A Rounder Sense of Purpose II

Funder: European Commission

Call: Call 2018.Strategic Partnerships in the field of Education, Training and Young, Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. ERASMUS+ (European Commission)

Of European scope.

For decades there have been calls for education to address an ever-growing range of social and environmental challenges. In recent years these have culminated in the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (2005-2014) and the Global Action Programme on ESD (2014-2019), each of which have had varying degrees of influence on national education systems. In reality, ‘mainstream’ education continues to pay little heed to sustainable development for a variety of reasons but two of the principle roadblocks are (1) the lack of clarity among educators on what ESD actually requires in terms of educator competences and (2) an apparent inability to measure ESD outcomes. An initial Erasmus+ funded project ‘A Rounder Sense of Purpose’ (RSP, 2015-18) has made a significant contribution in addressing these concerns having developed and tested a robust framework of competences for educators – of any discipline – who wish to educate for sustainable development. This has been translated into qualifications in various settings and has been disseminated through national and international conferences.