Building Sustainability Competences in Education

ongoing

Sustainability topics have been a focal point for European Union policies and education in particular, flagging the need for a systemised approach to introducing sustainability competences in European curricula. To support education stakeholders (policy makers, national, regional and local authorities, schools, School Heads, teachers, and related institutions) in strengthening sustainability competence development and fostering its systematic integration into education and training, the BUSTIC EDU (Building Sustainability Competences in Education) project will develop a nature-positive programme for integrated teaching, with sustainability as the underlying topic. BUSTIC EDU’s Sustainability in Education Programme will address the European Sustainability Competence Framework (GreenComp) in all subjects of its three streams: early childhood, primary, and secondary education (students aged ~3 to 18), The streams will be complemented with continuous professional development opportunities for teachers on: 1) integrated environmental sustainability teaching and learning; 2) GreenComp; 3) The Sustainability in Education Programme; 4) assessment methods. The Programme will be tested across 60 schools in 5 countries – Italy, Malta, Turkey, Serbia, Spain, and refined based on assessment outcomes. Schools implementing sustainability competences will also have the chance to join the project’s Sustainable School Expertise recognition programme. BUSTIC EDU will supplement its outputs with assessment to review how embedding sustainability in a competence-based education helps students acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes to think, plan and act with empathy, responsibility, and care for our planet. In this way, a nature-positive attitude will be promoted across the education sector in Europe, with potential for the Programme to be replicated by the Sustainability competences in education (SCE) community that the project will build, for the benefit of all European citizens.