Classroom for Life

Background

Many teachers in Europe have a hard time bringing climate and sustainability themes into classrooms. It is expected of them to apply innovative pedagogies to sustainability education when often they do not benefit from these pedagogies as part of their own learning. Furthermore, factory model education is inadequate in addressing the complex challenges we are facing as global citizens. The educational system in Slovenia is limiting teachers to traditional teaching methods while more innovative approaches fall behind. Furthermore, teachers have a poor understanding of how different approaches to sustainability relate to each other. This means that support for teachers at this point is crucial.

Project

In Slovenia, the project Classroom for Life introduces tools that enable teachers to shift from teacher to sustainability facilitator – a role that is critical to any type of alternative learning approach (e.g. project or research-based learning). To support teachers in their work, the project team designs a teacher training and a manual for teachers in primary and secondary Slovenian schools; develops five learning scenarios for primary schools; holds two annual conferences on environmental education and publishes an academic publication related to the project’s results. Project activities are intended to transfer knowledge from environmental NGOs, ecovillages and transition movements to public schools. The training will be multiplied by the institutions of the Ministry of Education. In addition, the Faculty of Education will incorporate it into their courses.

Classroom for Life shares recent developments and updates on their own Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter page as well as on their website.