EPALE discussion: how to contribute to Environmental awareness in the field of adult learning

Dear colleagues, we would like to invite you, your colleagues and stakeholders very warmly to our EPALE Online Conference 2020: The role of adult education in fostering environmental awareness and sustainabilityon 17th and 18th of June 2020. Here you can find the links to the programme and registration. We are looking forward to your participation. Best wishes from Austria

Par prioritāti Eiropas Savienība (ES) uzskata rūpēties par drošu un veselīgu uzturu, kā arī nodrošināt ražīgu un ilgtspējīgu lauksaimniecību un zivsaimniecību. ES palīdz lauksaimniekiem un zvejniekiem nodrošināt pārtikas pieprasījumu un stabilu apgādi ar ilgtspējīgi ražotu un drošu augstas kvalitātes pārtiku par iedzīvotājiem pieņemamu cenu.

Dear all,

Hello everyone 

Corona, the most current problem, seems to change our cleaning and other habits of life. We should pay attention to hygiene rules in order to protect against the disease of the age. In this context, courses organized as a certified course program for adults in Public Education Centers, which are adult education centers, are important. The course named "Hygiene Training for People Working in the Food and Water Sector" and the other six courses in this field reveal the importance of hygiene in production. 

A lot of the Swedish Folk High Schools work actively with Agenda 2030, the UN's goal for global sustainability. The Folk High Schools are very much at the forefront when it comes to working with Agenda 2030 and a great deal of work is done on General courses and profile courses. The climate challenge and the work on social sustainability are important Folk high schools.

As adult educators for a livable environment, we can raise awareness by conducting various activities with adults in healthy nutrition education. In the child education course we opened for adults in Siirt Public Education Center, we provided trainers with trainings on healthy nutrition of their children. To our news https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/content/eating-healthy-food-while-enjoying You can reach the link. We are waiting for your opinions on the subject. 

Hello Everyone! 

 There are already many meaningful ideas posted here. Environmental awareness education for adults is clearly the best way to improve the environmental problems we are currently facing. As the economic activities of mankind have diversified and social functions have become different, environmental issues have become more complex. 

In my opinion education is the answer for all the environmental issues what we struggle from. Knowledge is the key to success. We have to be patient and educate adults in various ways how to keep our Mother Earth clean and safe for the future and for the next generation. Maybe actions like FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE for adults (Greta Thunberg) can also help. 

I totally agree with so many of you and I think raising awareness for environmental issues is central in order to come one step closer to all those goals defined by the UN. If people don't see the necessity to become active themselves we can predict as many catastrophes and define as many goals as we like - I'm afraid it's not going to make a difference unless people start to change their mindsets about this. It's not an issue that the world will be facing in a few hundred years - it is one that the world is already suffering from now.

The discussions are very interesting and it is good that we are  speaking about environmental education for adults.I think we have to put more accents on all these topics in childhood, because it is more difficult to change  something than to create .  The travel into big life starts in the families . It would be interesting to hear from other countries about some projects how we work with parents . Parents are adults ,but sometimes  especially in schools we dont perceive  them  like this.

As adult educators for a livable environment, we can do various activities with adults in our trainings on healthy nutrition. We provided trainings to our trainees on healthy feeding of their children in the child education course we opened for adults within the Siirt Public Education Center. You can reach our news by clicking https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/content/eating-healthy-food-while-enjoying link.

Today, humanity is looking for a way out of consumerism. He tries to regain the natural resources he wasted with his consumption frenzy. We are not satisfied with the fact that the universe we live in did not inherit from our grandparents; We should realize that our grandchildren have a trust in us and act accordingly. As adult educators for a livable environment, we should raise awareness by informing our trainees about environmental awareness that will affect our future in our training. 

