant to mention the web-based Digital Platform for Schools Social Entrepreneurship, aiming to create a link between schools and local and regional entrepreneurial activities. Furthermore, a teacher’s handbook will be developed to support the training of the high schools’ teachers to gain skills and knowledge on how they could effectively support their students to be involved in social entrepreneurship endeavors.
The partners of Initiation have recently identified the current European curriculums in high schools, regarding the level of knowledge and inclusion of topics, such as social entrepreneurship, social innovation and climate change. Based on these first results, partners designed a methodological framework and a curriculum for high school students‘ education and training in social entrepreneurship and social innovation.
At the moment, the project’s partners have been cooperating on the core of the project, that is the development of a curriculum of training that promotes microlearning and practical learning approaches about environment and social entrepreneurship.
This is a valuable tool to stimulate reflection on all those topics that are missing in the curriculum of European high schools, specially in the field of climate change and social entrepreneurship. The next results of the project will include the piloting of the training with selected teachers from all the partner countries and a training on the curriculum.
For updates on the project, check the Facebook page! For further information, contact Lisa Avarello lisa.avarello@danilodolci.org
INITIATION – Fostering green social innovation and social entrepreneurship in school education project is co-financed by the Erasmus+ program (Key Action 2 – Cooperation Partnership in school education) and aims to foster the social innovation and social entrepreneurship mind-set of high schools and their motivation to become more community oriented, and be actively involved in designing solutions for environmental problems that their local societies are facing.
Partners
- Coordinator: Perifereiaki Diefthinsi Protovathmias kai Defterovathmias Ekpaidefsis Peloponnisou – Greece
- Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci – Italy
- INSTITOUTO TECHNOLOGIAS YPOLOGISTONKAI EKDOSEON DIOFANTOS – Greece
- PANEPISTIMIO PATRON – Greece
- CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE– Italy
- Vändra Gümnaasium– Estonia
- CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTDCARDET – Cyprus
- The Junionr School – Cyprus
If you want to know more about the project, you can contact us by e-mail at lisa.avarello@danilodolci.org or follow us on Facebook.