Chairholder: prof. dr. Gregor Torkar
Presentation of the UNESCO Chair on Teacher Education for Sustainable Development
The purpose of the Chair is to promote an integrated system of research, teaching and training, as well as community engagement and communication. The Chair will facilitate collaboration between high-level, internationally recognized researchers and teaching staff of the University of Ljubljana and other institutions in the country, as well as elsewhere in the region and in other regions of the world.
The specific objectives of this Chair are to:
Chairholder: Prof. Gregor Torkar, PhD, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, Kardeljeva ploščad 16, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, E: gregor.torkar@pef.uni-lj.si
UNESCO schools meeting
On November 8 and 9, 2024, a professional meeting of ASPnet in Slovenia was held in Slovenj Gradec and Kope. On our behalf, as. Žan Rode participated in the rich program of lectures and workshops, presenting the 15-minute city workshop to teachers, which is part of the curriculum of the course Education for Sustainable Development and Green Transition at the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana. The concept of a ±15-minute city offers a holistic approach to urban planning, which includes numerous aspects, such as transport, energy, ecology, economy and society, which are thematic areas that can be included in the curriculum. At the workshop, teachers learned about the history of urban planning and the so-called neighborhood flowers and transferred this concept to the school environment.
Announcement of the Ceremony for the Establishment of the UNESCO Chair on Teacher Education for Sustainable Development at the University of Ljubljana
We are pleased to announce the ceremony for the establishment of the UNESCO Chair on Teacher Education for Sustainable Development at the University of Ljubljana, which will take place on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, at 9:00 AM in the Assembly Hall of the Rectorate of the University of Ljubljana (Kongresni trg 12, 1000 Ljubljana).
The ceremony will begin with welcome addresses. This will be followed by a keynote lecture by Prof. Dr. Daniel Fischer, Head of the UNESCO Chair on Higher Education for Sustainable Development at Leuphana University in Germany. A roundtable discussion on quality teacher education for sustainable development will follow. The ceremony will be accompanied by a musical program and will conclude at 11:00 AM.
We would be delighted if you could join us for the ceremony.
Please confirm your attendance by Wednesday, September 18, 2024, by sending an email to the Chair’s head.
Educating for sustainable development in a polarized world
At the inauguration of the new UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education for Sustainable Development at the University of Ljubljana, Prof. Dr. Daniel Fischer, Professor for Sustainability Education and Communication and Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Higher Education for Sustainable Development, delivered a keynote lecture on the challenges and opportunities in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
Prof. Fischer noted that despite progress in ESD over the past few decades, including the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the establishment of UNESCO’s ESDfor2030 program, teacher education continues to lag behind in its implementation. He emphasized the importance of developing a needs-based approach to sustainability education, which centers education around the notion of meeting human needs in just and safe ways.
This approach can help to reorient what and how we teach, moving away from a focus on problems and awareness-raising towards a more positive and solution-oriented vision. By prioritizing the development of learners’ capacities to meet their needs and unfold their potentials as human beings, a needs-based approach can also help to design schools and educational settings in more comprehensive and humane ways, transforming them into sites where sustainability can be lived and experienced.
For example, this might involve designing learning spaces that promote social interaction, creativity, and well-being, rather than simply focusing on academic achievement. It might also involve developing alternative forms of assessment, such as peer assessment, self-assessment, and project-based assessment, which can help to move away from traditional, high-stakes testing and towards more authentic and meaningful forms of promoting learning.
In addition to reorienting what and how we teach, a needs-based approach can also help to cultivate reflexivity and mindfulness in educators, enabling them to think critically about their own needs and satisfiers, and to develop more effective solutions to complex sustainability challenges.
Link to the PowerPoint presentation
Special issue of the Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education
A special issue of the Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE) titled Interdisciplinary Approaches to Education for Sustainable Development (2024, vol. 8, no. 4) has been published. The issue was co-edited by three UNESCO Chair holders: Prof. Dr. Robert Didham (Norway), Prof. Dr. Hiroki Fujii (Japan), and Prof. Dr. Gregor Torkar (Slovenia). The issue gathers contributions from various authors.