Kā zināms, kaut arī ES ir starp līderiem daudzās nodarbinātības un sociālajās jomās, mūsu sabiedrība joprojām saskaras ar problēmām, kuras ir jārisina un viena no šim problēmām ir nabadzība. Nabadzība ne tikai liedz cilvēkiem realizēt savu potenciālu dzīvē, bet arī kavē viņu iesaistīšanos sabiedrības dzīvē un neļauj īstenot savas tiesības uz kvalitatīviem pakalpojumiem, jo tam vienkārši nav līdzekļu. Runājot par nabadzību es nedomāju tikai par ienākumu trūkumu un materiālo nenodrošinātību, bet arī par diskrimināciju un neiesaistīšanos lēmumu pieņemšanā. Nabadzība un materiālā nenodrošinātība var turpināties ilgu laiku. Eiropas Savienība ir centusies iznīdēt nabadzību dažādos veidos, piemēram, izmantojot likumdošanu un īpaši šim nolūkam atvēlētu finansējumu, koordinējot rīcībpolitiku un veicinot korporatīvo sociālo atbildību. 2017. gadā pirmo reizi pēc krīzes sākuma pasaulē, to cilvēku skaits, kurus apdraud nabadzība vai sociālā atstumtība, Eiropas Savienībā samazinājās, jo tad nabadzība vai sociālā atstumtība skāra mazāk cilvēku nekā 2012. gadā, kad krīzes vilnis bija visaugstākais. Eiropas Savienības mērķis bija līdz 2020. gadam atbrīvot no nabadzības tik daudz cilvēku, lai to skaits būtu vismaz par 20 miljoniem mazāks nekā 2008. gadā. Lai gan pētījumi rāda, ka nabadzības un sociālās atstumtības risks vairāk apdraud personas neaizsargātā situācijā, piemēram, bērnus, jauniešus, cilvēkus ar invaliditāti vai zemu izglītības līmeni, bezdarbniekus, tos, , dzīvo mājsaimniecībā ar ļoti zemu nodarbinātības intensitāti vai strādā nestabilā darbavietā. No ārējo attiecību viedokļa ES ir viena no pasaules līderēm nabadzības izskaušanā. Tā liek lietā saskanīgu rīcībpolitiku kopumu, kas ietver attīstības sadarbību, dažādus tirdzniecības politikas instrumentus un Eiropas kaimiņattiecību un paplašināšanās politiku. ES un tās dalībvalstu izstrādāts attīstības sadarbības satvars, kas paredz izskaust nabadzību, izbeigt diskrimināciju un nevienlīdzību

In February 2020, EPALE NSS Serbia organised a call for content for the best blog posts on the subject ‘Environmental awareness and protection’. The aim of the call was to gather and promote best adult education practices in the field of environmental protection and awareness in Serbia. We received many inspiring entries and some of the better rated ones you can find on the links below:

Until know here have been a lot of interesting projects and thoughts posted. I know that it is a quiet complex topic with many different levels and areas touched, so it is not easy to see it separated. Nevertheless as the discussion is meant to focus on Adult Education i would like to set the focus on informal adult education as an helpful approach to environmental awareness in that field. Of course we can see the topic as it was answered before already, for example how adult education institutions can act more sustainable (prepare the environment etc)... That is of course a very important step and can also effect the group of participants indirect. But for me it also seems important to ask, how can the topic itself become more important to participants of adult education? Clearly, one step could be fo adult education institutions to make information-offers about sustainable environmental subjects, because first step always is getting information about something to be able to think about it. But then we have to think about the target group that would feel interested in that. probably persons who already are interested and aware of this topics, so that would not be quiet helpful. For that topic in my opinion it could be quiet helpful to focus on informal adult education, outside of institutions. There is more space to work on the topic creatively and reach more persons, without "teaching" them directly. The exhibition which was mentioned in the comments before is a quiet good example. I also want to show two examples of germany shortly: 1. "Tag des guten Lebens" - "Day of good life" ( https://www.tagdesgutenlebens.de ). It is a project that focus on one Sunday in summer each year, which is a car-free day in one district of Cologne each year. The idea is that the neighborhood creates this day as they like to. They prepare the whole year, connect with each other, share ideas, make projects, so in fact do democratic participations. In the end there take a lot of relevant topics place like: zero waste, cultural diversity, DIY projects to create a more sustainable day-to-day-life, connect local projects and organizations, focus on local consume etc... So when you compare with the 17 aims of the UN Agenda, you can find Goal 11, 12 and 13 directly implemented: 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. Also organizations and projects have space there to introduce themselves and explain how they work with topics of climate change and try to make the city more sustainable and how everybody can participate there. So in fact that project is addressed to everybody but of course also includes informal adult education, because people get in touch witch each other without the pressure of learning something about climatechange now, instead they can get to know each other very comfortable share ideas and experience, get inspiration and work together on upcoming ideas. So they focus on sustainable topics, and at the same time it is very sustainable because as neighbors get in touch the chance they will stay in touch in care for their district/city in future is high, so its also sustainable in that way. The second example is a project that was invented by Friday For Future in Cologne. They made a "Public Climate School" in November. It was on the one hand another form of protest, as it was mentioned no not attend the lectures for one whole week. But it was also in cooperation with many teachers, so teachers gave their lecture slot to FFF, and they created a whole week with many lectures and courses about sustainable topics, about climate change and environment. They invited international experts to share their information. There we also Films and many different types of events. The clue is that it was public for everybody and particularly open for everybody from society who normally does not get in touch with that topic. So they created an informal adult education project with a very wide target group. 

I think that change requires the will of the world's governments. Now there is a unique situation when all countries participate in the struggle for security from the virus, countries with different ideologies impose the same restrictions (in general terms) and explain in detail to their citizens the need for all actions. Why is there no such will for action for the environment? Then there will be a place for adult education.