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Weaving LfS across the senior phase - Finland's 'transversal competences'

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Weaving LfS across the senior phase - Finland's 'transversal competences'

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I love this approach - so simple, and yet so impactful. It's an approach for every learner; irrespective of subject choice.

Posted by Kirsten Leask, LfS Scotland.

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Transversal competence has been formulated into the core curriculum to integrate general upper secondary education. Defined for the set purpose, there are six areas of transversal competence that help to direct the knowledge and skills learned and discussed in the subjects to practical life. It refers to the cognitive skills, meta-skills, and opportunities that underlie the life-long learning paths and competence needed in studies, at work, in hobbies, and in everyday life.

The transversal competence areas are:
Well-being competence Interaction competence
Multidisciplinary and creative competence
Societal competence
Ethical and environmental competence

Global and cultural competence

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Transversal competences in Finnish general upper secondary education

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The new Act of General Upper Secondary Education set an aim to organize interdisciplinary studies and broader study modules, so that students can develop their transversal skills during general upper secondary education (714/2018). Transversal competence then became a central reform within the general upper secondary national core curriculu

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How refugees transform and enhance our societies - The Global Goals

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The Reality of Global Displacement Today is World Refugee Day. A sobering reminder of the immense challenges faced by millions of refugees and displaced people around the world. It is…

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Our sister site, Signposts, have now launched a fully updated list of fiction with their top picks for books covering Global Citizenship themes.

Stories, poems and novels provide a stimulating context for developing skills such as empathy and critical thinking. They can open up new worlds and support learners to understand complex global issues and how these shape the realities for people around the world.

Signposts is committed to ensuring there is a diversity of authors, subjects and characters that learners can identify with, and which accurately reflect the diversity of our interconnected and interdependent world.

Search the book list here

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New Fiction List - Stride - online magazine for global citizenship in schools

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Our sister site, Signposts, have now launched a fully updated list of fiction with their top picks for books covering Global Citizenship themes.

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Weekly podcast presented by Christiana Figueres and the team behind the Paris Agreement, discussing current affairs and interviewing academics and politicians who work in the fields of environment and sustainability.

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The Future of Food

This ongoing series explores the solutions taking place across the world, led by farmers, policymakers, experts, and corporations, towards a regenerative food system.

Join Us!

Stay up to date with climate action around the world with our newsletters.

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Climate Change Podcast | Outrage + Optimism

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A podcast taking you behind the scenes on the politics, investments and actions meeting the climate crisis head on like no other.

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Education Scotland: Learning for Sustainability podcast

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Education Scotland: Learning for Sustainability podcast

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Gillian Hamilton, Interim Chief Executive of Education Scotland, and Ian Menzies, Senior Officer for STEM and LfS, discuss Learning for Sustainability and what it means for Scottish education. A very interesting discussion - well worth a listen.

Posted by Kirsten Leask, LfS Scotland

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Join Gillian Hamilton, Interim Chief Executive of Education Scotland in a new series of podcasts in which she hopes to open up conversations about education. Whether you are a parent, pupil or education practitioner - she will explore a range of different topics over the series which she hopes you will enjoy hearing about.

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The Learning Conversations, Learning for Sustainability | Education Scotland podcast

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Join Gillian Hamilton, Interim Chief Executive of Education Scotland in a new series of podcasts in which she hopes to open up conversations about education. Whether you are a parent, pupil or education practitioner - she will explore a range of different topics over the series which she hopes you will enjoy hearing about.

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Empowering Learners for a Sustainable Future

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Empowering Learners for a Sustainable Future

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A very readable blog about a whole setting approach to LfS by Prof Daniella Tilbury, Advisor to the European Commission on learning for sustainability

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Schools have a responsibility to prepare learners to adapt to these changes but also to develop the competences needed to transition towards a more sustainable future.

Thirty years of environmental learning in schools has taught us that the most effective way to engage learners with sustainability is to adopt a whole-school approach. This enables pupils to live as well as learn sustainability at school. Schools that choose this approach connect what pupils gain through the curriculum with their school's practice in its canteens, corridors and outdoor areas.

Many have retrofitted their buildings to align with sustainability, and others have invested in technology that helps them become more sustainable by generating their own energy. They may grow food on their grounds, harvest water for reuse or change their school uniforms to ones that are produced more sustainably.

The successful schools have found ways to connect these developments directly to the pupils' formal learning experiences. They also provide hands-on learning: indoors, outdoors and in the community, so that pupils can grapple with the practical realities of this agenda and not just the thinking behind it.

A whole-school approach is not simply about connecting different aspects of the school so that they align with sustainability. It is also about redesigning pupil experiences so that they can meaningfully develop competences that enable them to contribute to the green transition. Often, this process starts with envisioning exercises that engage the learner in thinking about the future and motivate them to consider how today's actions have long‑term consequences.

Creating spaces in which pupils can experience responsibility and decision-making is also key to this agenda. It means engaging pupils in school decisions, involving them in community projects and connecting them to global initiatives.

Pupil empowerment is a key aspect of a whole-school approach, which recognises that building confidence and experience can help replace the sense of fear and powerlessness that many face when confronting sustainability issues. Educators can use the European sustainability competences ( GreenComp) to develop pupil competences such as 'envisioning sustainable futures', 'embodying sustainability values', 'embracing complexity in sustainability', and 'acting for sustainability'.

The most successful schools have established a culture of sustainability that broadens the contribution of individual champion teachers, who are often seen to be engaging in islands of good practice. They also seek cooperation with the broader community in joint efforts to establish projects that support the transition to sustainability (such as regenerative cafes and community allotments) and in transforming the school environment into a sustainable learning space.

Core questions can be asked and answered by the school team to establish whether the school has adopted a whole-school approach to sustainability:

1. What is taught (curriculum, hidden curriculum)?

2. Where does learning take place (classroom, canteen, campus, community)?

3. Who do we learn from (teachers, school staff, parents, community)?

4. How is learning taking place (action learning, participatory learning, critical reflective learning, values clarification)?

5. Is there a culture of sustainability in the school? Can staff and pupils see the alignment between the what, where, who and how?

It is also worth noting that a whole-school approach is relevant to other areas of educational interest (such as digital education and gender mainstreaming) and has a long tradition in supporting schools as learning organisations. Indeed, there many documented experiences that show how bringing these agendas together can help advance the transformative agenda in schools.

Prof Daniella Tilbury is a policy expert, educator and change-maker credited with having developed the initial frameworks on education and learning for sustainability. Daniella was a member of the Board of WWF Australia that brought Earth Hour to the World in 2007 and has been actively involved in international initiatives that inspire transitions towards sustainability and climate positive futures. She is currently an Hon. Fellow of St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge, an adviser to the European Commission on learning for sustainability and the UK government's focal point at the UN Economic Commission for Europe on matters of education and environment.

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Empowering learners for a sustainable future: a whole-school approach

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Media headlines are dominated by the challenges that the climate crisis and its accompanying uncertainty bring to our everyday lives.

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This is a wonderful book from Robin Wall Kimmerer that really opened my eyes to non-Western perspectives on sustainability. Find out more here.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer | Goodreads

Posted by Kirsten Leask, LfSS

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'A hymn of love to the world ... A journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise' Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two ways of knowledge together.

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings - asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass - offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

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'A hymn of love to the world ... A journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise' Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science.