The aim of this special issue is to collect and share new research and innovations in the emerging field of interdisciplinary education for sustainable development. You can read more about the contributions in the editorial, which also provides the editors’ reflections on multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity. Here is a brief excerpt from the editorial, prepared by the editors:
A discipline is recognized as a field of study or subject, and the word discipline can also be defined as a rule or system of rules governing behavior or activity. While the latter definition may seem less relevant when discussing educational subjects, each has traditionally developed as its own academic field, guided by its own rules, procedures, and approaches, which differ from other fields. When we add different prefixes to the discipline, we begin to think about different ways of working across disciplines. “Intra-” means within or among, and intradisciplinary refers to working within a single subject (also known as monodisciplinary). “Cross-” means between or involving different groups, and interdisciplinary is the viewing of one discipline through the lens of another.
Multidisciplinarity: “Multi-” means many, and multidisciplinarity involves different subjects or disciplines exploring the same question or topic and sharing their various insights and perspectives on it. Multidisciplinarity creates collaboration among individuals from different disciplines who work together; however, at this level, all individuals rely solely on their own disciplinary knowledge, and there is little integration of these different perspectives. Multidisciplinary education requires the coordination of curricula so that different subjects address a common theme simultaneously. Nevertheless, it does not require that individual subjects combine teaching with other subjects or integrate desired learning outcomes.
Interdisciplinarity: “Inter-” means between, but it can also mean together or mutually. The goal of interdisciplinarity is to connect knowledge and methods from different disciplines to create a true synthesis of approaches. Many modern fields of study, such as gender studies, neuroscience, and cybernetics, have naturally incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to achieve a more holistic understanding. Interdisciplinary education is a step forward in this collaborative learning process. At this level, the integration of subjects is not only targeted, but the development of the whole learner through the integrative application of knowledge, skills, and values in the context of applied learning is also the focus.
Transdisciplinarity: “Trans-” refers to across or beyond, but it can also mean thoroughly changing, as in transformation. The goal of transdisciplinarity is to create a unity of intellectual frameworks beyond disciplinary perspectives and to involve actors from different fields and sectors of society. Transdisciplinarity seeks to extend this collaboration to a place where the unity of these different disciplinary frameworks can be achieved, going beyond any single disciplinary perspective. It also clearly defines its starting point as real-world issues and promotes greater collaboration among various actors, including academics, policymakers, local communities, and businesses. Transdisciplinary education involves exploring a relevant concept, issue, or problem that brings together perspectives from multiple disciplines to connect new knowledge and deeper understanding with real-life experiences. Transdisciplinary learning is inherently collaborative and works to create an overall unity between different ways of viewing and understanding the world around us.
The following image (Figure 1) shows a visual representation of these three concepts and the degree of interaction between different disciplines. For multidisciplinarity, each discipline interacts with the subject focus (depicted by the orange circle) from its own perspective, with individual views on the subject from each discipline being juxtaposed, but with no actual overlap or merging of knowledge. For interdisciplinarity, there is active interaction between disciplines and an effort to blend different bodies of knowledge to achieve a synthesis of understanding. For transdisciplinarity, the subject becomes the main framework, and the boundaries between disciplines dissolve. Additionally, transdisciplinarity involves active engagement with the real world and non-academic stakeholders (depicted by the purple oval).
Figure 1. Visual Representation of Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary, and Transdisciplinary Concepts.
Modri, rumeni in zeleni krogi predstavljajo različne discipline; oranžni krog = tema fokusa/študije; vijolični oval = predstavlja sodelovanje z akterji in/ali težavami iz resničnega sveta.
More on the especial issue:
https://journals.oslomet.no/index.php/nordiccie/issue/view/499
The advisory board of the UNESCO chair includes experts and representatives of institutions working in the field of sustainable development, education for sustainable development, and higher education. The groups are still in the making.
International Advisory Board
National Advisory Board
prof. dr. Gregor Torkar
Head of the UNESCO Chair
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education
Kardeljeva ploščad 16, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
T: 00 386 1 5892 312
E: Gregor.Torkar@pef.uni-lj.si
