Exploring Education for a Changing Future

The prospects of major climate changes pose severe challenges for education. How can schools prepare students to live and act in a changing world? What competencies will future generations need and how should schools be organized in order to develop these competencies among the students? Since the importance of the role education can play for the environment was acknowledged by the international community 40 years ago (UNESCO 1978 ), much research has been generated that is relevant to understand how edu cation might contribute to sustainable development. This knowledge does, however seem to be fragmented and has only to a limited degree contributed to change education systems in a profound manner. Knowledge about climate change, sustainable development a nd education seems often to be living side by side without mutually influencing each other in a way required to develop a contemporary education for a changing future. Purpose of this project We wish to invite stakeholders and researchers with diverse b ackgrounds to an extensive creative THINK-workshop with the purpose of exploring how schools can apply relevant knowledge in order to develop an education for sustainable development within existing educational paradigms. Teachers, students, teacher educ ators, climate scientists, climate change researchers, artists, architects and educational researchers will work together for three-four days to present and develop innovative ideas to how schools can change to educate for the future. In addition, we wish to organize a more restricted WRITE-workshop, where we will gather and channel these ideas into a research proposal where the goal is to develop and implement a model that can be used to change practice in schools, reflecting the ideas generated in the T HINK-workshop. In addition, we want to understand the implementation and change processes.