Contributing to a socio-ecological transformation of Education for Sustainable Development and ensuring greater access to Global Learning, exploring themes around the European Green Deal (EEP), the imperial way of life and its critique, are the aims of the project. Through courses, educational and informational materials for adult extracurricular education, "RE:thinking global" seeks to promote awareness and understanding of the environment and the fight against climate change.
During the project period, from 2023 to 2025, initiatives will be carried out to address and reflect on environmental issues, their impasses and impacts on today's society, which are intrinsically linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out in the 2030 Agenda.
The session was opened by Susana Damasceno, founder and President of the Board of AIDGLOBAL, who welcomed all the participants, followed by the presentation of each representative of the partner organization, in an interactive dynamic that stimulated socialization among all those present. Afterwards, Andrés Musacchio, Director of Studies at the Evangelische Akademie Bad Boll (Germany), briefly presented the project's main guidelines.
During the meeting, face-to-face activities were planned, outlining the responsibility of each action in three European cities where the partner organizations have their headquarters - Bad Boll (Germany), Lisbon (Portugal) and Vienna (Austria) - in which seminars for teachers and multipliers were held, providing a multilingual environment to facilitate communication between participants.
The project's first event is scheduled to take place in Bad Boll in May 2024, followed by Lisbon in October and Vienna in December. The emphasis on the participation of experts in Global Citizenship Education (GCE) and representatives of the Global South aims to ensure that the debates are wide-ranging and diverse.
Next, the partner organization ÖFSE, in the person of Gabriele Slezak, Communications Officer, shared the importance of issuing certificates of participation in order to mobilize and encourage teachers to attend the events, since no credits will be awarded.
Next year, there will also be two virtual thematic workshops, promoted by the Evangelische Akademie Bad Boll, which will allow for wider, more diverse and international participation. For the online workshops, the possibility of having participants from countries in the Global South, such as Mozambique, will mark the scope of the initiatives.
The partner organization, EPiZ Reutlingen, will be in charge of producing the educational resources. It will also create a module that will be available on the Das Weltspiel website, guaranteeing the opportunity to review and validate the content created by the partners. Also included will be recordings of the interviews to be given to the invited experts during the face-to-face events in Bad Boll, Lisbon and Vienna.
The project highlights the effective communication of activities, in order to involve all partner organizations in the dissemination of face-to-face events and online workshops on the themes of the Environment and Climate Change.
The Evangelische Akademie Bad Boll will also coordinate the publication of the results on the European Union's Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe (EPALE), extending the project's reach and impact.
The (re)knowledge of the project's challenging path, which is seen as a contribution to mitigating and adapting to climate change, punctuated the end of the meeting, which also proved to be important in strengthening ties between the various entities involved, in order to promote Education for Sustainable Development on a glocal scale.
“RE:thinking global” will run for two years, from September 1st, 2023 to February 28th, 2025. It is funded by the European Commission`s Erasmus+ Programme, promoted by the Evangelische Akademie Bad Boll – Bad Boll Protestant Academy and has as partners AIDGLOBAL – Acção e Integração para o Desenvolvimento Global, EPiZ Reutlingen – Development Education Information Center, LAI/VHS – DIE WIENER VOLKSHOCHSCHULEN GMBH – Centros de educação de adultos de Viena and ÖFSE – Austrian Foundation for Development Research.
