Carpathian Convention Seminar on Education for Sustainable Development

The Ministry of Human Capacities of Hungary kindly invites participants from the Carpathian Convention to an International Seminar on Education for Sustainable Development.

The Carpathian Convention Seminar on Education of Sustainable Development aims to create a platform for exchange and cooperation.  The seminar will focus on ESD in early childhood education, primary and secondary education.

Hungary wishes to establish a new and enduring tradition of transdisciplinary networking and cross-country exchange in ESD thus supporting the joint mission of the Carpathian Countries to work towards sustainability.

Seminar date

The conference starts with a complimentary networking dinner on 16 April, and has full day programs on 17-18 April 2019.

Seminar venue

The conference will be held in the heart of Budapest, in Hotel Benczúr. (add hyperlink to the hotel http://www.hotelbenczur.hu/en )

Working language

The seminar will be held in English.

The scope of the seminar

Topics of interest will be centred around  :

(1)   the whole-institutional approach in ESD and (2) developing educator ESD competences

ESD as one of the cross-cutting topics of sustainability must build on teachers. While they are the vehicles of systemic good practices, they can also represent the bottleneck vis-à-vis improving the quality of education. Therefore, the first international seminar will work around two key thematic areas: the whole-institution approach in ESD supporting teachers’ good practices and developing educator ESD competences to enable and empower teachers to deliver quality education.

The seminar allows participant to discuss good practices in educational policies and practice relevant to ESD while reviewing challenges faced by practitioners. The seminar consists of invited oral presentations, roundtable discussions, workshops and on-site visits to observe exemplar practices. Organisers welcome workshop proposals from each participating country and invite participants to actively contribute to sessions by sharing and reflecting on good practice in ESD.

50 educational professionals are expected and welcome to join the seminar from Carpathian countries in order to promote transdisciplinary knowledge building and networking for quality ESD in public education.

The seminar is dedicated to:

• practicing educators at ISCED 0-3 levels
• teacher educators
• professionals working in the field of nature conservation and education
• representatives (leaders and officers) of decision-making bodies in the field of sustainability, environmental protection, environmental education, ESD and public education (including relevant ministries)
• representatives of educational maintenance and governance bodies (including state and clerical institutions)
• educational counsellors and experts.

The seminar offers a forum for participants to discuss the following leading questions:

How can policies promote the whole-institutional approach in ESD? What does a supportive policy environment provide for practitioners working in the whole-institutional approach? What challenges do policy-makers and practitioners face in implementing the whole-institutional approach? How does the whole institution approach affect practitioners? How can teacher training contribute to the implementation of the whole-institution approach in ESD? Which directions or pathways can good practices show to overcome challenges? What can countries learn from international exemplar practices in the whole-institutional approach in ESD?

Which approaches are present in policies and practice to promote developing educator ESD competences? How can policies motivate and engage stakeholders and target groups in developing educator competences? How can practitioners develop their educator competences? How can teacher training contribute to developing ESD competences at pre- and at in-service teachers’ levels? What challenges do policy-makers and practitioners meet in developing educator ESD competences? Which directions or pathways can good practices show to overcome challenges? What can countries learn from international exemplar practices in developing educator ESD competences?

The organisers expect that the seminar will facilitate the launch cooperation or expand the scope of existing collaboration among the communities of stakeholder groups in ESD in the Carpathian region, and thus contribute to the implementation of ESD policies promoted by prominent international organisations such as UNECE.

Objectives and outcomes

Besides providing a forum for professional discussion for participants, the transdisciplinary approach will be manifested in the following activities:

• sharing local traditions and approaches and learning from each other;
• exploring ways of facilitating and raising awareness of future generations to recognise the importance of joint actions.

As a more tangible outcome of the seminar, ideas for regional ESD projects or joint publications are foreseen.